Evolution of residual stress through the processing stages in manufacturing of bore-chilled sand-cast aluminum engine blocks with pressed-in iron liners
Loading...
Date
2021-11-30
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Research Square
Abstract
The cumulative global emissions produced by the automotive industry over the last decade has put a tremendous strain on the environment. Consequently, automotive engineers and manufacturers have been forced to improve the efficiencies of their automobiles which is frequently accomplished by increasing the operating pressure, and therefore temperature, of the combustion engine. Unfortunately, in addition to the rise in operational pressures and temperatures, large tensile residual stresses often accumulate in the cylinder bridges during the casting process of aluminum engine blocks due to the use of cast-in iron cylinder liners, leading to combined stress magnitudes above the strength of the currently used aluminum alloys. Thus, the present study aims to characterize the evolution of residual stress, with application of neutron diffraction, at several critical stages of the manufacturing process of sand-cast aluminum engine blocks that have eliminated the iron cylinder liners from the casting process and replaced them with cylinder bore chills that are pressed-out after the thermal sand reclamation process. The replacement of the iron liners shifted the stress mode from purely tension to purely compression until the bore chills were removed. Following removal of the bore chills, the maximum tensile stress at the top of the cylinder bridge was ~70% lower than the engine’s predecessor which was produced with iron liners. Moreover, in the production-ready state (i.e., T7 heat treated, machined and press-fit liners inserted), the stress mode maintains the partially compressive nature with low magnitudes of tension, thereby lowering the material’s susceptibility to crack growth and propagation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
This preprint is under consideration at The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. A preprint is a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal.
Keywords
Sand, Aluminium, Metals, Heat treatments, Residual stresses, Engines
Citation
Stroh, J., Sediako, D., Lombardi, A., Byczynski, G., Reid, M., & Paradowska, A. (2021). Evolution of residual stress through the processing stages in manufacturing of bore-chilled sand-cast aluminum engine blocks with pressed-in iron liners. Research Square. Preprint (Version 1). doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1083522/v1