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 Rishika Chatterjee
UG Student UG Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
SASTRA University, Thanjavur, India 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 wasnt 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 earths 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(0.1-
0.45%) 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%
Poissons 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

Table 3
Comparison of Thermal properties
Temperature (.c)
Material Total Heat flux(w/m2)
Maximum Minimum
Aluminium 450 322.71 1.1688*106
Al 6081-T6 450 233.8 0.5735*106
Table 4
Comparison of Structural properties
Material Total deformation(m) Equivalent stress(Pa)
Aluminium 0.014067 8.4564*109
Al 6081-T6 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
[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com
[2] https://www.matweb.com
[3] http://www.makeitfrom.com
[4] Piston and engine testing by Mahle Gambh
[5] 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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