Virtual Powertrain Conference

Crankshaft Lightweight Design and Evaluation Based on Simulation Technology

Sheng Su, Fuquan Zhao, Yi You, Huijun Li, Jingyan Hu, Feng-kai Wu,Chen Yang
Zhejiang Geely Automobile Institute CO. LT.

ABSTRACT
In order to reduce fuel consumption and emission and improve efficiency, it is essential to take lightweight design into consideration in concept design phase and layout design phase. Crankshaft is one of the most important components in gasoline engine, and it is related to durability, torsional vibration, bearing design and friction loss, therefore lightweight crankshaft must meet the needs to see to it that the final design is satisfactory. This paper is a review of crankshaft lightweight design and evaluation based on simulation technologies at concept and layout phases respectively.

INTRODUCTION
During engine lightweight process, lightweight of crankshaft should be considered prior to other components. Several parameters are taken into account; meanwhile some parameters are conflicting, so sometimes the designers have to make compromise decision to satisfy the requirements. Generally speaking the designers have to evaluate torsional vibration, durability and bearing results during crankshaft design process. Also different tools and simulation technologies are involved in concept design phase and layout design phase separately. In concept design phase the main target is to find optimal combination of different parameters. Due to many parameters that are considered, 1D simulation technology is used to save simulation time. In layout design phase, detailed crankshaft model has constructed, therefore 3D simulation analysis should be performed to achieve accurate results. Although it will take long time for one simulation task, it is still very effective as some optimal combinations are concluded in concept design phase.

CONCEPT DESIGN PHASE

LIGHTWEIGHT APPROACH For crankshaft lightweight design of Geely 1.0L turbo-charged gasoline engine, above all it is necessary to find out size parameters that need to be optimized, and then determine the definite values. In general, decreasing the diameters of main journal and crankpin are adopted to reduce the weight of crankshaft. The axial size of crankshaft is mainly dependant on the cylinder space. Concurrently considering engine family common, the final decision is made to decrease the diameter of crankpin journal. The current size is 44mm. If the diameter of crankpin journal is reduced, accordingly sizes of connecting rod big end and counter weight will be changed. OPTIMIZATION PROCESS As mentioned above, following analysis results should be satisfactory: bearing results, torsional vibration and strength. Since sizes of main journal and crankpin directly affect the bearing strength, it is necessary to determine the minimum big

end bearing diameter according to simulation results. In concept design phase, two aspects of bearing results should be assessed: maximum unit load and minimum oil film thickness. Finally it is concluded that the minimum diameter shouldnt be lower than 38mm. Figure 1 and 2 shows maximum unit load and minimum oil film thickness of big end upper bearing when the crankpin diameter is 38mm. It is known that the maximum unit load of big end upper bearing is much higher than the lower bearings, and the minimum oil film thickness of big end upper bearing is thinner than the lower bearings, therefore only upper bearing results are plotted. According to our experience these results are allowable, so the available range of crankpin diameter is from 38mm to 44mm.

Fig.1 Maximum unit load of big end upper bearing

Fig.2 Minimum oil film thickness of big end upper bearing

Next step is to determine the minimum crankpin diameter that agrees with strength requirement. In order to keep the balance rate, structure of counter weight is optimized. As we known, the most critical regions of crankshaft are main journal fillets and crankpin fillets. Simulation results show that the safety factors at main journal fillets are higher than the ones at crankpin fillet in each case, and minimum allowable diameter of crankpin is 40mm, so only safety factors at crankpin fillets are listed (see fig.3), when the crankpin diameter is 40mm. Fig.3 showed that the safety factors are above the limit, therefore the crankpin diameter is ranged from 40mm to 44mm after strength analysis.

