ARTICLE IN PRESS

Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

Friction model of a marine diesel engine piston assembly

George A. Livanos, Nikolaos P. Kyrtatos
Laboratory of Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou St., Zografos, Athens, Greece
Received 18 July 2006; received in revised form 23 January 2007; accepted 24 January 2007
Available online 26 March 2007

Abstract
In modern marine diesel engines, power output and in-cylinder ring pressures are constantly increasing, leading to higher friction in
engine components and especially in the piston assembly. A good understanding of the friction contributions of the various engine
components is needed, if mechanical efciency is to be improved. A friction model for the engine piston assembly has been developed and
is presented in this paper. The model, based on lubrication theory, considers the detailed engine geometry and the complete lubricant
action, and thus can be applied to a wide range of engines. In detail, the analysis takes into account the friction components of
compression rings, oil control rings, piston skirt and gudgeon pin of the engine piston assembly. The model was applied to a four-stroke
(medium speed) marine diesel engine and the effect of engine speed and load on friction was examined and compared with results from
other semi-empirical models. The engine friction was predicted at constant rotational speed (generator operation) and variable rotational
speed (propulsion operation).
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Piston; Piston rings; Friction; Piston secondary motion; Engines

1. Introduction
Nowadays, the continuously increasing cost of marine
fuel in conjunction with the environmental impacts of
the operation of internal combustion engines make
the improvement of the engines mechanical efciency
imperative.
A good understanding and measurement of the friction
contributions of the various engine rotating or oscillating
components is needed, if mechanical efciency is to be
improved. Towards this direction and since a signicant
part of the total power loss in an internal combustion
engine is due to piston assembly friction, the contribution
of engine piston assembly friction models is important.
Such models can be used in computer codes for the
complete simulation of internal combustion engines
operation and can reduce the design and development time.
One of the earliest calculations on piston ring and
cylinder liner lubrication were made in 1936 by Castleman
[1]. Almost 20 years later, Eilion and Saunders [2]
Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2107721132.

E-mail address: glivan@naval.ntua.gr (G.A. Livanos).

0301-679X/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2007.01.020

conducted another lubrication analysis of piston ring and

reported the oil lm thickness and friction forces. In these
early studies, the squeeze lm effect was neglected and a
simplied hydrodynamic lubrication theory was applied.
The squeeze lm effect was rst incorporated into the
analysis by Furuhama [3]. These works were based on fully
ooded inlet condition assumption. However for a ring
pack operating in an engine, the lubricant supply is not
always adequate for fully ooded lubrication and starvation inlet conditions prevail. Starved ring lubrication was
studied by many researchers [47] applying different
boundary conditions and numerical solution schemes.
The work of Dowson et al. [8], Ruddy et al. [9,10], Keribar
et al. [11] and Tian et al. [12] has resulted in the
development of more integrated simulations, which include
effects of ring dynamics and blow by.
Although there is a vast literature regarding piston rings
lubrication [112] and piston skirt motion [1316], the
literature regarding the complete piston assembly lubrication is rather poor [17]. In [17] the friction and dynamic
motion of the piston assembly was studied neglecting the
friction developed on piston pin and the interaction of
several piston components (rings, bearings and skirts).

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

Nomenclature
Ring pack
a
b
B
Ff
Fgas

ring offset
ring width
ring geometry parameter
friction force
gas force applied on a ring back due to the incylinder pressure
Fring tension ring force applied on the cylinder liner, due
to the ring elasticity
F ring
ring friction
f
h
lubricant lm thickness
hmin
minimum oil lm thickness
hG
ring face prole
p
oil lm pressure
pgas inlet gas pressure at the inlet of the ring
pgas outlet gas pressure at the outlet of the ring
Pc
contact pressure with surface roughness
Pring
ring frictional losses
f
q
lubricant ow rate
Woil
resultant force from the oil lm pressure
Wexternal external load applied on the ring
m
oil viscosity
Piston skirt
a

vertical distance from top of piston skirt to the

wrist pin
b
vertical distance from top of piston skirt to the
piston center of mass
C
radial clearance between piston and cylinder
Cg
distance of the piston center of mass from the
wrist pin axis
Cp
distance of the wrist pin from the geometric axis
of the piston (wrist pin offset)
et, eb eccentricities of the piston measured at the top
and bottom of the skirt
Ffring friction force of the complete ring pack
Fskirt
load capacity of the hydrodynamic uid lm of
the piston skirt
Fgas
gas force acting at top of the piston
inertial
F inertial
;
piston_x F piston_y inertia forces due to piston mass

