Analysis of the Heat Transfer Coefficients on the Top of a Marine Diesel Piston Using the Inverse Heat Conduction Method

An efficient method utilizing the concept of inverse heat conduction is presented for the thermal analysis of pistons based on application to the piston head of a marine diesel engine. An inverse heat conduction problem is established in the form of an optimization problem. In the optimization problem, the convection heat transfer coefficient (HTC) on the top side of the piston is defined as the design variable, while the error between the measured and analysed temperatures is defined as objective function. For the optimization, an axi-symmetrical finite element conduction model is presented. The optimum distribution of the HTC at the top side of piston is successfully determined through a numerical implementation. The temperature obtained via an analysis using the optimum HTC is compared with the measured temperature, and reasonable agreement is obtained. The present method can be effectively utilized to analyze the temperature distribution of engine pistons.