International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering

Volume 4, Issue 1, September-2016 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF CONNECTING ROD

Nagaraju K L1, Chandan R2
1 2
M-Tech Scholar, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Abstract: The connecting rod is the transitional part end0pin gaps are machined to0permit accurate0fitting of
between the piston and the crankshaft. Its essential capacity course. One end of the interfacing bar is connected with the
is to transmit the push and pull from the piston pin to the chamber by the barrel pin. Interfacing bars are subjected to
crank pin, in this way changing over the reciprocating strengths produced by mass and fuel ignition. These two
motion of the cylinder into turning movement of the crank. qualities result in pivotal load and bowing burdens. A partner
The capacity of connecting rod is to transmit the push of bar must be prepared for transmitting pivotal pressure, hub
the piston to the crank shaft, and as the outcome the pressure, and bowing anxiety achieved by the push and draw
reciprocating motion of the piston is interpreted into of the chamber and by radial power.
rotational movement of the wrench shaft. It comprises of a
pin–end, a shank section and a crank end. Pin end and II. OBJECTIVES OF THIS PAPER
crank end pin holes are machined to allow exact fitting of The objective of this study
bearings. One end of the connecting rod is associated with Determine the total stress developed on the connecting rod
the cylinder by the cylinder pin. Interfacing rods are due to the force applied on the connecting rod from the
subjected to forces generated by mass and fuel combustion. power stroke of a Spark-ignition engine. And also to study
These two strengths result in axial load and bending the effects of buckling load of the same magnitude as that of
stresses. An associating bar must be equipped for the power stroke applied on the connecting rod from the
transmitting axial tension, axial compression, and bending power stroke of a Spark-ignition engine.
stress brought about by the thrust and pull of the cylinder Methodology
and by centrifugal force. In this thesis, a connecting rod is  Geometry of a connecting rod will be modeled
demonstrated utilizing catiav5, discretization utilizing using modeling software (CATIA v5).
HyperMesh and analysis utilizing Nastran. The outcome  The Generated CAD Model is then discretized and a
predicts the most extreme buckling load and basic locale on Finite Element Model will be created using a Pre-
the interfacing pole. It is imperative to find the basic Processor (Hyper Mesh).
territory of concentrated stress for fitting adjustments. To  The loads and boundary conditions that were
discover the stresses created in interfacing pole under static calculated will be applied on the FE Model during
loading with various stacking states of compression and Pre-Processing.
tension at crank end and pin end of connecting rod.  The generated solver deck is fed to a solver
Keywords: connecting rod; static analysis; buckling (NASTRAN).
analysis; finite element analysis.  Post-processing of the results obtained are
performed with Post-processor (Hyper View).
I. INTRODUCTION Buckling analysis
In this paper, one segment of a motor specifically, the There0are0two0major0categories0leading0to0the0sudden0fa
connecting rod, will be broke down. Being a champion ilure0of0a0mechanicomponent:material0failure0and0structur
amongst the most vital parts in an engine's diagram, the alinstability,which0is0often0called0buckling.Formaterial0fai
interfacing pole must have the ability to withstand immense lureyou0need0to consider the0yield stress for
loads and transmit a considerable measure of force. It is ductile0materials and the ultimate stress for
nothing sudden that a failure in an associating bar can be one brittle0materials.Buckling is the instable phenomenon. The
of the costliest and hurting frustrations in an engine. buckling happens only at one load, and that load is called as
Regardless, fundamentally saying that isn't adequate to critical buckling load which is given by Euler formula Pcr =
totally fathom the elements of the situation. π2EI/ le2
The interfacing bar is the transitional part between0the Where,
cylinder and the0crankshaft. Its key limit is to0transmit the E- Young’s modulus
push0and draw from0the cylinder pin0to the wrench0pin, I-Moment of Inertia
along these lines changing over the responding movement of Le-Effective length of the column
the chamber into turning development of the wrench. The When the maximum stress of the structure is less than
limit of associating bar is to transmit the push of the cylinder ultimate strength and it is said to be safe, at that time critical
to the wrench shaft, and as the result the responding buckling load becomes design driver i.e. if the applied load is
movement of the cylinder is deciphered into rotational greater than the critical buckling load, the structure will fail
development of the wrench shaft. It includes a pin0end, even though it is designed with respect to its strength.
a0shank segment and a wrench end. Pin0end and wrench

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 4, Issue 1, September-2016 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

III. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS A. LOADS AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

The below figure shows the geometric model of a connecting
rod used in a two-cylinder SI Engine. The modeling has been
done using the modeling software, CATIA v5. It contains a
piston end, shank and a crank end divided into two parts for
easier installation. For model simplification, all fillets and
chamfers below 3mm are neglected and the final model is
represented in the above figure. The shank is an I-section of
varying section with the smaller end at the piston end and the
larger section at the crank end.

