2011 Third International Conference on Measuring Technology and Mechatronics Automation

Strength Analysis of Diesel Engine Crankshaft Based on PRO/E and ANSYS

Gu Yingkui, Zhou Zhibo
Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, 341000, China
guyingkui@163.com

Firstly the crankshaft model was established in

Pro/ENGINEER, and then the finite element analysis
software was conducted to analysis the crankshaft. For the
purpose of reducing the number of elements and workload,
when the finite element model is establishing, various
reasonable simplification was carried on, only the relative
importance features was left, petty details such as fillet,
chamfering etc was given up.
Through the Pro/ENGINEER software, the crankshaft
model was established, as shown in figure 1. And some
material attribute of the crankshaft was shown in table 1.

AbstractThe crankshaft is an important component of diesel

engine. In this paper, a three-dimensional model of a diesel
engine crankshaft was established corresponding to the
practical conditions by Using PRO/E software. Using ANSYS
analysis tool, the finite element analysis for the crankshaft was
conducted under extreme operation conditions, and the stress
distribution of the crankshaft was presented. The static rigidity
and intensity of crankshaft was analyzed in detail. The crank
stress change model and the crank stress biggest hazard point
were found by using finite element analysis, and the
improvement method for the crankshaft structure design was
given.
Keywords- Diesel engine; ANSYS; Finite element method;
Strength analysis

I.

INTRODUCTION

Crankshaft is an important and the most complex parts of

the diesel engine. When the cyclical changeable gas pressure,
reciprocating inertial force and centrifugal inertial force were
given, crankshaft both reversed and bent, the strength of
crankshaft is one of the important and difficult design of
diesel engine[1]. With the diesel engine continuously
strengthened, the working conditions of the crankshaft
become increasingly harsh, it is essential to guarantee the
operational reliability of the crankshaft. The reliability and
service life of diesel engine were influenced whether the
crankshaft have enough intensity and stiffness or not. As the
crankshaft's shape and the load are quite complex, using the
classical mechanics method to the structural analysis often
have limitations. Finite element method(FEM) is a numerical
calculation method based on variational principle for solving
mathematical and physical problems. It is a powerful tool to
analyze various structural problems and provide theoretical
basis for the design[2].
In this paper, the load was imposed to a four cylinder
diesel engine crankshaft, the ANSYS software was used to
carry on the statical analysis, then the distortion and the
stress condition of the crankshaft were obtained.
II.


FIGURE 1 THE OVERALL MODEL OF THE CRANKSHAFT

TABLE I.
Material
QT800

Poisson's
ratio
0.277

Elastic modulus Rotational speed

(Gpa)
(rad/s)
210
267.1

In addition, for the crankshaft model is complex, when

importing the model into ANSYS through the interface
module of the ANSYS and Pro/ENGINEER software, found
that the new model in ANSYS often incomplete, and make
mistakes frequently in the grid analysis. Therefore, using the
mechanical module of Pro/ENGINEER software to do some
preparations, such as definition of the material attribute and
meshing of the model, and then the model was imported into
ANSYS to conduct the finite element calculation, which will
enable the analysis more accurate and efficient. As to Figure
2, under the Pro/E software mechanical modules, the
material attribute was defined according to Table I, the
crankshaft was meshed by the meshing type of 10 node
tetrahedron element and SOLID92 element, and then the
model was imported in ANSYS. The node number of the
model is 7649, unit number is 31688.

FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

A. Model Input
Nowadays research and development of the CAD/CAE
software becoming more and more specialized in the
division of labor. When needs to use CAD/CAE integration
system, only a single Pro/ENGINEER or ANSYS software is
difficult to complete tasks quickly and perfectly.
The interface module Connection for Pro/Engineer of
the ANSYS and Pro/ENGINEER software is used here.
978-0-7695-4296-6/11 $26.00 2011 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ICMTMA.2011.661

Density
kg/m3
7800

MATERIAL ATTRIBUTE

362

software, and then the displacement constraints and load

were imposed.




