3. Elastodynamic Analysis of the Mechanism from an Internal Combustion Engine
There will be analyzed, under kinematic and dynamic aspects, a mechanism from an internal combustion engine, shown in
Figure 4. This mechanism consists of the following components: crankshaft 1, connecting rod 2, piston 3. The analyzed motion is transmitted from the crankshaft through connecting rods at the three in–line pistons. By knowing the functional role and the mechanism destination, it is well known the fact that the functional cycle involves rapid motions, with an accentuated dynamic character. Thus, it is necessary to develop a kinematic and kinetostatic calculus, which assumes the variation motion laws during the time for the kinematic parameters and the connection forces of the kinematic joints. The crankshaft rotational speed is 6000rpm.
The mechanism motion is monitored on a time interval equal to 0.04 seconds when the crankshaft develops two complete rotations.
Thus, by having in sight the rapid motions of the links that generate high inertial forces, there will be imposed a mechanism elastodynamic analysis. For this, the mechanism connecting rods is analyzed as deformable bodies.
For the inverse dynamic analysis processing, it is needed to know the crankshaft angular speed, which is ω=628.318 radians/second, crank slider length r= 40millimeters, connecting rod length l= 137 millimeters, mass characteristics of the mechanism links (m1= 0.952 kilograms, m2= 0.153 kilograms, and m3= 0.214 kilograms), and the gas pressure developed on the piston head. There will be determined the positions, speeds, and accelerations of A, and B characteristic points, respectively angular speed and angular acceleration of the AB connecting rod.
The force developed by the gas pressure onto the piston head is:
where: pg– gas pressure, established experimentally; Ap – piston head surface.
There were experimentally determined the gas pressure developed onto the piston head, depending on the crankshaft angle as can be observed in
Figure 5.
In
Figure 5, there are presented the main parameters variation of an internal combustion engine, depending on the crankshaft rotational angle (Crank Angle, deg). Thus, it can be remarked on the four distinctive phases of the engine stroke: intake, compression, power, and exhaust. The diagrams main elements reported in
Figure 5 are as follows:
- Black curve (cylinder gas pressure): Two major peaks are visible, corresponding to successive combustion events. The maximum values exceed 90 bar, indicating the fuel expansion phase. During compression, pressure increases before ignition, followed by a rapid drop after the exhaust phase.
- Orange curve (fuel ignition): This shows the exact ignition point of the fuel, correlated with the peak pressure. A delay between injection and ignition is noticeable, which can be analyzed for optimizing engine performance.
- Green curve (reaction force in the piston, Fx): A sharp increase in force occurs at ignition, followed by a controlled decrease. This confirms that gas expansion generates a maximum force on the piston, influencing the mechanical power output.
- Red and blue curves (intake and exhaust valve lift): Intake valves (blue curve) open at the beginning of the intake stroke and close at its end. The exhaust valves (red curve) open at the end of the expansion stroke and remain open until the beginning of the intake stroke.
Also, in the superior part of
Figure 5, the pressure variation diagram was developed onto the piston head, in bar as measuring unit, depending on the crankshaft rotational angle. According to the
Figure 5, it was obtained the force developed by the gas pressure, by knowing the piston head surface, and this variation was adapted as a function of time represented in
Figure 6. Thus, the mechanism was modeled through beam elements type, as it can be seen in
Figure 7 and
Figure 8.
Each mechanism kinematic link will be considered as two finite elements, beam type, with two nodes at each end, respectively 3DoF for each node (
Figure 9 and
Figure 10). As loads, there were considered the finite elements weights and the force developed by the gas pressure onto the piston head, namely F
b. For finite element no. 2, the piston component can be replaced with a concentrated mass – m
c.
The mechanical system motion can be reported at the following reference systems:
R1(x1,y1,z1) – mobile reference system attached to the finite element no. 1;
R2(x2,y2,z2) – mobile reference system attached to the finite element no. 2;
R0(X0,Y0,Z0) – global reference system.
The proper mathematical model for ,,
e’’ finite element displacements is:
where:
– axial displacements;
,
– transversal displacements and angular displacements. From Equation (48), it can be identified:
– is the interpolation functions matrix;
– is the nodal displacements vector for a finite element,,e “ with e=1,2– finite elements.
In this vector structure it will have axial and transversal displacements, as follows:
For the axial displacements, there will be adopted the linear interpolating model, and the form function matrix components become:
For the transversal displacements there will be adopted the cubic interpolating model, and the form function matrix components will be:
For the mechanism assembled structure will have:
– nodal displacements vector in the local coordinates system.
The motion equations, in a matrix form for the mechanism, are:
where:
– mass matrix, assembled for the entire analyzed mechanical system; – assembled stiffness matrix; – assembled dumping matrix; – nodal force vector, assembled for the entire mechanical system.
