Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Analysis of Diesel Engine Crankshaft Torsional
Vibra.tions
ABSTRACT
The development and application of a technique for
the steady-state and transient analyses of diesel engine
crankshaft torsional vibrations is presented in this paper.
Crankshafts in emergency diesel generators undergo torsional
vibrations due to the effect of cylinder firing pressure and the
inertia of the reciprocating parts. A diesel engine crankshaft
is subjected to steady-state loads during normal engine op-
eration (constant speed and constant load) and to transients
during startups. coastdowns. and load changes. Often the
transients may result in torsional stresses that far exceed
those normally designed for at constant speed and constant
load.
A technique has been developed for the analyses of tor-
sional vibrations under steady-state conditions. This tech-
nique has been extended for application to transient condi-
tions. Computer programs SHAMS (Shaft Harmonic Analy-
sis by Modal Superposition) and STAMS (Shaft Transient
Analysis by Modal Superpostion) have been developed at
Failure Analysis Associates (FaAA) for the dynamic torsional
analyses of crankshafts. Both programs are based upon
a modal superpostion approach. also known as the normal
mode method. and provide an elTident means for the solu-
tion of forced vibration problems. These programs predict
the free-end amplitude of vibration and the stress amplitudes
at each shaft section in a crankshaft. The modal superpositi-
tion method is briefly discussed. followed by detailed descrip-
tions of SHAMS and STAMS. Comparisons of the analytical
results obtained using these codes with test data obtained
during testing of diesel generator engines is included.
MODAL SUPERPOSITION METHOD
Modal Superpostion is a technique for solving the equa-
tions of motion for a system (I]. This method makes elTicient
IManager. Structural Analysis, Failure Analysis Associates
Palo Alto, California. 1 i'h mode. The load for the i'h mode in normal coorindates
2S en ior Engineer, Failure Analysis Associates Palo Alto
California. I I
21
P. R. Johnston and L. M. Shusto
Failure Analysis Associates
use of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Modal superposition
utilizes the principal vibration modes as generalized coordi-
nates to uncouple the equations of motion. By uncoupling
the equations of motion in this manner. a single degree of
freedom equation for each mode is obtained and the total
response of a particular mode or a number of modes can
easily be calculated. The eigenvalues and eigenvectors of
the structural system are obtained by solving the undamped
eigenvalue problem and normalizing the mode shapes with
respect to the mass matrix. Then. they are utilized to trans-
form the nodal mass. damping. stiffness and loading matrices
defined utilizing physical coordinates and physical degrees of
freedom. into normal (modal) coordinates. The solutions to
the equations of motion are obtained using these generalized
displacements. The solution is then transformed back into
physical coordinates. This technique is used for both steady-
state and transient solutions.
The shaft system is first discretized into a series of tor-
sional springs and lumped mass moments of inertia. For
the crankshaft. the inertia for each cylinder is lumped at the
crankpin location. Figure 1 shows such a system consisting
of a front· end gear. a sixteen cylinder V-engine and a flywheel
a!lached to a generator rotor. For each cylinder. the mass of
both banks is lumped at one degree of freedom.
The equations of motion for this discretized system with
an applied load. A may then be expressed in terms of the
displacement vector. X. as
(1)
where M. C. and fi are the mass. damping. and stiffness
matrices respectively. The system may then be reduced to a
series of one degree of freedom equations in normal coordi~
nates. for example for the i'h mode
XNi + 2W;"(iXN; + w't X Ni = ANi (2)
where Wi and 'i are the natural frequency and damping for the
is obtained from
(S)
 Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Tuesday, March 26, 2019

:;
N
'"g ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
.• Thus. the modal superposition technique provides a solu-
tion for the steady-state problem by summing the contribu-
0 0 g g 0 0 0 ~

• tions from each harmonic and from each mode. The method
•
Q
C C
~ ~ ~
C
~
C C
~
~

u:
~
c c j! j! c c c c is efficient since the equation for each mode represents a sin-
<;• • <;• • • e <;• <;•
;;
<; <; <;
u:• " gle degree of freedom.
An alternate method allows for the direct solution of
Equation (1) for a given frequency of excitation (a given or-
der). For the it" harmonic
Rotational Inortla
Toralonal aptlng (7)

where i is the square root of minus one. The solution of this

Figure 1: Discretized model of eight throw crankshaft. set of complex equations must be repeated for each order.
Hence. the solution is relatively efficient for few orders but
time consuming for large numbers of orders. The advantage
of this technique is that there is no restriction on the form of

-.
where 1>. is the mode shape for the it" mode which has been
normalized with respect to the mass matrix. The displace-
the damping matrix, Q.