The objective of the presented work is the study of the

lubrication of the complete piston assembly (rings, skirt
and gudgeon pin), solving the coupled system of lubrication and motion equations applied on each piston assembly
component. The instant friction of ring pack, piston skirt
and piston pin is predicted, and the total mechanical power
loss of piston assembly is calculated. The friction model
developed in this work was applied to a case of a fourstroke marine diesel engine, in contrast to automotive

inertial
Inertia forces due to wrist pin and
F inertial
pin_x ; F pin_y
connecting rod small end mass
Frod
force along the connecting rod
h
uid lm thickness
Ipiston piston rotary inertia about its center of mass
L
piston skirt length
Mskirt moment about wrist pin due to hydrodynamic
forces
M inertial
piston inertia torque of piston
Mgp
friction torque of the piston pin
mpiston piston mass
mpin
wrist pin and connecting rod small end mass
p
hydrodynamic uid lm pressure
R
piston radius
U
piston sliding velocity
x
lateral piston motion
Y
piston position measured from top dead center
y
uid lm axial coordinate measured from top
of skirt
m
lubricant viscosity

Piston pin bearing

J
A
C
S
H
P
u

U
m
r
Q

QU
h_
Q
K
e
R
D
L
N
i, j
x, y
n^

functional
area
clearance
boundary
lm thickness
lm pressure
average lm velocity
average surface velocity
viscosity
density
uid lm ow
pseudo ow (shear)
pseudo ow (squeeze)
uidity matrix
bearing eccentricity
bearing radius
bearing diameter
bearing length
interpolation function
nodal indices
lm coordinates
unit normal

engines, often used for application of other existing

models.
2. Theoretical model
The piston friction model, presented in this paper
considers all the contact surfaces in an engine piston
assembly, i.e. a piston ring pack, a piston skirt and a piston
pin bearing. A lumped crank-slider model was used for the

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

calculation of engine component speeds, accelerations and

acting forces [18,19]. A description of each piston assembly
component modeling follows.
2.1. Piston ring pack model
The proposed model considers that the complete ring
pack can be reduced to a set of several compression rings
and one twin-rail oil control ring. Each rail of the oil
control ring is manipulated as a separate single ring.
Fig. 1 presents the geometry and the conguration of a
ring pack consisting of two compression rings and one
twin-rail oil control ring. All rings have barrel shape face,
which can be adequately described by a second-order
polynomial as follows (any ring face prole can be
incorporated in the model):
hG Bx  a2 .

(1)

For the simulation of the oil lm action between the

piston ring and the cylinder liner, the one-dimensional
Reynolds equation is used, considering sliding and squeeze
ring motion:


q h3 qp
1 qh qh
(2)
u ,
qx 12m qx
2 qx qt
where u is the piston velocity, p is the developed pressure, m
is the oil viscosity and h is the oil lm thickness between
ring and cylinder liner and is expressed as follows:
h hmin hG ,

(3)

1443

where hmin is the minimum oil lm thickness and hG the

ring face prole.
Considering quasi-steady-state conditions, the net resultant force of the uid lm pressure Woil should be in
equilibrium with the applied load (from in-cylinder gas Fgas
and ring tension Fring tension) Wexternal at all times. This is
expressed as follows:
Z xoutlet
p dA F gas F ring tension W external .
(4)
W oil
xinlet

It can be concluded from the Reynolds equation (2) and

the force equilibrium equation (4) that there are four
unknowns, these being the pressure p, the minimum oil lm
thickness hmin, the position of lubricant inlet xinlet and the
position of lubricant outlet xoutlet. In order to solve these
equations, boundary conditions are applied at both ends
(inlet and outlet) of each ring of the complete ring pack.
There are several approaches to follow regarding the
boundary conditions applied on piston rings. Priest et al.
[20] provides an excellent review of such boundary
conditions. In the work presented here, the approach of
Jeng [4] was adopted.
2.1.1. Inlet boundary conditions
The model applies fully ooded inlet conditions for the
second rail of the oil control ring during the downstrokes,
since adequate mass of lubricant is available. On the other
hand, starved lubrication conditions are applied to the rest
of the rings during the downstrokes and to the complete
ring pack during the upstrokes. These boundary equations
are expressed as follows:
Fully flooded condition : pxinlet pgas
b
xinlet ,
2
Starved condition : pxinlet pgas

inlet ,

inlet ,

qxinlet qavailable .

