Computations of an engine to analyze cylinder distortion

The aim of the research work presented here is to control the geometric distortions of engine cylinders, which involve both noise and oil consumption. The final goal is then to limit pollution from engines. The simulation deals initially with the cold stamping and crushing operations of a cylinder head gasket; based on using solid finite element models from the Abaqus computer code (version 5.3) for large deformation with plasticity and contact, including friction. In addition, experiments have been carried out to identify the plasticity rule for the materials used in order to simulate the crushing of the cylinder head gasket under a given normal pressure representing the clamping operation. The main difficulty of this work is to correlate the cylinder head gasket behaviour and cylinder distortions with the main function of the gasket, i.e. pressurized gas sealing. The cylinder head gasket is a complex multilayered structure made of three spot welded metal sheets. This assembly has many holes of different shapes. Around the cylinder hole on both outer layers of the gasket, there is a small size embossment to ensure gas sealing between the engine block and cylinder head. This rib is not circular because of the combustion chamber shape.