Three-dimensional CFD-solid mechanics analysis of the hydrogen internal combustion engine piston subjected to thermomechanical loads

Abstract

Fueling internal combustion engines with hydrogen is one of the most recommended alternative fuels today in order to combat the energy crisis, pollution problems, and climate change. Despite all the advantages of hydrogen fuel, it produces a higher combustion temperature than gasoline. In an internal combustion engine, the piston is among the numerous complex and highly loaded components. Piston surfaces are directly affected by combustion flames, making them critical components of engines. To examine the stress distribution and specify the critical fracture zones in the piston for hydrogen fuel engines, a three-dimensional CFD-solid-mechanics model of the internal combustion engine piston subjected to real thermomechanical loads was analyzed numerically to investigate the distribution of the temperature on the piston body, the interrelated thermomechanical deformations map, and the pattern of the stresses when fueling the engine with hydrogen fuel. With the aid of multiphysics COMSOL software, the CFD-solid-mechanics equations were solved with high accuracy. Despite the increase in pressure on the piston and its temperature when the engine is running on hydrogen fuel, the results show that the hydrogen fuel engine piston can withstand, safely, the thermomechanical loads. In comparison to gasoline fuel, hydrogen fuel caused a deformation of 0.34 mm, an increase of 17%. This deformation is within safe limits, with an average clearance of 0.867 mm between the cylinder liner and piston.

Performance and carbon emissions of a diesel/oxy-hydrogen dual-fuel engine with oxy-hydrogen injection variation under low and medium load conditions

“…A substitution of diesel fuel with gaseous fuel has proved that can reduce the carbon emissions, such as hydrogen-based fuels (Dimitriou et al, 2018;Gholami et al, 2022a;Tsujimura & Suzuki, 2017). Great interest in hydrogen-based fuels is gained due to their zero-carbon content and enhanced engine combustion characteristics (Butt et al, 2021;Rajak et al, 2022;Sadiq Al-Baghdadi et al, 2023). A reachable hydrogen source to be produced is water electrolysis which contains hydrogen and oxygen (Baltacioglu et al, 2019;Gad & Abdel Razek, 2021;Ozcanli et al, 2017).…”

Simulation Research on Cylinder Liner Shape and Position Tolerance under Thermo-Mechanical Load

“…To accurately predict cylinder liner deformation under coupled thermal and mechanical loads, researchers have adopted various numerical simulation methods. Al-Baghdadi et al [17] established an FE model to analyze the stress and deformation distribution of a hydrogen fuel internal combustion engine piston under thermo-mechanical loads while neglecting the effect of cylinder liner deformation. Rao et al [18] considered the influence of cylinder liner thermal deformation, elastic deformation, and vibration characteristics on the frictional dynamic performance of the piston-cylinder liner system and proposed a multiphysics coupled model to realize cylinder liner deformation prediction.…”