Internal Combustion Engine

*Crankshaft:
Crankshafts can be monolithic (made in a single piece) or assembled from several pieces. Monolithic crankshafts are most common, but some smaller and larger engines use assembled crankshafts.

Crankshaft is produced by forging or casting of heat treated alloy steel. The output of the crankshaft is transmitted to the flywheel as a torque. The other side has a sprocket drives the camshaft & the vibration damper. There is an electromagnetic sensor on the crankshaft in order to calculate the rpm and to maintain the firing order inside the piston.

*construction:
Main journals rotate on main bearing. Conrods contain the rod bearing. Forces affected on the crank shaft: substantial bending and torsional moments and the resulting tensile, compressive and shear stresses caused by the product of combustion chamber pressure acting on the top of the piston, this pressure is between 100 bar that gives 81051 Newton, and 200 bar that generates 162102 Newton. Piston Acceleration: (The combined weight of the piston, ring package, wristpin, retainers)

 Forging and casting:

Crankshafts can be forged from a steel bar usually through roll forging or cast in ductile steel. Today more and more manufacturers tend to favor the use of forged crankshafts due to their lighter weight, more compact dimensions and better inherent dampening. With forged crankshafts, vanadium micro alloyed steels are mostly used as these steels can be air cooled after reaching high strengths without additional heat treatment, with exception to the surface hardening of the bearing surfaces. The low alloy content also makes the material cheaper than high alloy steels. Carbon steels are also used, but these require additional heat treatment to reach the desired properties. Iron crankshafts are today mostly found in cheaper production engines (such as those found in the Ford Focus diesel engines) where the loads are lower. Some engines also use cast iron crankshafts for low output versions while the more expensive high output version use forged steel.

Forged crank is superior to a billet crank because of the allegedly uninterrupted grain flow that can be obtained in the forging process. That might be true of some components, but with respect to crankshafts, the argument fails because of the large dislocations in the material that are necessary to move the crankpin and counterweight material from the center of the forging blank to the outer extremes of the part. The resulting grain structure in the typical V8 crank forging exhibits similar fractured grain properties to that of a machined billet. More than one crankshaft manufacturer has told me that there is no way that a forging from the commonly used steel alloy SAE-4340 (AMS-6414) would survive in one of today's Cup engines.

 Machining:
Crankshafts can also be machined out of a billet, often using a bar of high quality vacuum remelted steel. Even though the fiber flow (local inhomogeneities of the material's chemical composition generated during casting) doesnt follow the shape of the crankshaft (which is undesirable), this is usually not a problem since higher quality steels which normally are difficult to forge can be used. These crankshafts tend to be very expensive due to the large amount of material removal which needs to be done by using lathes and milling machines, the high material cost and the additional heat treatment required. However, since no expensive tooling is required, this production method allows small production runs of crankshafts to be made without high costs.

There were trails for manufacturing welded crankshaft but no one pay attention due to the high cost and complexity compared to the measurable benefits. In certain cases, there are benefits to the use of a built-up crankshaft. Because of the masterrod mechanism necessary for the implementation of the radial piston engines that powered most aircraft until well into the second half of the 20th century, a bolted-together crankshaft configuration was used almost exclusively. Illustrates a typical two-row composite radial crankshaft and master-rod layout.

CRANKSHAFT MATERIALS: The steel alloys typically used in high strength crankshafts have been selected for what each designer perceives as the most desirable combination of properties. Medium-carbon steel alloys are composed of predominantly the element iron, and contain a small percentage of carbon (0.25% to 0.45%). Medium-carbon steel alloys are composed of predominantly the element iron, and contain a small percentage of carbon (0.25% to 0.45%, described as25 to 45 points of carbon), along with combinations of several alloying elements, the mix of which has been carefully designed in order to produce specific qualities in the target alloy, including hardenability, nitride ability, surface and core hardness, ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, endurance limit(fatigue strength), ductility, impact resistance, corrosion resistance, and temper embrittlement resistance. The alloying elements typically used in these carbon steels are manganese, chromium, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, cobalt, vanadium, and sometimes aluminum and titanium. Each of those elements adds specific properties in a given material. The carbon content is the main determinant of the ultimate strength and hardness to which such an alloy can be heat treated. In converting the linear motion of the piston into rotational motion, crank shafts operate under high loads and require high strength. Crankshafts require the following characteristics High strength and stiffness to withstand the high loads in modern engines, and to offer opportunities for downsizing and weight reduction. Resistance to fatigue in torsion and bending. Low vibration. Resistance to wear in the bearing areas. Thus the forged steel crankshafts offer higher strength and stiffness and the other material characteristics than the cast iron alternative.

 Crankshaft Design:
Three major parameters which affect crank stiffness are length, journal diameter and crankpin overlaps. The torsional rate of a cylindrical section varies directly with length and with the fourth power of diameter. Crankpin overlap is a measurement of how much crankpin material is horizontally aligned with the material of the adjacent main journals, showing a CPO of 0.225 with a 4.250" stroke crank having 2.100 rod journals and 2.600 main journals. CPO = (main diameter + crankpin diameter - stroke) / 2

Bearing Pressures and Stresses in Crankshaft The bearing pressures are very important in the design of crankshafts. The maximum permissible bearing pressure depends upon the maximum gas pressure, journal velocity, amount and method of lubrication and change of direction of bearing pressure. The following two types of stresses are induced in the crankshaft. 1. Bending stress. 2. Shear stress due to torsional moment on the shaft. The following procedure may be adopted for designing a crankshaft. 1. The crankshaft must be designed or checked for at least two crank positions. Firstly, when the crank-shaft is subjected to maximum bending moment and secondly when the crankshaft is subjected to maximum twisting moment or torque. 2. The additional moment due to weight of flywheel, belt tension and other forces must be considered. 3. It is assumed that the effect of bending moment does not exceed two bearings between which a force is considered.