Thermal fatigue analysis of automotive Diesel piston: Experimental procedure and numerical protocol

A new thermal fatigue rig using High Frequency induction heating is developed to test automotive Diesel engine pistons. An adapted test piston is internally cooled by permanent water flow while its bowl sensitive to thermo-mechanical fatigue is subjected to cyclic induction heating. The temperature is measured in depth by thermocouples and in surface by a thermal infrared camera or a pyrometer. The crack initiation and propagation and the local deformations are provided by optical means. Thermo-mechanical loadings are calibrated by thermal measurements on the piston during engine operation and the entire test is modelled by finite elements. A constitutive model and a fatigue criterion for aluminium alloys are proposed to estimate the piston lifetime under severe cyclic loading. The proposed fatigue bench allows loading the piston in thermal fatigue scheme very similar to that encountered in engine operation conditions. Crack detection is facilitated by numerical modelling that helps to detect the most critical areas and also to reliably estimate the number of cycles for initiate cracks.

[1]  Yanxia Wang,et al.  The Reliability Analysis for the Piston, Connecting Rod and Crankshaft Assembly of Diesel Engine , 2009 .

[2]  Luc Rémy,et al.  THERMAL FATIGUE OF MAR-M509 SUPERALLOY—II. EVALUATION OF LIFE PREDICTION MODELS , 1988 .

[3]  S. Marsoner,et al.  Thermal fatigue behaviour of hot-work tool steels: heat check nucleation and growth , 2008 .

[4]  Filipe S. Silva,et al.  Fatigue on engine pistons - A compendium of case studies , 2006 .

[5]  L. Remy,et al.  Fatigue oxidation interaction in a superalloy—application to life prediction in high temperature low cycle fatigue , 1983 .

[6]  A. Moffat,et al.  Microstructural Analysis of Fatigue Initiation in Al-Si Casting Alloys , 2006 .

[7]  H. Ye,et al.  An overview of the development of Al-Si-Alloy based material for engine applications , 2003 .

[8]  Luc Rémy,et al.  An oxidation fatigue interaction damage model for thermal fatigue crack growth , 1989 .

[9]  Fabien Szmytka,et al.  TMF–LCF life assessment of a Lost Foam Casting A319 aluminum alloy , 2013 .

[10]  Thierry Baritaud,et al.  Measurement and Modeling of the Flow-Field in a DI Diesel Engine: Effects of Piston Bowl Shape and Engine Speed , 1998 .

[11]  Luc Rémy,et al.  An implicit integration procedure for an elasto-viscoplastic model and its application to thermomechanical fatigue design of automotive parts , 2013 .

[12]  G. G. Martin.  Failure of a stationary pump engine piston , 2004 .

[13]  Stéphane Chapuliot,et al.  A comparison of lifetime prediction methods for a thermal fatigue experiment , 2006 .

[14]  W. J. Ostergren,et al.  A DAMAGE FUNCTION AND ASSOCIATED FAILURE EQUATIONS FOR PREDICTING HOLD TIME AND FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN ELEVATED TEMPERATURE, LOW CYCLE FATIGUE , 1976 .

[15]  Eric Charkaluk,et al.  A computational approach to thermomechanical fatigue , 2004 .

[16]  L. Rémy.  Thermal-mechanical fatigue (including thermal shock) , 2003 .

[17]  Drew V. Nelson,et al.  Evaluation of an energy-based approach and a critical plane approach for predicting constant amplitude multiaxial fatigue life , 2000 .

[18]  Nicolas Marchal,et al.  Growth of small cracks and prediction of lifetime in high-temperature alloys , 2007 .

[19]  Hideo Okamoto,et al.  New Computational and Experimental Stress Analysis Method for the Design Decision on Optimum Piston Configuration of Production Engine , 1992 .

[20]  F. Szmytka,et al.  A reliability analysis method in thermomechanical fatigue design , 2013 .

[21]  L. Rémy,et al.  An engineering model for low cycle fatigue life based on a partition of energy and micro-crack growth , 2009 .

[22]  B. Tomkins.  FATIGUE CRACK PROPAGATION: AN ANALYSIS. , 1968 .

[23]  Y. Garud.  A New Approach to the Evaluation of Fatigue Under Multiaxial Loadings , 1981 .

[24]  R. P. Skelton,et al.  Energy criterion for high temperature low cycle fatigue failure , 1991 .

[25]  Jean-Paul Hardy,et al.  Diesel Combustion Optimization at Full Load by Combined CFD and Single Cylinder Tests , 2004 .

[26]  H. Ammar,et al.  Effects of surface porosity on the fatigue strength of AE425 and PM390 hypereutectic Al–Si casting alloys at medium and elevated temperatures , 2008 .

[27]  Hongwei Song,et al.  Thermal fatigue on pistons induced by shaped high power laser. Part I: Experimental study of transient temperature field and temperature oscillation , 2008 .

[28]  Hongwei Song,et al.  Thermal fatigue on pistons induced by shaped high power laser. Part II: Design of spatial intensity distribution via numerical simulation , 2008 .

[29]  Myriam Bourgeois,et al.  New flow rules in elasto-viscoplastic constitutive models for spheroidal graphite cast-iron , 2010 .

[30]  L. Rémy,et al.  The slip character and low cycle fatigue behaviour: The influence of F.C.C. twinning and strain-induced F.C.C. → H.C.P. martensitic transformation , 1980 .