Note that, in the case of fully ooded conditions, the oil

lm inlet is dened explicitly, while in the case of cavitation
boundary condition, the oil lm inlet is dened implicitly,
through the oil ow equilibrium.
2.1.2. Outlet boundary conditions
The convergentdivergent shape of the ring face prole
suggests that the lubricant lm may rupture due to
cavitation. The cavitation is considered by applying the
Reynolds boundary conditions, which are expressed as
follows:

Fig. 1. Piston ring pack conguration.

pxoutlet pgas cavitation 0,

qp
xoutlet 0
7
qx
In Reynolds boundary conditions, the cavitation point
xoutlet is dened implicitly. When the piston approaches the
top dead center (TDC) or bottom dead center (BDC), the

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1444

squeeze motion of piston rings is predominant and

cavitation is unlikely to occur. In this case, the exit
boundary condition is expressed as
pxoutlet pgas
b
xoutlet .
2

Piston skirt bearing

surface

outlet ,

=0

In the case of no cavitation, the position of lubricant outlet

is known and it coincides with the outlet edge of the ring
(explicitly dened).
Thus, the lubrication mechanism of piston ring pack is
modeled as a well-dened problem described by two
equations (2) and (4) and two sets of boundary conditions
(5) or (6) and (7) or (8).
When the piston approaches the TDC or BDC, the
reduced ring speed in conjunction with the increased
applied load may lead to dry contact of the piston ring
with the cylinder liner. To calculate the contact pressure Pc
with surface roughness, the asperity contact model of
Greenwood and Tripp [21] was used. For simplicity in
numerical calculations, this model has been dened as a
non-linear curve tting formula by Hu et al. [22].

2.1.3. Calculation of friction losses

After determining the asperity contact load and the
hydrodynamic pressure eld of the lubricant, the friction
force is calculated as follows:
ZZ
ZZ
F ring
Pc dAc ,

t
dA

c
(9)
f
f
where t h=2qp=qx  mu=h is the uid shear stress.
When hydrodynamic lubrication prevails, the equation derived by Booker [23] is used to calculate the power
loss:
ZZ
ZZ 3
m 2
h
u
Pring
rp2 dA.

dA

(10)
f
h
12m
This equation is preferred because it includes the power
loss due to squeeze piston ring motion.

Anti-thrust side

Thrust side

et

eb

Fig. 2. Piston skirt eccentricities terminology.

Equilibrium of forces and moments about the piston

wrist-pin requires that (Fig. 3)
X
inertial
F x 03F skirt F inertial
pin_x F piston_x  F rod sin j 0,
(11)

2.2. Piston skirt model

X
The friction model presented in this paper incorporates a
hydrodynamic lubrication model of the piston skirt, and
allows the piston motion and the associated skirt friction to
be calculated as function of engine crank angle (CA).
It is well known from existing literature [1317] that the
piston executes small translations and rotations within the
connement of the cylinder clearance (piston secondary
motion). These motions can be dened by the piston
eccentricities et and eb at the top and bottom of the
skirt, respectively (Fig. 2).
The governing equation for the dynamic motion of the
piston can be obtained as follows.

inertial
F y 03F gas F fring F fskirt F inertial
pin_y F piston_y

F rod cos j 0,
X

12

inertial
M 03M skirt M inertial
piston F piston_x a  b

0.
 F inertial
piston_y C g F gas C p F fring C p M fskirt M gp 13
Eliminating Frod from Eqs. (11) and (12) and considering
that piston inertial forces are calculated from the following
equations:

F inertial
pin_y mpin Y ,

(14)

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

follows:




q 3 qp
q 3 qp
qh
qh
h
h
R2
6mUR2 12mR2 .
qy
qy
qy
qy
qy
qt

x (+)
Fgas
Cg

Cp

(20)
Since eb and et are well below L, the oil lm thickness can
be approximated by
y
h C et cos y
(21)
eb  et cos y.
LC

y (+)
Ffring

inertial

inertial

Fpiston_x

Fpiston_y

Mskirt + Mfskirt

inertial
Fskirt + Fpin_x

L
inertial

Ffskirt

Fpin_y

Frod

Fig. 3. Forces and moments acting on piston.