TRANSIENT ANALYSIS - For analysis of transient re-

ment vector for the it" mode is obtained from the transfor-
matian
X, = p.,Xm
The loading vector. £1. consists of three types of forces.
reciprocating inertia. friction. and cylinder pressure. Recipro-
cating inertia forces are handled as a force contribution since
the accelerations that cause them are related to the engine
speed with only a small contribution due to the vibratory ac-
celerations. Similarly. friction forces are primarily related to
the engine speed and are thus best treated as a right hand
side or force contribution. Friction or damping contributions
that are related to relative velocities are included in the damp-
ing matrix. Q. In practice. the damping for each mode. is
specified rather than Q. The two are related since
2w'~'
t ,.
= ",TC'"
~ -!.i
sponse of the crankshaft. the loads must be determined at
each time step and then transformed to normal coordinates,
(4)
By pre-multiplying the load vector by the transpose of the
eigenvector matrix in normal coordinates. solutions of each
single degree of freedom equation are found using step-by-
step response calculations based on Duhamel's integral. The
responses are finally back transformed and summed for each
mode.
Alternatively. the equilibrium equations may be solved us-
ing one of the direct numerical integration techniques such as
Newmark's method. Again. this approach allows for a more
general damping matrix. but does not make use of the ex-
1'. tracted natural frequencies and mode shapes_
PROGRAM SHAMS. SHAFT HARMONIC ANALYSIS BY
(5) MODAL SUPERPOSITION

TN. another fortran computer program developed by
FaAA. was used to calculate the harmonic loads. The gas
pressure. reciprocating inertia and frictional loads. which are
assumed to act on the piston. are converted to a harmonic tor·
sional load using geometric relationships between the crank
angle and piston location.
STEADY-STATE ANALYSIS - For analysis of steady-
state operation of the crankshaft. the torsional loads due to
reciprocating inertia. friction. and cylinder pressure are
composed into a Fourier series. Thus.
m J is its polar moment of inertia. Results for the contribu-
£1 = L £1 M; cos int + QM; sin int
;::::1
where n is the engine frequency for a two cycle engine. or half
the engine frequency for a four cycle engine. Theoretically
m equals infinity, but in practice a much smaller number of
harmonics. or orders, provides good results.
The computer program SHAMS calculates the torsional
natural modes of vibration of an axial or branched system
of springs and masses and the response of the system to
harmonic loads. The solution obtained using SHAMS sums
the response of specified harmonic orders for each mode of
vibration taking into account the correct phase angles for
all cylinders. The summation is performed for each inertia
and shaft section. respectively. Time histories. maximum
and minimum values of vibration and nominal shaft stresses
de~ are provided in the output for each inertia and shaft section.
Nominal torsional stresses. T, are calculated from torques, T,
by the equation T = Tr/ J where r is the journal radius and
(6) tions due to selected orders or modes may also be obtained,
SHAMS includes internal modal damping in the analysis,
SHAMS has the capability of including centrifugal
pendulum-design torsional dampers 121. By inpulling the"
damper weight and geometry for each order being damped.
the element mass and stiffness matrices for a simple centrifu-
gal pendulum damper element are determined and included in

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the structural matrices used in calculating the response of the

system.
SHAMS requires the following input:

1. Number of shaft sections

,.,
2. Shaft stiffnesses and diameters
..,
3. Lumped mass moments of inertia FntE"£MO ..... L1TUOE
IOE~II£ESI

TESt OAl" 0.0 ~",+---\-+"'r+---',C'""'1I--'I-f-l.

4. Number of cylinders and firing order
5. V-engine angle
6. Engine speed ,.'
7. Reciprocating mass per cylinder
8. Stroke and connecting rod length
9. Friction factor
10. Cylinder pressure loading coefficients for each order or
indicator diagram •• ,., ,.,
T 1 HE. (SECONDS)
11. Number of modes

12. Damping for each mode

SHAMS RESULTS COMPARED TO TEST DATA- Re- Figure 2: .Comparison of free-end amplitude at rated load.
sults of an analysis of a sixteen cylinder V-engine with a
13x13 inch crankshaft will be shown and compared to test
data. The calculated natural frequencies of the crankshaft
are shown in Table 1. Good agreement is seen between the
measured value and the analysis.

Table 1: Comparison of Test and Analytical Natural Frequen-

cies TaLle 2' Free -End Vibration at Rated Load
Mode Natural Frequency (Hz) I Amplitude of Vibration (deg)
Analysis Test Order Analysis Test
1 28.84 28.7 0.5 0.024 0.055
2 83.01 - 1.0 0.000 0.006
3 113.03 - 1.5 0.179 0.168
2.0 0.002 0.009
2.5 0.252 0.214
3.0 0.003 0.001
The displacement of the free-end of the crankshaft was
3.5 0.269 0.244
measured with a torsiograph. The analytical and test data
4.0 0.103 0.074
time histories are plotted in Figure 2. where agreement over
4.5 0.054 0.048
a major portion of the time history is apparent.
5.0 0.005 0.003
The amplitudes for each order are compared in Table 2.
5.5 0.012 0.016
The response of this particular crankshaft has a large contri· 6.0 0.010 0.019
bution from the 2.5 and 3.5 orders. Vector
The analytical results slightly overpredict the results for Summation 0.586 0.555
the two major orders. The 0.5 order is underpredicted by
analytical results due to the fact that it is based upon the
assumption of perfect engine balance. The calculated overall
response of the system is in good agreement with the test
data.

