Rflex Crankshaft Tutorial (Durability)
Rflex Crankshaft Tutorial (Durability)
Rflex Crankshaft Tutorial (Durability)
Edition Note
This document describes the release information of RecurDyn V9R1.
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................ 1
Task Objectives....................................................................................... 1
Requirements ......................................................................................... 2
Tasks ..................................................................................................... 2
Estimated Time to Complete ..................................................................... 2
Calling the Inital Model ............................................................. 3
Task Objective ........................................................................................ 3
Estimated Time to Complete ..................................................................... 3
Calling the Rdyn model............................................................................ 4
Running the Initial Simulation on the 4-Cylinder Engine Model ...................... 5
Creating an RFlex Body ............................................................ 6
Task Objective ........................................................................................ 6
Estimated Time to Complete ..................................................................... 6
Creating an RFlex Body ............................................................................ 7
Conducting the Dynamic Analysis on the RFlex Body and Reviewing the Results9
Conducting the Durability Analysis ............................................ 15
Task Objective ...................................................................................... 15
Estimated Time to Complete ................................................................... 15
Conducting the Durability Analysis........................................................... 16
Analyzing and Reviewing the Results ......................................... 30
Task Objective ...................................................................................... 30
Estimated Time to Complete ................................................................... 30
Analyzing the Safety Factor Results ......................................................... 31
D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
1
Chapter
Introduction
Fatigue and durability analyses are designed to determine how long a flexible body or specific
area of a flexible body modeled in RecurDyn can stably endure various dynamic loads. Such
analyses can also determine how stable a body is. The focus on time distinguishes these
forms of analysis from other analysis methods, such as those used to determine maximum
stress and maximum deformation rates.
RecurDyn, in consideration of the flexibility of the model, supports RFlex of FFlex bodies in
multi-body dynamic models. Therefore, this tutorial teaches you how to use the
RecurDyn/Durability module to analyze the durability of both the FFlex bodies and the RFlex
bodies.
The model being used in this tutorial is a simplified 4-cylinder internal combustion engine.
The crankshaft in this model has been replaced with an RFlex body, and the combustive
explosion process occurring in the four cylinders push the pistons to provide a dynamic load.
The durability analysis in this tutorial determines the stability and durability of the crankshaft
design.
Task Objectives
This tutorial covers the following:
Replacing a flexible body using RecurDyn/RFLEX
Verifying stresses using RecurDyn/RFLEX
Recognizing the requirements for the durability analysis
Obtaining durability analysis results
Analyzing durability analysis results
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Requirements
This tutorial is intended for intermediate users who have read and understood the basic
tutorial as well as the FFlex and RFlex tutorials available from RecurDyn. If you have not
completed these tutorials, then you are advised to complete them before proceeding with this
tutorial. In addition, this tutorial requires a basic understanding of dynamics and the finite
element method.
Tasks
This tutorial is composed of the following procedures. This table also shows the time required
to complete each task.
Total 65
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
The above figure shows a model of an inline 4 cylinder engine, which consists of a cylinder
block, pistons, connecting rods, and a crankshaft. In an actual combustion engine, a gas
explosion forces the four pistons vertically into the cylinder block, causing the connecting
rods on each piston to rotate the crankshaft. In order to simulate such a process in RecurDyn,
you must simulate the timing of the gas explosion in the force profile and directly assign it to
the piston bodies as a vibration force.
To save the initial model:
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
1. From the Simulation Type group in the Analysis tab, click Dyn/Kin.
The Dynamic/Kinematic Analysis dialog window appears.
2. Verify the simulation conditions, and click the Simulation button.
Viewing the results:
When your click the Play button from the Animation Control group in the Analysis tab,
the fuel explodes in all four pistons in the following order:
Piston_1 Piston_3 Piston_4 Piston_2. You can verify the size of the arrows indicating
the force in the animation. Generally, four processes occur in each stroke of the piston
(intake compression explosion exhaust). However, in the dynamic model used in this
tutorial, only the gas explosion force generated by explosion is significant. Thus, the force
profile was created with respect to the timing of the explosive force, and it was modeled in
order to assign force to each piston in the appropriate order.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
3
Chapter
Task Objective
This task teaches you how to replace an existing rigid body with a flexible body using the
RFlex body feature provided in RecurDyn/RFlex and conduct a fatigue analysis on the flexible
body.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
4. From the Simulation Type group in the Analysis tab, click Dyn/Kin. When the dialog
window appears, click Simulation to run the analysis without changing the settings.
