Original Article

International J of Engine Research

13(6) 616627
IMechE 2012
Dynamic model of a two-cylinder four- Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
stroke internal combustion engine and DOI: 10.1177/1468087412442618
jer.sagepub.com

vibration treatment

Halit Karabulut

Abstract
Engine vibrations of large amplitude are caused by inertial effects of the pistoncrankshaft mechanism and gas forces,
and are transmitted to the chassis of a vehicle in the form of periodically varying forces through the engine mounts. Both
the engine vibrations and mount forces may be minimized by designing proper engine components and mounts, which
requires a dynamic simulation of the engine. In this study, a three degree of freedom dynamic model, enabling the simul-
taneous treatment of the pistoncrankshaft mechanism and engine block, was devised for a two-cylinder four-stroke
engine. Periodic and temporary variations of crankshaft speed, the variation of torque and power with speed, torsional
and translational vibrations of the engine block, and the variation of mount forces with respect to the damping and stiff-
ness coefficients of the mounts were studied. The torsional and translational vibrations of the engine block were found
to be mainly affected by the combustion gas force and inertia force of the reciprocating masses, respectively. A simple
relation has been obtained to determine the position and mass of counterweights used for eliminating the vertical vibra-
tion of the block.

Keywords
Engine dynamics, engine order vibration, engine block torsional vibration, engine block translational vibration

Date received: 31 August 2010; accepted: 27 February 2012

Introduction The engine vibrations generated by different sources

have different frequencies. By comparing the frequency
Vibration and noise are among the most significant prob- of any vibration with the engine rotation frequency, its
lems of wheeled vehicles driven by piston engines. The source can be detected.9 Vibration spectra are used for
source of noise is vibration; however, noise and vibration this purpose. In vibration spectra, any vibration
are treated separately. A large proportion of vehicle response such as torque, force, displacement, accelera-
vibrations are induced by the engine. Among the causes tion, and so on, can be plotted against the frequency.
of engine-induced vibrations are variable gas forces The excitation forces generated by the inertia of reci-
applied to the pistons, the inertial unbalance of rotating procating masses and the other imbalanced masses
and translating components, static and elastic deflections make contributions to the whole multiples of the engine
of engine components, the off-centred rotation of the fly- order vibrations. The gas forces make contributions to
wheel, transient contacts in the valve mechanism and both the whole and half multiples of the engine order
timing gears, impacts due to clearances, and so on.14 vibrations. The smaller multiples of engine order vibra-
Vibration can cause the vehicle systems to fail by tions are caused by component flexibility and other fac-
inducing several physical effects, such as material fatigue, tors such as clearance, transient contacts, and so on.
impacts, friction, heat generation, and so on. Material
fatigue is among the most significant consequences
of vibration.5,6 Vehicle vibration also has harmful effects
on the human body. With respect to the frequency, Department of Automotive Engineering, Gazi University, Turkey
amplitude and influencing period of the vibration, the
Corresponding author:
human body experiences different degrees of physiologi- Halit Karabulut, Department of Automotive Engineering, Technology
cal and psychological discomfort such as weariness, back Faculty, Gazi University, 06500 Teknikokullar Ankara, Turkey.
pain, distraction, annoyance, and so on.7,8 Email: halitk@gazi.edu.tr
Karabulut 617

