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Piston: Parts, Types, Working, Piston clearance, shape

and more
What is a Piston?
The piston is the most essential part of a reciprocating engine. It helps to convert the chemical
energy obtained by the combustion of fuel into useful mechanical power.

The piston provides a means of conveying the expansion of the gases to the crankshaft, through
the connecting rod, without loss of gas from above or oil from below.

The piston is basically a cylindrical plug that moves up and down in the cylinder. It has a piston
ring to provide a good seal between the piston and cylinder wall. Although the piston seems to
be a simple part, it is actually quite complex from the design standpoint.

The efficiency and economy of the engine depending on the working of the piston. It must
operate in the cylinder with minimum friction and it should be able to withstand the high
explosive force generated in the cylinder and also the very high temperature ranging from
2,000°C to over 2,800°C during operation.

The piston should be as strong as possible, however, its weight should be minimised as far as
possible in order to reduce the inertia due to its reciprocating mass.

Read also: List of Car Engine Parts: Its Function (With Pictures)

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Types of Pistons
Following are the different types of pistons used in engine:

 "Lo-Ex" alloy Pistons

 Invar Strut Pistons
 Autothermic Pistons
 Bi-Metal pistons
 Specialloid Pistons
 Wellworthy Pistons

The Piston Performs The Following Functions

 Receive the thrust produced by the combustion of the gas in the cylinder and transmit it
to the connecting rod.
 Piston reciprocates in the cylinder as a gas-tight plug generating suction, compression,
expansion, and exhaust strokes.
 Piston forms a guide and bearing to the small end of the connecting rod and to take the
side thrust due to the obliquity of the rod.

The top portion of the piston is called the head. Ring grooves are cut on the circumference of
the piston upper portion of the piston. The parts below the ring grooves are called a skirt. The
portions of the piston that separate the grooves are called the lands.

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Some pistons have a groove in the top land called a heat dam which reduces heat transfer to
the rings. The piston bosses are those reinforced parts of the piston designed to hold the piston
pin or wrist pin.

High-Performance Pistons

Aluminum pistons can be either cast or forged. The forged piston is denser and forms a better
heat path to allow the heat to get away from the piston head. It has a grain flow also that
improves its wearing ability. The forged aluminum piston is also lighter in comparison with the
cast iron piston. Thus it produces lower inertia forces as it accelerates and decelerates in the
cylinder.

Considering all these factors together, it can be seen that the forged piston is the preferred
piston for high-performance engines. For additional strength, some high-performance pistons
also have special skirt configurations. The oval skirt and undulated skirt are designed to provide
high strength.

They are used in high-performance automobiles. These are strong enough to be used in
competition engines. The piston without board piston-pin bosses is designed for maximum
strength and is useful in competition engines.

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How Each Type of Piston Works?

"Lo-Ex" alloy Pistons

Lo-Ex is the name of a light alloy for piston, signifying low expansion with temperature. It
contains the following:

 Silicon 11 to 13%
 Nickel 0.7 to 2.5%
 Magnesium 1%
 Copper 1%
 Aluminium 86.3 to 82.5%

The coefficient of expansion is actually only about 2% less than that of pure aluminium, but this
improvement, combined with good war and heat resisting qualities makes the alloy a variable
one.

Invar Strut Pistons

In this types of pistons, Invar is an alloy containing 36% nickel and 64% iron. It has a negligible
coefficient of expansion, 000000063 per °C). Invar struts have been put in the piston connecting
the piston pin bosses and the skirt and so proportioned that the resultant expansion of the
piston is nearly the same as that of the cylinder.

Autothermic Pistons

This types of pistons contain low expansion steel inserts at the piston pin bosses. These inserts
are so moulded that their ends are anchored in the piston skirt, as shown in the figure.

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In this case, a bi-metallic distortion due to the different coefficients of expansion of the insert
and the parent metal transfers some of the generous initial clearance provided on the gudgeon
pin axis to the thrust axis as the piston warms up.

This action enables small clearances to be maintained on the thrust axis in both the cold and
hot conditions, giving quieter running.

Bi-Metal pistons

This types of pistons are made from both steel and aluminium. An interesting example of the
bi-metal construction is the Flower design, as shown in the figure. It consists of a steel skirt and
pin basses.

