KARNATAK LAW SOCIETY’S

GOGTE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

UDYAMBAG, BELAGAVI-590008
(An Autonomous Institution under Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi)

(APPROVED BY AICTE, NEW DELHI)

Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

2019-2020

Course Activity Report

FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF MECHANICAL PRODUCTS (CRANKSHAFT)
MACHINE DESIGN II (16ME64)

Submitted in the partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Engineering
In
Mechanical Engineering
Submitted by
SHARDUL JOSHI (2GI17ME123)
SHEKHARGOUDA PATIL (2GI17ME124)
SHIVANAGOUDA PATIL (2GI17ME125)
SHIVANAND KEDARI (2GI17ME126)
SHIVANAND KONYAVVAGOL (2GI17ME127)
 KARNATAK LAW SOCIETY’S

GOGTE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

UDYAMBAG, BELAGAVI-590008
(An Autonomous Institution under Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi)

(APPROVED BY AICTE, NEW DELHI)

Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

2019-2020

CERTIFICATE
Certified that the course activity entitled
FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF MECHANICAL PRODUCTS (CRANKSHAFT)
done at KLS Gogte Institute Of Technology is a bonafide work carried out
in partial fulfilment for the award of Bachelor of Engineering in KLS Gogte Institute Of Technology
(Mechanical and Aeronautical respectively), of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi
during the year 2019 – 2020. It is certified that all corrections/suggestions indicated have been
incorporated in the report. The activity report has been approved as it satisfies the academic
requirements in respect of course activity prescribed for the said Degree.
NAME USN MARKS SIGNATURE
1. Shardul Joshi 2GI17ME123 311
2. Shekhargouda Patil 2GI17ME124 312
3. Shivanagouda Patil 2GI17ME125 313
4. Shivanand Kedari 2GI17ME126 314
5. Shivanand Kontyavvagol 2GI17ME127 315

FACULTY SIGNATURE DATE

FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION
OF VARIOUS
MECHANICAL APPLICATION PRODUCTS

A “MACHINE DESIGN - II” Course Presentation

Shardul Joshi
Shekhargouda Patil
Shivanagouda Patil
Shivanand Kedari
Shivanand Kontyavvagol
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

SR.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1. OVERVIEW 2
2. INTRODUCTION TO CRANKSHAFT ANALYSIS 2
3. METHODS AVAILABLE FOR ANALYSIS 3
4. MATERIAL FACTOR 4
5. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED (PRELIMINARY) 5
6. OTHER FACTORS IN FAILURE OF CRANKSHAFT 6
7. FEA APPLICATIONS IN FATIGUE ANALYSIS 7
8. CONCLUSION 9
This Course Report revolves around the analysis of Fatigue Life of Crankshaft and its
applications on those basis in Mechanical Applications.

OVERVIEW
The main objective of writing review on fatigue life of crankshaft is to investigate the
behaviour of crankshaft under complex loading conditions. Automobile industries are
always interested to develop a new product which will be innovative and fulfill market
expectations. All the engine components are subjected to constant to varying load which
also varies in direction and due to these, components may fail. Bending and shear stress due
to twisting are common stresses acting on crankshaft. Due to the repeated bending and
twisting, crankshaft fails, as cracks form in fillet area. Hence, fatigue plays an important role
in crankshaft development. Accurate prediction of fatigue life is very important to insure
safety of components and its reliability. This review paper considers crankshaft as an
important part of engine components, as forces which are acting on crankshaft are many
and variable in nature. This paper presents an idea about research undertaken or completed
on fatigue life of crankshaft, methods available and role of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and
experimental techniques used.