Simple analytic models can help pinpoint some of the The friction forces have a profound effect on the
frequencies observed in the spectral compositions.9 characteristics of the engine block vibrations. Most of
In order to avoid the transmission of the engine the engine friction occurs at the bearings, valve train
vibrations to the vehicle chassis, vibration isolators are and piston assembly. Experimental investigations indi-
used.10,11 In the literature of engine technology, the cate that 1518% of the engine power is wasted by fric-
vibration isolators are named engine mounts, and most tion. Friction forces are generated by viscous shear of
of them are made of rubber. A vehicles engine runs in lubricants and the boundary interactions.25,26
a large speed range and generates vibrations with differ- Between sliding surfaces, if there is a proper lubri-
ent frequencies. An ideal vibration isolator is expected cant film thickness, only hydrodynamic friction
to isolate all vibrations. A rubber mount is only able to appears, linearly varying with the sliding velocity of the
isolate vibrations in a limited frequency range.11 moving surface. If the lubricant film is quite thin, how-
Therefore, rubber mounts are designed to isolate the ever, a lubrication mechanism, named boundary lubri-
vibrations in a specified range of frequency. To obtain cation, takes place. This is an intermediate situation
an adequate performance in larger ranges of frequency, between the dry friction and hydrodynamic lubrication.
hydraulic mounts have been developed.12,13 In this phenomenon, metal-to-metal contact friction
A dynamic model including all the dynamic compo- occurs between the asperity tips taking place on the
nents of an engine and their compliances, as well as the rough surface as well as the shear stress generated by
chassis of the vehicle, would enable a more reliable tool the lubricant layers in the valleys of surface topogra-
for the design of engine mounts. However, since the phy. The shear stress generated by the lubricant layers
development of such a model would take a long time is different from the shear stress of Newtonian fluids.26
and considerable effort, the engine and chassis are The piston friction is estimated to be the most signif-
treated separately.1416 Even a dynamic model, includ- icant among the friction forces affecting the vibratory
ing the fundamental dynamic components of the engine motion of the engine block.27 The total friction force
beside the mounts, is too complicated. Therefore, the exerted on a piston is mainly caused by skirt friction
engine mounts are mostly designed via a simplified and ring-pack friction. The piston skirt and ring-pack
model named a rigid-body model.1417 In this model, friction comprise both the hydrodynamic and bound-
the engine is assumed to be a rigid body with six ary friction (asperity friction). The simplest approxima-
degrees of freedom; three of them are translational dis- tion used for calculating the hydrodynamic friction
placements of the centre of gravity of the body accord- between piston skirt and liner is the Couette approxi-
ing to the (x, y ,z) coordinate system, the others are mation.26,28 Ring-pack friction depends on many physi-
rotations of the body around the x, y and z axes. The cal factors such as gas pressure, secondary motions of
amplitudes of all motions are assumed to be small the piston, static and dynamic distortions of the cylin-
enough to use linear equations in modelling. In some der bore, starvation of the lubricant around the ring
rigid-body approximations, predetermined excitation contact surface, the nonaxisymmetrical form of rings in
forces and moments, in terms of harmonic functions, the cylinder bore, and so on.25,28 About the top and
were used,17,18 and the excitation forces are applied to bottom dead centres of the piston stroke, the tilting
the centre of gravity of the body. There are also rigid- motion of the piston generates a significant rate of
body models (named fully coupled) simultaneously cal- increase in asperity friction.26,29 For the theoretical
culating the excitation forces and moments.19,20 treatment of the piston lubrication and prediction of
In practice, none of the engine components, includ- the piston friction, the Reynolds lubrication equation is
ing the block, are rigid. The main journal bearings, used.9,2529 In a four-stroke engine, the minimum lubri-
crankshaft, the pistons and connecting rods are cant film thickness and the maximum friction appears
exposed to elastic deformations due to forces exerted at the power stroke where the contribution of asperity
upon them transiently.2124 The flexible engine compo- friction is found to be larger than hydrodynamic fric-
nents, especially the crankshaft, generate some high- tion.29 Offsets of gudgeon pin and crankshaft from the
frequency secondary vibrations that interact with the cylinder axis result in a significant reduction in piston
block vibrations. skirt friction, as well as generating a minimal parasitic
The reciprocating motion of the piston in the liner is friction.26 The elastic behaviour of the piston skirt
not a one-dimensional sliding motion. Due to the clear- reduces the asperity friction between the piston and its
ance between the piston and its liner, about the top and liner, while increasing the hydrodynamic force support-
bottom dead centres, the piston displays an angular ing the piston.30 In the vibration analysis of the engine
motion around the gudgeon pin, which is named tilting block, the hydrodynamic forces exerted on a piston can
motion.9 At the same time, the gudgeon pin and piston easily be taken into account by means of imposing a
together perform a lateral motion in the cylinder bore damping-force term in the momentum equation of the
from side to side. Due to the clearances between the piston. However, in order to take the piston asperity
crank pin journals and their bushing, the big-end of the friction into account, a correlation becomes necessary.
connecting rod also performs secondary motions. All For this purpose, the total asperity friction of the ring-
of these secondary motions have an influence on the pack was assumed to be a constant, while the skirt
vibratory motion of the engine block. asperity friction is calculated via multiplying the side
618 International J of Engine Research 13(6)

Figure 2. Comparison of the static position and any

instantaneous position of the system.

is the inclusion of friction forces in the dynamic model.