F inertial
piston_y mpiston Y ,

(15)

h
i
a
eb  et ,
F inertial
pin_x mpin et
L


b
inertial
F piston_x mpiston et eb  et ,
L

(16)
(17)
(18)

the governing equation of piston motion yields





m
1  Lb mpin 1  La
6 piston
6


4 I piston
b
L mpiston a  b 1  L

2
4

 

a

" #
7 et
 7
I
b 5 eb
 piston
L mpiston a  b L
mpiston

A Finite Element Scheme is adopted for the solution of this

equation. The following boundary conditions are applied:
qp
qp
y 0 y p 0,
(22)
qy
qy
due to symmetry along center line plane. p pamb, at the
edge of the skirt, where pamb is some ambient pressure
condition in the piston skirt region.
The equations of motion together with the two-dimensional Reynolds equation describe the motion and lubrication of the piston skirt. After the solution of this set of
coupled equations, the skirt motion and the lubricant
pressure eld can be determined, and thus the frictional
losses can be calculated after the integration of the
developed shear stresses over the piston skirt lubricated
area. The procedure is the same as that described in the
case of piston rings model. More information regarding the
method of solution of the system of coupled differential
equations can be found in the literature [1317].
2.3. Journal bearings model

M inertial
et  eb =L,
piston I piston
2

1445

b
L

mpin

inertial
F skirt F fskirt F fring F gas F inertial
pistony F piny tan f

M skirt M fskirt F fring C p M gp F gas C P  F inertial

pistony C g

3
5.

19
The forces and moments, Fskirt, Ffskirt, M and Mfskirt, are
due to the hydrodynamic pressure developed in the oil lm
in the load bearing arcs. In contrast to the literature
[1317], the presented model couples the motion of piston
skirt with the motion of piston rings and piston gudgeon
pin via the introduction of force Ffring, which is the total
ring pack friction, and via the introduction of moments
FringCp and Mgp, which are the moment of complete
ring pack friction about the piston wrist pin and the
friction moment of the piston gudgeon pin bearing,
respectively.
The hydrodynamic pressure generation around the
piston skirt is governed by the Reynolds equation as

Friction losses from the piston gudgeon pin bearing are

also included in the proposed friction model. The piston
pin bearing carries loads that vary in magnitude and
direction. The angular velocity of load and sleeve also vary
in direction and magnitude.
Several approaches have been adopted for the dynamic
investigation of bearings. There are in literature analytical
models for short [24], long and nite loaded bearings [25],
numerical models that apply the Finite Element Method to
solve the Reynolds equation either in the simple case of
isothermal conditions [26] or in the more complicated case of
elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) [2729] or thermoelasto-hydrodynamic lubrication (TEHL) [30,31]. The Finite
Element Scheme with isothermal conditions assumption,
presented by Goenka [26], was adopted in this work and will
be outlined here for completeness and to establish notation.
2.3.1. Bearing lubrication model
In the FEM formulation, the pressure distribution in an
incompressible lubricant lm minimizes the following
functional [26,28]:
Z
Z
Z
1
h3
qh

J
rp  rp dA 
r
rhU  rp dA r p dA
2 A 12m
A
A qt
Z
^ dS,

rhu  np
23
Sq

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1446

pressure is the only unknown which is obtained by solving

the linear system of Eq. (30).

Case 2: Boundary node, (FFR): The nodal variables QU ,

h_
Q and p( pboundary) are known, whereas node ow q is
the only unknown which is obtained by solving the linear
system of Eq. (30).
Case 3: Cavitation region: In the cavitation region is
assumed that nodal pressure vanishes (p 0), and the
following relation holds:
X

h_
K ij pj QU
(31)
i Qi  qi o0.

ey
ex

Fig. 4. Journal bearing conguration.

where the lm thickness h (Fig. 4) and its rate of change h_

are as follows:
h C  ex cos y  ey sin y,
h_ _ex cos y  e_y sin y.
Discretization of the pressure eld as
X
px; y
N i x; ypi

(24)

and substitution in the functional yields


X 
1XX
r_
h_
J
pi K ij pj 
pi Q U

Q

q
,
i
i
i
i
2 i j
i
(25)
where
Z
K ij  

r
A

QU
i 

h3
rN i  rN j dA,
12m

 rN i dA,
rhU

(26)

(27)

Qhi  
Z
qi 

qh
N i dA,
qt

(28)