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 Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Tuesday, March 26, 2019

The nominal torsional stresses in each shaft section are sure versus crank angle data. which is then normalized to
calculated in Table 3. Here it is seen that the largest sum-of- speed. or by measuring the cylinder pressure as a function of
order stress range occurs bewteen cylinder 5 and 6. while the time in one cylinder and using it to interpolate the pressure
largest contribution of the 3.5 order occurs between cylinders in other cylinders. Ideally. a complete pressure trace for all
6 and 7. The torsional stresses on the shaft section are listed cylinders is required: however. an analysis can be performed
in Table 3 for each shaft section. with less accuracy if pressure data from only one cylinder is
avai.lable. For fast starts. such as are required in emergency
standby service for nuclear power stations. the initial posi~
tion the crankshaft may also be important and is required as
T a bl e 3: Nominal Torsional Stresses at Rated Load input.
Location Torsional Stress (psi)
3.5 Order Total STAMS RESULTS COMPARED TO TEST DATA- An
analy'sis of the transient torsional stresses in a twenty cylinder
Between Cylinder 1
V-engine with a 13 x 13 inch crankshaft during fast starts and
and Cylinder 2 808 2776
coastdowms will be compared with test data. Time histories
Between Cylinder 2
of cylinder pressure. engine speed. and crankshaft torsional
and Cylinder 3 1324 3193
vibration were recorded. for this engine.
Between Cylinder 3
During the torsiograph testing of fast starts it was found
and Cylinder 4 1107 5334
that the initial position of the cranl<shaft had an effect an the
Between Cylinder 4
response of the system. STAMS was used to perform a para-
and Cylinder 5 1523 4831
metric study to quantify this effect. Ten fast start analyses
Between Cylinder 5
were performed with the crankshaft·s inital position altered by
and Cylinder 6 1616 5367
72 degrees each time. thereby covering two revolutions (720
Between Cylinder 6
degrees) of the crankshaft. The maximum peak-to-peak vi-
and Cylinder 7 2329 4705
bration from each of the these conditions is shown in Figure 3.
Between Cylinder 7 It is seen that the start with the lowest vibration occurs when
and Cylinder 8 2118 5275
cylinder 3 RB started at BDC during its exhaust stroke. This
Between Cylinder condition was measured twice. The highest level of vibra-
and Flywheel 1740 3982 tion was obtained with cylinder 10 RB starting at BDC in its
exhaust stroke. It is seen that the ratio of peak-to-peak vi-
bration for the highest and lowest response is approximately
PROGRAM STAMS. SHAFT TRANSIENT ANALYSIS BY 2.5. Thus the initial postion of the crankshaft is an important
MODAL SUPERPOSITION parameter during ~tartup analyses.
The calculated natural frequencies of the shaft system are
The torsional vibratory response of crankshafts during compared with torsiograph test data. as shown in Table 4.
start-up and coastdown transients is also of interest. The
number of loading cycles imposed on a crankshaft during
these transients is usually small; however. the magnitude of
Table 4: Comparison of Test and Analytical Natural Frequen-
the loading may be large. The computer program STAMS uti-
cies
lizes the same calculation procedure as SHAMS and produces Mode Natural Frequency (Hz)
the same type of output. The transient solution is developed Analysis Test
at each time step using a Duhamel integral for accurate inte-
1 19.7 19.9
gration of load through time [11. The cylinder pressure and
2 56.7 56.4
reciprocating inertia loads are generated at each time step.
The reciprocating inertia is calculated based on the current 3 90.3 -
value of angular velocity of the crankshaft.
STAMS uses the same input data as SHAMS except for
the engine speed and firing pressure data. This data may be The response for both coastdown and startup was deter-
provided in a number of ways depending upon the type of mined based on cylinder pressure for one cylinder. A compar-
transient. For a coastdown analysis. an indicator diagram of ison of the coastdown response with torsiograph test data is
a typical cylinder without fuel and the relationship between shown in Figure 4.
engine speed and time are required. For a start-up analysis. Good correlation was obtained using a low value of damp-
the angular velocity of the cranl(shaft must also be specified ing equal to 0.006. The calculated nominaltorisonal stresses
as a function of time. This may be done by measuring the at each shaft seeton are shown in Table 5.
speed of an engine as it passes through the start-up. The The fast start transient was modeled and tested under
cylinder pressure may be specified either by supplying pres- two different conditions. Figure 5 shows the results for fast