Figure 1. Crankshaft configuration. The coupled treatment of the block vibrations and
crankshaft motion, as implemented in this work, is also
not common practice.
force with a constant determined experimentally or the-
oretically.27 The result is an equation of the form
Qt = F + Co FS , where F and FS indicate the ring- Mathematical model
pack asperity friction and piston side force, respec- Coordinates and variables
tively. The ring-pack asperity friction is measured
under static conditions. The coordinate systems used for the derivation of kine-
It is estimated that 2030% of the total engine fric- matic and dynamic relations are illustrated in Figure 2.
tion is generated by crankshaft bearings.31 Crankshafts Time (t) is the independent variable of the analysis. The
are generally made of heat-treated hard steels. The sur- crankshaft angle (u), displacement of the crankshaft
faces of the crank pin journals and main journals are centre (yc ) and the angular displacement of the engine
finished by grinding. The bearings are circular shells block around the crankshaft centre (u) are the depen-
consisting of two half-sections placed in bores. The dent variables of the analysis. Displacements of piston-
inner surfaces of the bearings are coated with a Babbit 1(y) and piston-2 (Y), and the angles made by the pis-
metal.32 Tinaluminium and leadbronze are the most ton connecting rods with the cylinder axis (b) and (q)
common Babbit metals used in the automotive indus- are kinematic functions.
try.33 Between journals and their beds, there is a certain Before motion starts, piston-1 is at the top dead cen-
amount of clearance for lubrication. In both the crank tre of its stroke. Displacements of piston-1(y) and pis-
pin and the main journal bearings, friction is a combi- ton-2 (Y) are measured from the top dead centres while
nation of hydrodynamic and asperity friction, however, the system is static. The angular displacement of the
the prevalent mode of friction is hydrodynamic. The engine block (u) is measured from the static position of
bearing friction may be predicted via the Couette the cylinder axis. The angular displacement of the
approximation. However, the motion of a journal in its crankshaft is measured from the upward direction of
bearing is not a simple concentric rotation. As well as the cylinder axis. The static location of the crankshaft
rotation, it performs periodic lateral motions. centre is assumed to be the reference point of the trans-
Therefore, a more accurate prediction of bearing fric- lational displacement of the block (yc ).
tion may be accomplished via solving the Reynolds
lubrication equation as a part of the simulation
process.26,34
Assumptions
The present study is concerned with the dynamic Pistons, connecting rods, the crankshaft and the engine
modelling of a four-stroke internal combustion engine block are assumed to be rigid bodies. The engine is
with two cylinders located side by side. Figure 1 illus- assumed to be mounted on a rigid base with rubber
trates the crankshaft of the engine where both pins are mounts. The friction appearing at the pistonliner con-
situated in the same angular position. As a result of junction is assumed to be a combination of hydrody-
this, the excitation frequency of both forces, inertia and namic shear and asperity friction. In bearing friction,
gas, will be equal to the engine rotation frequency. The the contribution of hydrodynamic shear is considered,
system has three degrees of freedom, which are tor- but asperity is ignored. The offset between the cylinder
sional vibration of the block around the crankshaft cen- axis and gudgeon pin axis is disregarded, as well as the
tre, translational vibration of the block in the direction offset between the cylinder axis and crankshaft axis.
of the cylinder axis and the fluctuations in crankshaft The mass inertia moments of the crankshaft and fly-
speed. The dynamic model consists of planar motion wheel are combined as a unique value. All the second-
equations of the pistons, connecting rods, crankshaft ary motions occurring in the block are disregarded.
and engine block. The novelty presented by this paper Ring friction is assumed to be constant. The stiffness
Karabulut 619

