Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Optimization of thermal barrier coating performance and durability over a drive cycle

Journal Article · · International Journal of Engine Research

A methodology to thermo-mechanically optimize a piston thermal barrier coating over a full drive cycle was established. The optimization objective was to minimize the heat transfer to the engine wall while maintaining structural integrity of the coating. Over 800 candidate materials were investigated and the optimization required more than one million non-road transient drive cycle calculations; real materials were investigated to ensure a realizable result and the existence of thermal and mechanical properties. High computational efficiency was achieved using a recently developed analytical heat transfer technique for multilayer engine walls. An uncoupled approach was utilized for the optimization, wherein the gas temperature and heat transfer coefficient profiles from a fully coupled and calibrated baseline model over the 20-min drive cycle were employed. The coating/piston interface temperature was constrained to be below the maximum piston service temperature limit. The durability was assessed using a recently developed analytical coating delamination framework for engine in-cylinder coatings based on the energy release rate when a crack forms. Results are presented for a mechanically unconstrained optimization and for cases constrained to three fixed levels of drive-cycle maximum energy release rate, and also constrained by the individual material’s toughness. The best-performing coating materials identified were verified using the fully coupled system-level model, which compared well to the uncoupled predictions. A study on the effect of adding a sealing layer to some high-performing, but porous, coatings showed a reduction in fuel consumption benefit and an increased exhaust temperature over the cycle, but the system still outperformed the uncoated case. The results of the study elucidate the importance of including engine performance and mechanical failure considerations in thermal barrier coating design.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
2424555
Journal Information:
International Journal of Engine Research, Journal Name: International Journal of Engine Research Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 24; ISSN 1468-0874
Publisher:
SAGE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (52)

