Highly Optimized Cooling System for Additively Manufactured Cylinder Heads

The article explores the development of a highly efficient cooling system for a cylinder head of a downsized 1.5-l three-cylinder gasoline turbo engine, leveraging additive manufacturing techniques. Ford Research and RWTH Aachen University collaborated to design and manufacture the cylinder head using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), selecting AlSi10Mg as the alloy. The project aimed to eliminate critical combustion wall material hot spots and achieve near-ideal cooling. The cooling concept involved implementing printed rib structures in the water jacket and locally reducing combustion chamber wall thickness. Simulations and hardware tests verified the design's effectiveness, resulting in significant temperature reductions and improved combustion chamber deck durability. The study also established a simulation-based development method for cooling rib structures, paving the way for future applications in various propulsion fields.