2011

MSc Mechanical Engineering Dynamics PG Christos Kalavrytinos

[ANALYSIS OF A THREE CYLINDER ENGINE]

Analysis of a three cylinder engine

ABSTRACT
This report aimed to analyse the operation of a three cylinder engine. A simulation was carried out using the MSC Adams software package. Results were obtained for different parameters such as crankshaft speed and bushing stiffness and damping coefficients. The simulation showed that an increase of crank speed from 800rpm to 8000rpm resulted in an increase of piston vertical acceleration from 42 to 4200 G therefore multiplying the force by 100 times. The theoretical analysis suggested that three cylinder engines are balanced when primary and secondary forces are concerned, but because of the distance of the cylinders and the firing order, a rocking motion is induced by primary and secondary couple moments which were calculated. Research showed that modern three cylinder engines utilise counter rotating balancing shafts to reduce these moments and vibrations.

Christos Kalavrytinos

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ I CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... II 1.0 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 BACKGROUND THEORY .................................................................................................. 1 2.1 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES ........................................................................................ 1 2.2 ENGINE DYNAMICS AND BALANCE ........................................................................................ 2 2.3 ROTATING BALANCE ........................................................................................................... 3 2.4 RECIPROCATING BALANCE .................................................................................................. 4 2.5 SINGLE CYLINDER ENGINE ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 4 2.6 THREE CYLINDER ENGINE FORCES ...................................................................................... 6 3.0 SOFTWARE PACKAGES ................................................................................................... 7 4.0 ADAMS SIMULATION ........................................................................................................ 8 5.0 RESULTS .......................................................................................................................... 10 5.1 ADAMS SIMULATION RESULTS ........................................................................................... 10 5.2 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................... 15 6.0 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................... 17 7.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................ 18 REFERENCES: ....................................................................................................................... 19 APPENDIX .............................................................................................................................. 20

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

1.0 Introduction
This report aims to research, design and analyse a dynamic mechanical system. The system operation will be simulated on the MSC Adams software package in order to obtain parameter values to compare to theoretical values and ensure the system operates within allowable levels. For this specific assignment, the analysis of a three cylinder in-line petrol engine is considered.

1.1 Objectives
The analysis will be carried out with the following steps:

Research on engine balance and vibrations Creation of MCS Adams engine model Simulation and results recording Theoretical calculation Result discussion

2.0 Background Theory

2.1 Internal combustion engines
Internal combustion engines have been around since the mid 1850's. The can be found in many sizes and arrangements. The basic design comprises of a crankshaft, a connecting rod (i.e. conrod), a gudgeon pin, a piston and the engine block. Depending on the number of pistons and the angle between them, the engine is given a name. The most common engine used in today's cars is the four cylinder inline motor, illustrated in Fig. 1. The pistons are translating in the same direction with and the crankshaft throws are at a 90 angle. The three cylinder in-line engine analysed in this report can be seen in Fig. 2 . This particular engine has a 180 angle between each piston as opposed to the 120 configuration of the engine analysed in the report.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 1, In-line four engine.

Figure 2, Three cylinder in-line engine.

2.2 Engine dynamics and balance

With improved ride and handling performance of vehicles, their noise and vibration characteristics have become progressively important. In both the developed and the developing world the lifestyle of many revolves around the use of motor vehicles. Furthermore, the proportion of time spent under idling conditions, or at low to moderate travel speeds, has increased markedly with traffic congestion. As a result, Christos Kalavrytinos Page 2

Analysis of a three cylinder engine

vehicle occupants as well as other road users are subject to noise sources that are predominantly contributed by the power train system, as opposed to those that are road induced or caused by aerodynamic effects. Recent surveys show that drivers are more annoyed by structure borne noise and vibration than airborne noise, the former being at a lower frequency and almost entirely induced by the power train system. The internal combustion engine, as a power source, is inherently unbalanced owing to the translational imbalance of the reciprocating elements (pistons and

proportion of masses of connecting rods in translational motion) and the torsional defection behaviour of engine components. The combustion process acts as the initiating source for the spectrum of noise and vibration in the power train system which includes its own fundamental forcing frequency (this being half the rotational frequency of the crankshaft for a four- stroke engine and all its multiples. The effect of the combustion forces is firstly to introduce the imbalance inertial forces at the engine rotational frequency (i.e. engine order) and all its whole order multiples (the even order contributions being the most troublesome) and secondly to induce torsional deflection response of the engine block and the crank shaft system. The latter occurs at odd and half engine orders. (Rahnejat, 2000)

Therefore the engine vibrations are caused by two basic sources, the least important being the irregular torque output of the engine's reciprocating components. The most critical vibration occurs due to the inability to balance inertia forces due to piston motion in certain types of engine configuration. There exist two sources of mechanical imbalance; rotating and reciprocating.