Figure 3: Finite Element model of connecting rod with Loads

and Boundary conditions.
Figure 3 shows the discretized model with loads and
boundary conditions applied. For this analysis, the
Figure 1: Geometric model of connecting rod used connecting rod is placed at the top dead center during the
The geometric model shown in the previous section is commencement of the power stroke. Hence, the crank is
discretized using tetrahedral elements. (Figure 1) These constrained in all degrees of freedom and the load is applied
elements are selected because of their ability to capture the on the piston end of the connecting rod. The calculations
geometry of any complex model. Since this model is of relating to the load applied is shown below.
various shapes and sizes, a tetra element of the first order is
selected. The crank was divided into two components in the B. ENGINE SPECIFICATION AND CALCULATIONS
geometric model and the same has been maintained in the FE Engine Capacity : 2967 cc
model also. Power developed : 232 hp (173 kW)
Torque developed : 300 Nm at 4500 rpm
Stroke : 79.5 mm
Bore : 89 mm
Compression ratio : 10:1
The Forces acting on the piston end of the connecting rod is
given by the equation,
Force = Gas force – Inertial force ……..………………… (1)
Where,
Figure 1: Finite Element model of connecting rod Gas Force = Pressure X Cylinder bore area …………...... (2)
Table 1 gives the material properties applied to the model. Inertial Force = mp X
The material is forged steel and its properties are given ap……………….…………………...(3)
below. The material properties required for the current 2𝜃
analysis are Young’s, Modulus, Poisson’s ratio, density and 𝑎𝑝 = 𝑟𝜔2 cos 𝜃 + cos …………..…………….. (4)
𝑛
ultimate strength. This is because the analysis is of structural Where,
nature and other properties are not considered in the analysis. r = Crank radius
Table 1 – Material Properties ω = angular velocity
Material Name: Forged steel θ = Crank angle
Property Unit Value (For maximum power, it can be assumed that the crank angle
Young’s Modulus GPa 206.7 will be 0° or 360°)
Poisson’s Ratio - 0.3 The mean effective pressure inside the cylinder can be
Density Kg/m3 7820 calculated by using the below formula.
𝑃𝑚 𝐿𝐴𝑁
Ultimate strength MPa 827 Power (P) = ………………..…............................. (5)
60
Table 2: Elements and nodes count Where,
Table 2 gives the number of nodes and elements generated Pm = Mean effective pressure (MPa)
during the discretization. The total mass of thee model is seen L = Stroke length (m)
to be around 2.2 kg which is close to the actual value. A = Area of the cylinder (m2)
Nodes 3739 N = Speed of the engine (RPM)
Elements 12839 𝜋𝐷𝑁
Angular velocity =
60

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 4, Issue 1, September-2016 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

Where, Figure 5 above shows the Von Mises stress plot for the
D = Diameter of the crankshaft (m) selected connecting rod under the loads applied. It is clear
N = Speed of the engine (RPM) from the above figure that the shank is subjected to a
Or maximum stress near the piston end at a value of 414.34
173 𝑋10 3 𝑋 60 MPa. This value is very much less than the yield strength of
Pm= the material and hence it can0be said that the0connecting rod
0.0795 𝑋 0.006221 𝑋 4500
= 4663988.916 N/m2 is safe under the applied0load because the value of the stress
= 4.6 MPa = 46 bar developed is well within the maximum allowable stress level
2
4.6 𝑋𝜋𝑋 89𝑋10 −3 𝑋10 6 of 468.85 MPa. This value is obtained by considering a
Gas Force = factor of safety of 2 for forged steel which has the ultimate
4
= 28.621kN strength of 937.7 MPa.
𝑎𝑝 = 39.75𝑋10−3 𝑋18.73172
= 13.95 m/s2
Inertia force = 2.507 X 13.95
= 35N
Forces acting on the connecting rod small end = Gas force –
Inertial force
= 28621 - 35
= 28586N

