Piston rings are the explanation inner combustion engines can exist. They’re slim rings of steel that hug the outer fringe of the piston, accountable for sealing the combustion strain contained in the cylinder and maintaining oil out of the combustion chamber. The science behind piston rings is much extra spectacular than you might ever think about.
The New Thoughts YouTube channel put collectively an in depth historical past and explainer on the piston ring, giving us an in-depth have a look at how the idea was conceived and developed over a long time of trial and error and experimentation.
The earliest proof of piston rings could possibly be present in locomotive steam engines within the 1800s. As expertise developed, the rings changed into forged iron items that offered higher sealing properties. From there, engineers finally found utilizing three rings—two for sealing the combustion course of, and one for maintaining oil out—was essentially the most environment friendly technique to go about utilizing the rings.
The video goes into nice element concerning the forms of rings that exist, how they’re measured to make sure the very best sealing and effectivity properties, and the way they go about working in such demanding environments for a whole lot of hundreds of miles. It is all extremely fascinating stuff.
Probably the most attention-grabbing instance New Thoughts makes use of are the piston rings in a Formulation 1 automobile. In contrast to street vehicles, which use three rings, F1 vehicles use simply two rings per cylinder, one for sealing combustion and one other for oil containment. The combustion ring is created from a tungsten-carbide coated metal, whereas the oil ring is created from titanium. The tolerances are so skinny, they do not operate correctly outdoors of their very skinny working temperature window. In addition they require numerous oil cooling to keep up that temperature.
