Topology-Optimized Piston Head Design Using Metal Additive Manufacturing for Porsche’s 6-Stroke Engine
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.2877Keywords:
Porsche engine design, Piston Head Design, Porsche’s 6-Stroke EngineAbstract
Porsche’s innovative 6-stroke engine design introduces a second power stroke per cycle, generating significantly more heat than traditional 4-stroke engines. This necessitates advancement in piston thermal management solutions. This study investigates the application of metal additive manufacturing and topology optimization to develop lightweight, thermally efficient piston designs capable of withstanding the increased thermal loads. Using nTopology software, a control piston geometry was topologically optimized with a volume fraction constraint of 0.2, aiming for maximum stiffness while minimizing mass. Both the baseline and optimized designs were tested using finite element analysis in ANSYS, simulating peak combustion conditions with 20MPa pressure and a surface temperature of 1273.2K. The optimization achieved a 20.4% mass reduction (from 1.254kg to 0.999kg) and demonstrated significantly improved thermal performance, with the minimum temperature at the piston pin boss reduced by 109.4K. However, structural analysis revealed excess stress in the optimized design, with maximum von Mises stress reaching 1318.6MPa compared to 375.73MPa in the control design. These results demonstrate that while topology optimization has significant potential for addressing thermal challenges through weight reduction and improved heat dissipation, the optimization parameters require refinement.
References
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