As the coefficient of thermal expansion for steel is quite small, aluminium alloy is cast inside
which forms piston head and piston small, the piston will not expand much and hence smaller
cold clearances can be maintained.

It will be seen that the steel skirt while functionally a part of the piston. will have to a
considerable being very small and so permitting small clearances to be used.

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Specialloid Pistons

Specialloid production covers a wide range of pistons for zero, automobile petrol engines, and
diesel engines as used for commercial vehicles, industrial stationery, rail traction, marine main
propulsion, and auxiliary purposes.

The modern specialloid diesel piston has vertical ribs on the internal surface of the skirt and the
solid piers which take the load directly from the crown to the gudgeon pin bearing area.

The crown, ring-belt, and skirt sections are proportioned to the thermal characteristics, which
results in a substantial reduction in operating temperatures, thereby reducing the tendency for
ring sticking and distortion of thermal cracking in the region of the valve pockets on the rim of
the combustion bowl.

The preferred material is a low expansion high tensile alloy having an 11-12% silicon content
referred to as specialloid S. 132. The specially thermoflow principle has been adopted in the
construction of specialloid piston, in which there is no abrupt change in the sections which
would form a heat flow barrier. The figure shows a typical heavy-duty Thermoflow piston as
used in highly rated diesel engines.

Wellworthy Pistons

Wellworthy Ltd of Great Britain produces high duty pistons will hall have cast iron inserted ring
carriers for the top piston rings. These inserted carriers are recently applied to only one ring in
diesel engine piston. The wear in the top groove is thereby reduced to a minimum as compared
with that which it would have been in the unprotected light alloy.

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Al-Fin molecular bonding process is utilized in inserting the ring carriers, which prevent any risk
of the insert working loose. It also overcomes the great difficulties through oxidation of the
aluminum during casting.

In petrol engines where the severity of the working conditions does not justify the use of an
insert, successful protection of the grooves has been obtained by the anodizing process.

The Piston Must Possess The Following Qualities

1. Rigidly to withstand high pressure.
2. Lightness to reduce the weight of the reciprocating masses and so enable higher engine
speeds.
3. Good heat conductivity to reduce the risk of detonation so allowing higher compression
ratio.
4. Silence in operation.
5. Material having low expansion and provision to allow for different expansion rates of
cast iron cylinder block and an aluminium piston.
6. Correctly formed skirt to give uniform bearing under working conditions.

Material Used for Piston

The material used for pistons is aluminium alloy. Aluminium pistons can be either cast or
forged. Cast iron is also used for the piston. Cast iron is a universal material in the early years
because it possesses excellent wearing quality, coefficient of expansion and general suitability
in manufacture.

But due to the reduction of weight in reciprocating parts, the use of aluminium for piston was
essential. To obtain equal strength a greater thickness of metal is necessary, the same of the
advantage of the light metal is lost. Aluminium is inferior to cast iron in strength and wearing

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qualities, and its greater coefficient of expansion necessitates greater clearance in the cylinder
to avoid the risk of seizure.

The heat conductivity of aluminium is about three times that of cast iron, and this combined
with the greater thickness necessary for strength, enables and an aluminium alloy piston to run
at much lower temperatures than a cast iron one (200°C to 250°C as compared with 400° to
450°C).

As a result, carbonized oil does not form on the underside of the piston, and the crankcase,
therefore, keeps cleaner. This cool-running property of aluminum is now recognized as being
quite as valuable as its lightness indeed, pistons are sometimes made thicker than necessary for
strength in order to give improved cooling.

Piston Clearance
What is piston clearance?

Pistons are normally small in diameter than the bore of the cylinder. The area between the
cylinder and the cylinder wall is called the piston clearance.

Piston Clearance is Essential for the Following Reasons

1. It provides a space for a film of lubricant between the piston and cylinder wall to reduce
friction.
2. It prevents piston seizure: Due to very high operating temperature, piston and cylinder
block expand. The cylinder is getting cooled faster than the piston, hence enough
clearance should be given for the piston to expand, failing which the piston seizure will
result.
3. If there is no clearance between the piston and cylinder, it will be difficult for the piston
to reciprocate in the cylinder.