Fig.3 Safety factors at crankpin fillets

Last step is to evaluate the torsional vibration characteristics in case that the crankpin diameter is 40mm. Figure 4 shows the critical speeds of cranktrain, and we can find that resonant speeds are 3400rpm and 5000rpm. Figure 5 depicts the TV damper dissipated power against engine speeds. As we seen, the maximum value is much lower than the limitation according to our experience. Figure 6 and figure 7 demonstrate the torsional vibration amplitude at front end flywheel cyclic irregularity at flywheel separately. It is evident that all results are available.

Fig.4 Critical speeds of cranktrain

Fig.5 TV damper dissipated power

Fig.6 Torsional vibration amplitude at crankshaft front end

Fig.7 Flywheel cyclic irregularity

LIGHTWEIGHT ACHIEVEMENT Crankpin and counter weight are optimized in concept design phase. As a result, the weight of crankshaft is decreased from 10.38kg to 8.65kg, reduced by 16.7%. Meanwhile one connecting rod is decreased by 0.056kg, nearly 10.6%. By now the entire engine is reduced by 1.954kg.

LAYOUT DESIGN PHASE

BEARING DETAILED ANALYSIS In layout design, the structure of parts has been confirmed so we should consider different structures of parts that affect their systems. In the concept design phase, in order to save calculation time that the calculated bearing is based on bearing parameters but the influences of bearing deformation and crankshaft deformation are not considered. In the layout design, in order to improve calculation precision, the choosing method to get the results is based on coupled of finite element method and finite volume method. Conrod big end bearing structure size is modified in concept phase but the main bearing structure size is not modified, so there is EHD result of Conrod big end bearing in the discourse. In fact, the main bearing of crankshaft is also calculated by EHD model and it satisfies the design requirements. The following picture is the comparison of conrod big end bearing of before and after lightweight design.

Fig.8 Comparison of Maximum Total Pressure

Fig.9 Comparison of Total Mean Friction Loss Power

Fig.10 Total Pressure at 40mm Diameter Conrod Big End Bearing at 5000rpm

Figure 8 is the comparison of 44mm bearing total pressure and 40mm bearing total pressure in each speed. In low speed, the total pressure of 44mm main bearing is higher than total pressure of 44mm main bearing. Figure 9 is the friction loss result of conrod big end bearing EHD analysis in each speed. According to figure 9, friction loss powers of both 44mm bearing and 40mm bearing are increased against speed. Moreover, in most speed, 40mm bearing friction loss is smaller than 44mm bearing friction loss. Figure 10 is total pressure distribution of 40mm conrod big end bearing at 5000rpm in different time. From the result, the maximum total pressure is 91.5MPa which is satisfied with design requirements.

Fig.11 Friction Loss Power Contribution Percentage

Fig.12 Friction Loss Power Contribution Percentage

Figure 11, For 40mm bearing, asperity friction loss accounts for minimum contribution at 3000rpm and 4000rpm. In this working condition, it is helpful to make shell life longer. In the figure12, asperity friction loss contribution percentage of 44mm diameter conrod big end bearing is larger than 40mm diameter conrod big end bearing.

Fig.13 Comparison of Asperity Friction Loss For conrod big end bearing size is reduced, meanwhile its stiffness is increased. The asperity friction loss is reduced. Figure 13 shows the comparison of asperity friction loss. 40mm big end bearing is recommended. CALCULATION AND ANALYSIS OF CRANKSHAFT STRENGTH In layout design, 40mm bearing satisfies design requirements. The following work is to validate if crankshaft of 40mm crank pin satisfies the strength requirement. According to the dynamics simulation results, six freedom displacements of crank pin and main journal are obtained in every working condition. First, use dynamics of flexible body to calculate displacement of each web. Then, calculate the displacement in onedimensional model. Last, calculate the minimum safety factor of each web in different working conditions. From the result of one-dimensional software calculation, the web and the operating condition, which achieves the minimum safety factor, is obtained. Following is the One-dimensional software calculation result, there just is the safety factor result of crank pin fillet.

