ENGINE FRICTION AND LUBRICATION

727

hll@,- pi)=Valve
150

flow work

Water pump and

FIGURE 13-15

(without valves)

Pumping loop diagram for spark-ignition engine

unda firing conditions, showing throttling work
V ,- p,) and valve flow work."

Compression.
gas load, and
valve gear

-:

1 Motoring without head

FIGURE 13-14
Motored friction mean effective
pressure versus engine speed for
engine breakdown tests. (a) Fourcylinder spark-ignition engine.'' (b)
Average results for slveral four- and
six-cylinder DI diesel engines."

over the inlet and exhaust strokes. In Fig. 13-15, the firing pumping loop is compared with the inlet and exhaust manifold pressures, p, and p,. The work
VXp, - pJ measures the effect of restrictions outside the cylinder, in the inlet and
exhaust systems: air iilter, carburetor, throttle valve, intake manifold (on the inlet
side); exhaust .manifold and tail pipe, catalytic converter, and muftler (on the
exhaust side). The other area, shown as valveJlow work, corresponds mainly to
pressure losses in the inlet and exhaust valves, and to a lessor extent in the inlet
and exhaust ports. As load is reduced in an SI engine, the throttle restriction is
increased, the Vdp, - pi) term-called throttling work-will increasey and the
valve flow work will decrease. The increase in throttling work is much more
rapid than the decrease in valve flow work. Both throttling work and valve flow
work increase as speed increases at constant load.
The manifold pressures in naturally aspirated engines can be related to
imep through a set of equations developed by Bishop:". l 2

where pi,a is the absolute inlet manifold pressure and pa is the atmospheric pressure. (All pressures are in kilopascals.)
For SI engines,

pumping friction, piston assembly friction, valve train friction, crankshaft bearing
friction, and (in Sec. 13.7) accessory power requirements.

13.6.2

Pumping Friction

Engine pumping mep data for SI and CI engines, as a function of speed and load
were given in Sec. 13.5. A more detailed breakdown of pumping work is developed here. Figure 13-15 shows the pumping loop for a firing four-stroke cycle
spark-ignition engine. The pumping work per cycle (see Fig. 2-4) is the p dv

For diesel engines (naturally aspirated),

Pi,# = 0

and

imep,[in Eq. (13.8)] = 972 kPa

(13.11)

728

ENGlNE FRI(JT1ON AND LUBRICATION

INTERNAL COMBUSTlON ENGINE FUNDAMENTALS

729

Upper compression ring

Side
clearance

Ring belt
Oil ring

Lower

compression ring

Segment

Skirt

Engine speed, mrlmin

1
Chrome-plated
Expander

FIGURE 13-16

Oil ring assembly

Relative importance of (a) throttling friction mep and (b) valve pumping friction mep, for spark
ignition engine, as percent of total friction mep on engine load versus speed map.''

Here pi,, and p,, are the intake and exhaust manifold gauge pressures (both are
positive numbers), pa is the atmospheric pressure, and p i , , is the exhaust gauge
pressure (all in kilopascals) at 4000 rev/min and full load.
The throttling mep for firing engine operation is then given by

The valve-pumping mep was correlated by

mep (valve pump) = 8.96

(13.13)

where

and niv is the number of inlet valves per cylinder, n, the number of cylinders, Div
the inlet valve head diameter, and V, the displaced volume. For diesel engines, in
Eq. (13.13), imep, = 1124 kPa.
Figure 13-16 shows the relative importance of the throttling and valve
pumping losses as a percentage of the total friction mep over the speed and load
range of a typical SI engine. The curves are obtained with the equations given
above for a six-cylinder, 9 : 1 compression ratio, 3.3-liter (202 in3) displacement
engine. The trends of increasing importance of valve pumping with increasing
speed and increasing importance of throttling losses with decreasing load are
eviden

Construction and nomenclature of typical piston and ring a~sembly.'~

13.6.3 Piston Assembly Friction

The construction and nomenclature of a typical piston and ring assembly is
shown in Fig. 13-17. The piston skirt is a load-bearing surface which keeps the
piston properly aligned within the cylinder bore. The piston lands and skirt carry
the side load which is present when the connecting rod is at an angle to the
cylinder axis. The rings control the lubrication between these surfaces and the
liner. Two types of rings--compression and oil rings-perform the following
tasks: (1) seal the clearance between the piston and cylinder to retain gas pressure
and minimize blowby; (2) meter adequate lubricant to the cylinder surface to
sustain high thrust and gas force loads at high surface speed and at the same time
control oil consumption to acceptable limits; and (3) control piston temperatures
by assisting in heat transfer to the cylinder walls and coolant. Automobile
engines normally use three rings, though two-ring designs exist. Larger diesel
engines may use four rings.
Many designs of compression ring are employed,13 the differences between
them being in the cross-sectional shapes (and hence relative flexibility) and in
their use of wear-resistant surface treatments. Top compression rings are usually
made of cast iron. The axial profiles are chosen to facilitate hydrodynamic lubrication. Common shapes are a rectangular cross section with inner and outer
edges chamfered to prevent sticking in the groove, or with a barrel-shaped
working surface which can accommodate the rotation of the piston which occurs
with short piston skirts. Wear-resistant coatings (either a hard chromium-plated
overlay or a molybdenum-filled inlay) are usually applied to the outer ring
surface. The second compression ring serves principally to reduce the pressure
drop across the top ring. Since the operating environment is less arduous, the