A Critical Review of Approaches to the Design of Floating-Liner Apparatus for Instantaneous Piston Assembly Friction Measurement

Abdelrahman M Youssef,Ian Sherrington,Homer Rahnejat,Graham Calderbank,Edward H Smith

doi:10.3390/lubricants9010010

Abstract

Several approaches have been developed to measure instantaneous friction between the piston assembly and cylinder in internal combustion (IC) engines, such as floating-liner, reciprocating liner, instantaneous mean effective pressure (IMEP), fixed sleeve, and (P-ω) method and tribological bench tests. However, the “floating-liner method” and the “(IMEP) method” are the most common methods used to measure instantaneous friction between the piston assembly and IC engines. This paper critically evaluates different approaches to the design of the “floating-liner”. The paper begins by discussing piston assembly frictional losses and their significance and then discuss the development of instantaneous piston-friction measurements. After that, it reviews the main design challenges in the floating-liner approach. “Methods of cylinder sealing” and “force balancing methods” are also reviewed. Design challenges associated with firing operation were presented. Floating-liner designs were classified into different categories with a detailed presentation of the features of each. The paper ends by presenting a range of broad recommendations for further work which would benefit future designs.

Highlights

The consumption of fossil fuels is a major international issue as many countries strive to reduce their energy consumption, as well as undue emissions
This paper aims to critically review floating-liners to cover the main challenges in floating-liner method and design challenges associated with firing-operation
This paper has critically reviewed the main approaches adopted in the design of floating-liner systems for piston assembly friction measurement in internal combustion (IC) engines and highlighted the main approaches to several factors, including sealing the floating system, balancing the gas pressures on the floating system, correcting data contaminated by vibration, and issues when using common sensors

Summary

Introduction

The consumption of fossil fuels is a major international issue as many countries strive to reduce their energy consumption, as well as undue emissions. It was found that the transportation sector represents 20% of global energy use and accounts for 18% of the total greenhouse gas emissions. Road transport accounts for 72% of the energy consumed by the transportation sector and more than 80% of CO2 emission in the sector. A recent study [2] found that, in road transportation, 18% of the energy used could be saved in the short term (5–10 years) by the implementation of better tribological solutions. This would save 117 billion liters of fuel and reduce 290 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over this time scale

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Discussion

Conclusion