Friction dynamics simulation analysis of Stirling engine piston ring

Mingru  Lei; Haiyong  Peng; Yuchen  Jiang; Yi  Cui; Yun  Guo

doi:10.6180/jase.202609_32.004

Friction dynamics simulation analysis of Stirling engine piston ring

Mingru Lei¹, Haiyong Peng¹This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Yuchen Jiang¹, Yi Cui²This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and Yun Guo¹

¹School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201600, China

²School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201100, China

Received: October 9, 2025
Accepted: February 7, 2026
Publication Date: April 8, 2026

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.6180/jase.202609_32.004

The reliability and durability of piston rings in double-acting Stirling engines are critical to overall engine performance. This study investigates the dynamic tribological behavior of the piston ring-cylinder liner contacts during operation. By establishing a coupled dynamic-tribological-leakage simulation model, the friction, sealing, and wear performance of the ring pack under rated and variable-speed operating conditions are systematically analyzed. Under the rated condition of 1800r/min, the instantaneous maximum friction forces of the top ring and the second ring are 392.3 N and 163.7 N, respectively, while the corresponding cycle-averaged friction forces are 147.9 N and 94.8 N. The instantaneous peak frictional power losses are 1360 W and 590 W, and the cycle-averaged frictional power losses are 470.2 W and 309.3 W, respectively. The peak total contact pressures reach 18.9 MPa for the top ring and 13.55 MPa for the second ring, and the maximum radial wear depths after 100 h of operation are 0.121 mm and 0.115 mm, respectively. When the rotational speed increases from 900r/min to 3600 r/min, the blow-by of the ring pack decreases by 68.8%, whereas the total frictional power loss and the wear rate increase by 229% and 122%, respectively. These results quantitatively reveal an inherent and previously unresolved trade-off between sealing performance and wear life for filled PTFE composite piston rings in double-acting Stirling engines. The proposed framework provides physically based design metrics for ring material selection, ring geometry optimization, and operating-condition assessment, and supports reliable sealing performance and service-life prediction for Stirling engine applications.

Keywords: dynamic simulation; oil-free lubrication seal; sealing performance; Blow-by

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