The piston clearance depends upon the size of the cylinder bore and the metal used in the
piston. But it is generally 0.025 mm to 0-100 mm. In operation, this clearance is filled with oil so
that the piston and rings move on films of oil.

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If the clearance is too small, there will be loss of power from excessive friction, severe wear and
possible seizure of the piston in the cylinder. Piston slap will occur if the piston clearance is too
much. Piston slap means sudden tilting of the cylinder as the piston is down on the power
stroke.

The piston shifts from one side of the cylinder to the other with sufficient force to produce a
distinct noise. As the piston warms up the clearance is reduced and the noise usually
disappears. In order that fixed clearances may be used without risk of seizure special alloys
have been introduced and many designs of the piston are in use.

These special designs involved cam grinding to non-circular forms, semi-flexible skirts
incorporating obliques slits, controlled distribution, and the like expedients.

Piston-Head Shape or Piston Crown

The piston head is usually flat but they shaped to suit the combustion chamber. The
combustion space can be controlled by dishing or doming the piston crown and recess for the
valve heads can also be machined into the crown.

The compression ratio can be controlled by machining the combustion chamber in the piston,
but it means that most of the heat of combustion has to be consumed through the piston
instead of the cylinder head.

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Piston-Pin Offset
The piston face that bears most heavily against the cylinder wall during the power stroke is
called the major thrust face. In some engines, the piston pin is offset from the centre line of the
piston toward this face. If the piston pin is centred, the minor thrust face will remain in contact
with the cylinder wall until the end of the compression stroke.

But the connecting rod-angle changes from left to right as soon as the power stroke starts. This
causes a sudden shift of the side thrust on the piston from the minor thrust face to the major
thrust face. If there is any appreciable clearance, piston slap will occur.

But if the piston pin is offset, the combustion pressure will cause the piston to tilt as the piston
nears TDC, so that the lower end of the major thrust face will first make contact with the
cylinder wall.

Then after the piston passes TDC and the reversal of the side thrust occurs, full major thrust
face contacts us made with less tendency of the piston slap to occur.

Expansion Control in Pistons

During operation, the piston runs many degrees hotter than the cylinder, because the cylinder
is surrounded by cooling water. Hence this piston expands more than the cylinder. This
expansion must be controlled in order to avoid the loss of adequate piston clearance. Such a
loss may cause serious engine trouble.

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The problem is more accurate with aluminum pistons because aluminum expands more rapidly
than iron with the rise of temperature. The expansion of the piston skirt can be controlled by
several methods as follows.

1. By keeping heat away from the lower part of the piston.

2. By making Heat Dam
3. Cam grinding the piston
4. By using struts

1. By keeping heat away from the lower part of the piston as much as possible.

This can be done in the full-skirt piston by cutting horizontal slots in the piston just below the
lower oil control ring groove. These slots reduce the path for the heat travelling from the
cylinder head to the skirt.

Thus, the skirt does not become so hot and does not expand so much. In some full skirt pistons,
vertical slots are also cut in the skirt, which would allow metal expansion in the skirt, with the
appreciable increase of the piston diameter.

2. By making Heat Dam

Heat dam has a groove cut near the top of the piston. This
reduces the size of the path the heat can travel from the piston
head to the skirt. The skirt, therefore, runs cooler and does not
expand so much.

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3. By cam grinding the piston

The pistons are finished so that they are slightly oval (elliptical) when cold. These pistons are
called cam-ground pistons. Its area of contact with the cylinder wall therefore increases.

The minor axis of the ellipse lies in the direction of the piston pin axis. The more expansion
along the minor axis being caused by the piston bosses. Thus, the piston after expansion at
functioning temperature becomes circular.

4. By using struts

The piston expansion may also be controlled by using the struts, bands, or belts cast into the
piston. These cause the outward thrust of the expanding piston head to be carried more toward
the piston-pin bosses than toward the thrust faces so that the effect is similar to that of the
cam-ground pistons.

Conclusion
I hope I covered everything about piston. The piston is one of the most important parts of any
engine, if you have any questions about "types of pistons" you can ask us in the comments I'll
respond to you. If you like this article on types of pistons then please share with your friends.

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