Analysis of Thermal-Mechanical Coupling Strength and Fatigue Life of Piston of Low Speed Diesel Engine

In order to analyze the phenomenon of bolt preload when piston of low speed diesel engine is assembled and maximum explosion pressure and temperature during piston working impact on piston’s strength and fatigue life, Coupled analysis of mechanical stress and thermal stress on the piston of 5S60 low-speed diesel engine have been done, and the fatigue life of the piston on the alternating load condition was calculated. Firstly, the FEM-model which consists of 10-node tetrahedral meshes was built for the piston by using Hypermesh software with arranging different density of element quality which was guaranteed with the mesh parameters. Secondly, after setting the boundary conditions, the thermal stress, the mechanical stress and the coupling stress of the piston were calculated by using Abaqus software. Finally, the fatigue life of the piston on the alternating load condition was calculated by using nSoft software. The results indicate that the fatigue damage is easily occurred on the side of the surrounding area of the threaded holes, and that position should be made an especially consideration for design.