Side or overhung crankshaft

Side crankshaft has only one crank web & require only two bearing for
support.
Used in medium size engine and large size horizontal engines.
Centre crankshaft
Centre crankshaft has two crank web and three bearing for support.
Used in radial aircraft engines, marine engines and more popular in
automotive engines.
Depending upon no. of crank pin used in assembly :
Single throw crankshaft
Multi throw crankshaft

Crankshaft is a central component of any internal combustion
engine and is used to convert reciprocating motion of the piston into
rotary motion through connecting rod and vice versa.
Crankshaft consist of three portions:
Crank pin
Crank web
Shaft
Crankshaft should have sufficient strength to withstand
bending and twisting moment to which it is subjected.

The crankshaft is subjected to fluctuating stresses and it should
have sufficient endurance limit stress.

Crankshaft are commonly made by drop forging process.

Popular material used for crankshaft are plain carbon steel and
alloy steel.

Plain carbon steels include 40C8, 45C8 and 50C8.

Alloy steels used for making crankshaft are nickel chromium
steels such as
16Ni3Cr2, 35Ni5Cr2 and 40Ni10Cr3Mo6.

Material Selection
Crankshaft subjected to bending and torsion force due to
following three forces -

i. Force exerted by connecting rod on crank pin
ii. Weight of flywheel (W) acting downward in vertical direction
iii. Resultant belt tension acting in horizontal direction (P
1
+P
2
)

In the design of crankshaft two cases of crank position are
considered -

Case I: Crank is at top dead centre position and subjected to
maximum bending moment and no torsional moment.

Case II: Crank is at any angle with the line of dead centre position
and subjected to maximum torsional moment.

Force Imposed On Crankshaft
Pp = force on crank pin
D = diameter of piston
p
max
= max. gas pressure inside
the cylinder
W = weight of flywheel
P
1
= tension on tight side
P
2
= tension on slack side
b = distance between main
bearing 1 &2
c = distance between main
bearing 2 &3
R
1
, R
2
, R
3
are the reactions at the
bearings 1, 2 and 3

Crankshaft at top dead centre
i. Bearing reaction :
Thrust on connecting rod
P
p
= (D
2
/4)p
max

Crankshaft is simply supported between bearing 1 &2 and
subjected to force P
p

P
p
*b
1
= (R
2
)
v
*b or (R
2
)
V
= (P
p
*b
1
)/b

Similarly, P
p
*b
2
= (R
1
)
v
*b or (R
1
)
V
= (P
p
*b
2
)/b
Crankshaft is simply supported between bearing 2 & 3 and
subjected to vertical force W and horizontal force (P
1
+P
2
)
W*c
1
= (R
3
)
v
*c or (R
3
)
v
= (W*c
1
)/c
W*c
2
= (R
2
)
v
*c or (R
2
)
v
= (W*c
2
)/c
(P
1
+P
2
)*c
1
= (R
3
)
h
*c or (R
3
)
h
=
{(P
1
+P
2
)*c
1
}/c
(P
1
+P
2
)*c
2
= (R
2
)
h
*c or (R
2
)
h
=
{(P
1
+P
2
)*c
2
}/c

Analytical relations
Resultant reaction at the bearings are as
follows:
R
1
= (R
1
)
v
R
2
= [(R
2
)
v
+(R
2
)
v
]
2
+ [R
2
)
h
]
2

R
3
= [(R
3
)
v
]
2
+ [(R
3
)
h
]
2
ii. Design of crank pin :


The crank pin is subjected to max.
bending moment at central plane.

(M
b
)
c
= (R
1
)
v
b
1

I = (d
c
4
/64) ; y=d
c
/2 ;
b
= {(M
b
)
c
*y}/I
(Mb)c = (d
c
3
/32)*
b


Diameter of crank pin is determined
by the above equation.


The length of crank pin is determined by bearing consideration.
p
b
= allowable bearing pressure at crank pin

p
b
= P
p
/d
c
l
c

iii. Design of Left hand Crank Web :
From empirical relationships
t = 0.7d
c
and w = 1.14d
c

The left hand crank web is subjected to direct compressive stress and
bending stress due to eccentricity of reaction (R
1
)
v.



c
= (R
1
)
v
/wt

M
b
= (R
1
)
v
[ b
1
-l
c
/2-t/2]

I = (wt
3
/12) ; y = (t/2) ;
c
= M
b
y/I


b
= {(R
1
)
v
[ b
1
-l
c
/2-t/2](t/2)} / (wt
3
/12)


b
= 6(R
1
)
v
[ b
1
-l
c
/2-t/2] / (wt
2
)



The total compressive stress is given by:
(
c
)
t
=
c
+
b

The total compressive stress should be less than the allowable
bending stress.

iv. Design of Right hand crank Web :
The right hand and left hand crank webs should be identical from
balancing consideration.

v. Design of Shaft Under Flywheel :
The central plane of the shaft is subjected to maximum bending
moment.
Bending moment in the vertical plane due to wt. of flywheel -
(M
b
)
v
= (R
3
)
v
c
2

Bending moment in horizontal plane due to resultant belt tension -
(M
b
)
h
= (R
3
)
h
c
2
Resultant bending moment
Mb= (M
b
)
v
2
+ (M
b
)
h
2
= [(R
3
)
v
c
2
]
2
+ [(R
3
)
h
c
2
]
2



Similarly ,
Mb = (d
s
3
/32)*
b
d
s
is the diameter of shaft under flywheel



Model
Referenc
e
Properties Components
Name: chromoly steel
Model
type:
Linear Elastic
Isotropic
Default
failure
criterion:
Max von Mises
Stress
Yield
strength:
5.5e+007 N/m^2
Tensile
strength:
8.3e+007 N/m^2
Mass
density:
4020 kg/m^3
Elastic
modulus:
2e+009 N/m^2
Poisson's
ratio:
0.3
Solid Body 1(Cut-
Extrude4)(Crankshaf
t)
Total Nodes 44632
Total Elements 25685
Maximum Aspect Ratio 34.094
% of elements with
Aspect Ratio < 3
72.2
% of elements with
Aspect Ratio > 10
1.11
% of distorted
elements(Jacobian)
0
Time to complete
mesh(hh;mm;ss):
00:00:34
Computer name: SIDDHANT
Jacobian points: 4


Mesh and Wireframe
Buckling Displacement
Buckling Displacement
Superimposed Deformation
Cut way section clip
In the given approach, relation between the theoretical as well as
analytical results have been compared. The overall analysis is
summarized as follows:

The following design holds good with a factor of safety of 1.54
theoretically.

The modeled crankshaft have been analyzed and simulated on
FEM package and results are satisfactory with a factor of safety
2.315.

FEM simulation results are within the reliability range.

Results shown above theoretically do matches with standard
results.

Further research is required in this area of production for the
future development.