Analysis of unsteady heat transfer of internal combustion engines’ exhaust valves

This study is concerned with the analyses of heat transfer through an exhaust valve considering the real unsteady effects during the cycle of an internal combustion engine and to identify the factors and parameters affecting the heat transfer. The valve is segmented into several zones to facilitate incorporating the boundary conditions and evaluating the heat transfer coefficient and the adiabatic wall temperature based on the finite element method. The unsteady simulations were carried out using ANSYS-APDL for the proposed thermal model. The effect of lubricating oil and the contact resistance between guide and engine block and the thermal contact between exhaust valve and seat are included, as well as the differential displacement of both the guide and engine block walls due to high working temperature. The averaged values of heat transfer coefficient and adiabatic wall temperature used in the boundary conditions are shown to underestimate the temperature maps. The cyclic boundary conditions required more run time to reach the steady state and allowed better monitoring of the thermal process. The thermal contact resistance has the main contribution in the zone of valve-seat, whereas the resistance of oil film between the guide and stem valve is shown to affect mainly heat transfer coefficient. The obtained maps of temperature reveal the locations of maximum temperatures in the exhaust valve.