INTRODUCTION TO CRANKSHAFT ANALYSIS

Crankshaft is an important component of internal combustion engine with complex
geometry. Crankshaft experiences a large number of load cycle during its service life The
sudden failure of crankshaft made researchers and academia to investigate the problem.
Because of complicated loading and geometry problem, general method to predict fatigue
life is still not evolved. Since crankshaft is subjected to several force which vary in
magnitude and direction (multiaxial) and connecting rod transmitting gas pressure from
cylinder to crankpin, stresses acting in the crankshaft vary with respect to time. Most of
time crankshaft fails due to fatigue at fillet areas due to bending load. Fillet rolling can
increase fatigue life. Engine mechanism and geometry has large impact on fillet which
experiences a large stress cycle during its working. Small crack initiates at this fillet location
due to stress concentration which will propagate subsequently and failure of crankshaft
takes place. Most of the crankshafts that failed in fatigue were due to bending fatigue
Design and Development has always an important issue in crankshaft production industry to
manufacture less expensive crankshaft with high fatigue strength.
METHODS AVAILABLE FOR ANALYSIS
Crankshaft is an important engine component which is subjected to fluctuating or cyclic
loads often resulting in fatigue failures. Various methods are available and some are
developed by researchers. Three methods which are used to predict fatigue life include
stress life(SN), strain Life (E-N) and Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics (LEFM). S-N method is
based on nominal stress life using rainflow cycle counting. This method can be helpful to
test fatigue life but only disadvantage is that plasticity effect is not considered and provides
poor accuracy for low cycle fatigue (Solid work Corporation 2005) .The strain life method
provides more detailed analysis involving plastic deformation at a localized region and is
useful for low cycle fatigue. Linear elastic fracture mechanics assume that crack is already
available and detected and predicts crack growth by considering stress intensity factor.
Because of easy implementation and various data available, stress life method is most
commonly used where S-N curve data for particular material is commonly available. A new
method called, cracks modeling, is developed by companies to predict fatigue failure of
crankshaft. This technique uses a Liner Elastic Finite Element Analysis to derive stress
intensity factor for component under load. In this method, stress intensity factor is
calculated without introducing a crack into a component; stress field around the maximum
stress point is examined and compared to that of standard centre cracked plate. The
material property is threshold stress intensity range. This research predicted the failure of
crankshaft under constant amplitude loading. Failure occurs from stress concentration
whose location is varied with loading type basically due to bending and torsion. In order to
describe the severity of stress concentration a crack modeling method is used. Other
Method Known as Damaged Tolerance Analysis in which uses Linear Elastic Fracture
Mechanics approach (LEFM) to predict the crack stability, crack growth, and hence minimal
time between the two inspection to avoid a crack reaching critical size. The function of this
method is to assess the effect of cracks in the structure. Damage tolerance is the ability to
resist the fracture from pre existing crack in the given period of time to avoid catastrophic
failure.
Power Engineering Tool (PET) developed by Ford Motor Company is a Graphics User
Interface based computer model that calculate engine performance and the geometry at
early stage of design. The Cranktrain development process is initiated by estimating
required peak engine speeds for the peak engine power, cylinder bore diameter and piston
stroke may be determined by using the combination of engine simulation results and
empirical data of similar engine. By using this method, crankshaft system information such
as number of cheeks per bay, number of main journal and crankpin etc can be found out.
PET model easily generates initial geometry of complete power train system based on
imputed engine configuration and design various parameters such as peak engine power,
torque, and geometry constrain and Number of cylinders. High vibrations are playing
important role in development of crack. A crankshaft system model (CRANKSYM) was used
to verify the high vibration level in bearing cap. CRANKSYM is able to performed coupled
analysis along with structural dynamics .It also calculates dynamic stresses on the crankshaft
throughout whole engine cycle for which Finite Element model of complete assembly is
required. This model gives output such as natural frequency, bearing load and axial
displacement which is required for fatigue life estimation. Articles suggested reducing
flywheel inertia in order to increase the resonance frequency and second to balance the
crankshaft internally in order to eliminate the unbalanced force on the flywheel. Crankshaft
is also subjected higher loads at elevated temperature, therefore thermo mechanical fatigue
(TMF) life prediction has now commonly used in automotive industry as complex thermal
and mechanical strains is used to find Fatigue life of engine component. Sehitoglu TMF Life
prediction model developed by university of Illinois can be used to described the material
behaviour at different temperature and strain rate.
Fatigue Life can also determined by Principal Stress criterion by considering largest Principal
stress (Mercer et al, 2003). Principal strain criterion considers largest principal strain and
Von misses equivalent strain criterion provides an estimate of onset yielding behaviour of
material can also be used to predict fatigue life estimation. (Baxter, 1993) had studied the
crack detection on crankshaft by using gel electrode techniques. In this experiment, at
critical locations of crankshaft, a thin film of polymer film was applied and after fatigue test
the surface was inspected with gel electrode probe. By using cathode and anode induced
current flows at fatigue site and information is displayed as a direct image. AFGROW is one
of the very good software available in the field of fatigue analysis and even very widely been
used as well. Because of the complicated shape, size, topology and topography of crank
shafts with several fillets and radius the use of AFGROW is showing the limitations on its
application on crankshaft fatigue prediction. Hence, even not many references are also been
sited on this subject.

