Wear measurement of the cylinder liner of a single cylinder diesel engine using a replication method

Published data on piston ring and cylinder bore wear in engines is very limited because of the technical difficulties involved in performing the measurements. Moreover, cylinder bore wear is more difficult to measure than ring wear because it occurs over a much larger surface area, and the wear rates vary widely at different locations on the bore. In this paper, cylinder liner surface roughness and wear measurements were performed through an experimental study of a single cylinder diesel engine operating at a steady-state. A replication method was used to evaluate wear and surface roughness on a cylinder liner, where measurements were made at different locations on the cylinder liner before and after each test. Replicated surface profiles were measured by a WYKO NT 1100 optical surface profilometer. It was found that surface roughness decreased with time and the rate of decrease was higher during the run-in period. A unique wear volume calculation method that includes bearing ratio parameters was proposed, and reasonable results for wear volume were obtained. Cylinder bore wear rates measured by this replication method were consistent with long-term wear observed in different tests of diesel engines. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.