A Structural Ceramic Diesel Engine-The Critical Elements 870651

A structural ceramic diesel engine has the potential to provide low heat rejection and significant improvements in fuel economy. Analytical and experimental evaluations were conducted on the critical elements of this engine. The structural ceramic components, which included the cylinder, piston and pin, operated successfully in a single cylinder engine for over 100 hours. The potential for up to 8-11% improvement in indicated specific fuel consumption was projected when corrections for blow-by were applied. The ringless piston with gas squeeze film lubrication avoided the difficulty with liquid lubricants in the high temperature piston/cylinder area. The resulting reduction in friction was projected to provide an additional 15% improvement in brake specific fuel consumption for a multi-cylinder engine at light loads. The oil-less ceramic roller bearing system, which avoided the need to seal liquid lubricant from the high temperature upper cylinder area, operated satisfactorily in bench tests with minimum wear and low friction.