IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology| Volume 3 | Issue 11 | April 2017
ISSN (online): 2349-6010
Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium
6081-T6 Alloy
Smedha Mohanlal
UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India
Rishika Chatterjee
UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India
Abstract
Piston is the integral part of the engine where combustion occurs and maximum heat is produced. Hence it is necessary to choose
an appropriate material to serve this purpose. The material chosen should withstand the heat and the shear stress that is produced
during the process. Aluminium is chosen as the material to serve this purpose as it can withstand the above said properties.
Number of alloys of aluminium has been discovered that serves the need. In this paper, comparative study of the structural and
thermal behaviour of the piston that is designed with Al-6081 t6 alloy. The results are convincing to choose Al-6081 as the
piston materials than other conventional alloys of aluminium. To serve this purpose the piston was modelled in Solidworks 14
and analysed in Ansys 15.
Keywords: Al 6082-T6, Aluminium, Piston, Structural Analysis, Thermal Analysis
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.
INTRODUCTION
Piston serves as a reciprocating component in engines, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders. It is an important component in
IC engine as the reciprocating motion of the piston is transferred to the crankshaft to serve its purpose. The performance of an
engine can be improved by the effective design of the piston. For this the material should posses light weight, high thermal
conductivity, high strength and module. Aluminium alloys satisfies all the above said qualities.
Among aluminium alloys there are number of variants with optimum properties. Among them Al-6081 serves the best with
optimum property values. Among them
 High tensile strength
 Good thermal conductivity
 High strength
II. ANALYTICAL METHOD
Body design
Fig. 1: Engineering drawing of a piston
The structural analysis of the piston was made using solidworks 14. It helps in designing the body of the piston. solidworks
software by Dassault systems SOLIDWORKS corp, helps in providing 3D structure of the piston body. It provides a friendly
environment where the design can be made and it can be viewed in 2D and 3D structures
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Since we already had a hands on in Pro-E, working in Solidworks wasn’t a big deal. Just like the way in Pro-E we created our
piston model in Solidworks using simple commands and completed the model. After the completion of 3D model it allows to
print out in two ways. They are:
 2D engineering drawing (Fig 1)
 3D model (Fig 2) and orthographic view (Fig 3)
Fig. 2: 3D end model using Solidworks
Fig. 3: Orthographic view of modelled piston
Engineering Data


Aluminium
Al 6081-T6
Aluminium
It is a white silvery metal that belongs to the boron group with atomic number 13. It is soft, non-magnetic and ductile metal. It is
the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust. It is third most abundant element after oxygen and silicon. It has wide range of
applications because of its properties. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite.
Table – 1
Aluminium properties
Density
2.7e-003 kg m-3
Thermal Conductivity- 0.237 KW m-1 C-1
Young's Modulus
70000 MPa
Poisson's Ratio
0.35
Bulk Modulus
77778 MPa
Shear Modulus
25926 MPa
Al 6082-T6
Al 6081- t6, they are further classified under AA 6000 series (aluminium-magnesium-silicon wrought alloy). They are prepared
by casting and forging. Their composition consists of Al (96.3-98.6%), silicon(0.7-1.1%),magnesium(0.6-1%),manganese(0.10.45%) along with traces of iron,copper and titanium. They have undergone multistage heat treatment process for hardening and
to attain fracture toughness..
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Table – 2
Properties of amc225xe
Elastic Modulus
71 GPa
Ultimate Tensile Strength
320 MPa
Yield strength
280 MPa
Strain to Fail
9.2%
Poisson’s Ratio
0.33
Density
2.70 g/cm3
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Fig. 5: Piston imported to ANSYS 15 from solid works 14
Fig. 6: Piston is auto meshed in ANSYS 15
ANSYS is an analysis software belonging to the category of finite element analysis(FEA). Hence the model is divided into
number of finite elements, this is called as meshing.
Thermal Analysis
Thermal analysis is a group of techniques in which the variation of a physical property of a substance is measured as a function
of temperature. The most commonly used techniques are those which measure changes of mass or changes in energy of a sample
of a substance
Fig. 7: Initial assumptions for thermal analysis
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Fig. 8: Steady state thermal analysis for Al 6081-T6
Fig. 9: Steady state thermal analysis for Aluminium
Fig. 10: Total heat flux in Al 6081-T6
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Fig. 11: Total heat flux in Aluminium
Static Structural Analysis
A static structural analysis determines the displacements, stresses, strains, and forces in structures or components caused by loads
that do not induce significant inertia and damping effects. Steady loading and response conditions are assumed; that is, the loads
and the structure's response are assumed to vary slowly with respect to time. A static structural load can be performed using the
ANSYS. The types of loading that can be applied in a static analysis include:
 Externally applied forces and pressures
 Steady-state inertial forces (such as gravity or rotational velocity)
 Imposed (nonzero) displacements
 Temperatures (for thermal strain)
Fig 12: Initial assumptions for structural analysis
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Fig. 13: Total deformation of Al 6081-T6
Fig 14: Total deformation of Aluminium
Fig. 15: Equivalent stress of Al 6081-T6
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Fig. 16: Equivalent stress of Aluminium
Fig. 17: Normal stress of Al 6081-T6
Fig. 18: Normal stress of Aluminium
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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Fig. 19: Shear stress of Al 6081-T6
Fig. 20: Shear stress of Aluminium
IV. COMPARISON
Material
Aluminium
Al 6081-T6
Material
Aluminium
Al 6081-T6
Table – 3
Comparison of Thermal properties
Temperature (.c)
Total Heat flux(w/m2)
Maximum Minimum
450
322.71
1.1688*106
450
233.8
0.5735*106
Table – 4
Comparison of Structural properties
Total deformation(m) Equivalent stress(Pa)
0.014067
8.4564*109
0.0007288
2.2519*109
V. CONCLUSION
It is concluded that the piston designed and analysed with material Al-6081 showed very good results. It has good temperature
distribution and low thermal stress. Thus, aluminium proved to serve as an ideal material to meet the needs.
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Design and Analysis of Piston by Aluminium 6081-T6 Alloy
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank Mr Panner.R, SAP of School of Mechanical Engineering of SASTRA University.
REFERENCES
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[5]
http://www.sciencedirect.com
https://www.matweb.com
http://www.makeitfrom.com
Piston and engine testing by Mahle Gambh
Design and Analysis of Piston by amc225xe alloy- IJIRST –International Journal for Innovative Research in Science & Technology Volume 3- Issue 09-3
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