Proceedings of the ASME 2014 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference
DSCC2014
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION OF A
BENT-BAR-FRAME PISTON BASED ON THE VARIABLE DENSITY APPROACH
1*
JIE ZHAO , FARONG DU , WEI YAO
1
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
2
Beihang University, Beijing, China
Abstract
The iterative algorithm of design variables for
structural topology optimization is derived by using
variable density approach and Finite Element Method.
A coupled model of bent-bar-frame piston is built
considering the contact between piston and cylinder,
piston and piston pin, piston pin and connecting rod.
Based on this model, the deformation and stress of
piston are analyzed under each of mechanical or
thermal loading. Taking structural weight as the
objective function of optimization, three desired
regions of piston are optimized by using variable
density approach in commercial FEA software
HYPERMESH and ANSYS. Finally, the deformation
and temperature of the optimized model are compared
with prototype by using the same loading and boundary
conditions. The results show that the weight of piston is
reduced by 12.5% while meeting the required
specifications.
Keywords: Piston; Topology Optimization; Thermal
Analysis; Stress Analysis
INTRODUCTION
Topology optimization method [1-2] has been
widely used in the structural design. This method can
provide a conceptual design for the designers at the
initial stage of engineering structural design. Then the
structure is optimized according to the requirements
and design experiences. Finally, the strength of the
structure is tested to see if it meets the specification.
Based on a new type of piston, bent-bar-frame piston,
the deformation and stress of piston is analyzed using
finite element method. This method has been
successfully applied to the vibration analysis of
turbo engine [3] and truck frame [4]. This paper
employs the variable density approach to optimize the
*Currently an engineer at Schlumberger
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October 22-24, 2014, San Antonio, TX, USA
DSCC2014-6118
2 1
piston and compares the results before and after
optimization.
The ultimate goal of topology optimization is to
reduce the piston weight on the premise of meeting the
specification. Due to the complex shape of piston, it is
difficult to achieve effective topologically optimized
model for the entire piston, so the author designates the
desired regions to be optimized according to the results
of structural analysis. The model for each region is
extracted and used for optimization. The objective
function and boundary conditions are applied by
reference to the analysis data in Part I.
VARIABLE DENSITY APPROACH
Variable density approach is one of topological
optimization methods. Its basic idea is to assume that
the density of materials is variable. The density is
treated as a design variable and therefore the
optimization problem changes to the optimal way of
material replacement. This method has been used in
many applications such as planar and spatial structure
optimization, collision, vehicle chassis design, etc [5,
6].
Assume the nonlinear relationship between
density and property of materials as:
 E = ρ E0 (α > 1)
α
(1)

ν = ν 0
where the lower index 0 represents the property of
materials being used, E is the elastic modulus and ν is
the Possion ratio. The strain energy can be expressed
as:
1 (2)
U = {δ }T [ K ]{δ }
2
while satisfying the below conditions:
  n m by achieving the minimum weight of constraint
Weight = ∑vi ρi − ∑vjε ≤ M0 − Mε (ε ≤ ρi ≤ 1) (3) function:
 i=1 j =1
[K]{δ} = [P] n m

∑v ρ − ∑v ε = M
i i j 0 − Mε (14)
where ρi is density of ith element; vi is volume of ith i =1 j =1

element; ε is the minimum density; M 0 is the initial PROTOTYPE FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS
mass of materials; M ε is the removed mass; {δ } is The three dimensional solid model of piston is
global displacement matrix; [ K ] is global stiffness built using IDEAS and the dimensions are given in
matrix and [ P] is force matrix. Table 1.
Table 1 Piston dimensions
The Laplace function is formed according to the Parameter Dimension (mm)
equation (2) and (3):
1 Piston diameter 65
Φ = {δ }T [ K ]{δ }
2 (4) Piston height 45.2
n m
+ λ (∑ vi ρi − ∑ v jε − M 0 + M ε ) Piston crown land height 7.2
i =1 j =1

By taking the first derivative equal to zero, Piston skirt height 30

∂Φ (5) Gas ring height 0.75
=0
∂ρi
Oil ring height 1.5
We got,
∂{δ}T ∂[K] First ring land 3
[K]{δ}+{δ}T {δ}
∂ρi ∂ρi (6) Second ring land 2
∂{δ} Distance from convex point 33.5
+{δ}T [K] + λvi = 0
∂ρi to piston crown
It is known from the structural equilibrium that, Distance from pin boss center
23
∂[ K ] ∂{δ } (7) to piston crown
{δ } + [ K ] =0 Pin hole 17
∂ρi ∂ρi
The global strain energy can be written as the
summation of element’s strain energy: Figure 1 shows the finite element model of piston,
n which contains 9248 hexahedron, 519 pentahedron and
{δ }T [ K ]{δ } = ∑ {δ i }T [ ki ]{δ i } (8) 3733 tetrahedron elements.
i =1
From equation (6), (7) and (8), we got
∂[ki ] (9)
{δ i }T {δ i } = λ vi
∂ρi
The local stiffness matrix can be written as
[ki ] = ∫ [ Bi ]T [ Di ][ Bi ]dv
v