2.3 Rotating balance

Rotating components can produce net rotating forces if not balanced properly. These out of balance forces are due to asymmetrical mass distribution about the rotating axis of the object in question. Due to the needs of reciprocating balance, certain configurations of engine, rarely allow the achievement perfect rotating balance of the crankshaft, single cylinder engines being an example. (http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, 6/12/11)

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

2.4 Reciprocating balance
The piston in an engine moves along a straight line, defined by the axis of the cylinder. However, its velocity is continually changing throughout a cycle, it is stationary when at both TDC and BDC, achieving maximum velocity somewhere around the mid-stroke. Oscillating forces must be applied to the piston to cause these alternating accelerations. If these inertia forces are not balanced internally within an engine. They must pass through the conrod to the crankshaft then on to the main bearings and onto the crankcase, from the crankcase they are passed into the frame through the engine mountings. The motion of the piston is approximately sinusoidal, and therefore so too are the acceleration forces. If the connecting rod was infinitely long, that motion would actually be truly sinusoidal, but most conrods are approximately twice the crankshaft stroke in length. This relative shortness of the rod means that, except for the TDC and BDC positions, the rod will not remain in line with the cylinder axis through a working cycle. The angularity of such a short conrod throughout a complete

crankshaft revolution modifies the piston motion, see figure 3. With a very long conrod we would expect that the maximum velocity (and hence zero acceleration) of the piston would occur at 90 of rotation from TDC. With a 2:1 conrod length to stroke ratio, maximum velocity occurs just past 77.In fact an infinite number of higher order harmonics are introduced into the piston acceleration. These harmonics complicate the balancing of an engine. Fortunately, as the harmonics increase in order, their magnitude decreases, and so they become less important. In practice, it is usual only to consider the first and second harmonics when doing balance calculations. The reciprocating forces with a frequency equal to the engine RPM are known as primary forces and the reciprocating forces from the second harmonic, which cycle at twice engine speed, are known as secondary forces. It is interesting and somewhat alarming if we calculate the magnitude of the reciprocating forces produced in typical engines. This force is proportional to the square of the rpm. (http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, 6/12/11)

2.5 Single cylinder engine analysis

Primary forces: In order achieve a good understanding of the principles involved in engine balance is first necessary to understand the concept of balance factor, as it applies to the Christos Kalavrytinos Page 4

Analysis of a three cylinder engine

primary forces of a single cylinder engine. Figure 3 LHS shows how the piston applies an upward force on the conrod, at top dead centre, and also how when close to mid-stroke (RHS sketch), the piston moving at maximum velocity produces no inline primary force. As shown in the LHS the addition of a counterweight can be used to cancel the force from the piston. Unfortunately, this simple idea is not the answer, as can be seen when the piston is at mid-stroke. The counterweight will still produce a centrifugal force, but which is no longer balanced by that from the piston. So an inline reciprocating force is replaced with a lateral alternating force of the same peak magnitude. When the counterweight exactly balances the primary reciprocating

forces at TDC or BDC like this, we have 100% balance factor. If no attempt is made to balance the piston force, that is; the crankshaft is in static balance after allowing for the mass of the rotating part of the conrod. That there is a zero balance factor. Factors between zero and 100% give rise to a combination of rotating force and reciprocating force. (http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, 6/12/11)

Figure 3,Primary force balancing. Secondary forces: In a single cylinder engine, the secondary forces provide us with a harder problem to solve. The concept of balance factor is applied to the crankshaft is not relevant in this case, because by definition, the secondary forces vibrate at twice the rate of the crankshaft rotation. A balance shaft could be added, that rotates at twice the engine Christos Kalavrytinos Page 5

Analysis of a three cylinder engine

speed but that would only replace the in-line forces with lateral ones, as in the case of 100% balance factor with primary forces. However, if two counter-rotating balance shafts, geared so they ran at twice the speed of the crankshaft were used, then we could in fact, eliminate the secondary forces. (http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, 6/12/11)

2.6 Three cylinder engine forces

The most common crankshaft layout for an in-line three cylinder engine is with each crankpin spaced at 120. This symmetrical layout completely balances primary and secondary forces. However, due to the width of the crankshaft, serious primary and secondary rocking couples are introduced. In addition to making 120 triples, the Laverda motorcycle company also produced one with a 180 crankshaft. The outer two cylinders had in-line crankpins, and hence the pistons moved up and down together, but the central cylinder has its crankpin 180 away. The reasoning behind this layout is to eliminate the rocking couple. In so doing, the otherwise perfect primary and secondary balance of the 120 engine is lost. The overall primary forces are equal to those from one cylinder alone, but the secondary forces of all three pistons add together, as illustrated in Fig. 4. Two different3 cylinder crankshaft configurations. On the left is a 120, when one piston is at TDC then another will be 120 past TDC with the remaining one 120 before TDC. At 120 after or before TDC the reciprocating forces are 50% of those at TDC but acting the opposite direction. So all forces are balanced. Unfortunately, the opposing forces are offset along the crankshaft and create a rocking couple. The 180 design on the right has no rocking couple but only 2/3rds of the primary forces are balanced out and the secondaries from all three cylinders sum together. (http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, 6/12/11)

