Tribological and Sealing Performance of Laser Pocketed Piston Rings in a Diesel Engine

The tribological and sealing performance of a piston ring with specially designed textured surface in a diesel engine are investigated experimentally. For this purpose, a motorized engine test rig is used to assess the frictional characteristics of compression piston rings with surface-texture pockets with optimum geometries fabricated on their surfaces. Experimental results show that lasered pockets led to a reduction of up to about 15 % in the total friction between cylinder liner and piston assembly over a wide range of operating speed. Further, the results of compression tests with pocketed textures show a slight improvement in the sealing performance compared to untextured piston rings.