For the presented mechanical system, made of two finite elements (beam type) with 3DoF on each node, there will be determined the matrices from the motion equations structure.
3.1. Nodal Force Calculus
The nodal forces corresponding to the local coordinates system will be obtained by having in sight the Equation (45). Thus, the nodal force for the ,,e” finite element can be determined with the following relations:
Finite element no.1:
The nodal force static component, which corresponds to finite element no. 1, is:
where:
– material density; g – gravitational acceleration;
– transversal section of the finite element „e” with e=1..2
The nodal force static component expressed by taking into account the local reference system is:
The nodal force dynamic component is:
The angular speed can be written as a anti-symmetrical matrix as follows:
The force which actuates on the finite element no. 1, in the local reference system is:
where:
– is the transformation matrix of the coordinates for crossing from a reference system attached to finite element „e”, to a global reference system (e=1,2):
The force that actuates onto finite element no. 1 in the global reference system is:
where: – is the coordinates transformation matrix, for crossing from a reference system attached to finite element no. 1, to the global reference system.
Finite element no. 2:
The static components can be obtained in accordance with the global reference system by considering the nodal mass force as:
where: N2 – is the form functions matrix which corresponds to the finite element no. 2.
The nodal force static component, depending on the local reference system is:
The produced force by the gas pressure in the local reference system, which actuates in node no. 3, is given by:
The dynamic components are:
where:
Is the B point vector in the local coordinates system, namely R
2(x
2,y
2,z
2):
Is the generalized coordinates vector for the finite element no. 2 (mass center position and finite element no. 2 orientation):
Is the vector of generalized speeds:
Is the vector of generalized accelerations:
Point C
2 acceleration is:
The angular speed of the finite element “i” is:
The angular acceleration of the finite element “i” is:
The coordinates transformation matrix for crossing from a local axis reference system R
i(x
i,y
i,z
i) to a global reference system R
0(X
0,Y
0,Z
0) is:
Thus, in this case, the coordinates transformation matrix for crossing from a local axis reference system R
1(x
1,y
1,z
1) to a global reference system R
2(x
2,y
2,z
2) is:
The force which actuates on the finite element no. 2, in the local axis system is:
The force which actuates on the finite element no. 2, in the global axis system is:
where: – is the coordinates transformation matrix, for crossing from a reference system attached to finite element no. 1, to a global reference system.
The assembled nodal force for the engine mechanism, according to the global reference system, is:
3.2. Stiffness Matrix
where: – represents the static component; – represents the dynamic component; – material elasticity modulus.
Finite element no. 1:
Static component. The stiffness matrix in a local coordinate system is:
where: – for transversal displacements; for axial displacements.
The stiffness matrix for the transversal displacements:
The stiffness matrix for the axial displacements:
Dynamic component: For the finite element no. 1, in the local axis reference system:
The stiffness matrix for the finite element no. 1, according to the local reference system is:
The stiffness matrix for the finite element no. 1, according to the global reference system is:
Finite element no. 2:
The static component of the stiffness matrix in the local axis reference system is:
The stiffness matrix which corresponds to transversal displacements is:
The stiffness matrix which corresponds to axial displacements is:
The assembled stiffness matrix for the finite element no. 2, according to the local reference axis system:
The dynamic component of the stiffness matrix in a local axis reference system is:
The stiffness matrix for the finite element no. 2, according to the local reference system is:
The stiffness matrix for the finite element no. 2, according to the global reference system is:
3.3. Mass Matrix
The mass matrix in the local coordinates system, can be written as follows:
where: – ,,e” finite element mass; – form function matrix (interpolating ones).
where: mp is the piston mass.
The piston was considered a concentrated mass, which was attached to the finite element no. 2, respectively in node no. 3.
The mass matrix in a global coordinates system is:
The equilibrium equation expressed in the local coordinates system has the following form:
Also: – are the nodal displacements in the global coordinates system; – represent the nodal forces in a global coordinates system.
The assembled equilibrium equations, in a global coordinates system have the following form:
where: – is the assembled stiffness matrix; – is the assembled nodal displacements vector; – represents the assembled nodal forces vector.
3.4. The Assembly of the Equations and Introducing the Contour Conditions
There will be introduced contour conditions (node no. 1 has a single DoF, which allows only the Q3 rotation, and node no. 3, has two DoFs which for this was canceled the Q8 displacement):
By considering the contour conditions, from the assembled matrix which interact in the motion equation, respectively, there will be canceled line 1, column 1, line 2, column 2, and line 8, column 8. Thus, in these conditions, the remaining matrices will have 6x6 dimensions.