MATERIAL FACTOR
Material plays an important role in fatigue life of crankshaft. The steel alloy is typically used
in high strength crankshaft, as it carries most desirable combinations properties. Due to
cyclic loading, material behaves differently than under monotonic loading. Different types of
cyclic material properties are required depending on the type of fatigue loading. Different
alloy and surface treatment will increase fatigue life of crankshaft. Articles suggested that
optimum level of nitriding depth should be at least 400 micrometer and because of nitriding
fatigue limit is improved without any design modification. It is also proposed by (Park et al,
2001) that the best combination of crankshaft material with proper surface treatment can
be used, which improves the quality and reduces the cost. Induction hardened crankshaft
usually have longer fatigue life than other material. Forge steel is commonly used as a
crankshaft material because of requirement of higher horsepower per liter while selecting
material for crankshaft cost, machinability and fatigue strength play important role. Articles
studied two Chrysler corporation engines utilizing forge crankshaft. Six different grades of
steel with different chemical composition were considered. To determine potential cost
reduction, a computerized cost model for crankshaft was used to evaluate the economics of
each material which is developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Isotropic and
anisotropic materials behave differently under multiaxial loading conditions. They studied
two different models for multiaxial fatigue life prediction of isotropic and anisotropic
material. For isotropic material critical plane approach was used which depends on stress
state and on material and fatigue fracture plane was determined. The multiaxial fatigue
problem of anisotropic material is more complex as compared to other materials, hence
fatigue failure of composite material are more complex than metal. Deep rolling of the fillet
area is a significant surface treatment of an engine crankshaft by which the fatigue life of a
crankshaft is increased by developing a compressive residual stress in fillet area.

EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED (PRELIMINARY)

Articles investigated fatigue results of induction hardened and case hardened 6 cylinder
Crankshaft .Stain gauges are placed in fillet area. Crankshaft is installed on fixture and clamp
ring, cooler is used to prevent loosening. This fixture is attached to inertial weight and
shaker and accelerometer. Due to shaker crankshaft acts as a tuning fork and arrangement
is made such that if there is any failure in crankshaft, cycle stops automatically. After
investigating twelve sample of crankshaft using this technique, author found no evidence of
failure and predicted that induction hardened crankshaft has longer life than any other
material. An investigation of a damaged crankshaft from a horizontal, six-cylinder, in-line
diesel engine of a public bus was conducted by (Alfares et al. 2007) after several failure
cases were reported by the bus company. All crankshafts were made from forged and
nitriding steel. In Laboratory investigation the depth of the nitriding layer near fracture
locations in the crankshaft, particularly at the fillet region where cracks were initiated, was
determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with electron dispersive X-ray
analysis (EDAX) and was found less. Fractography which is the study of fracture surfaces of
materials indicated that fatigue was the dominant mechanism of failure of the crankshaft.
The partial absence of the nitriding layer in the fillet region, due to overgrinding, caused a
decrease in the fatigue strength which, in turn, led to crack initiation and propagation, and
eventually premature fracture.
They used ductile crankshaft which is commonly used for SUV and lightweight truck. A
crankshaft is mounted on fixture and monotonic bending load and frequency was applied to
front main bearing. A computer is used to monitor feedback signal when sample is under
bending load. When crack initiates and propagates, displacement amplitude also increases
also the feedback signal, computer automatically stop the process. After investigating the
sample cracks are found initiates around fillet area and propagating rapidly causing failure.
Experiments used resonance bending Fatigue test in order to investigate the effect of notch
depth and subsequently the fatigue .SAE J434C D5506 cast iron crankshaft section were
used in this investigation. Resonant frequency before and after creation of notches were
measured. In the experimental set up crankshaft section was attached to heavy a steel tine
which acts as tuning fork. The right tin is excited by shaker. During testing oil is applied to
fillet area. For given bending moment excited by shaker probe, fatigue life is determined
when four pin head sized bubble are formed, at this point test was suspended. For result
validation a 3 dimensional Finite Element model of resonant bending system with notched
crankshaft was prepared and results of experimental techniques and by using FEM were
found in good agreement.
The other commonly used experimental method to test bending fatigue limit is Rotating
bending fatigue test. In this constant bending stress is applied to round sample of crankshaft
material along with rotation until its failure. This technique is simple and easy to use.
Reciprocating Bending Testing Machines utilize a rotating crank to achieve a nonzero mean
stress through positioning of the specimen with respect to the motor, whereas Direct Force
Fatigue Testing Machines uses axial load. Staircase method is very commonly used in auto
sector for crank shaft fatigue testing) and then apply a statistical analysis. In this initial stress
amplitude based on experience is applied and sample is tested for survive or failure. When a
survival (failure) occurs, the stress amplitude is increased (decreased) by one stress
increment (“step”) for the next sample. Magnetic Particle Testing can be utilized on any
ferromagnetic material in a variety of forms such as bars, engine components such as
crankshaft for in-service discontinuities. Magnetic particle Testing (MT) is a non destructive
method which utilizes the flux leakage arising as a result of surface and near surface
discontinuities to detect flaws. A Magnetic current or field is imposed on the part under
inspection, a flux leakage at the surface of the part results in accumulation of sprayed iron
powder, giving a direct indication of flaw. Ultrasonic Testing utilizes sound waves with a
frequency greater than 20 kHz (inaudible to humans) to detect flaws and/ or material
properties. Modern Ultrasonic Testing (UT) can be utilized for finding cracks, de-bonds and
laminations; detecting macrostructure variations and anomalies; variations in physical
dimensions; and for density, mass and elastic property determinations. Ultrasonic testing
can be performed on metals, non metals and composites. The X Ray machine or Gamma
Radiation is the source of the rays and transmits penetrating X or Gamma Rays. The object
being radiographed partially absorbs these rays. In areas where there are flaws or breaks, a
greater or smaller number of rays are able to penetrate. Because X and Gamma Rays are
invisible, a detecting agent is required to produce a visible picture. This detecting agent can
be the radiographic film in light proof wrapping or a Digital image sensor.

