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Cylinder head design is one of the most involved disciplines in engine design. Whether designing an altogether new head or revamping an old one, several different coupled and inter-dependent technologies ranging from heat transfer, fluid flow, combustion, material non-linearity, structural and fatigue have to be accounted. Simultaneous designing of ports, jacket and combustion chamber leads to cylinder head design, which is then tested for its strength and durability. Traditionally a series of analytical, empirical, test-based and simulation based exercises are conducted to design cylinder heads. With increasing pressure on reducing cost and turnaround time, focus on moving towards a quasi-simulation based design and development of cylinder heads is gaining strength. This paper talks about how a simulation driven process for cylinder head design can be developed.

New regulations such as CAFE are pushing OEMs to look for options to increase vehicle mileage. Increasing combustion efficiency, alternate fuels and weight reductions are front runners in this quest. Due to limited scope of improvement in first two options, weight reduction is considered as more feasible option. Composite materials have long been used in Aerospace-aviation industries for weight reduction. So, usage of composite materials is gaining popularity in automotive industry also. Composite manufacturing is still an expensive and time consuming procedure, so virtual prototyping is being used to evaluate design, very early in the product cycle, to reduce physical prototype testing. In this paper we have tried to demonstrate how designers can easily analyze automotive components using virtual prototyping. Starting from CAD, general workflow of composite structure modeling to optimization is discussed.