International Conference on Mechanical Engineering Research (ICMER2013), 1-3 July 2013
Bukit Gambang Resort City, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
Organized by Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang
Paper ID: P161
DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF A CYLINDER HEAD STRUCTURE FOR
A COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS DIRECT INJECTION ENGINE
A. Shamsudeen1*, S. Abdullah1,2, A.K. Ariffin1,2 and Y. Ali3
1
Centre for Automotive Research, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment
University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
Phone : +60389216454; Fax : +60389118314
*Email: azhari@[Link]
2
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
and Built Environment, University Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600 Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
3
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University Malaysia Pahang
26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
In this work, the design and simulation of four strokes, spark ignition engines with
compressed natural gas direct injection is studied based on finite element analysis. The
design is performed using CATIA V5, and simulated using [Link]. Based on
simulation results, it shows that the optimum design is achieved. The maximum von
Mises stress at 5400 rpm is about 39.84 MPa for single load and 56.16 MPa for
assembly load. Overall, these maximum stresses are better than original model. For the
displacement at 5400 rpm, the maximum value is 0.01296 mm (single load) and
0.00972 mm (assembly load) with a decrease for about 3.55% compared to the original
model. Both maximum stresses and displacement are not exceeding the material
strength in order to avoid any components failure during engine operation. The result
can be used to assess the quality of the design i.e. no yielding and structural failure
under firing load case, can be satisfied.
Keywords: Cylinder head; finite element; direct injection; compressed natural gas.
INTRODUCTION
Both the design and development of the automotive engine are complicated process. To
acquire the best performance and optimize design of engine in any operating condition,
many analytical tools and experimental works are used to find the optimum structure for
engine design (Lee et al., 2005). In the automotive engine, the cylinder structure is the
most important component affecting the performance of a car and involves many
components. All these components need to careful attention especially during the
assembly design in order to avoid any failed structure at engine operations (Liu, 2013).
The cylinder head of direct injection engines is highly influenced by the geometry of
combustion chamber injector location. In fact, a small change in geometry can lead to
considerable changes in the mixture distribution and performance of the engine
(Yadollahi, 2013).With the increasing emphasis to achieve improvements in automotive
fuel economy, automotive engineers are motivated to develop new engines to enhance
fuel consumption, power and reduce emission (Zhao et al., 1999; Yadollahi, 2013).
In addition, due to the increasingly aggressive legal emissions levels, the use of
alternative fuels, including compressed natural gas (CNG), has increased along with the
1
importance of developing alternative fuel technology. In the SI engine, direct injection
(DI) technology significantly increases the engine volumetric efficiency and decreases
the need of throttle valve for control purposes (Liu, 2013). All these technology were
developed to overcome the problems of using CNG especially about the board storage
problem and reduced performance compare to gasoline (Durell, 2000). However, by the
design and development of compressed natural gas direct injection (CNGDI) engine, it
will be managed to provide the improved of engine performance and as well as exhaust
emissions.
In the engineering analysis, a theoretical and numerical model is the starting
point for researchers to develop and design an engine component (Fadaei, 2011). In
addition, the application of finite element analysis (FEA) tools in engine development
can reduce the risk and the testing effort in producing the prototype (Baverstock, 2002;
Chyuan, 2000). Other than that, the combination of computational fluid dynamic and
FEA analysis can also be performed to predict with precise stress/temperature
distribution and thermo-mechanical cycles that can affect internal combustion engines
under actual operating conditions (Stefano, 2013).The ability to predict the design
performance before it goes into production has become more important which relies on
accurate computer models of all aspect of engine operation (Fadaei, 2011).
Therefore, the commercial software, [Link], is employed to perform
numerical simulation on the structural analysis. This work is based on pressure loading
in order to investigate the stress/deformation behaviour of cylinder head structure which
is subjected to direct injected natural gas combustion pressure under various loading
condition. The results of this research can be used to develop a design procedure for a
new direct injection CNG cylinder head engine.
CYLINDER HEAD MODELLING
The original and CNGDI cylinder head design material used in this simulation are
shown in Tables 1. In this work, the material use for the original cylinder is aluminium
alloy types AC4B and for the new cylinder head is aluminium alloy types A356-T6.
However, for the simulation, both designs will be used only material A356-T6.
Table 1. Specification for the cylinder head model.
Value
Material Properties
AC4B A356-T6
Modulus of elasticity (MPa) 71 x 103 72 x 103
Compressive yield strength (MPa) 166 172
Tensile yield strength (MPa) 159 164
Poisson’s ratio 0.33 0.33
Density (kg/m3) 2740 2713
The original and modified cylinder head model and cross section area of spark
plug and injector are shown in Figure 1. The design specifications of the cylinder head
were shown details in Table 2. This original model was modified to make retrofitting of
gas injectors alongside the spark plug possible in the centre of combustion chamber, and
was used for the 3D solid geometry modelling. Because of the complexity of
geometrical design, only a quarter or one-cylinder model was considered for analysis.
