Comparative Analysis of Piston Rings Made with Aluminum Titanium Carbide (AlTiC-75-2) and Carbon Cast Steel (AISI 1540) Materials Using Numerical Method

Aim: The main purpose of this study is to perform a comparative analysis of piston rings made with aluminum titanium carbide (AlTiC-75-2) and carbon cast steel (AISI 1540) materials using numerical method.   Study Design: Numerical methods. Materials and Methods: The 3D piston rings were modelled with SOLIDWORDS version 2019 and imported to ANSYS 2020 RI environment for simulation and analysis. Results: The study revealed that AISI 1540 and AlTiC-75-2 had maximum deformations of 1.0356 mm and 1.0773 mm, respectively. Also, when the equivalent elastic strains of the piston rings were compared, it was revealed that, the maximum and minimum elastic strain of the AlTiC-75-2 piston was 4.8826e-3 and 2.2581e-5, respectively, whiles the maximum and minimum elastic strain of AISI 1540 was 2.1878e-5 and 2.1878e-5 respectively. Numerical results further showed that AISI 1540 piston suffered the least elastic strain while the AlTiC piston ring endured more elastic strain. Furthermore, results showed that the maximum Von Mises stresses induced in AlTiC-75-2 and AISI 1540 piston rings were 915.2 MPa and 911.27 MPa, respectively, which implies that stresses induced in both rings were beneath the compressive yield strengths of the individual materials, therefore both rings could withstand the load imposed. Conclusion: Result shows that the AISI 1540 ring has high minimum value than AlTiC which makes it more suitable material in terms of failure as against AlTiC-75-2 with a low minimum safety factor of 0.094187 as against 0.10182 for carbon cast steel. The study therefore recommends that AlTiC-75-2 should be considered as one of the most suitable materials for piston ring design.