It does not take long to complete the simulation. During the simulation, the animation is
similar to the previous crankshaft body animation.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
1. From the RFlex group in the Flexible tab, click Stress Strain Shape Generation.
The Stress Shape Generation dialog window appears.
2. In the Stress Shape Generation dialog window, perform the following:
For the RecurDyn/Flex Input File, specify the RFI file.
Select Stress Shape.
Click Generate.
The status dialog window appears to display the stress shape creation progress, as
shown in the figure on the right.
3. After the stress shape is created, click Close in both dialog windows.
Tip: Since the RFI file provided in this tutorial includes only the mode shape information, you
must add the stress shape information to the existing RFI file in order to view the stress
result. Naturally, this process will increase the size of the RFI file.
To view the simulated stress results in the contour view of RecurDyn/RFlex, you must create
output files, *.srd files, in the output folder. These files save the stress results for all the
nodes in the RFlex body. You can still see the results if you do not create output files, but it
may slow the contour animation.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
Tip: When creating an output file, only the Von-Mises, Sx, Sy, and Sz tests are included to
reduce the file size. If you would like to view other results in the contour, you must select
every check buttons.
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and drag the cursor across the model to select the entire body.
4. Right-click the selected body, and click Finish Operation in the context menu.
5. In the Patch Set dialog window, click OK.
6. After the patch set has been created, click Exit in the Exit group of the RFlex Edit tab
to return to the parent mode.
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From the Animation Control group in the Analysis tab, click Reload the last animation
file, as demonstrated below.
Tip: When creating the patch set for the RFlexBody1, it may appear as though the previous
analysis results are no longer available. However, that procedure does not affect the dynamic
analysis results. Therefore, there is no need to perform the dynamic analysis again. You can
simply retrieve the animation file, or the RAD file, for the previously analyzed result.
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1. From the Durability group in the Durability tab, click Preference to open the
Preference dialog window.
2. In the Preference dialog window, on the Material tab, specify the path to the Material
Library file for the fatigue analysis.
(C:\Users\<Your Windows Login ID>\Documents\RecurDyn\<RecurDyn Version> or an
equivalent path depending on the OS environment)
3. On the Fatigue Influencing Factors tab, in the Fatigue Factors group, set the
Notch Factor Amp (Kf, Kt) to 1.2, as shown below.
The Notch Factor increases the analytically derived stress value to account for stress
concentrations due to cracks, holes, and notches (V grooves) caused by the design and
processing of the structure. Therefore, the larger the notch factor value is, the more
severe the durability analysis will be.
4. In the Preference dialog window, do not change the Convergence Control or Rainflow
Counting values, and click OK.
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6. Click the EL button to the right of the Element/Patch Set text box.
7. Select the Patch Set for
RFlexBody1.
8. A Time History set is defined
already, in the Time History
dialog window. To change the
range of time, click R.
9. In the Time Range dialog
window, click All.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
3. To make the results more visible, click Edit in the Style Option group of the Durability
Contour dialog window, and change the colors as follows.
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4. Click Contour View again to highlight the least durable sections in red, as shown below.
This makes it easier to identify the areas with a relatively short fatigue life. (Tip: At this
point, if you would like a more detailed Contour Plot, then select Wireframe in the
toolbar before viewing the results.)
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
3. In the dialog window to create the new material, perform the following:
For the FatigueLimitStress value, enter 400.
For the Name, enter Crankshaft_Material.
For the UltimateStrength, enter 850.
Click OK.
Tip:
The
materia
l
propert
y
informa
tion
require
d to
derive
the
safety
factor is
the
fatigue
limit stress and the ultimate strength. However, the fatigue limit stress is not available in the
material property information provided by the material library. In such cases, the cyclic yield
stress is used instead of the fatigue limit stress information to derive the safety factor.
