Meet the scientists!

When an engine begins operation the piston will move up and then down again, this is called reciprocation. Inside the engine (the chamber) the piston acts like a syringe, like what is seen at the doctor’s, but it is always pushing and pulling fuel and combustion gasses through it. In the engine the tube is known as the cylinder or bore. A plunger in a syringe needs rubber around the edge of the tube to get a good seal to top things dropping out of the bottom. The piston in the engine needs the same however because when the fuel combusts the temperature can reach 600 degree celsius the rubber would melt and therefore metal is used. These are known as piston rings. As the ring is forced up against the cylinder on the engine, the metal will grind down and this is where I come in I am investigating to find out if the piston ring can be made better with a nano-composite coating. This special coating means I take atoms from other materials and place them together to create new stronger coatings to relieve the wear on the piston ring; this is like a super material. By doing this, the engine will be able to produce more power and less harmful gasses to the environment.

I am a PHD student and also a University associate lecturer. A typical day for me at work is first I do my teaching, this subjects I teach are simulation and advanced computer aided design. In simulation we find out how long it takes for things to break, basically we can test on the computer how much force it will take to bend or snap a piece of metal and we also look at things moving like a piston, so we can find out how fast they move and what type of damage is caused when they move this fast. In advanced computer aided design we look at how to create a special type of 3D model called a surface, and we also learn to program the computer to do some of our drawings for us. When I finish my teaching it’s off to the lab, where I calculate and simulate the effects of the racing engine. Once I have finished on the computer I got to our engine lab to test samples on one of our racing engines. The samples that I get from the engine tests are then examined on a tool which checks the surface of the worn piston ring, then onto a tool which scans the surface for any pieces of the ring that could have been broken off when in the engine was working, and finally a tool that checks to see if any material has been passed from the cylinder to the piston ring.

At the moment I am working a new theory that may change what we understand about piston rings and they way they behave. What I need to able to do is to build a test rig that looks like an engine. This will allow me to test the piston ring to find out what are the biggest influences to it as it operates. The money will allow me to buy all the materials I need to do this. Plus it will be awesome to prove my theory correct.