mp x = CP x_  x_ c  R cos u + l cos b cos u u_ 

+ Fs cos u  FL sinb  u
FW  FCH  Fu sin u 5
mp y =  CP y_  y_ c  R cos u + l cos b sin u u_ 
+ Fs sin u + FW  FCH  Fu cos u
 FL cosb  u
6
= Cp x_  x_ c  R cos (u + h) + l cos q cos uu_ 
mp x
+ Fd cos u  FM sinq  u
 FG  FCH  Fr sin u
Figure 3. An instantaneous position of the piston and forces
7
exerted on it. h i
=  CP Y_  y_  R cos (u + h) + l cos q sin u u_
mp Y c

+ Fd sin u + FG  FCH  Fr  cos u

and damping coefficient of the mounts are constant.  FM cosq  u
The properties of the lubricant do not vary. Gas forces
do not change from cylinder to cylinder or from cycle 8
to cycle. The friction between the gudgeon pin and its From equation (5), by ignoring the inertia and vis-
bore is disregarded. The effect of gravity is also ignored. cous damping terms, the side force exerted on piston-1
The mass of the connecting rod is split into a part reci- is obtained as
procating with the piston and a part rotating with the
crank pin. The mass of the part reciprocating with the sinb  u sin u
piston is assumed to be one-third of the connecting rod Fs = FL + FW  FCH  Fu 9
cos u cos u
mass. The crankshaft is assumed to be balanced.
From equation (6), the axial force appearing on the pis-
ton connecting rod of piston-1 is obtained as
Equations of motion
CP
The comparison of the static and any instantaneous FL =  y_  y_ c  R cos u + l cos b sin u u_ 
cosb  u
positions of the pistoncrankshaft assembly is shown in
sin u cos u
Figure 2. According to Figure 2, the displacements of + FS + FW  FCH  Fu 
cosb  u cosb  u
the pistons are
mp y

y = R + l + yc  cos uR cos u + l cos b, 1 cosb  u
= R + l + yc  cos uR cosu + h + l cos q: 2 10

The angles made by piston connecting rods with the Similarly, from equations (7) and (8), the side force and
cylinder axis are the connecting rod force exerted on piston-2 are
  obtained as
R
b = arcsin sin u , 3 FM sinq  u sin u
l Fd = + FG  FCH  Fr 11
  cos u cos u
R
q = arcsin sinu + h : 4 CP
l FM =  Y_  y_ c  R cosu + h
cosq  u
The position of any one of the pistons at any instant + l cos q sin uu_
may be illustrated as shown in Figure 3. The stroke sin u cos u
direction of the pistons makes an angle u with the y + Fd + FG  FCH  Fr
cosq  u cosq  u
axis. The forces exerted on piston-1 are: the pressure
mp Y
force of the working gas (FW ), the pressure force of the 
crankcase (FCH ), the dry friction force between the cosq  u
cylinder wall and side surface of piston-1 (Fu ), the side 12
force exerted by the cylinder wall (Fs ), the force applied
The asperity friction forces exerted on piston-1 and pis-
by the connecting rod (FL ) and the hydrodynamic force
ton-2 may be described as27
caused by the damping effect of the lubricant (Fm1 ).
The forces exerted on piston-2 may be written in the Fu = F + Co jFs jsgn(y)
_ 13
same order: FG , FCH , Fr , Fd , FM and Fm2 . The motion
_
Fr = F + Co j Fd jsgn(Y) 14
equations of the pistons are
620 International J of Engine Research 13(6)

Figure 4. Forces contributing to the angular momentum of the

crankshaft and direction angles.

