Establishment of cylinder kit design guidelines for four-stroke internal combustion engines using numerical simulations

Engine efficiency and emissions performance constraints have motivated the automotive industry to focus research on piston and piston ring pack design. This thesis presents guidelines on the practical aspects of cylinder kit geometry that should be followed to achieve maximum engine performance. Theoretical explanations of why these designs provide improved performance are also discussed.;Due to the thousands of engine operating conditions that were tested, the ring-pack performance estimates could only be found by means of computer simulation. The Cylinder kit Analysis System for Engines (CASE) was utilized to obtain the results.;A simple optimizing program was initially written using finite difference methods. The results of both this program and a previously written (more advanced) optimizing program showed that the parameter values often lie on the constraints. Additional analyses were performed and the predicted results showed that many of the cylinder kit geometries (ring axial width, piston groove height, etc.) have predictable relationships to the engine performance. These relationships are analyzed in further detail in this thesis.