Fig.14 Crank Pin Fillet Comparison Factor From figure 14, at 4000rpm and 5000rpm speed working condition, safety factor of crank pin fillet is the minimum at web 8. In web 8, safety factor of main journal fillet is the minimum at 4000rpm and at 5500rpm working condition. If the safety factor satisfies design requirements at web 8 in finite element analysis, the safety factors of other web fillets are all satisfied with the design requirement.

Fig.15 Displacement Loads on Web for FEM Analysis In order to improve the calculation precision of crank pin fillet stress, sub-model finite element method is chosen. Submodel is first order hex element. The following picture is the sketch map of fillet sub-model.

Fig.16 Global Model and Sub-model Due to load history and unit load static analysis results, the safety factors of main journal fillet and crank pin fillet are calculated. The safety factor at 4000rpm is higher than that at 5500rpm, so the fillet safety factor just is displayed at 5500rpm in web 8.

Fig.17 Safety Factor of Sub-model Fillet In the figure 17, safety factors of crank pin and main journal fillet are all higher than Geely`s limit.

CALCULATION AND ANALYSIS OF TORSIONAL VIBRATION Next step is to research cranktrain torsional vibration. Crankshaft torsional vibration characteristics can be improved by the optimal TV damper, which will be carried out eventually.

Fig.18 Critical Speeds of Cranktrain

Fig.19 Dissipated Power of the TV Damper

Fig.20 Torsional Vibration at Crankshaft Front End

Fig.21 Torsional Vibration at Crankshaft Front End

Fig.22 Cyclic Speed Irregularity From figure 18, there are resonant speeds at 3400rpm and 5100rpm. From figure 19,after optimization the dissipated power of TV damper is less than 120w power which corresponding to requirements. In the figure 20, TV damper hub synthesis amplitude is less than 0.4deg.Single order amplitude is less than 0.2deg. They satisfy the requirements that synthesis amplitude is less than 0.5deg and single amplitude is less than 0.3deg. In the figure 21, from 4500rpm to 5700rpm torsional vibration damper has larger vibration amplitude in 340Hz.From figure 18, it can be analyzed that resonance maybe occurs from 4500rpm to 5700rpm. In the figure 22, it can be seen that cyclic speed irregularity is 0.06 at 1500rpm which satisfies Geely`s criteria.

In a word, torsional vibration characteristics is satisfactory. TEST AND VALIDATION The above statements just can be crankshaft lightweight design phase that cannot prove the above statement is totally correct. It must be validated by fatigue test. Crankshaft fatigue test was performed according to national automobile industry standard QC/T637-2000, From the above statements it can be concluded that the above analysis is helpful to crankshaft lightweight design.

CONCLUSION
After lightweight design, the weight of crankshaft reduces from 10.38kg to 8.65kg. The reduced weight is 16.7 of the original. The weight of engine conrod reduces from 0.473kg to 0.29kg. The reduced weight is 10.6 of the original. Four conrods are totally reduced 0.224kg. The crankshaft and conrod are reduced 1.954kg in all. Using two design phases in the lightweight design of crankshaft can reduce the research and development time effectively. The concept design phases aims to find out optimization scheme and confirms structure size. Layout phase is used to validate crankshaft in the concept design phase which satisfies the design requirement or not. Using different design phases, choosing different simulation technology will improve analysis efficiency meanwhile save research and development time.

REFERENCES
[1] Greenwood, J.A., Williamson, J.B.P., "The Contact of two Nominally Flat Surfaces", Proc. Roy. Soc., A295, pp 300319, 1966 1966 [2] Greenwood, J.A., Tripp, J.H., "The Contact of two Nominally Flat Rough Surfaces", Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs., 185, pp 48-71, 1971. 1966 [3] AVL Excite Designer User Manual [4] Robert C.Bremer, Jr.A Practical Treatise on Engine Crankshaft Torsional Vibration Control.SAE/SP-79,790763.

CONTACT
Sheng Su, master, major research: engine FEA simulation, E-mail address: fdjyjs@geely.com