The reduced mass matrix has the following form:
The reduced stiffness matrix has the following form:
The nodal force assembled for the considered engine mechanism, by having in sight the global reference system, is:
The elastic displacements vector for the element no. 1 is:
The elastic displacements vector for the element no. 2 has the following form:
The nodal displacements vector for the finite element no. 1, in the global reference system, is:
where: Q1=0; Q2=0 (by introducing the contour conditions).
The nodal displacement vector for the finite element no. 2, in the global reference system has the following form:
where: Q7=0, (by introducing the contour conditions).
3.5. Modal Dynamic Analysis
The motion equations are:
The motion equations, without dumping, are:
The solution of the differential Equation (121), where the coefficients are considered constant ones, has the following form:
By differentiating the above equation will be obtained:
The differential equation without dumping and external loads will be:
This is a proper value problem for the matrix .
For a system with ,,n” degrees of freedom we have ,,n” proper values ,,λ” and ,,n” proper vector sets .
where:
= is the natural circular frequency:
There are proper vectors which represent the vibration modes, respectively the assumed structure form when this vibrates with a frequency of
and
which satisfies the equation:
For solving the motion equations system (120), there will be used the nodal superposition method. This method allows the user to detach the motion equations through a linear transformation as follows:
where: is the modal form coordinate which represents the ,,i” mass position in a ,,j” module; is the generalized coordinate which represents the ,,j” module response during time; depends on the position, not on the time; depends on time, and not on the position.
where: modal matrix, where the modal forms will be written in columns.
We accept that the modal forms vector is orthogonal in rapport with the mass matrix, which means:
We reconsider the equation:
We differentiate twice the mathematical expression:
We introduce (137) in (136):
We multiply on the left side of the (138) relation with the
term and taking into account the (135), there will be obtained:
The (132) relation, can be written as:
In the mathematical expression (140) we multiply on the left side with
, and taking into account the (135), we will obtain:
We introduce (141) in (139) and we will obtain:
The (143) mathematical expression represents the uncoupled differential equation set which are independent ones. Thus, the modal frequencies will be:
The natural frequencies are:
where: f1= 4,957487532Hz; f2= 542,9548523Hz; f3= 156,8132854Hz; f4= 3230,572390Hz; f5= 978,5360786Hz; f6= 93,29474415Hz.
We reconsider the following equation:
where:
is the modal matrix form:
The generalized coordinates vector is:
This vector corresponds to the accelerations vector, which has the following form:
The force vector will be:
By solving the differential equations system (189), the equation system solution (121), is:
where
- represents the nodal displacements. The elastic displacements can be obtained by solving the equation system:
3.6. Results of Numerical Processing
For the numerical processing of the mathematical models, a program was developed in the Maple programming environment, which allows simultaneous inverse dynamic analysis—when the elements of the mechanism are rigid bodies—as well as elastodynamic and modal dynamic analysis when the elements are deformable bodies.
Virtual prototyping involved building a 3D model of the engine mechanism. An interface was created for importing this model into the virtual environment of the MSC Adams software.
In the first stage, a numerical simulation of the mechanism kinematic model was performed, with the crankshaft rotation speed (6000 [rpm]) as input data, along with the geometric characteristics, mass properties of the mechanism’s kinematic links, and the local reference systems attached to the considered links and kinematic joints. The mechanism motion was studied over a time interval of 0.04 seconds when the engine crankshaft performed four complete rotations.
In the second stage, the dynamic model was developed, in which the gas pressure applied on the piston head is known, along with the geometry, material characteristics, and inertial properties of the kinematic links.
The torque variation law acting on the crankshaft was determined, and consequently, the engine crankshaft angular speed variation.
The pressure developed by the gas on the piston head was experimentally determined, and its variation, as a function of the crankshaft rotation angle, was shown in
Figure 5.
In order to determine the crankshaft torque (engine torque), a function was created that enables the interface with the ADAMS programming environment, as follows:
Where: Mm is the engine torque; M0 is the initial torque; ω0 is the initial angular speed; WX(MARKER_I, MARKER_J is the X-axis component corresponding to the crankshaft angular speed, between marker I and marker J, measured in accordance with the coordinate system attached to marker J.
For the analyzed case study, the torque function is given by:
Figure 17 represents snapshots from the virtual simulation carried out using the Adams software.
The three connecting rods were analyzed as deformable bodies, with the transformation from rigid to deformable bodies being based on the finite element method.
The connecting rod linear and angular deformations were determined in the Adams programming environment, based on the theory developed by Craig & Bampton [
23]. The results were compared with those obtained from the processing of the mathematical models in the modal dynamic analysis, as it can be remarked in
Figure 18,
Figure 19,
Figure 20,
Figure 21 and
Figure 22.