= Ei ∫ [ Bi ]T [ Di' ][ Bi ]dv (10)

v Bent
bar
= ρi E0 ∫ [ Bi ] [ D ][Bi ]dv artial
α T
i
'

v Figure 1 Piston finite element model

By substituting the equation (10) into equation (9) and The boundary condition of piston is force based
multiplying ρiβ on both sides, boundary condition. However, proper displacement
constraints must be given in order to prevent the
α {δ i }T [ ki ]{δ i }ρiβ −1 = λ vi ρiβ (11) model from rigid movement. Conventionally, the
β −1
By assuming ϕi = {δ i } [ki ]{δ i }ρi , equation (11) can be
T
constraints are applied to the points or surfaces of the
expressed as: piston to eliminate the rigid movement. As a matter of
αϕi = λ vi ρ iβ (12) fact, this kind of boundary condition neglects the
compatibility of deformation and the complexity of
The iterative formula for density can be obtained as:
contact force and consequently results in big errors.
  m
 (S) 1

  M 0 − M ε + ∑ v j ε  ϕi ( ) β To resolve this problem, this paper adopts the coupled

model (Figure 2) with three contact pairs: piston –
 ρ ( S +1) =  j =1  (ε ≤ ρi ≤ 1) (13)
 i  1
 cylinder, piston – piston pin and piston pin –
 ϕj  
β
 1 n

 ( vi ) ∑  v j   
β connecting rod. The accuracy of model is improved
 j =1   vj   by changing the complicated boundary conditions on
  contact surface to simpler ones. Considering the
 ( S +1)
 ρi = ε (0 ≤ ρi ≤ ε ) piston is the main focus in the analysis, a simplified

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 connecting rod is introduced into the system. In in Table 4.Table 5 gives the thermal conductivity of
addition, hexahedron elements are used for cylinder, aluminum, where W/(m2K) is Heat transfer coefficient,
piston pin and connecting rod because of their regular T|Γ is medium temperature and W/(mK) is Conductivity
and simple geology. coefficient.
Table 3. Force boundary condition
Region （ ）
pressure MPa
Piston crown PMAX
Top land PMAX
First ring 0.9PMAX
First ring land 0.2PMAX
Second ring 0.2PMAX
Table 4. Heat transfer coefficient & medium temperature
location W /( m 2 K ) T|Γ °C
Piston crown 400 950
Top land 220 100
1st ring top 600 100
st
1 ring groove 140 100
1st ring bottom 1400 100
Figure 2 Coupled model 1st ring land 350 90
2nd ring top 700 90
Contact pair setup 2nd ring groove 180 90
In this part, the contact guidance of Hypermesh is 2nd ring bottom 1100 90
2nd ring land 240 85
used to add the contact pairs. All of the contact is
3rd ring top 800 83
considered as surface–surface contact for simplification rd
3 ring groove 800 83
[3-6]. Target surface and contact surface are selected 3rd ring bottom 800 83
according to the force-applying and load-carrying Piston skirt 350 80
objects (Shown in Table 2). The contact surface adopts Chamber top 350 100
CONTA 173 element which is an 8-node quadratic Chamber central part 280 100
element including intermediate nodes and the target Chamber bottom 220 100
surface chooses TARGE 170 element which is a 3-node Pin hole inner side 150 100
triangular element without intermediate nodes. The Elliptical hole inner side 220 100
cylinder is considered as a rigid body and other Bent bar 220 100
components are treated as flexible bodies, since Table 5. Aluminum thermal conductivity coefficients
cylinder is much stiffer than other components of the Temp Conductivity coefficient
system. The constraints are applied to the end surface °C W /(mK )
of connecting rod to restrict the displacement in Y 20 117.2
direction. The symmetric boundary conditions are 50 119.2
applied to all the symmetric planes. 100 122.2
Table 2 Contact pair 150 125
Contact pair name contact target 200 127.5
surface Surface 250 130.1
piston – cylinder piston Cylinder 300 132.6
piston – piston pin piston Piston pin 350 134.5
piston pin – connecting Piston connecting 400 135.8
rod pin rod 450 136.7
The coulomb friction model is employed here and As the medium temperature T|Γ and heat transfer
the friction coefficient is defined as 0.1 because of the coefficient β are known, the temperature field of piston
oil lubrication between contact surfaces. is solved by third category of boundary condition
which can be expressed as:
Boundary Conditions ∂T
−k = β (T − T )
(15)
The piston endures gas pressure and temperature f
∂n Γ
Γ
simultaneously. So it is necessary to analyze the
combined deformation and stress of piston under both where β and T|Γ can be constants or time/location
mechanical and thermal loading. For the real situation, dependent function. If β and T|Γ are not constant, they
deformation and heat transfer affect each other. The can be approximated as constants by taking the mean
temperature change will induce the deformation and the values in each segment.
deformation has an influence on the internal heat
transfer through piston. Due to the symmetry of piston FEA Results
structure and applying load, 1/4 of model is used for Figure 3 shows the combined deformation and
Von-Mises stress of coupled model under both
analysis. The maximum gas pressure PMAX is 6.08MPa
mechanical and thermal loading. Figure 4 shows
and the pressure for different piston regions is given
combined Von-Mises stress of coupled model under
in Table 3. The coefficients and temperatures are given

