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The single piece aluminium alloy piston remains the dominant and preferred design offering for highly loaded diesel engines. Piston manufacturers have progressively developed aluminium alloys, machining capability, and design geometries to cope with increasing thermal and mechanical loading. In conjunction with these developments, the methodology used to analyse the pistons has also improved as software and digital computers have advanced. This advancement has permitted larger more detailed models and more sophisticated simulation of the material behaviour, in response to the loading and contact conditions applied to pistons. Transient finite element analysis was first applied to diesel pistons in the late 1970's using a linear elastic approach, coupled with a life assessment based on limited low cycle fatigue data. This methodology gave valuable insights into the mechanism of piston failures, particularly at the combustion bowl rim of diesel pistons.