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 4,Two different 3-cylinder crankshaft configurations. Left at 120, right at 180

3.0 Software packages

In order to obtain certain geometry measurements, CATIA V5 was used in order to sketch one of the pistons in a 120 angle, as shown in Fig. 5. The MSC Adams software package, on which the dynamic analysis of the engine was performed, is shown in the next section.

Figure 5, Catia V5 Christos Kalavrytinos Page 7

Analysis of a three cylinder engine 4.0 Adams simulation

In order to simulate the operation of the three cylinder engine, a new Adams database is created. Then the components are imported from existing

stereolithography (.stl) files. These components can either be modelled in a CAD package, or the default ones can be used from the Adams component examples. In this case, the crankshaft of a single cylinder engine is imported from the Adams library and then position markers are applied at the axis of rotation (0, 0, 0) and at the crank throw (0, 0, 45mm). Since this crank throw will be the middle one, the angle of the throw is changed to 120. A second crank is imported and translated to a distance of -90mm on the x axis and then rotated to an angle of 0, as this crank throw will be for the first piston. The third crank is then imported, translated to +90mm (x axis) and an angle of 240 from the first crank. Therefore, each crank throw is spaced at 120 between each another. Figure 6, shows the angle between the crank throws. The next step is to import the conrods, starting with the first crank throw. Markers are added to the conrod at both the big and small end. Then the component is translated so that the big end is coincident with the crank throw and the angle is vertical. The second and third conrods are then imported and positioned the same way, only this time they have an angle due to the crank throws being at a 120 angle. Their position can also be seen in Fig. 6. The gudgeon pins are then imported and the same process is followed with the three pistons, with the components' position and angle being properly changed. In order for the simulation to run, the software needs to know the joints that apply between the components. Two rigid joints are added between the three cranks in order to fix them as one. Then a revolute joint is added at each conrod's big end that allows for rotation between the crank throw and the conrod. The piston is then fixed with a rigid joint with the gudgeon pin at the small end of the conrod. A revolute joint is the applied between the conrod's small end and the gudgeon pin. All the revolute joints are set to allow freedom in the x axis. A box simulating the engine block is added, and a rotational joint is applied between the cranks and the block for the initial analysis, in order to allow for a motion to be applied. The block is initially fixed on the ground. A motion of 800rpm (4800 deg/sec) is applied for the first simulation.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 6, Adams three cylinder engine model.

For the second simulation, a more realistic scenario is simulated. The block is not fixed on the ground, but connected to three bushings acting as engine mounts. Figure 7, illustrates the bushings and their characteristics, mostly set by guess. The translational and torsional stiffness and damping coefficients can be set for each axis. More screenshots can be found in the Appendix section. After a simulation is performed for at least 5 seconds, the most important parameters can be measured from the output plots.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 7, Engine bushing characteristics.

5.0 Results
5.1 Adams simulation results
When obtaining the results from the plots, only the most important factors governing the engine limits can be taken into account. Accelerations and forces on the crankshaft mounts, crank throws, conrod small and big end, and piston and gudgeon pins are of great importance. The reason being that the loads at these points must be known in order to correctly design and select the material of the component as well as the bearing specifications. All markers at the joint locations can be used to take measurements of the forces on the components.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

The following results are for a speed of 800rmp: Crankshaft forces: The following graph shows the forces on the centre of the crank between the first and second throw:

Figure 8, Crankshaft forces. Conrod big end forces: Figure 9 shows the forces acting on the Y axis (vertical) at the three conrods' big ends:

Figure 9, Conrod big end forces.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Piston acceleration: The maximum acceleration experienced by the piston is on the Y axis at 420 m/s or 42 G, as shown in Fig. 10:

Figure 10, Piston acceleration.

The motion driver speed was the increased to 8000rpm (48000 deg/sec) which is a realistic engine revolution limit. As shown in Fig. 11, increasing the speed by 10 times leads to an increase of piston acceleration by 100 times (420G to 4200G).

Figure 11, Piston acceleration at 8000rpm

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Bushing forces: Figure 12 shows the forces acting on the bushings at the Y direction, which were the highest.

Figure 12, Engine bushings forces

Engine block acceleration and displacement: The acceleration magnitude acting on the centre of the mass of the engine block can be seen in Fig. 13 to be 1G on the Y axis. Figures 14 to 16 show a displacement of 1.5mmon the Y axis (vertical), 0.12mm on the X axis (horizontal) and 0.7mm on the z axis.

