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This work studies the influence of the cross-hatching groove parameters on a model piston ring load carrying capacity. Over 2000 transient calculations were performed varying all parameters (groove depth, groove width, groove angle, and the distance between cross-overs) to obtain the average load carrying capacity.It is shown that the load carrying capacity results fall close to a single master curve when using the Á parameter that is a combination of the groove parameters. Finally, the influence of the starvation level on load carrying capacity was analyzed.

This paper is part of a project aiming at optimizing the cylinder-liner/piston-ring contact performance: oil consumption, friction and wear. The surface micro-geometry has a major influence on these characteristics. Classical cylinder-liners display cross-hatched patterns. Grooves modify contact pressure distributions and act as lubricant reservoirs and pipes redistributing oil. The load-carrying capacity is greatly influenced by the number of grooves and their geometry. An automatic groove geometry identification (depth, width, angle) is performed on cylinder-liner surface measurements. The surfaces were measured at two instants: new and after a fired engine test. The micro-geometry evolution is discussed.

Energy and environment are of major concern in internal combustion engine component design. The piston ring-cylinder liner (PRCL) contact plays an essential part in design and is highlighted in this study. In fact, the rings ensure the sealing property, reducing the environmental impact by avoiding lubricant contamination (blow-by) and lubricant consumption. Unfortunately, when sealing, the rings generate between 11 to 24% of the friction losses in an internal combustion engine [1], thus reducing the energy efficiency of the engine. The cylinder liner surface features a special micro-geometry, a classical one is the cross-hatching pattern, obtained by honing. This texturing acts as a micro-bearing, oil reservoir and debris trap. Understanding the influence of texture parameters as groove depth and width or angle, will allow tribological improvements of the PRCL contact. The 2D transient Reynolds equation has to be solved for this kind of surface. The statistical method using the Patir and Cheng [2] flow factors is widely used. This approach lumps the different components of the surface (grooves and plateaux) and does not consider the roughness directionality. Methods decoupling both components, like the homogenization method [3] are also used. Another alternative is to use a deterministic model on measured surfaces, but this is a “hugely” expensive approach. Multigrid methods [4] are used to drastically reduce the calculational cost. The aim of the current study is to facilitate the understanding of measured surface calculations. Hence, analytical surfaces are used. They allow a flexible handling of the cross-hatching parameters. The plateaux are perfectly smooth and the grooves are sinusoidally shaped. The top ring is modelled using a parabolic profile. Periodic boundary conditions are used in the orthoradial direction and zero pressure conditions (Dirichlet) in the axial direction. To investigate the effect of different parameters, various imposed film thicknesses are applied and the mean load carrying capacity (LCC) over time is calculated. When representing the LCC corresponding to each parameter compared to the smooth LCC, as a function of the logarithm of the minimum film thickness, the curves are quite linear for small values of the film thickness and then for larger values they converge to 1.