Modeling of Mixed Lubrication Conditions in a Heavy Duty Piston Pin Joint

A piston pin joint in a modern diesel engine operates under extreme loading and lubrication conditions. High load in combination with low relative surface velocities and limited lubrication makes this joint prone to localized wear and sudden failure. The analysis of this joint is also complicated with the pin motion, which defines surface velocities in the pin bore to pin and the pin to connecting rod interfaces. Therefore, the entire joint needs to be analyzed as a system of two bearings. Also, the hydrodynamic pressure in this joint at times may not be sufficient to balance the force applied to the joint and has to be complemented by the asperity contact pressure. The latter causes an additional deformation of the bearing. To address this problem a mixed lubrication model has been developed based on spectral EHD and nonlinear Greenwood and Trip statistical asperity contact formulation. Contact pressure distributions calculated with this model showed a pattern similar to the wear pattern in the bushing after production test. Analysis of the heat generated in the bearing was found to be a good indicator for the severity of the regime. Analysis of the bushing and piston bore with different geometry showed that asperity contact pressure and heat generated in the joint can be significantly reduced by modifications in local shape of the contacting surfaces.