However, when creating a new material to calculate the safety factor in this case, enter the
fatigue limit stress directly.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
4. Return to the Material Manager dialog window, right-click the newly created
Crankshaft_Material and click Make Active.
5. In the Material Manager dialog window, click OK.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
To reset the patch set and derive the safety factor again:
In the previous procedure, you derived the safety factor by selecting the patch set for the
entire surface of the RFlex body. Consequently, the calculation takes a considerable amount
of time. You can decrease the calculation time by only performing the fatigue analysis on
specific sections. Choose these sections based on the Von-Mises stress contour results, and
set the patch set only for those specific sections. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Double-click the RFlexBody1 to enter RFlex Body Edit Mode.
2. From the Set group in the RFlex Edit tab, click Patch Set.
3. In the Patch Set dialog window, perform the following:
For the Tolerance (Degree), enter 60.
Click Add/Remove (Continuous), and select an element of interest, as shown
below.
If the degree difference between the Normal Vectors of the selected patch and
neighboring patches are within the range of 60 degrees, then the system
automatically selects it as the patch set.
Right-click the element, and click Finish Operation in the context menu.
On the General tab, change the name to Checking_Point_1.
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
4. Repeat step 3 to create three more patch sets, as shown below. At this point, the names
of the patch sets should be Checking_Point_2, Checking_Point_3, and
Checking_Point_4.
After you have created the four patch sets, you can view the patch set information in the
database, as shown in the figure to the right:
5. Confirm that the patch sets were created successfully, and then click the Exit icon from
the Exit group in the RFlex Edit tab
to return to the parent mode.
6. From the Animation Control group
in the Analysis tab, click Reload the
last animation file.
7. From the Durability group in the
Durability tab, click Fatigue.
8. When the Fatigue Evaluation dialog
window appears, change the name of
the Element/Patch Set to
Crankshaft.Checking_Point_1. Do
not change any other settings.
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10. From the Durability group in the Durability tab, click Contour.
11. In the Contour dialog window, click Calculation.
12. Click Contour View to show the result for Checking_Point_1, as shown below.
13. Perform the same procedure to get the results for Checking_Point_2,
Checking_Point_3, and Checking_Point4.
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Therefore, the fatigue limit stress and the yield stress are sufficient to derive the safety
factor. In this tutorial, you have also used these two data items to derive the safety factor
of the crankshaft material created during the new material creation process.
The first durability analysis performed in this tutorial took approximately 2 minutes to
create the patch sets for the entire RFlex body and derive the safety factor (this time may
vary depending on your PC specifications). This may seem like a relatively long time, but
it can be decreased as follows:
a. Study the Von-Mises stress distribution in the RFlex/Contour and identify the weak
sections of the structure.
b. Set the patch sets for the weak sections only.
c. This method is essential if you need to derive fatigue results repeatedly while
varying the durability analysis conditions.
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Checking_Point_4
The following table compares the safety factors derived from the four patch sets for the
initially chosen material ([Steel] 1020) and the new crankshaft material.
Since the proportional limit and the yield stress for the new crankshaft material are
greater than those for [Steel] 1020, the new crankshaft material has a higher safety
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D U R A B I L I T Y R F L E X C R A N K S H A F T T U T O R I A L
factor. Furthermore, you can see that the section where the smallest safety factor is
derived from is Checking_Point_4.
In general, the Safety Factor in a structure can be expressed by the relationship between
the maximum stress and the yield stress. Assuming the maximum stress at
Checking_Point_4 of the crankshaft used in this tutorial is 72 Mpa and the yield stress of
[Steel]1020 is 262 Mpa, then the safety factor could simply be expressed in 262/72=3.63.
However, the result you got in this tutorial is 2.24, and you can see that there is a
difference.
If the crankshaft does not get dynamic loads in the engine but gets only static loads, then
it is significant to derive the safety factor with the yield stress and the maximum stress.
However, when it is the structure exhibiting dynamic behaviors such as the crankshaft,
the safety factor derived from fatigue analysis does become significant.
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