In equations (13) and (14), F is a constant friction

force generated by the piston rings. The big-end of the
piston connecting rod performs a circular motion
together with the crank pin, while the other end per-
forms a translational motion with the piston pin. The
inertia force generated by the connecting rod in the
direction of piston motion is taken into account by Figure 5. An instantaneous position of the engine block, forces
means of adding one-third of the connecting rod mass and moments contributing to its momentum equation of angular
motion.
to the piston mass. The other component of the con-
necting rod inertia force is calculated approximately
of hydrodynamic friction appearing on the crank pins
via the equation of angular motion around the piston
(Mn1 ) and (Mn2 ). The directions of these moments and
pin.20,35 The angular motion equations of the connect-
forces are illustrated in Figure 4. The angular motion
ing rods may be set as
equation of the crankshaft may be written as
IB R R hp i
Fb = b 15
u=  u
 cos (b + u)Fb + cos  (b + u) FL
l ICR ICR 2
IB R R hp i
Fq = q 16  cos (q + u + h)Fq + cos  (q + u + h) FM
l ICR ICR 2
1  
where Fb and Fq are the tangential forces applied to the  Mn1 + Mn2 + MQ  MS + Mm
ICR
big-end of the connecting rods by crank pins and are
19
illustrated in Figure 4.
While the crank pin rotates in the big-end bearing, a The forces and moments contributing to the tor-
siding motion occurs between the bearing and pin sur- sional vibration of the engine block are: piston side
faces. This sliding motion induces a hydrodynamic forces (FS ) and (Fd ), the total of hydrodynamic friction
moment proportional to the sliding speed. This moment moments appearing in the main journals (Mm ),
is balanced by a reaction force applied by the engine moments caused by the crank pins hydrodynamic fric-
block to the thrust surface of the piston. tion (Mn1 ) and (Mn2 ), start-up moment (MS ), moment
With respect to the crank centre, the reaction forces of the torsional spring and the moment of the torsional
exerted on the thrust surface of the pistons induce the damper (Figure 5). The torsional spring and damper
moments considered here are imaginary elements considered on
behalf of the engine mounts. The angular motion equa-
Ckm  _ 
tion of the block is
Mn1 = u + b_ R cos u + l cos b 17
l
Ckm  _  CC KC FS
Mn2 = u + q_ R cosu + h + l cos q 18
=
u u_  u  (R cos u + l cos b)
l IC IC IC
Fd
where the distance between the centre of the gudgeon  R cosu + h + l cos q
IC
pin and the crankshaft centre is assumed to be the 1 
moment arm. + Mm + Mn1 + Mn2  MS 20
IC
The forces and moments contributing to the angular
motion of the crankshaft are: the axial forces appearing Figure 5 illustrates the relations between the tor-
on the connecting rods (FL ) and (FM ), tangential forces sional and translational motions of the engine block
(Fb ) and (Fq ), moment of external load (MQ ), start-up and the deformations of the mounts. The moments of
moment (MS ), moment of hydrodynamic friction the imaginary torsional spring and torsional damper
appearing on the main journals (Mm ) and the moments should be equal to those of the engine mounts. From
Karabulut 621

this condition, the relations between the constants of Table 1. Coefficients of Fourier expansion of working gas
the imaginary torsional spring and damper, and the pressure.
engine mounts are stated as
k Ak Bk
2
KC = 2kD=2 , 21 0 1349.818 -
2 1 1030.205 193.4998
CC = 2Ct D=2 22
2 801.0324 203.2044
respectively. 3 657.4379 166.9241
4 564.2553 165.3942
Forces with a contribution to the translational vibra- 5 434.0545 176.4835
6 339.7547 143.5547
tion of the engine block are: working gas pressure
7 271.1902 127.9978
forces (FW ) and (FG ), crank case pressure (FCH ), the 8 217.8459 114.0232
connecting rod axial forces (FL ) and (FM ), piston skirt 9 161.0101 102.3047
asperity friction forces (Fu ) and (Fr ), hydrodynamic 10 127.0828 85.14419
friction forces appearing between pistons and cylinders, 11 93.66477 73.47498
12 74.86117 63.1907
the centrifugal forces generated by the counterweight
13 50.12255 54.48426
masses taking part on the crankshaft and damping and 14 39.4693 44.80448
spring forces considered as the equivalent of mounts. 15 25.79479 38.20669
The translational motion equation of the block is 16 20.503690 32.47377
  17 11.320950 27.89231
1 1 1 18 8.553185 24.05686
yc = FL cosb  u + FCH cos u  FW cos u 19 3.135428 20.13157
me me me
  20 2.598687 17.28385
1 1 1
FM cosq  u + FCH cos u  FG cos u Source: reproduced with permission from publisher.36
me me me
CP h _ i
Y  y_ c  R cos (u + h) + l cos q sin u u_
me
CP
+ y_  y_ c  R cos u + l cos b sin uu_ 
me
cos u 1
+ F u + F r + cos Vmu v2 Ru
me me
1 Ky Cy dyc
+ cos Q mo v2 Ro  yc 
me me me dt
23
The mass of the engine block (me ) includes all of the
masses except the piston mass. Despite that, the use of
the total mass of the engine is not disadvantageous.
The equivalent spring and damper constants used in
Figure 6. Variation of working gas pressure with crank angle.
equation (23) may be defined, in terms of the mount Source: reproduced with permission from publisher.36
constants, as

