Designing pistons with effective cooling is crucial for preventing failure and improving engine service life. A piston design that incorporates the heat-pipe cooling technology may result in a new method of improving the thermal-tribological performance of pistons. A simulated piston crown with an annular reciprocating heat pipe is developed to investigate the effect of heat-pipe cooling on the piston-crown temperature distribution. A series of simulation tests is undertaken with promising results. A three-dimensional FEM modeling is then used to analyze the thermal performance of this simulated annular heat-pipe cooled crown (AHPCC) as a result of the function of the annular reciprocating heat pipe. The heat-transfer coefficient in the reciprocal environment of the experimental apparatus and the effective thermal conductance of the heat pipe are determined by correlating the modeling with the experimental measurements. Both experimental and numerical results indicate that the heat-pipe cooling technology can provide and effective means for piston temperature control.