^ i dS.
rhu  nN

(29)

r
A

Thus, the problem reduces in dening FFR and

cavitation region. The division of the two regions is
achieved through an iterative procedure. Initially each
node is arbitrarily assigned either in FFR or cavitation
region. In the FFR, the node pressure is dened by solving
the linear system (30), whereas in the rest region (cavitated)
the node pressure is zero. After the calculation of pressure
prole in the complete region, it is checked if pressure is
always positive in full uid region and if Eq. (31) holds in
cavitation region. For those nodes for which the constraints are not satised, they are transferred to the
opposite region (from FFR to cavitation region and vice
versa). Several iterations will be required to get the correct
boundary for the rst time step. However, for the
subsequent time steps the new region assignment will be
only a few nodes off from the previous time step.
Once the nodal pressures have been computed, the
resultant forces on the sleeve are obtained as follows:
Z
p cos yR dy dZ W x ;
ZA
p sin yR dy dZ W y .
32

Sq

By setting qJ=qpi 0, we obtain the following linear

n  n system:
X

h_
K ij pj QU
(30)
qi
i Qi .
j

According to Eq. (30), ow outward from the system is

considered as a consequence of spatial pressure variation p,
_

surface shear action QU and squeeze action Qh . In this

_

U
context, there are four nodal variables p, q, Q and Qh .
Considering that bearing motion is known (squeeze
velocities), the following cases are obtained:
Case 1: Internal node, full film region (FFR): The nodal
_

variables QU , Qh and q( 0) are known, whereas node

In the solution method [26] adopted in this work,

squeeze velocity h_ is solved explicitly and simultaneously
with pressure. In this method, instead of solving n
unknown pressures (n: number of mesh nodes), n+2
unknowns (n nodal pressures and 2 components of squeeze
velocities) are solved simultaneously. Besides the nequations (30), two additional equations are obtained
from (32).
After determining the pressure eld developed around
piston pin bearing, the power losses are easily calculated
using the method presented in the case of piston rings.
3. Model implementation
The presented model was implemented using MATLAB/
SIMULINK. The developed SIMULINK simulation platform considers the interaction between the ring pack, the
piston pin bearing and the piston skirt module, as shown in
Fig. 5. Each module implements the relevant theory
presented in the previous section, and denes the piston
rings (h1_dot, h2_dot, h3_dot and h4_dot), the piston pin
(ex_dot, ey_dot) and the piston skirt speeds (et_dot,

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h1

1
s

1447

h2
h3

1
s

h4
1
s

em

1
s
Ring Pack Friction

RPM
engine_speed

RING PACK MODULE

P_CYL
et_dot

1
s

in_cylinder_pressure

ex_dot

1
s

Integrator6
eb_dot
eb
1
em
s

ex

Integrator7

Integrator4
em

ey_dot

PISTON SKIRT MODULE

1
s

et

skirt friction

ey

Integrator5
Piston Pin Friction
PISTON PIN BEARING MODULE

Fig. 5. Complete piston assembly model layout.

eb_dot). After the integration of the predicted speeds, the

piston assembly components motion can be predicted
and thus the developed friction forces can be calculated.
It is to note that the total ring pack friction and the
piston pin friction predicted by ring pack module and
piston pin bearing module, respectively, enter the piston
skirt module and inuence the skirt motion and the
relevant skirt friction. Thus more realistic predictions are
obtained.

Table 1
MAN B&W L16/24 main particulars
Bore
Stroke
Power per cylinder
Speed
Compression ratio
Max. combustion pressure
Mean effective pressure
Mean piston speed

0.160 m
0.240 m
100 kw
1200 rpm
15.5:1
180 bar
20.7 bar
9.6 m/s

4. Simulation results and discussion





25% nominal load at 1200 rpm,

50% nominal load at 1200 rpm,
75% nominal load at 1200 rpm.

1E-005

25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

8E-006

hmin [m]

The proposed piston assembly friction model was used

with geometry data of a single cylinder unit of the MAN
B&W 5L16/24 four-stroke marine diesel engine, installed in
the test-bed of the Laboratory of Marine Engineering of
the National Technical University of Athens. The engine
main particulars are listed in Table 1.
The MAN B&W 5L16/24 engine consists of ve cylinder
units. The piston of each unit is equipped with two
compression rings and one twin-rail oil control ring. For
the engine lubrication, a SAE 40 lubricant is used.
The friction of each component of piston assembly was
calculated for several engine operating points at constant
speed (generator operation) and along the propeller curve
(propulsion operation). In detail, the following cases were
examined:
Constant speed cases:

6E-006

4E-006

2E-006

0
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 6. Minimum oil lm thickness for the rst compression ring of piston
assembly for several engine operating points at constant speed.