Ky = 2k 24
Cy = 2Ct 25 The variation of working gas pressure was experi-
mentally obtained from a single-cylinder, four-stroke
For a simple mounting model as illustrated in Figure 5, diesel engine.36 To enable the use of data in the compu-
the displacement of the mounts can be defined as terization of the dynamic model, it was extrapolated
with the Fourier series
D
yA (t) = yc + u(t) 26
2 Xn
A0
D p(u) = + Ak cos ku + Bk sin ku: 30
yB (t) = yc  u(t) 27 2 k=1
2
where the mounts are symmetrically situated at both The values of Ak and Bk are tabulated in Table 1. In
sides of the engine block on a line passing through the Figure 6, a comparison of extrapolation to the original
crankshaft centre. The mount forces of this simple data is illustrated, where the grey thick line indicates
mounting model can be expressed as the original data and the dark thin line indicates the
extrapolation.
FA =  kA yA  CA y_ A 28 The initial conditions to be used for equations (19),
FB =  kB yB  CB y_ B 29 (20) and (23) are
622 International J of Engine Research 13(6)

Table 2. Specific values used in the analysis.

Spring constant for one piece of bilateral mounts, k (N/m) 250,000

Damping constant for one piece of bilateral mounts, Ct (Ns/m) 2000
Distance between bilateral mounts (m) 0.24
Crank radius (m) 0.034
Conrod length, l (m) 0.118
Dynamic dry friction coefficient of piston (Co) 0.05
Dry friction force generated by piston rings per piston, F (N) 55
Reciprocating mass (the mass of piston plus 1/3 connecting rod mass) (kg) 0.7
Piston diameter (m) 0.086
Hydrodynamic friction constant of the piston, Cp (Ns/m) 2.5
Counterweight mass per piston facilitating minimum vertical displacement of the block (kg) 0.700
Crank case pressure, pCH (bar) 101,325
Mass inertia moment for articulation of connecting rod around the gudgeon pin, IB (m2 kg) 0.002
The sum of crankshaft and flywheel mass inertia moments, ICR (m2 kg) 0.08
The total inertia moment of engine body for rotation around the crankshaft centre, IC (m2 kg) 2.4
Hydrodynamic friction constant for all the main journals and oil seals of the crankshaft (Nms/rad) 0.01
The distance between crankshaft counterweights mass centres and crankshaft centre, Ru, Ro (m) 0.034
The total mass of engine body, me (kg) 75
Hydrodynamic friction constant for a big-end bearing, Ckm (Nms/rad) 0.0025
The angle between crank pins, h (rad) 2p
Startup moment, MS (Nm) 50

u = 0, u_ = 0, u = 0, u_ = 0, yc = 0, y_ c = 0 of Dt may be determined by comparing the results from