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 Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Table 5' Nominal Torsional Stresses During Coastdown

~ain Journal Torsional Stress (psi)
Location Maximum Minimum
r:-BetweenCylinder
--- 1
and Cylinder 2 2,350 -2.340
Between Cylinder 2
...., ••• -, •• , " •• ~.lId and Cylinder 3 4.310 -4.520
.'br.UDII td.O" ••) ~

.. Between Cylinder
and Cylinder 4
3
6.150 -6.070
,-,..;;..,,.....!'"' Between Cylinder 4
.~ and Cylinder 5
Between Cylinder 5
6.310 -7.370

and Cylinder 6 8.650 -8.350

. --- ~, Between Cylinder

and Cylinder 7
6
9.900 -9.630

, . Between Cylinder 7

, 0''''
and Cylinder 8 10.980 -10.970
,no',,: Between Cylinder
and Cylinder 9
8
11.470 -11.720
-C'!!!"!.''':;:~~';;;;'. Between Cylinder 9
~~d Cylind:.r 10 11.660 -12.060
Bewteen Cylinder 10
and Cylinder 11 11.700 -11.910

Figure 3: Effect of initial crankshaft position on free-end starts in which the crankshaft was initially positioned so that
vibration during a fast start. cylinder 3 RB was at BDC of its exhaust stroke. A pressure
trace from one cylinder was used as input with the pressure
at other cylinders being found by interpolation.
It is seen that there is some variability between test mea-
surements for the two starts in Figure 5. The response of
this crankshaft under fast start conditions is sensitive to the
initial crankshaft position. The simulated model does not
check the fast start "A" or fast start "F" completely in every

++
detail. When the Tn input to the STAMS is adjusted to have
the cylinder 8RB starting at BDC of its exhaust stroke. the
~.:: 1
'FtonllIOQRAP~
_.
tE8T OATA~
. . ............_ _...:._ _ detail. When the Tn input to the STAMS is adjusted to have
;;; 0 . '--:- --- ' : Gil;: ~..;
the cylinder 8RB starting at BDC of its exhaust stroke. the
~:~ j ~ simulation becomes very close to the processed acceleration
~ ~ AHALytlCAL ~OEL O"'MPI~Q • ./:l000 test data for fast start "D." as shown in Figure 6.
ffi 0
.:. ~.

~-~'---
'- ,-,--i'G---3~0-·---.40---i'o---j,:O
CONCLUSIONS
TIME Incl

1. A technique utilizing modal superposition has been de-

veloped for the analyses of torsional vibrations under
steady~state and transient conditions.

Figure 4: Comparison of test and analytical results for coast- 2. Computer program SHAMS was found to accurately
down. predict the dynamic torsional response of crankshafts.
during steady~stale conditions such as an engine at
constant load and speed, or cylinder misfiring.

3. Computer program STAMS was found to accurately

predict the dynamic torsional response of crankshafts
during transient conditions which include startups.
coastdowns. and step changes in load.

25
 Downloaded from SAE International by University of Edinburgh, Tuesday, March 26, 2019

r~([·[wo ~,,~.l 1\JtI[

10£CR£1S1
'ROtEH[O J,Ct[.[R~ll0"
f~SI SURI -0-

,
,
f~U·[WO ~"'Ul\JO[
,
IOrC~[U'
t1tlUro TUI tl~U,
fAU SIA'l1 "/I.'
,
fR[[-[wO ~"~~IIl1D[
lll[CRHS'
"w~.IIlC"~ I'IOO[~ !:IIW:'J,
-, fOR ~,,~I SI"''I.1 -0"
,,
-,
-, ,,
,
f~tr-twO ~""UIl1D[
'------'-----'-----,
10[e~[UI
t1U[~[O lUI DAI ...
'UI SloIAl "f- tltlE_ISECOHOSl

-,
Figure 6: Comparison of test and analytical data for fast
start.
f~H"[WO ~"'UTlXl[
10rt~{[SI
~"~."ICf,l, 1'lQtl[l lOR
, ...SI StA'lIS ",," ,",,0 -f-

-, Analytical results from these programs have been com-

pared with test data obtained during testing of diesel gener-
alor engines. Good agreement was found between the ana-
T1 tI E _ IS E CO .. 0 51 lytical and test results.

REFERENCES

1. Vibration Problems in Engineering. Timoshenko.

Young and Weaver, John Wiley & Sons. Fourth Edi-
Figure 5: Comparison of test and analytical data for fast
tion. 1974.
start.
2_ "Numerical Modeling of Pendulum Dampers in Tor-
sional Systems," P. R. Johnston and L. M. Shusto.
SAE Paper No. 861227, presented at the 1986 SAE
OfT-Highway Meeting_

26