OTHER FACTORS IN FAILURE OF CRANKSHAFT

Various other factors also play important role in mechanical fatigue failure of crankshaft,
such as, misalignment of crankshaft on assembly , improper journal bearing, vibration due
to some problem with main bearing or due to high stress concentration caused by incorrect
fillet size, oil leakage, overloading, high operating oil temperature(Silva, 2003).Heat and
stresses during contact bearing with repetition of heating and cooling would eventually
create thermal fatigue cracks and it will propagate with time. (Kareem, 2007) generated the
data gathered by oral interviews and questionnaires on mechanical failures of crankshaft.
The data collected were analyzed according to vehicle type using statistical methods. The
results obtained showed that private cars enjoyed lowest fatigue failure rate at the initial
stage while commercial buses had the highest fatigue failures rate. Vibration created due
gas force which drives crankpin can be reduced by providing damper package (William
Sisco).

‘FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS’ APPLICATION IN FATIGUE ANALYSIS

The use of numerical method such as Finite Element Method now a day commonly used to
gives detail information about structure or component. This method predicts the behavior
which is otherwise difficult to find out by theoretical calculation, as large number of degree
of freedom involved in it. FEM can be used as excellent tool to analyze and find out fatigue
life estimation of crankshaft by computer simulation and therefore it can help to reduce
time and costs required for prototyping and to avoid numerous test series when laboratory
testing is not available. Since loading on crankshaft is complex in nature, sophisticated
analysis of crankshaft is required. Various Finite Element analysis tool such as MSC-Fatigue,
ANSYS, FEMFAT etc are commonly used now a days by automobile companies to check
durability of their products. Renault Company (Henry et al, 1992) developed a new
crankshaft durability assessment tool based on 3D mesh, with an objective to improve
fatigue analysis. These approaches calculate fatigue factor of safety through external load
calculation, mesh generation, FEM load distribution to calculate stress and then FSF. The
crankshaft fillet stresses are highly localized and also the stress distribution inside a
crankshaft of automotive engine is very complex. FEM could be is good tool for quantitative
source of data to find out stress distribution and Photo elasticity would be used to validation
the results (Borges, et al, 2002) evaluates the overall structural efficiency and magnitude of
stresses throughout the crank and found that localized stress concentration at crankpin
bearing. A non linear transient stress analysis for 6 cylinder inline engine crankshaft was
presented by articles which shows that this method is highly sophisticated and efficient for
determining the fatigue behaviors of crankshaft. (Payer et al, 1995) used XFEP finite element
program to call cute transient stress behaviors of rotating crankshaft. Solid model of
crankshaft is generated automatically considering both flywheel and vibration dampers
using a rotating beam mass model of the crankshaft. This model also gives transient
deformation of crankshaft Prakash et al. (1998) used Finite element method and developed
a program known as TVAL which quickly gives natural frequency, displacement and stresses.
Three different classes of engine crankshaft were considered for study. Solid Finite element
model of crankshaft was developed and time varying radial and tangential forces were
applied which were derived from cylinder pressure
and displacement and stress were found out and compare by using mode superposition
method and life was estimated by using Miner Rule. Khatri and Bhattacharya (2005)
developed a cycle for designing of the crankshaft of small passenger car which also
considered the effect of fatigue. CAD model of crankshaft had been developed to suit
existing engine block. Crankshaft was balanced using multibody dynamics to minimize total
mass .Basic CAD model was then imported in ADAMS software and dummy masses were
placed at probable location of counter weight to check minimum unbalance. The gas forces
were extracted physically for various engine operations and at throttling position. Finite
