This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Elsevier as Open Access at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2014.11.012Piston slap is a major source of vibration and noise in internal combustion engines. Therefore, better understanding of the conditions favouring piston slap can be beneficial for the reduction of engine Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH). Past research has attempted to determine the exact position of piston slap events during the engine cycle and correlate them to the engine block vibration response. Validated numerical/analytical models of the piston assembly can be very useful towards this aim, since extracting the relevant information from experimental measurements can be a tedious and complicated process.In the present work, a coupled simulation of piston dynamics and engine tribology (tribodynamics) has been performed using quasi-static and transient numerical codes. Thus, the inertia and reaction forces developed in the piston are calculated. The occurrence of piston slap events in the engine cycle is monitored by introducing six alternative concepts: (i) the quasi-static lateral force, (ii) the transient lateral force, (iii) the minimum film thickness occurrence, (iv) the maximum energy transfer, (v) the lubricant squeeze velocity and (vi) the piston-impact angular duration. The validation of the proposed methods is achieved using experimental measurements taken from a single cylinder petrol engine in laboratory conditions. The surface acceleration of the engine block is measured at the thrust- and anti-thrust side locations. The correlation between the theoretically predicted events and the measured acceleration signals has been satisfactory in determining piston slap incidents, using the aforementioned concepts. The results also exhibit good repeatability throughout the set of measurements obtained in terms of the number of events occurring and their locations during the engine cycle

The developed model for thermal conductivity of nanofluids integrates the interfacial Kapitza resistance, the characteristics of the nanolayer, convective diffusion and surface energy with capillary condensation.

Noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) issues pose considerable challenges for electric vehicle powertrain engineers. Gear vibrations generate an intrusive gear whine noise, with significant impact on the sound quality of electric powertrains. Dynamic transmission error (DTE) is the most quantitative indicator for gear NVH. Backlash, time variable meshing stiffness and damping contribute to DTE. Hence, a better understanding of these excitation sources is essential. A gear tribodynamics model is developed using potential energy method to estimate time variable meshing stiffness (TVMS). A fully analytical time-efficient model is proposed for lubricated contact stiffness based on transitions in the regimes of lubrication. The model accounts for the combined effects of surface elasticity and lubricant stiffness. Film thickness and damping coefficients are transiently updated at each instant during meshing cycle. The predictions from this model are compared with measured results from the literature and predicted results from Hertz contact model. The lubricated contact model successfully shows the contribution of the lubricant stiffness to TVMS and its variations with elasticity and viscosity parameters during meshing cycle. Gear harmonic and super-harmonic resonances are accurately estimated in terms of amplitude, frequencies and stiffness softening nonlinearities. Time history responses and phase-displacement diagrams show good agreement with the gear dynamics response at the main harmonic and second super-harmonic frequencies. The proposed model has a reasonable accuracy, significantly better than those from Hertzian contact models, and is considerably time efficient in comparison to numerical EHL solvers.

An analytical/numerical methodology is presented to calculate the radiated noise due to internal combustion engine piston impacts on the cylinder liner through a film of lubricant. Both quasi-static and transient dynamic analyses coupled with impact elasto-hydrodynamics are reported. The local impact impedance is calculated, as well as the transferred energy onto the cylinder liner. The simulations are verified against experimental results for different engine operating conditions and for noise levels calculated in the vicinity of the engine block. Continuous wavelet signal processing is performed to identify the occurrence of piston slap noise events and their spectral content, showing good conformance between the predictions and experimentally acquired signals