Crankshaft Strength Analysis of a Diesel Engine Using Finite Element Method

It is generally accepted that the diesel engine crankshaft strength analysis is of importance in evaluating the performance and lifetime of the crankshaft and then acquire the overall engine mechanical information. However it is significant to apply a suitable model on the calculation including force analysis, simplification of the crankshaft geometry model, etc. In this paper, a single-cylinder crankshaft strength analysis is carried out based on finite element method (FEM). The geometry model is built in Pro/ENGINEER and then imported to ANSYS for FEM calculation. The boundary condition is set up in view of the actual crankshaft working condition including displacement refinement and loading on the crankpin and the latter is used surface force instead of concentrated force on the crankpin. The derivation of the surface force is presented in the paper in details. The calculation results based on FEM are compared with the conventional method to verify the reliability of the FEM calculation procedure.