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 both mechanical and thermal loading. piston. Face 2 is the interface between region 1 and
piston skirt. Face 3 is the interface between region 1
and bent bar.

Extend to
piston top
Face 1

Extend to
piston skirt
Face 2 Extend to
Region 1
pin boss

Face 3

Figure 3 Piston deformation (mm)
According to the results, the maximum
deformation happened at the piston crown and
maximum stress value is 229.3 MPa. The stress is
below 120MPa for most part of piston skirt and pin
boss. Bent bar connecting piston skirt and pin boss has
stress from 150 to 180 MPa. The thermal stress is the
main factor for piston crown because the piston crown
is deformed mainly by high temperature. However, the
mechanical stress takes a larger part for bent bar and
pin boss.
Extend to
bent bar
Figure 5 Desired optimization: Region 1
However, the boundary conditions are hard to be
applied on these faces even though the values can be
read from the analysis results. An easier way to do this
is to extend the design space to the boundary of piston
as shown in Figure 5. In this way, the load and
boundary conditions are known and therefore very easy
to be applied on the space.
Figure 5 shows the extended design space for
region 1. The orange area is upper part of piston and
piston pin boss. The green area is the piston skirt and
the blue area is bent bar. The advantage of this
extension is that we can apply the gas pressure on the
top directly and add the boundary conditions on the
symmetric planes. The finite element model for this
region is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 4 Piston stress (Mpa)

TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION
The objective of optimization is to minimize the
Figure 6 Finite element model & constrained
weight of piston while meeting a given set of
position
performance targets. In this section, three regions are The maximum gas pressure 6.08MPa is applied
optimized based on the FEA results of prototype. on the piston crown. The nodes in X-Y plane are
constrained in Z direction and the upper part of pin hole
Region 1: Piston Skirt is assumed to be fixed.
Considering the thermal stress only takes a very Table 6 Constraint limit
small part of the total stress around the pin boss, the name Node ID Displacement limit (mm)
thermal loading is neglected during the optimization. k1 31777 -0.02267
Due to the complicated profile of piston, it is difficult k2 31780 -0.01725
to find an optimal solution if we treat the whole piston k3 31786 -0.01253
as the object to be optimized. Therefore, the region that k4 31796 -0.00989
connects pin boss and piston skirt is extracted as the k5 31805 -0.00902
given design space for topology optimization as shown k6 31747 -0.00976
in Figure 5. Besides the given design space, a given set k7 14152 -0.02317
of loads and boundary conditions should be applied k8 14155 -0.01763
such that the resulting layout meets a prescribed set of k9 14161 -0.01305
performance targets. The loading should be applied on k10 14170 -0.01007
face 1 and the boundary conditions should be applied to k11 14185 -0.00937
face 2 and 3. Face 1 connects the part to upper part of k12 14196 -0.00983

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 Here, the performance target is defined as the
displacements of 12 nodes on the top edge of bent bar.
The displacements of 12 nodes are expected not to
exceed the corresponding values in Part I (Table 6).
Figure 8 shows 6 nodes k1~k6 on the top edge of bent
bar. The other 6 nodes k7~k12 are located in the
corresponding positions in the opposite face as k1~k6. Figure 9 Optimization model for region 2
Here, the performance target is defined as the
displacements of 12 nodes on the bottom edge of
cuboid. The responses of 6 nodes on the bottom edge of
cuboid shown in Figure 9 (Table 7) are used as the
constrained limit for the optimization. The other 6
nodes h7~h12 are located in the symmetric positions of
h1~h6 with respect to X-Y plane.
Table 7 Constraint limit for region 2
name Node ID Displacement limit (mm)
Figure 7 Topological density plot h1 22129 -0.01355
Figure 7 shows the topological density plot of
h2 33067 -0.01256
region 1 and the topology structure when the density is
h3 33072 -0.01593
larger than 0.03. The blue color represents the lower
h4 31796 -0.01627
density and the red color denotes the higher density. In
h5 31770 -0.0017
another words, materials in the blue or near blue
elements can be considered removal. However, the h6 31735 -0.0006
parts in red circle are piston skirt and connection part
between pin boss and piston crown, which are essential Figure 10 shows the topology structure when the
parts of a piston. The materials in these parts should not density is larger than 0.02. Because the design space is
be removed even though the result shows the lower a 3d continuum model, the optimization is hard to get a
density. Therefore, we only focus on the connection very clear structure. However, some information can
part between elliptical hole and pin boss. In addition, still be read from Figure 10. There are two obvious ribs
we could see from figure 7 that a part of materials connecting the top and pin boss along the 45 degree
between the elliptical hole and pin boss can be removed directions w.r.t. Y axis. This indicates that the forces are
to reduce the piston weight. In fact, it needs more primarily transferred downwards by these two ribs.
considerations when the concept turns into the practical
products though the topology optimization can give the
designer a basic idea.

