Design and analysis of gasket sealing of cylinder head under engine operation conditions

To avoid the escaping gas from the engine affecting the overall performance of the engine during operation, both the proper pre-stressing force of the bolts as well as the gasket design are critical factors in enhancing the efficiency of the sealing of the gasket. In this investigation, both the distribution of the contact pressure on the gasket, and the stresses of the cylinder head at different loading conditions, such as cold assembly, hot assembly, cold start, and hot firing, are explored by numerical calculation based on the finite element method (FEM). The results reveal that the efficiency of the sealing of the head gasket depends on the pre-stressing force of the hold-down bolts, without taking into consideration any thermal stresses resulting from the temperature distribution in the cylinder head. However, the location of maximum contact pressure on the gasket is transformed when the thermal loading is taken into account. In addition, this research also conducts the parametric analyses for the pre-stressing force of the bolts and compares the differences between cold assembly and cold start conditions.