Effect of Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) Coating on Piston Crown on the Performance of a Gasoline Engine –Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Internal combustion (IC) engines play an important role in the area of the automotive industry.
An IC engine discards approximately two-thirds of fuel energy to the atmosphere through exhaust
valves and combustion chamber walls while only one-third is used as a power output. The chief goal
of ceramic thermal barrier coating (TBC) is to drop fuel consumption as well as improve the thermal
efficiency (TE) of IC engines. In this article, the experimental investigation was performed on a
single-cylinder gasoline engine. The piston crown was coated with Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) to
analyze the effect of ceramic TBC on the engine performance and its results compared with the
conventional engine piston. Al2O3 ceramic was used for TBC because of its appropriate physical
properties such as a high coefficient of thermal expansion, low thermal conductivity, and stable
phase structure against high temperatures. The results were obtained on a baseline engine and
ceramic TBC Aluminum Oxide piston engine which were coated with thicknesses of 300 µm. TE of the
LHR engine was improved by 2-3% over the uncoated engine. Fuel consumption and volumetric
efficiency were reduced by 5-8% and 4-6%, respectively, over the baseline engine. The findings
are applicable for the optimized performance of the IC engine at bench and commercial scales.