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The analysis was run for the above mentioned FE Model with
the loads and boundary conditions attached to it. The
following figures give the results obtained from both the
static analysis (Displacement and Stresses) and buckling
analysis (Buckling mode).
A. STATIC AND BUCKLING ANALYSIS RESULTS Figure 6: Elemental stress plot in X-direction
Figure 6 shows a stress plot in the X-direction of the
connecting rod for the applied loads. It can be seen that a
very small region on the connecting rod shows the
development of stress until a value of 70.71 MPa and the rest
of the connecting rod falls under the range of -2.14 MPa and
22.14 MPa

Figure 4: Displacement plot

Figure 4 above shows the displacement for the selected
connecting rod under the loads applied. It is clear from the
above figure that the maximum displacement occurs on the
piston end at a value of 0.176 mm and minimum
displacement occurs on the crank end at a value of 0 mm.

.
Fig 7: Elemental stress plot in Y-direction
Figure07 shows a stress plot0in the0Y-direction of the
connecting rod for the applied loads. It can be seen that
piston0end and the crank end of the0connecting rod
shows0the development of stress to a maximum value of
28.91 MPa and the rest of the connecting rod falls under the
range of -70.65 MPa and -419.1 MPa. The negative sign
indicates the developed of stress in the negative Y-direction.
Figure 5: Elemental stress plot

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 4, Issue 1, September-2016 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

the maximum stress is developed along the axis of

the0connecting rod which is due to0the load
being0applied along the axis.
 The shear stress plot shows that the maximum shear
stress is developed0in the I-section of the
connecting rod which is also within the acceptable
limit.
 The buckling mode analysis gives the buckling
factor greater than 1 and hence it0can be0concluded
that the0connecting rod can withstand the load
applied.

REFERENCES
[1] Webster W, D. Coffell R. and Alfaro D “A Three
Dimensional Finite Element Analysis of a High
Speed Diesel Engine Connecting Rod”.
[2] Sarihan V and Song J “Optimization of the Wrist
Figure 8: Maximum Shear stress plot Pin End of an Automobile Engine Connecting Rod
Figure 8 shows the shear stress plot for the connecting rod with an Interference Fit”, Journal of Mechanical
under the applied loads. It is seen that a maximum stress Design, Transactions of the ASME.
value of 210.8 MPa is obtained on the shank of the [3] Ali Fatemi and Mehrdad Zoroufi “Fatigue
connecting rod since it experiences two opposite forces. Performance Evaluation of Forged Versus
Competing Process Technologies: A Comparative
Study”.
[4] M. SC. Anna Ulatowska “Shape Optimization of
the Connecting Rod”.
[5] Shenoy P.S and Fatemi A Connecting rod
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[6] Yang R.J Dewhirst D.L Allison, J.E and Lee A
Shape optimization of connecting rod pin end using
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[7] Pai C. L The shape optimization of a connecting rod
withfatigue life constraint. Int. J of Materials and
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[8] Athavale, S. and Sajanpawar, P. R “Studies on
Some Modelling Aspects in the Finite Element
Analysis of Small Gasoline Engine Components” .
[9] Rahman M.M Ariffin, A.K, Abdullah S, Noor, M.M
Figure 9: Buckling Mode and Bakar R.A Assessment of cylinder block for
Figure 9 shows the buckling mode plot of the connecting rod two stroke free piston linear engine using random
for the applied loads. It is observed that the buckling factor is loading.
86.23 which means that the connecting rod designed can [10] Sonsino C. M. and Esper F. J “Fatigue Design for
withstand loads as high as 86 times the load applied. PM Components,” European Powder Metallurgy
Association (EPMA).
V. CONCLUSION
The model of a connecting rod was generated, discretizes and
analyzed. The results are tabulated and presented in the
previous chapters.
From the results it can be concluded that,
 The displacement plot shows a very small value
which does not affect the performance of the
connecting0rod.
 The0linear static analysis of the0connecting
rod0shows that the stress generated in the model is
within the acceptable limits or maximum allowable
stress.
 The stress plots in X, Y and Z directions show that

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