Engine related fluid dynamics question
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True Car Nut
Joined: Jun 2004
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From: Rochester, NY (college)

So I have this question for fluids. In each problem set our teacher makes up a problem without much thought and very little supplied information.
Here is this weeks:
I figured I would toss it out here for people to discuss/ponder/ignore
Here is this weeks:
In an internal combustion engine (let’* say a Ford Taurus that always uses SAE 10-30W oil for
this example), what are the types of forces acting on the piston during the power stroke (the
volume in the cylinder is expanding and combustion has occured) when the piston has moved
half its total travel away from top dead center position? At this location, give a quantitative
estimate of the force due to viscosity between the piston and the cylinder. What percentage
of the total force acting on the piston is this? What is your impression of the size of this
number? What would the effect of using a different motor oil be?
this example), what are the types of forces acting on the piston during the power stroke (the
volume in the cylinder is expanding and combustion has occured) when the piston has moved
half its total travel away from top dead center position? At this location, give a quantitative
estimate of the force due to viscosity between the piston and the cylinder. What percentage
of the total force acting on the piston is this? What is your impression of the size of this
number? What would the effect of using a different motor oil be?
what are the types of forces acting on the piston during the power stroke (the
volume in the cylinder is expanding and combustion has occured) when the piston has moved
half its total travel away from top dead center position?
volume in the cylinder is expanding and combustion has occured) when the piston has moved
half its total travel away from top dead center position?
A small portion of the force will be the piston moving through the oily crank case air. The crank case is slightly pressurized too due to blow-by. Although alot of the pressure is bled off through PCV..
Thats all I have for now.
If the RPM is staying constant, you know the piston is at a point of 0 acceleration. So the force of combustion equals the reaction forces of the piston rod, cylinder wall, and oil/ring interaction. What percent of the reaction forces is what? I don't know. I never had to get into viscous fluid films quantitative effect on friction.
Quick diagram to consider:
Quick diagram to consider:
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