Influence of engine load on piston ring pack operation of a marine two - stroke engine

A set of piston rings is used to form a dynamic gas seal between the piston and cylinder wall. Many physical phenomena are associated with the operation of the system piston-ring-cylinder (PRC), such as: inter-ring gas dynamics for the labyrinth seal, hydrodynamic lubrication and mixed friction in gaps between the rings and cylinder liner, oil flow and distribution of lubricant along the liner, twist motion of rings, liner temperature influence on the oil viscosity. A complex model of the PRC system has been developed by the author. Among own models it includes several sub-models taken from literature, like: a model of viscous oil flow between rough gap surfaces formulated by Patir and Cheng and an elastic contact model of Greenwood and Tripp. The main parts of the mathematical model and software have been experimentally verified abroad by the author at the marine engine-designing centre. A relatively good qualitative and quantitative compatibility between the experimental measurements and calculated results has been achieved. In contrast to the previous papers of the author, new calculation results for a marine two-stroke engine have been presented. These results concern influence of engine load on piston ring pack operation of the analysed engine. They include basic physical quantities associated with gas and oil flow in the piston-ring-cylinder system of the engine. The developed model can be utilized for: evaluation of gas leakage through the sealing ring set, prediction of lubrication conditions of piston rings and oil consumption, defining areas of the possible cylinder liner wear and profile changes of piston rings sliding surfaces, and thus can be useful for optimization of the PRC system design.