Element Analysis model was prepared by using PATRAN and load was applied and maximum
stress was found out. For fatigue analysis von misses and mean stress have more influence
than maximum stress, hence stress history of critical elements are more useful than static
analysis of the crankshaft. For finding out von misses and mean scots. Articles conducted
dynamic simulation on single cylinder four stroke engine and Finite Element analysis was
performed to get stress magnitude at critical location. The pressure volume diagram was
used to calculate the load boundary conditions in dynamic simulation model. The dynamic
analysis was done analytically and verified in ADAMS software. FE model was created in
ABAQUAS and boundary condition was applied according to engine mounting conditions. It
was found that torsional load was very small as compared to other loads and hence
neglected and analysis was made simpler by applying inertia and gas forces. Articles
concluded that dynamic loading analysis gave more realistic result than static analysis and
critical stress history plot found by using rainflow counting cycle shows that in an entire
cycle one peak is important and cause fatigue damage in the crankshaft. Other numerical
techniques such as boundary element method was used for performing crack growth
analysis, as in this, stresses were calculated at surface of structure and stress field could be
calculated at crack front. Since boundary of components needed to be meshed, the
complexity of meshing was significantly reduced. The new approach presented in this article
(Robert Adey,2004) of NAFEMS enables a user to take an existing MSC NASTRAN model and
to facilitate automatically create a model suitable for fatigue and crack growth prediction
without the need to be aware of the different analytical techniques used. In this new
approach the user could simply build a local (Robert Adey, 2004) model incorporating all the
details necessary and the software would automatically transfer all the necessary loads and
boundary conditions from MSC NASTRAN finite element model. While this type of sub
modeling was not entirely new, it had benefits of providing the high fidelity stresses
required for fatigue calculations as well as providing a model suitable for crack growth life
prediction. Fatigue life Prediction achieved a high level of accuracy because Finite Element
Analysis is involved and because of increase in computational power and good mesh
density), but input data should be available and entered correctly. Software for fatigue
analysis has yielded good results which are otherwise difficult to find out. One of such tools
is FEMFAT in which stresses from finite analysis are entered to get fatigue analysis.
CONCLUSION
Crankshaft is an important component of engine, failure even making engine useless also
requires costly procurement and replacement. An extensive research in the past clearly
indicates that the problem has not yet been overcome completely and designers are facing
lot of problems specially related with multiaxial loading (Bending and Torsion), stress
concentration and stress gradient and effect of variable amplitude loading. The finite
element method is the most popular approach and found commonly used for analyzing
fracture mechanics problems. The method can be applied to linear and non-linear problems.
There are many commercial packages are available for use in fracture mechanics
applications, such as, Ansys Fatigue, Abaqus, Nastran, MSC. Fatigue and MSC. Marc. These
are now equipped with several good techniques and methodologies to determine important
terms of fracture mechanics parameters such as the J-integral, Fatigue Life Estimation by
using Finite Element Analysis, which also yields substantially a better result. But it has been
observed that none of them have an in-built crack propagation capability. There are few
more software tools recently been developed for fatigue analysis includes FESAFE, FEMFAT
and nCODE. These tools not only useful to predict location of crack and its propagation, but
also, along with finite element software such as Ansys, Abaqus, Nastran, MSC. Fatigue and
MSC. Marc really make wonders in determining fatigue life of any engineering components.

Report by students of KLS Gogte Institute Of Technology, Udyambag, Melgaum.

(MECH VI-C 311-315)
2019-2020.