31a; b; c; d; e; f the stability point of view. When a cubic Taylor expan-
sion, such as equation (32), is used, a time-step magni-
tude, Dt = 1=5000, is found to be appropriate.
Method of solution
The solution of the dynamic model was obtained via an Results and discussion
iterative prediction correction algorithm. By means of
substituting the initial values, given by equations (31a Inputs were determined with a comprehensive study
f), into the kinematic relations (1) to (4), the initial val- including literature investigations, experimental opera-
ues of y, Y, b and q were calculated. After getting the tions and theoretical approximations. Prior to this,
relevant relations from equations (1) to (4) by deriving approximate dimensions of the engine components
... ... ...
them,... the initial values of y, _ b,
_ Y, _ q, b,
_ y, Y, y, Y , b
q, were determined and solid models were depicted. The
and q were calculated by means of substituting the ini- mass and inertial mass moment of the dynamic compo-
tial conditions given by equations (31af). When con- nents were then determined by means of a design soft-
ducting the calculations, the use of all of the relations ware. The ring-pack static friction force (F ) was
derived throughout this analysis were required, as well determined by measurement and found to be consistent
as their derivatives. Since the modelling equations are with ones given by Guzzomi et al.27 The boundary fric-
non-linear and interrelated among themselves, an itera- tion coefficient of piston was taken from Ye et al.37 For
tive process was employed. After completing the calcu- the hydrodynamic friction, or hydrodynamic friction
lation of initial values, the angular position of the coefficient, of the piston, Dowson et al.34 suggested a
crankshaft (u) and its first derivative (u)_ were predicted Couette flow approximation. The hydrodynamic fric-
by means of Taylor expansions as tion coefficient of the main bearings and big-end bear-
... ings of connecting rods were taken from Wang and
u_ i1
ui1 2 u i1 3 Lim38 and Durak et al.39 The predictions made for the
ui = ui1 + Dt + Dt + Dt + . . . :
1! 2! 3! same bearings via Couette flow were also found to be
32 comparable with Wang and Lim38 and Durak et al.39
... The firing phase angle between the two pistons was
i1
u ui1
u_ i = u_ i1 + Dt + Dt2 + . . . 33 taken to be 2p radians, which enables repetition of the
1! 2! power strokes with equal periods. The inputs used in
In the same manner, ui , u_ i , yc i and y_ c i were predicted. the numerical applications are given in Table 2.
...
... ... this,...yi , Y i...
After , bi , qi , y_ i..., Y_ i , b_ i , q_ i , yi , Y
i, b i , y,
i, q Variation of the nominal speed of the crankshaft and
i
Y i , bi , i , ui , yc and y c were calculated iteratively
ui , u i , u its periodic fluctuations versus the crankshaft rotation
using all of the relations derived in the analysis, and the are illustrated in Figure 7. To obtain the curves given in
numerical values required for the second time step were Figure 7, a start-up moment of 50 Nm was applied
completed. The remainder of the numerical procedure within the range of crankshaft rotation 04u41. When
is a repetition of the same operations. The magnitude the engine started to run, as long as the external load is
Karabulut 623

500 40

400
30
Torque
300
Fluctuation
20
Power
200 319
317
315
313 10
100 311
309
307
305
502,65 508,933 515,216 521,499 527,782
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 233,64 313,5 376,46 427,85 472,11 505,87

Figure 7. Variation of the crankshaft speed with rotation and Figure 8. Variations of the crankshaft speed fluctuation and
load. engine torque with average speed.

zero, the speed of the crankshaft continues to increase 0.02

until the friction losses counterbalance the work gener- 0.01
ated by the working gas. When an external load is 0
applied to the engine at any instant, after this the nom- -0.01 -4
-4.5
inal speed of the crankshaft may either decrease, -0.02 -5
-5.5
increase or remain constant according to the magnitude -0.03 -6
545 550 555 560 565 570
of the external load applied. By manipulating the exter- -0.04
nal load, the nominal speed may be set to a constant -0.05
speed. At lower constant values of the nominal speed of 0 13 25 38 50 63 75 88 100 113 126 138

