Grashof's Criterion: Crank-Rocker Four-Bar Mechanism

ezymechanic.blogspot.com/2015/08/grashofs-criterion-crank-rocker-four.html

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Grashof's criterion for Double Crank Four-Bar Mechanism is almost the same as Crank-Rocker
Mechanism. They're both defined as S+L < P+Q. The difference is on the location of the shortest link (S).
For double crank mechanism, S must be on the ground link (frame). But for the crank-rocker, S will be on
the side link and it must be the input link.

We then move the shortest link from the frame to the side link on LH. With the help of SAM 7.0
Professional software (by Artas Engineering), it can display the paths of desired nodes as shown in the
picture.

Grashof's Criterion: Crank-Rocker Mechanism using SAM 7.0 Professional Software

The pink curves represent paths of desired nodes. The input link which is now the shortest link is able to
make a full revolution. It's called a crank. And the output (can be either L, P or Q) will only oscillate
around its pivoting point. It's called a rocker. But if we change the driver to node 4 and let it drives from
the link which is not the shortest link, it can't be reversed. The shortest link can't make a full revolution.
What we have to do is to swap as shown in the following picture and it becomes a crank-rocker
mechanism again which is now driving from the RH pivoting point.

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 Grashof's Criterion: Crank-Rocker Mechanism Driver on RH side

How can we see the velocity? From the path display, we can see how they move. But to see the velocity,
we can choose to display the hodograph.

Path is the line that a moving point describes in the fixed reference system.

Velocity Hodograph is the locus of the arrowhead of the velocity vectors (rotated 90 degree) of a
moving point.

The hodograph in SAM 7.0 is shown as follows.

Velocity Hodograph in SAM 7.0 The Ultimate Mechanism Designer

The lines on the outside of the path represent CCW direction of the node. And the lines at the inside of
the path represent CW direction of the node. From the above picture, we can see that the input link of the

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crank-rocker mechanism rotates at a constant speed in CCW direction since the hodograph displays
uniform lines at outside of the circular path. However, the output link oscillates back and forth with
changes in velocity since there are lines of the hodograph both on the outside and inside of the its curve
path. And we can quickly point out the position where the mechanism has highest velocity from longest
line on the hodograph. SAM 7.0 is also able to plot various design parameters of the mechanism e.g.
velocity, displacement, acceleration, length, etc. In the above picture, LH graph shows the velocity profile
of the output link which can be traced manually. The following shows the hodograph of the double crank
mechanism for a comparison.
The following is the video showing how to use SAM
7.0 Software to simulate the double crank and crank-
rocker mechanisms.

Hodograph of Double Crank Mechanism

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/938LPzw_ITk

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Every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information but no liability can be accepted for
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