Author: Joel Panepinto

Torsional Transient Analysis of a Single Piston Engine

Posted by Joel Panepinto

In reciprocating engines, the reciprocating motion of pistons is transformed into a rotating motion of the crankshaft, which is responsible for the drive of a whole engine system. Instantaneous torque excitation due to gas forces after firing on the shaft system have to be investigated to ensure proper functioning. A typical torque function over the crankshaft angle can be seen in Figure 1.

Tangential forces acting on the crankpin
Figure 1 Example of tangential forces acting on the crankpin (Mendes, A., S.; Zampieri, D.E.; Siqueira Meirelles, P.: Analysis of torsional vibration in internal combustion engines: Modelling and experimental validation) and implementation in AxSTREAM RotorDynamics™ (orange curve)

Such a 720°-periodic function can be created in AxSTREAM RotorDynamics™, which provides a transient approach to determine the response torque in the shaft after a respective torque excitation. In this example, a rotor speed of 3000 rpm is considered. With this information, the total time for two crankshaft-revolutions (720°) reads:
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Torsional Analysis of a Four-Stroke Engine

Posted by Joel Panepinto

Reciprocating machines fall into many categories. Despite different applications and designs, e.g. pumps or internal combustion engines with a varying number of pistons, a simple approach to determine torsional modes of regardless which crankshaft assembly can be investigated. The resulting natural frequencies are required by ISO 3046 for rotor dynamic analysis.

Internal Combustion Engine with piston and flywheel geometry
Figure 1 Internal Combustion Engine with piston and flywheel geometry, (https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-starter-flywheel)

Below, a common way to express a crankshaft assembly with massless shaft and mass-inertia elements is presented, whereas the reciprocating and revolving mass around the crack can be expressed as follows:
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