Experimental Piston Ring Tribology for Marine Diesel Engines

A very important condition for describing the frictional behavior of a piston ring correctly is knowledge about the amount of lubricant present. It is often assumed that piston rings operate under fully flooded conditions, but this is not the case in real life operation. In large two-stroke engines the cylinder oil is supplied periodically to the bearing at discrete locations on the cylinder liner. The shifting in lubrication regimes and the non-uniform oil distribution opens for the possibility of starved conditions for the piston ring bearing. Therefore it is important to measure the oil distribution on the liner as a function of the operating conditions. The amount of lubricant available is reflected in the friction absorbed in the bearing. The paper describes an investigation of the tribological condition between a piston ring and cylinder. A test apparatus is used to study the interaction between a piston ring and a cylinder liner.