With this new design configuration, the combustion process inside the cylinder will be
2
more efficient and completely burned in order to achieve the best performance and as
well as to reduce the exhaust emissions. Nowadays, most of the automotive cylinder
head engine is made by aluminium alloy because of their higher thermal conductivity,
generally operate about 30-80% cooler than equivalent cast-iron as well as lighter than
other materials.
(a) (b) (c)
Figure 1. CAD model of (a) original cylinder head; (b) modified cylinder head; (c) cross
section area of spark plug and injector.
Table 2. Specification for the cylinder head model.
Specification Cylinder Head Design
Original Modified
Cylinder height (mm) 134.7 136.7
Intake valve angle (deg) 21.5 20.95
Exhaust valve angle (deg) 20.5 20.05
Spark plug angle (deg) 90 21
Injector angle (deg) 34 (at intake manifold) 5 (at centre cylinder)
FINITE ELEMENT MODELING AND VALIDATION
Finite Element Analysis
The FEA is based on the idea of building a complicated object with a simple blocks or
dividing a complicated object into a small and a manageable pieces, which is also
known as element with nodes (Harper, 2001). This approximation can lead to several
advantages, including: (a) reduction of complications during specifying boundary
conditions in the analysis and (b) economising on the element counts for analysis to
reduce simulation time.
Geometry Definition and Mesh Generation
For structural analysis, pressure from combustion process will be used as a load for the
analysis. For a good quality of mesh and results, some of the critical areas in the
cylinder head were defined with higher order curves and surfaces. The shape around the
deck of the combustion chamber that provides the location of the intake and exhaust
valves, the spark plug and the injector was an area of main concern and finer mesh was
used in order to get accurate stress distribution. Hence, a model of the cylinder head
with 243,096 solid elements and 402,704 nodes was produced as shown in Figure 2.
3
The FEA was executed on HP Workstation xw6200 and interface with a high
performance computer; SGI Origin 300 (4 CPU). The CPU time required for a static run
under as single load was about 2 hours and assembly load case was about 2.5 hours.
(a) (b)
Figure 2. A 3D solid element meshes (a) original model; (b) modified model.
Before the simulation began, several consumptions are made with regards to the
modelling the cylinder head structure (Danielson et al., 1992; Chyuan, 2000) i.e., (1) the
4 cylinder heads possess a structural symmetry in their entity, hence the 2 nd cylinder
head was removed from the complete model in order to reduce the calculated time and
simpler boundary conditions can be enforced, and (2) the maximum gas pressure of the
combustion process was used for the firing loading in steady state condition. Besides
that, the assembly model (see Figure 3) also will be simulate in order the get a better
result in term of stresses and displacement, and to ensure their value were not exceed
the strength and deformation limit of the material strength.
Intake and exhaust valves
Valve guide
Valve seat
(a) (b)
Figure 3. Assembly modeling (a) assembly of sub component to cylinder head;
(b) 3D solid element mesh for valve guide, valve seat and valves.
Boundary Conditions for Stresses
In order to decrease the complexity of the boundary conditions, the interaction between
the cylinder head gasket, cylinder head bolts and cylinder block was not modelled.
Constraints were set on the bolt of the cylinder head used to fix the cylinder head to the
cylinder block. The pressure load is applied on the combustion chamber deck. The
maximum pressure load is 5.8 MPa at 2000 rpm which is close to the experimental
results which based on single cylinder research engine (SCRE) as shown in Figure 4.
The gas pressure is varied according to the engine speed, and base on the experimental,
the pressure will increase with increasing the engine speed but for the very high engine
4
speed around 6000-7000 rpm, the pressure will be decrease because of the insufficient
fresh air through to the engine for the combustion process.
7.0
CFD (2000rpm)
6.0
SCRE (2000rpm)
Cylinder Pressure (MPa)
5.0 CFD (3000rpm)
SCRE (3000rpm)
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
580 600 620 640 660 680 700 720 740 760 780
Crank Angle (degree)
Figure 4. The gas pressure of CNGDI and SCRE engine at 2000 rpm and 3000 rpm.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Stress and deformation analysis for single load case
FEA steady state predictions of stresses and deformation distributions in the cylinder
head are shown in Figure 5 for an engine speeds 1000 rpm. The maximum stress for
modified cylinder head varies from 26.01 MPa at 1000 rpm to 39.84 MPa at 5400 rpm
as an increasing maximum gas pressure with increase engine speed. Meanwhile, the
minimum von Mises stress is located at the areas between the cylinder head bolts and
the top of cylinder head which is due to local compressive loads. The combustion
chamber deck shows the largest deformation under gas pressure load varies from
0.008465 mm at 1000 rpm to 0.01296 mm at 5400 rpm as shown in Figure 6. Due to
different sizes between intake and exhaust valves, the distribution of these compressing
stresses is slightly different between the inlet and exhaust side of the cylinder head.