Region 2: Chamber
From the structural analysis results, it is known
that the stress is relatively low in the piston chamber
(region 2) as shown in Figure 8. Figure 10 Topology structure for piston chamber

Region 3: Piston Head

From the structural analysis results, it is known
that the stress is relatively low at the piston crown
(region 3) as shown in Figure 11.

Region 2

Region 3

Figure 8 Von-Mises mechanical stress of piston (MPa):

By taking the similar method as for region 1, the
desired space is extended to the piston crown and
assumed to be a regular cuboid as shown in Figure 9.
The maximum gas pressure 6.08MPa is applied on the
top. The nodes around the pin boss are restricted from Figure 11 Von-Mises mechanical stress of piston (MPa)
movement along X, Y and Z directions. Similarly, the Different from region 1 and 2, piston crown is
performance target needs to be given before the largely affected by thermal loading. So, the thermal
optimization.

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 stress and deformation need to be taken into piston chamber.
consideration during the optimization. A circular plate (3) Region 3:
with thickness 3.4mm is used as the piston crown The height is gradually diminished from the
model for optimization as shown in Figure 12. central area to edge area.
Maximum gas pressure and the thermal loading in table
3 and 4 are applied.

Figure 12 Optimization model for region 3

Two kinds of node response are defined as the
performance target for piston crown. One kind is the Figure 14 Von-Mises mechanical stress(MPa)
displacement in radial direction which is induced by The structural analysis is carried out again using
thermal loading. The yellow nodes in Figure 12 are the same loading and boundary conditions for Part I.
defined to have radial displacement up to 0.160 mm. Figure 14, 15 and 16 shows the stress of piston under
This value is obtained through the thermal analysis of mechanical loading, temperature gradient and heat flux
piston prototype. The nodes in other ¾ model are density plot, respectively. It can be seen from figure 14
restricted in a symmetric way. The white node does not that the stress is concentrated in the ribs and the
have radial displacement because it is the center point. maximum stress is 163.04MPa. The maximum gradient
The other kind is the displacement in Y direction. The and heat flux density is 9.801 and 1.266, respectively.
maximum limit of yellow nodes should be the
summation of vertical displacements under mechanical
and thermal loading, which is 0.185 mm and the
maximum response is 0.321mm for the white node.
Figure 13 shows the topological density plot of region
3. It is shown that the central area of piston crown
should have denser materials.
Table 8 Heat transfer coefficient and medium temperature
location Heat transfer coefficient Medium temp
W /(m2 K ) °C
Piston crown 400 950
Top land 220 100

Figure 15 Temperature gradient

Figure 13 Topological density plot: region 3

OPTIMIZED MODEL FEA

According to the topology optimization results, the
followed modifications are made to the prototype:
(1) Region 1:
Weight-reduced holes with 3.5 mm diameter are
drilled or the elliptical hole can be enlarged to certain
extent.
(2) Region 2:
The simplified ribs are formed between piston
crown and pin boss by removing some materials in
Figure 16 Heat flux density
CONCLUSION
This paper employs variable density approach in
HYPERMESH to optimize the piston based on the
structural analysis results of prototype and the
optimized model is analyzed using the same loading

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 and boundary conditions for prototype.
(1) Two 3.5mm holes are drilled to reduce the weight
of connection part between pin boss and piston
skirt. The extra materials are removed to form the
ribs which connect the piston crown and pin boss.
The height of piston crown land is reduced from
7.2 mm to 4.5mm.
(2) The maximum stress caused by mechanical
loading is reduced from 197.637 MPa to 163.04
MPa. In comparison with 11.315 and 1.469, the
maximum temperature gradient and heat flux
density is lowered to 9.801 and 1.266, respectively,
which means the improvement of heat transfer. The
piston mass is lightened from 413.04g to 361.43g.
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