Internal combustion engines are at present used as the major power sources for transportation and power generator. Improvement of the internal combustion engine efficiency is expected due to strict environmental standards and energy costs. Any reduction in oil consumption, friction power losses and emissions results in improving engines’ performance and durability. Automotive industries have intense passion to increase engines’ efficiency to meet the fuel economy and emission standards. Many studies have been conducted to develop reliable approaches and models to understand the lubrication mechanisms and calculate power losses. This review paper summarizes the synthesis of the main technical aspects considered during modeling of piston ring–liner lubrication and friction losses investigations. The literature review highlights the effects of piston ring dynamics, components geometry, lubricant rheology, surface topography and adopted approaches, on frictional losses contributed by the piston ring-pack.

Mechanical power loss of lubricated and bearing surfaces serves as an attractive domain for study and research in the field of internal combustion engines. Friction reduction at lubricated and bearing surface is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce gas emission and improve internal combustion engines’ efficiency. This thus motivates automotive industries and researchers to investigate tribological performance of internal combustion engines. Piston secondary motion has prime importance in internal combustion engines and occurs due to unbalanced forces and moments in a plane normal to the wrist pin axis. Consequently, piston executes small translations and rotations within the defined clearance during the piston reciprocating motion. Mechanical friction power loss and lubrication at piston skirt/liner and radiated engine noise are dramatically affected by piston secondary dynamics. The lubrication mechanism, piston secondary motion and tribological performance are affected by piston design parameters (piston/liner clearance, wrist pin offset, skirt profile, etc.), lubricant rheology, oil transport mechanism and operating conditions. Therefore, this review is devoted to summarize the synthesis of main technical aspects, research efforts, conclusions and challenges that must be highlighted regarding piston skirt/liner lubrication and piston dynamics and slap.

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This article presents a detailed analytical model to evaluate piston skirt tribology under hydrodynamic lubrication. The contribution of the piston ring pack lubrication has been taken into account to study piston secondary motion and tribological performance. A system of nonlinear equations comprising Reynolds equation and force equilibrium is solved to calculate piston ring pack friction force and its moment about wrist pin axis. Instantaneous minimum oil film thickness at piston ring/liner interface has been estimated considering different boundary conditions: full Sommerfeld, oil separation, and Reynolds cavitation and reformation. The ring pack model has capability to be used for a wide range of ring face profiles under boundary and hydrodynamic lubrication. Piston secondary motion is evaluated using lubrication theory and equilibrium of forces and moments, to examine the effect of wrist pin location, piston skirt/liner clearance, and oil rheology. Numerical method and finite difference scheme have been used to define piston eccentricity and hydrodynamic pressure acting over the skirt.