(a) (b)
Figure 5. Stress distribution at 1000 rpm (a) original design; (b) modified design.
5
(a) (b)
Figure 6. Deformation contours at 1000 rpm (a) original design; (b) modified design.
From the results, the middle deck around the valve guides had been pushed up
during the firing gas loads. Engineering experience suggests that this region is prone to
structural failure due to firing load if detailed design or material properties is not
cautiously specified (Chyuan, 2000). The narrow bridge of deck between the valve
guide and the oil passage should be free of stress raisers on both sides by using generous
fillets. Besides, the surface finish in this area should be carefully investigated during the
quality assurance procedure to ensure that porosity or sand insertions are avoided.
In totally, the design of CNGDI cylinder head has be improved about 1.72% of
their stresses and 3.56% of their displacement compare to the original design (see
Figure 7). However, both designs still below under the compressive yield strength limit
i.e. 172 MPa. Hence, the purpose of the base design which, the maximum von Mises
stress for both designs are not exceed or above the material strength limit, the cylinder
head design can be satisfied i.e. with no yielding and structural failure under firing load
case. In term of safety factor, both of the cylinder head designs are safe and fulfilled the
nominal safety factor for the base design especially for the engine component. For the
CNGDI cylinder head, the safety factor is about 4.32 compare to the original design is
about 4.09. These safety factors were determined base on the maximum von Mises
stress at 5400 rpm and compressive yield strength by using Eq. (1):
Sy
N= (1)
σv
where N is safety factor, Sy is yield strength and v is von Mises stress.
45 0.040
Modified design
40 Original design 0.035
Maximum Displacement (mm)
__
___
Maximum Stress (MPa)
0.030
35
0.025
Stress
30
0.020
25
0.015
20
0.010
15 Displacement 0.005
10 0.000
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 5400
Engine Speed (rpm)
6
Figure 7. Maximum stress and displacement with several of engine speed.
Stress and deformation analysis for assembly load case
Under assembly loads on cylinder head, valve seats and valve guides, the maximum von
Mises stress value is 56.16 MPa at 5400 rpm located at the interface area between valve
seat and cylinder head deck because of local bending moment as shown in Figure 8.
Meanwhile, the maximum displacement distribution of cylinder head is 0.00631 mm at
1000 rpm and increase to 0.00972 mm at 5400 rpm. The pressure load in the cylinder
head is equal but, in the area where thickness is maximum, the pressure rise is larger
and so as the stress. This is the reason why high stress occurred in the valve bridge and
near the valve seat. The result of the simulation shows that occur higher stresses but
lower displacement distribution to the cylinder head design with the assembling of valve
guides and valve seats. For engine speed at 5400 rpm, the different maximum stress can
reach about 29.1% but the maximum displacement can reduce about 33.4% compare to
the single load case. However, the both of the design are still below of the material yield
strength and deformation limit (0.035 mm for valve guide, 0.045 mm for intake valve
seat and 0.049 for exhaust valve seat) as shown in Figure 9.
0.055
180
0.050
160 0.045
Maximum Stress (MPa)
Maximum Dispalcement
140 0.040
120 0.035
(a)100 (b)
0.030
(mm)
0.025
80
0.020
Figure 8. (a) Stress and
60 (b) deformation contours at 5400 rpm for modified design
0.015
40
0.010 0.055
180
20 0.005
0.050
0
160 0.000
0.045
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 5400
Maximum Stress (MPa)
Maximum Dispalcement
140 Engine Spe e d (rpm) 0.040
120 Stress 0.035
Compressive Yield Strength
100 Displacement 0.030
(mm)
Deformation Limit for Valve Guide
Deformation Limit for Intake Valve Guide 0.025
80 Deformation Limit for Exhaust Valve Guide
0.020
60
0.015
40
0.010
20 0.005
0 0.000
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 5400
Engine Speed (rpm)
Stress
Figure 9. Maximum stress andCompressive
deformation
Displacement
limit for cylinder head design.
Yield Strength
Deformation Limit for Valve Guide
Deformation Limit for Intake Valve Guide
Deformation Limit for Exhaust Valve Guide
7
CONCLUSION
In this paper, the structural of a cylinder head under gas firing loading for varies an
engine speed at 1000-5400 rpm were carried out by using FEA. For the CNGDI
cylinder head, the structural analysis highlighted several area of interest and the
maximum stress in the new cylinder head is found not to exceed the allowable
compressive yield strength of cylinder head design material, i.e. 172 MPa and below the
deformation limit i.e. 0.035 mm. Thus, the basic design criteria, i.e. no yielding and
structural failure under firing load case, can be satisfied. In addition, the strength and
displacement of CNGDI cylinder head design was improved about 1.72% and 3.55%
decrease compared to the existing design. All these analyses are able to be used to assist
the automotive engineers to design of a more reliable cylinder head for a new engine.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology &
Innovation for sponsoring this work under project IRPA 03-02-02-0057-PR0030/10-04.
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