Figure 13, Engine block acceleration.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 14, Engine block displacement on Y axis.

Figure 15, Engine block displacement on X axis.

Figure 16, Engine block displacement on Z axis.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

5.2 Theoretical analysis
The three cylinder engine crankshaft positions and primary forces can be seen in Fig. 17. The first piston at TDC is balanced by the other two with a resulting net force of zero. Secondary forces are also zero. Figure 18, explains how the induced rocking motion can be calculated.

Figure 17,Primary forces.

Figure 18, Rocking couples.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Primary forces: The vector diagram is shown in Fig. 19. The force for each piston is Fp=m R cos(). In order to draw the vectors, a is chosen to be at zero degrees. Each vector has a value m R and adding them we see there is no resultant so there is no resultant vertical component either and so Fp=0 and this will be true whatever the crank angle. (http://www.freestudy.co.uk/dynamics/balancing.pdf, 6/12/11) Secondary forces: The angle between each crank is 120 so doubling, vector B will be at 240 and vector C will be at 480 all relative to A. Adding them there is no resultand whatever the angle of vector A so Fs=0 at all angles and the secondary force is balanced. (http://www.freestudy.co.uk/dynamics/balancing.pdf, 6/12/11)

Figure 19, Vector Diagram.

The mass of the pistons m was approximately 1kg at a 90mm distance between them, the crankshaft speed was 8000rpm (837.8 rad/sec), the crank throw radius was 45mm and the conrod length was 140mm. So for the primary couple: For the secondary couple:

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine 6.0 Discussion

Apart from modelling the components, which can take up to 3 hours to complete, but do not apply in this case (the stock Adams components were utilised), the initial attempt to simulate the engine cycle required approximately 4 hours, including the component import, joining and simulating. A second attempt was carried out as in the initial one, the pistons were found to be clashing and therefore an increase in the distance between the cylinders (75 to 90mm) was the solution. The second attempt required approximately one hour, mainly due to the user being more familiar with the software. Since there were only 13 moving components, the simulation computation time was so short that could not be measured and can therefore be neglected. Reasonably, an increase in geometry complexion will increase computation time. However, the software only calculates outputs based on component position, mass and centre of mass. Thus, a simplified model can be derived from every system in order to be simulated in Adams without the need to import complex component geometries. This can result in simulation time reduction and more accurate results as well as easier modification of the system parameters. The simulation in MSC Adams shows that the accelerations at each joint can be easily measured. A direct comparison between a speed of 800 and 8000rpm showed that an increase in speed of 10 times, resulted in a vertical acceleration of the piston from 42 to 4200 G (100 times increase) which is reasonable. Measuring the bushing accelerations and forces is also useful in order to determine the stiffness and damping coefficients to produce adequate settling times and ensure that the natural resonance frequency vibration at low rpm does not damage the vehicle or transfer to the passengers. Appropriate settings of the torsional and translational stifnesses and damping coefficients had different results. Adding more torsional resistance on the X axis at bushings 1 and 2 helped reduce the rocking motion induced by the primary and secondary couples. The three cylinder engines used nowadays in the automotive industry, employ counter-drive balancing shafts connected to the crankshaft that balance half of the primary couple forces. Such a design is shown in Fig. 20, with the Skoda 1.2 litre (http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/ptcawards/entry.jsp?im_dbkey=6553, 6/12/11)

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 20, Skoda 1.2 litre 3 cylinder engine with balancing shaft.

7.0 Conclusions and recommendations

In order to ensure a mechanical, dynamic system operates within certain parameters, its operation can be simulated using a software package such as MSC Adams. This simulation can reduce calculation times, and decrease the time until the design of the components begins. Dynamic loads are often the governing factors of a system's performance specifications. Therefore, the dynamic analysis should always be carried out before the static analysis and actual component 3D modelling. In order to increase the results of this simulation the forces acting on the components during the four strokes of the engine cycle must be applied. This can be done by calculating these forces and then applying them using a step function. Thus, according to the firing order of the cylinders, the forces will only be activated when they are supposed to and the force will only act for a specific time duration. The results will be more accurate and will help to better understand the dynamics of the system.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine References:

Rahnejat, H (2000). Multi-body dynamics: historical evolution and application. University of Bradford

http://www.freestudy.co.uk/dynamics/balancing.pdf, Accessed on 6/12/11

http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/EngineBalance/EngineBalance.pdf, Accessed on 6/12/2011

http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/ptcawards/entry.jsp?im_dbkey=6553, Accessed on 6/12/11

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine Appendix

Adams screenshots:

Figure 21, Engine Isometric view.

Figure 22, Engine front view with bushings.

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Analysis of a three cylinder engine

Figure 23, Engine top view with 3 bushings.

Figure 24, Wrong dimensions, piston clash and side view.

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