Concept of “Temperature Swing Heat Insulation” in Combustion Chamber Walls, and Appropriate Thermo-Physical Properties for Heat Insulation Coat journal April 2013
Enhancing the efficiency benefit of thermal barrier coatings for homogeneous charge compression ignition engines through application of a low-k oxide journal June 2020
A New Piston Insulation Concept for Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines to Reduce Heat Loss from the Wall journal February 2017
Thermo-Swing Wall Insulation Technology; - A Novel Heat Loss Reduction Approach on Engine Combustion Chamber - conference October 2016
Effect of Mirror-Finished Combustion Chamber on Heat Loss
  • Tsutsumi, Yasuhito; Nomura, Kenichi; Nakamura, Noriniko
  • International Fuels & Lubricants Meeting & Exposition, SAE Technical Paper Series https://doi.org/10.4271/902141
conference October 1990
What Are the Barriers Against Brake Thermal Efficiency beyond 55% for HD Diesel Engines? conference September 2021
Aerospace Materials Property Database (TPSX) journal May 2009
Performance Characteristics of a Low Heat Rejection Direct-Injection Military Diesel Engine Retrofitted With Thermal Barrier Coated Pistons journal January 2001
Evaluation of thermal barrier coatings and surface roughness in a single-cylinder light-duty diesel engine journal October 2019
Experimental and Analytical Study of Temperature Swing Piston Coatings in a Medium-Duty Diesel Engine journal March 2022
Injection Characteristics that Improve Performance of Ceramic Coated Diesel Engines conference March 1999
The impact of a magnesium zirconate thermal barrier coating on homogeneous charge compression ignition operational variability and the formation of combustion chamber deposits journal November 2014
Analysis of the effects of wall temperature swing on reciprocating internal combustion engine processes journal July 2017
Assessing the optimum combustion under constrained conditions journal November 2018
Distributed computing in practice: the Condor experience
  • Thain, Douglas; Tannenbaum, Todd; Livny, Miron
  • Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, Vol. 17, Issue 2-4, p. 323-356 https://doi.org/10.1002/cpe.938
journal January 2005
Cyclical Thermal Phenomena in Engine Combustion Chamber Surfaces conference February 1985
Fuel Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) Combustion in Light- and Heavy-Duty Engines journal April 2011
Surface temperature of a multi-layer thermal barrier coated wall subject to an unsteady heat flux journal July 2020
Experimental Analysis of Heat-Loss with Different Piston Wall Surface Conditions in a Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine
  • Osada, Hideaki; Watanabe, Hiroki; Onozawa, Yasuhiro
  • The Proceedings of the International symposium on diagnostics and modeling of combustion in internal combustion engines, Vol. 2017.9, Issue 0 https://doi.org/10.1299/jmsesdm.2017.9.B204
journal January 2017
Delamination Failure on High-Output Diesel Engine Thermal Barrier Coatings conference March 2022
Optimization of an Advanced Combustion Strategy Towards 55% BTE for the Volvo SuperTruck Program journal February 2017
Effect of the exhaust thermal insulation on the engine efficiency and the exhaust temperature under transient conditions journal October 2020
A review of thermal barrier coatings for improvement in thermal efficiency of both gasoline and diesel reciprocating engines journal December 2020
Heat Transfer Measurement Comparisons in Insulated and Non-Insulated Diesel Engines conference February 1989
Performance and Emissions Achievements with an Uncooled Heavy-Duty, Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine conference February 1989
The Thermodynamic Design, Analysis and Test of Cummins’ Supertruck 2 50% Brake Thermal Efficiency Engine System conference April 2019
Ceramics for Transportation Engines—Siren or Solution journal March 1989
Performance of Thin Thermal Barrier Coating on Small Aluminum Block Diesel Engine conference February 1991
Instationary heat and mass transfer phenomena in additive manufactured open cell polyhedral structures for automotive catalysis journal April 2021
The Effects of Ceramic Coatings on Diesel Engine Performance and Exhaust Emissions conference February 1991
Experimental assessment of new insulation coatings for lean burn spark-ignited engines journal January 2020
Experimental investigation of wall heat transfer due to spray combustion in a high-pressure/high-temperature vessel journal April 2021
Thermo-swing insulation to reduce heat loss from the combustion chamber wall of a diesel engine journal June 2019
Experimental investigation of piston heat transfer under conventional diesel and reactivity-controlled compression ignition combustion regimes journal January 2014
An Analytical Approach for Calculating Instantaneous Multilayer-Coated Wall Surface Temperature in an Engine journal April 2020
Assessment of In-Cylinder Thermal Barrier Coatings over a Full Vehicle Drive Cycle conference April 2021
Analytical solution of unsteady heat conduction in multilayer internal combustion engine walls journal August 2022
Heat Transfer Analysis of Catalytic Converters during Cold Starts conference September 2019
Fracture-based transient thermo-mechanical analysis of reciprocating engine thermal barrier coatings journal July 2022
Thermal Swing Evaluation of Thermal Barrier Coatings for Diesel Engines journal November 2020
Experimental investigation of the relationship between thermal barrier coating structured porosity and homogeneous charge compression ignition engine combustion journal July 2019
Simulation of Exhaust Gas Aftertreatment Systems - Thermal Behavior During Different Operating Conditions conference April 2008
The impact of piston thermal barrier coating roughness on high-load diesel operation journal December 2019
The Effect of Thermal Barrier Coated Piston Crown on Engine Characteristics journal February 2000
The Effect of Insulated Combustion Chamber Surfaces on Direct-Injected Diesel Engine Performance, Emissions and Combustion conference February 1989
A study of suspension plasma-sprayed insulated pistons evaluated in a heavy-duty diesel engine journal October 2019
Numerical Investigation on the Effects of Different Thermal Insulation Strategies for a Passenger Car Diesel Engine journal September 2017
Thermal Barrier Coatings for High Output Turbocharged Diesel Engine conference April 2007
Fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI): a pathway to controlled high-efficiency clean combustion journal June 2011
Low Heat Capacitance Thermal Barrier Coatings for Internal Combustion Engines conference April 2019
Insulated Piston Heads for Diesel Engines journal February 2009
Analysis of Engine Walls Thermal Insulation: Performance and Emissions conference April 2015

Similar Records

Assessing the Impact of a Novel TBC Material on Heat Transfer in a Spark Ignition Engine through 3D CFD-FEA Co-Simulation Routine
Journal Article · Mon Mar 28 20:00:00 EDT 2022 · SAE Technical Paper Series · OSTI ID:1997418

Modeling Heat Loss through Piston and Effects of Thermal Boundary Coatings in Diesel Engine Simulations using Conjugate Heat Transfer models
Conference · Mon Oct 17 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · OSTI ID:1395154

Thermo-mechanical fatigue of polymer matrix composites. Ph.D. Thesis
Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1993 · OSTI ID:264010