TECHNOLOGY STUDY FILE 10

INVESTIGATING THE CRANK-SLIDER

The purpose of this unit is to help you: Understand better the crank-slider linkage, how it works and what it does. Design a crank-slider linkage you might use in project work. The crank-slider converts movement from circular motion to oscillatory motion, or the other way around. It can therefore be used in two ways - either the shaft drives the piston or the piston drives the shaft (and, in the case of the petrol engine, both ways at different parts of the cycle).

In

Out

Out

In

A CRANK SLIDER MODEL

Connecting rod

Guides Slider

Radius

Crank

The extreme positions of a crank-slider mechanism Bottom dead centre (BDC)

Top dead centre (TDC)

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In each of the examples shown below, there is a crank-slider mechanism. Make sure you can identify the slider (piston), the connecting rod (con-rod), the shaft, the crank, top dead centre (TDC) and bottom dead centre (BDC).

In the pictures, find one example where the piston is driving the shaft and one where the shaft is driving the piston. Are there other cases of interest, for example, where the linkage does both?

HOW ARE THE INPUT AND OUTPUT MOVEMENTS MEASURED?

The oscillations are counted. The rate of oscillation is measured by counting the number of oscillations per second. This is measured in Hertz but often referred to as cycles per second. The size of the oscillation is measured by amplitude which is half the distance between the TDC and BDC. Rotations are counted and the rate of rotation is measured by counting the number of revolutions per second. In industry, often the number of revolutions per minute are counted. This is abbreviated to r.p.m.

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Here is a summary: Slider Input or output Oscillatory motion ...Amplitude (mm) and Number of oscillations/sec (Hz) Shaft or Crank Output or input Rotational motion ...Radius (mm) and Number of revolutions/sec

PRACTICAL: THE CRANK-SLIDER

This practical investigation looks at the motion of the crank slider and how the design affects it. The investigation is carried out using cardboard engineering. First, cut out and assemble the parts from the card template (TSF 11). They should look like this:
Fix connecting rod with paper fasteners

Angle of crank rotation

Fix crank wheel to base with paper fastener

Glue follower guides to base board

1. Using the rig, rotate the crank steadily and observe the motion of the slider. Check that: If you input five turns (i.e. turn the crank five times), the slider oscillates up and down five times. If you make half a turn, the slider makes half an oscillation. The transmission ratio is therefore 1:1. The piston moves slowest at TDC and BDC. The piston moves fastest near the centre, about halfway between TDC and BDC.

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Use graph paper to plot a graph showing the motion of the slider as the crank rotates. The horizontal axis represents the angle the shaft has turned through (in degrees) and the vertical axis shows the displacement of the slider (in millimetres). It should look similar to the graph below which was obtained for another crank slider. The TDC and BDC are marked on the graph. You can check that the amplitude is 45 mm for our piston by halving the difference between the pistons displacement at TDC and its displacement at BDC.

displacement of the slider

TDC

BDC 1 2 3

rotation of the crank (revolutions)

Mark TDC, BDC and amplitude on your graph. Mark the point where you think the slider is moving slowest and fastest. 2. Before you try it in practice, guess what will happen to the motion of the piston when you increase the radius of the crank rotation. What happens to the graph of the slider motion? Make a sketch.
displacement of the slider

rotation of the crank (revolutions)

Try reconnecting the conrod to a new position in the rig and see what happens. Do rough sketches of the graphs you obtain on the same axes so you can see what is going on:

Change the radius but keep the conrod length the same

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3. Write a brief conclusion to your research: The effect of increasing the shaft radius while keeping the same conrod length is.... In the next activity, you will use a computer sketch to look more carefully at these and other effects.

4. Change the length of the conrod. The rig comes with five different length conrods. You can repeat your investigations using several different lengths.

Change the conrod length but keep the radius the same

5. Feel the force for different conrod lengths. Use three conrods of different lengths the longest, shortest and one between them. Connect each one in turn. Try to get a feel for the force you need to turn the crank in these positions: - at BDC and TDC; - half way between; - on either side.

TDC

BDC

Can you feel any difference? Try taking measurements using a force meter. You can also use a different radius for the crank. Which crank would you use for maximum movement of the slider? Which conrod would you use? Which conrod gives the least friction? Why do these two answers give you a problem?

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