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1448

Propeller curve cases:





The contribution of each engine component to the total

engine frictional losses is presented in the next sections.

26% nominal load at 756 rpm,

51% nominal load at 952 rpm,
86% nominal load at 1137 rpm.

4.1. Piston rings friction contribution

0.003
0.002

xin [m]

0.001
0
-0.001
-0.002
-0.003
0.003

0.002

xc [m]

0.001

-0.001

-0.002

25 % LOAD
50% LOAD
75 % LOAD

-0.003
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 7. Lubricant inlet attachment point xin and cavitation boundary xc

for the rst compression ring of piston assembly.

Fig. 6 presents the minimum oil lm thickness variation of

the rst compression ring over a complete engine cycle (720
CA degrees) under starved lubrication conditions for three
engine operating points (25%, 50% and 75%) at constant
speed (1200 rpm). It can be seen that the oil lm thickness
reduces with increasing the load. As the load increases, the
in-cylinder pressure also increases, and the piston ring is
further forced towards the cylinder liner, leading to decrease
in the oil lm thickness. The minimum oil lm thickness of
the ring increases with the piston speed, since the higher
speed promotes the hydrodynamic lubrication and the
increased loading capacity of the ring. On the other hand,
the oil lm thickness is very limited around the TDC and
BDC, where boundary lubrication prevails. It must also to be
mentioned that although the external load applied on the
rst compression ring during the exhaust stroke is lower than
the ring applied load during the expansion stroke, the
minimum oil lm thickness in the rst case (exhaust stroke) is
also limited due to the low oil availability after the passage of
the ring pack in the expansion stroke.
Fig. 7 depicts the position of oil attachment at the
leading edge of the rst compression ring (xin) and the
position where the cavitation begins at the trailing edge of
the ring (xc), respectively, for several operating points
(25%, 50% and 75%) at constant speed (1200 rpm). As can
be observed, the cavitation extends from the trailing ring
edge (b/2 during the downward motion of the piston or b/
2 during the upward motion of the piston) to the mid of the
ring width during the piston stroke. Only around the TDC
and BDC, the cavitation is very limited, since the squeeze
ring motion prevails. Note that the peaks in xin and xc
observed in TDC and BDC result from the fact that the
trailing ring edge is converted to leading edge (due to
piston speed change) and vice versa.

b
20000

20000
25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

16000
friction losses [W]

friction losses [W]

16000

26% LOAD
51% LOAD
86% LOAD

12000

8000

4000

12000

8000

4000

0
0

200
400
600
crank angle [deg]

800

200
400
600
crank angle [deg]

800

Fig. 8. Friction losses of the rst compression ring for several engine operating points (a) at constant speed and (b) at variable speed propeller curve.

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In the analysis presented here, a perfect cylindrical

piston skirt prole is assumed (no barreling).
Fig. 9(a) presents the piston skirt eccentricities during a
complete engine cycle for several loads at constant speed
(1200 rpm). The sign convention for et and eb is that (+)
means towards the anti-thrust side and () means towards
the thrust side. During the expansion stroke (from CA
0 deg. to 180 deg.), the bottom of the piston moves towards
the anti-thrust side and the top moves towards the thrust
side. During the exhaust stroke (from CA 180 deg. to
360 deg.), the bottom of the piston moves towards the
thrust side and the top oscillates. During the intake stroke
(from CA 360 deg. to 540 deg.), both top and bottom of the
piston move towards the anti-thrust side. Finally, during
the compression, the top of the piston moves towards the
anti-thrust side and the bottom of the piston moves
towards thrust side. Since the total considered clearance
between piston and cylinder liner is 63 mm and the
maximum piston translation is approximately 53 mm
during expansion stroke at 75% load, the total piston slap
is considered very signicant during expansion. The piston
trajectory is also presented in Fig. 9(b) for several engine
operating points along the propeller curve. As can be seen,
increased piston slap occurs during expansion stroke,
whereas average piston oscillation is observed during the
rest of engine cycle.
Fig. 10 presents the friction force developed on the
piston skirt for constant speed engine operation (a) and for
engine operation along a propeller curve (b) at several
loads. In the case of constant speed operation, the piston
skirt friction force is almost independent from the load.
This can be explained from the hydrodynamic lubrication
conditions prevailing on piston skirt surfaces. In such
conditions, the friction shear stresses are strongly proportional to piston speed (and thus to crankshaft rotational
speed), which is constant in this case. The friction force
exhibits maximum values in the mid-strokes, due to the
increased piston speed, and it reaches minimum values at
the vicinity of dead centers, due to the low piston speed. On
the other hand in the case of operation along the propeller
curve, signicant changes in friction force predictions are
observed. The losses increase with the engine speed and this
results again from the prevailing hydrodynamic conditions.
In Fig. 11, the hydrodynamic force applied on piston
skirt is presented. Increased forces are observed during

