Combustion Engine Piston Cooling Channels with Additive Pins
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing piston designs for internal combustion engines face challenges in efficiently dissipating heat and mechanical loads due to limitations in cooling channel designs and manufacturing processes, which restrict the production of complex shapes that enhance heat transfer and structural stability.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates pins extending in both axial and radial directions within the cooling channels, produced using additive or generative manufacturing methods, allowing for enhanced heat transfer surfaces and structural support, while enabling the use of diverse materials for specific parts to meet performance requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional manufacturing methods are used for cooling channels, then production is simpler and costs are lower, but complex shapes that enhance heat transfer cannot be produced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from conventional 2D ring-shaped cooling channels to 3D complex geometries with pins extending in multiple directions (axial, radial, and diagonal). This dimensional expansion allows cooling surfaces to protrude into the combustion chamber space, dramatically increasing heat transfer area while capturing thermal energy from multiple directions simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling channel design incorporates pins nested within the piston structure, with cooling passages running through and around these pins. The pins themselves contain internal cooling passages, creating a nested configuration where cooling channels are embedded within cooling channels, maximizing heat dissipation within the constrained piston volume.
2Temperature
If conventional manufacturing methods are used, then production costs are lower, but complex cooling channel geometries are difficult or costly to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
Additive manufacturing enables the creation of 3D pin structures with cooling passages that extend in axial, radial, and diagonal directions simultaneously. This geometric complexity, which would require multiple expensive machining operations or assembly steps in conventional manufacturing, is produced as a single integrated component through layer-by-layer deposition, significantly reducing production costs despite the enhanced complexity.
3Temperature
If cooling channel design is simplified, then manufacturing is easier, but heat dissipation from the piston is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling system evolves from flat 2D ring channels to 3D pin structures that extend vertically and radially throughout the piston. These pins create multiple levels of cooling surfaces at different heights and radial positions, establishing three-dimensional heat transfer pathways that dramatically enhance cooling efficiency while the additive manufacturing process handles the resulting geometric complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling channel is divided into multiple independent pin structures distributed throughout the piston, each with its own internal cooling passages. This segmentation allows heat to be dissipated from multiple localized areas simultaneously, with each pin acting as an independent heat sink, thereby enhancing overall heat dissipation efficiency.
4Reliability
If pins extend in multiple directions within cooling channels, then heat-transferring surface increases and piston stabilization improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Pins are configured to extend in three primary directions: axially (vertical), radially (horizontal), and diagonally. This multi-directional arrangement creates a three-dimensional stabilization network that restrains the piston from movement in multiple degrees of freedom, significantly enhancing reliability while additive manufacturing produces the complex multi-axial geometry as a single integrated structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach improves heat dissipation and structural stability of pistons by enabling the production of complex cooling channel geometries that were previously difficult or costly to achieve, optimizing heat transfer and material properties for improved engine performance.
Implementation Method 1
at least part of a steel or aluminum piston for an internal combustion engine is produced by means of an additive or generative manufacturing process
Implementation Method 2
one or more mostly ring-shaped cooling channels are usually formed in the piston, into which cooling oil is injected, which absorbs heat and leaves the cooling channel again at a different point
Implementation Method 3
Such pins, which can also be described as knobs or projecting cylinders rounded at their base and/or at their tip, advantageously increase the heat-transferring surface
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a steel or aluminium piston for a combustion engine, comprising at least one cooling channel (14) in which pins (16, 22) extend both substantially in the piston shaft direction, and in a substantially radial direction, and/or which has undulations, widening parts and/or tapering parts. In a method for producing at least one part of a steel or aluminium piston of this type for a combustion engine, an additive production method is used.