Development of an Additive Manufactured Heavy-Duty Piston with an Innovative Piston Bowl

Abstract

The intended aggravation of the emission legislation for commercial vehicles in the USA and in the EU as well as unavoidable compromise between fuel consumption, NOx and soot emissions require completely new approaches to find a multi-criterial optimum.

IAV developed a three-dimensional shaped piston bowl for the installation in a single cylinder heavy-duty engine. The purpose was to improve the mixture formation by increasing the spray penetration length and to avoid spray-wall interaction as much as possible. Coincidental the surface temperature of the piston crown was increased to reduce the piston-side wall heat losses and consequently increase the thermal efficiency of the engine.

The publication comprises the design dimensioning and the additive manufacturing process of the piston with which the piston crown and its thermal insulation can be achieved in a beneficial way. Furthermore, the results of the mechanical testing and some thermodynamic differences to the referenced series piston design are presented.