FIGURE 2 MESHING
FIGURE 3 IMPOSING CONSTRAINTS AND LOAD

B. Constraints
The way to deifne the boundary condition has a direct
correlation to the generation type of the meshing model.
When the boundary condition is defining, some simplified
assumptions were given out in this paper [3]:
(1) The function of the crankshaft's journal torque and the
support bending moment are not considered.
(2) All the force is not concentrated force, every part of
crankshaft's centrifugal force are loaded by the procedure
automatically, other centrifugal force are not imposed in the
model.
(3) Support reactions and the stress of connecting rod
journal are not imposed inside the crank plane.
In this paper, because of the constraint type of the threedimensional ten-node element, all nodes rotational degreeof-freedom(DOF)
in
three-direction
is
restricted
automatically, only the translational DOF should be
restricted. As the force direction is basically in the same
plane, in the left circumferentia of the journal, all nodes
translational DOF in X, Y, Z direction is restricted, while in
the right circumferentia, that translational DOF in X,Y
direction is restricted.

ANALYSIS OF THE WHOLE CRANKSHAFT

MODEL
After the load and boundary condition defined, through
the interface module "Connection for Pro/Engineer" of the
Pro/e software and ANSYS software, the model was
imported into ANSYS for finite element calculation. About
the crankshaft, the materials is QT800, elastic modulus
210Gpa, Poisson's ratio 0.277 and density 7800kg/m3. After
the ANSYS calculation, the crank's Y displacement cloud
chart and the crank stress cloud chart was obtained, as shown
in Figure 4 and Figure 5, and the enlarged stress partial chart
of the knuckle of crank arm and main journal was given, as
shown in Figure 6 and Figure7.
III.

C. Load Simplification
Because the form of realistic load is ever-changing, it is
very important that to transform the load to the form which
can be easily expressed in ANSYS. In this paper, the load
which the crankshaft suffered is mainly from the gas
pressure of the cylinder, inertia force generated by
crankshafts rotation, and the reaction force that the
connecting rod effects to when piston is working. According
to the engine parameters and the dynamics calculation, it
comes to the maximum load of the engines connecting rod
journal, 20000N. As the crankshafts damage is mainly due
to bending, the flywheel's torsion force to the crank was not
taken into consideration temporarily. For simplicity, as to the
ignition cylinder, assume that the connecting rod journal
were the maximum load when the piston is in the top dead
center(TDC)[4]. In this paper, a transient finite element
strength analysis was conducted when the piston in TDC
condition. As shown in figure 3, that the model was
established under the mechanical module of the Pro/E

FIGURE 4 Y DISPLACEMENT CLOUD

363

It can be seen in the cloud, that cranks intensive hazard

point located at the knuckle of the crank arm & main journal,
and crank arm & connecting rod journal, the force value's
maximum point located at the knuckle of the most left crank
arm and the main journal, which value is 211Mpa, and the
maximum stress value in the knuckle of the crank arm and
the crank pin is 150.50MPa. From figure 5, it shows that the
left main journal edge becomes the high-stress area. In view
of the journal transition is suffered the largest stress, and
most easily broken, the following improvement were given:
(1) Increasing crankshaft knuckle radius, thickening the
crank arm, and improving the fillet processing.
(2) Strengthening the supporting rigidity of the crankcase,
and reducing the production of additional bending moment.
(3) Improving the size of connecting rod journal.

CONCLUSION
Through the finite element analysis on a four-cylinder
diesel engine crankshaft, it shows that the high stress region
mainly concentrates in the knuckles of the crank arm & the
main journal, and the crank arm & connecting rod journal,
which is the area most easily broken. Provided a theoretical
basis and data support for the further optimization design.
IV.

FIGURE 5 CRANK STRESS CLOUD

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was partially supported by the Jiangxi
Provincial Natural Science Foundation under the contract
number 2007GQC0654 and the Science Foundation of
Education Commission of Jiangxi Province under the
contract number GJJ09245.
REFERENCES
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FIGURE 6 KNUCKLE

[2]

[3]

[4]

FIGURE 7 KNUCKLE OF CRANK ARM AND MAIN JOURNAL

364

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