4E-005
eb
et, eb [m]

4.2. Piston skirt friction contribution

6E-005

2E-005

0
et
-2E-005
25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

-4E-005
8E-005

6E-005

4E-005
et, eb [m]

Figs. 8(a) and (b) present the power loss of the rst
compression ring for constant speed and propeller curve
operation, respectively. The power loss for the part of the
stroke where the ring is boundary lubricated (around TDC
ring3 CA deg.) is signicantly higher than the power
loss where the ring is hydrodynamically lubricated. Except
at the TDC of the ring cycle, the power loss is limited
around the other dead centers due to the combination of
the hydrodynamic lubrication and limited speed.

1449

eb

2E-005

et

-2E-005

26% LOAD
51% LOAD
86% LOAD

-4E-005
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 9. Piston skirt eccentricity for several engine operating points (a) at
constant speedgenerator operation and (b) at variable speedpropulsion operation.

expansion stroke (0360 deg.), due to increased in-cylinder

pressure (combustion). This force mainly urges the piston
assembly to move towards anti-thrust side of cylinder liner
during expansion, as was earlier mentioned.
4.3. Piston pin bearing friction contribution
The proposed friction model of piston assembly considers that the gudgeon pin bearing belongs to piston
assembly of a single cylinder unit. It is assumed that this
bearing is a plain journal bearing and no geometrical
details (e.g. grooves, oil holes) are considered.
The predicted minimum oil lm thickness in the case of
piston pin bearing for variable speed operation and constant speed operation is presented in Figs. 12(a) and (b),

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

1450

respectively. It can be seen that the oil lm thickness

decreases with the increasing engine load. This decrease is
smaller in the case of engine operation along the propeller
curve, due to the fact that the engine speed increases in
parallel with the load. Consequently, the increased applied
load is compensated by the increased hydrodynamic load
capacity (which results from the increased speed) and this
leads to limited reduction of the oil lm thickness.
Fig. 13 presents the power losses in the piston pin
bearing for (a) constant engine speed operation and (b)
engine operation along the propeller curve at several loads.
During constant speed engine operation, the power loss
is limited dependent of the load through the cycle, except in

the vicinity of the TDC ring. It can be seen from this

gure that piston pin power loss is proportional with its
speed and inversely proportional with minimum oil lm
thickness.
In the case of engine operation along the propeller curve
(Fig. 13(b)), the power loss increases signicantly with the
load, due to the signicant speed increase (the power loss is
strongly proportional to the speed).
4.4. Total friction
The total predicted friction losses for a single cylinder
unit of the MAN B&W diesel engine are presented in

a
400

a
40000

200

25% LOAD
50% LOAD

Hydrodynamic Skirt Force [N]

Skirt Friction [N]

30000

-200

-400

75% LOAD

20000

10000

25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

-600

-10000

400

40000
26% LOAD
51% LOAD

30000

-200

-400
26% LOAD
51% LOAD
86% LOAD

-600
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 10. Piston skirt friction force for several engine operating points: (a)
at constant speedgenerator operation and (b) variable speedpropulsion operation.

Hydrodynamic Skirt Force [N]

Skirt Friction [N]

200

86% LOAD

20000

10000

-10000
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 11. Piston skirt hydrodynamic force for several engine operating
points: (a) at constant speedgenerator operation and (b) variable
speedpropulsion operation.

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453
25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

0.00012

1451

60

25% LOAD
50% LOAD
75% LOAD

8E-005
hmin [m]

power losses [W]

40

4E-005

20

0
0

0.00012

60

26% LOAD
51% LOAD
86% LOAD

hmin [m]

8E-005

power losses [W]

40

4E-005

26% LOAD
51% LOAD
86% LOAD

20

0
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 12. Minimum oil lm thickness of the piston pin bearing for several
engine operating points (a) at variable speed propeller curve and (b) at
constant speed.

Tables 2 and 3 for constant speed operation and propeller

curve operation, respectively. The piston skirt has the
largest friction contribution and the piston gudgeon pin
has the lowest contribution. It is to be mentioned that the
predicted piston skirt friction contribution in total piston
assembly friction is higher compared with values found in
literature [32] for automotive engines. This can be
attributed to the proportional larger piston skirt of a
marine diesel engine (skirt length to bore ratio 1.2)
compared to a typical piston skirt of an automotive engine
(skirt length to bore ratio 0.4) [15]. As a result,
proportional larger lubricated areas are developed around
the piston skirt and increased friction contribution is
observed.

0
0

200

400
crank angle [deg]

600

800

Fig. 13. Power losses of the piston pin bearing for several engine
operating points (a) at constant speed and (b) at variable speed propeller
curve.

Table 2
Frictional losses for constant speed engine operation
Friction contributions (constant speed operation)
Load
25%
50%

75%

1st compression ring (W)

2nd compression ring (W)
Oil control ring (W)
Piston skirt (W)
Piston pin (W)
FMEP (bar)

1070.4
462.22
373.95
2428.1
17.4
0.901

462.96
313.43
259.29
2359.6
14.5
0.7066

720.19
386.42
318.2
2392.2
15.9
0.794

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G.A. Livanos, N.P. Kyrtatos / Tribology International 40 (2007) 14411453

Table 3
Frictional Losses for variable speed engine operation

1.6

86%

1st compression ring (W)

2nd compression ring (W)
Oil control ring (W)
Piston skirt (W)
Piston pin (W)
FMEP (bar)

1155.1
463.54
366
2203.1
16.9
1.383

299.8
171.45
142
952.74
5.9
0.343

580.35
285.24
232
1518.8
10.3
0.686

1.2

F.M.E.P. [bar]

Friction contributions (propeller curve operation)

Load
26%
51%

Table 4
Fuel power distribution per cylinder for constant speed operation

0.8

proposed model

0.4

Rezeka
Patton

Load

25%

50%

75%

Piston assembly power loss (kW)

Brake power per cylinder (kW)
Fuel power (kW)
Piston assembly power loss: % of fuel power
Piston assembly power loss: % of brake power

3.41
25
68.2
5
13.6

3.83
50
117.4
3.3
7.7

4.35
75
167.2
2.6
5.8

0
20

30

40

50
LOAD [%]

60

70

80

1.6

5. Conclusions
A general-purpose engine piston assembly friction model
is proposed in this study. The model is capable of
predicting the frictional losses of each piston assembly
component (piston rings, piston skirts and gudgeon pin)
independently.
The model was used with geometrical data from a fourstroke medium-speed marine diesel engine installed in the
NTUA Laboratory of Marine Engineering test-bed. The
effect of engine speed and engine load on predicted piston
assembly friction losses was examined and compared with
results obtained from other semi-empirical FMEP models.
It was found that the new model follows the trends of the
existing models, having at the same time the advantage of

1.2

F.M.E.P. [bar]

The fuel power distribution for several operating points

at constant speed is presented in Table 4. As can be seen,
the total piston assembly power loss accounts for 2.65%
of fuel power and 5.813.6% of brake power. Based on
these data, a 20% reduction in piston assembly losses
would lead to a 0.521% reduction in fuel consumption.
Even such reductions are considered signicant (from ship
operating viewpoint) in the case of large ship propulsion
plants of thousands kWs operating at full load, 300 days
per year.
A comparison of the predicted results with results
obtained from semi-empirical FMEP formulas (Rezeka
and Henein [33], Bishop [34], Patton et al. [35]) is presented
in Fig. 14. Although there are differences between the
several FMEP formulas and the predicted results, the
proposed model provides a satisfactory correlation to these
formulas since it predicts overall similar values and trends.

0.8

0.4

proposed model
Rezeka
Patton

0
20

40

60

80

100

Fig. 14. Piston assembly power losses in terms of friction mean effective
pressure (FMEP) for several engine operating points (a) at constant speed
and (b) at variable speed (propeller curve operation).

detailed simulation of lubrication conditions prevailing on

piston assembly.

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