the crankshaft, the fluctuation of speed is larger. While

the speed increases, the fluctuation displays a decelerat-
Figure 9. Torsional vibration of the engine block.
ing decrease, as seen in Figures 7 and 8. The moment
generated by the engine, which is equal to the external
load, decreases with crankshaft speed, which is due to found to be insignificant. The principal source of the
hydrodynamic friction appearing on the piston and torsional vibration of the engine block was found to be
bearings. As seen in Figure 8, the decrease of the working gas pressure. The minimized torsional vibra-
moment, with respect to the nominal speed of the tions appearing during stable running of the engine
crankshaft, displays a slight deceleration. This implies have about a 0.00125 radian amplitude. If the distance
that the high-amplitude vibrations and crankshaft fluc- between the crankshaft centre and cylinder top is
tuation appearing at low speeds have a slight influence assumed to be 30 cm, there would be a 0.4 mm oscilla-
on the moment of the engine. In Figure 8, the variation tion at the cylinder top. At initial vibrations, however,
of the power versus the speed is also illustrated. The its value is approximately 18 mm. As seen from the
power exhibits a decelerating increase with speed, which magnified section in Figure 9, the curve is smooth and
is caused by the decrease in moment. Since the gas pres- there are no secondary vibrations. When running under
sure function used in this analysis is independent of the an external load, the engine block slants backward.
engine speed, the torque and power curves seen in Figure 9 indicates that the location of the dynamic
Figure 8 are very different from the practical situation. equilibrium is at about 0.005 radian backwards from
While the combined inertia moment of rotating the static equilibrium point. This corresponds to a
components increases (flywheel and crankshaft), the 1.5 mm displacement of the cylinder top.
fluctuation exhibits a decelerating decrease. In this The minimized translational vibrations of the engine
study, the combined inertia moment was optimized as block at transient and steady running conditions are
0.08 m2 kg, which corresponds to 4% speed fluctuation illustrated in Figure 10 for a 75 kg block mass. The
at 3000 r/min nominal speed. For further reduction of minimization of the translational vibration of the block
the crankshaft speed fluctuation, a large increase in is accomplished by means of adding counterweights
combined inertia is needed due to the decelerating opposite to the crank pins on the crankshaft. The
decrease of the fluctuation. amplitude of vibration appearing at the initial stage of
The torsional vibration of the engine block is illu- the starting process is about 0.35 mm. The transient
strated in Figure 9. Examinations were conducted by behaviours of the engine block end after four revolu-
means of changing the values of several inputs. In this tions at most. The dynamic equilibrium of the block
analysis, the starter motor is assumed to be mounted appears at 0.1 mm backward from the static equili-
on the engine block and to have a considerable contri- brium. The amplitude of the minimized translational
bution to the initial rotational displacement of the vibration under the steady running conditions is about
block. The influence of the reciprocating masses was 0.1 mm, which is the lowest possible translational
624 International J of Engine Research 13(6)

400
1
-4 300
0.5
-6
0 200
-8
-0.5 100
-10
-1
-12 0 k=250000
-1.5 k=750000
-14
-2 520,02 526,30 532,58 538,87 545,15 551,43 -100

-2.5 -200
528 531 534 537 540 543 547 550 553 556 559 562 565
-3
0 25 50 75 101 126 151 176 201 226 251 276

Figure 11. Comparison of mount forces obtained with two

Figure 10. The translational vibrations of the engine block. different spring stiffness.

250
500
200
150
400
100 300

Torque (Nm)
50 200
0
100
-50
-100 0
-150 -100
527,78 534,06 546,62 559,19 -200
-300
0 50 100 150 200
Figure 12. Variation of the sum of FA and FB . Crankshaft angle (rad)

Figure 13. Inertia torque variation on the crankshaft.

displacement and is obtained with a 700 g counter-
weight mass, which is equal to the sum of the piston
mass and one-third of the connecting rod mass. As seen In Figure 12, the algebraic sum of the mount forces
in Figure 10, at steady running conditions, the block FA and FB is shown. The period of the resultant mount
exhibits vibrations at three different modes. The peri- force is 4p radians. The period of the secondary fluc-
ods are p, 2p and 8p radians. The vibration with a 8p tuation appears to be p radians. The periodic average
period is not very apparent. of the resultant force is greater than zero, which is
As a result, a counterweight mass predicted by caused by translational displacement of the block.
means of Figure 13 illustrates variation of the torque on the
crankshaft at transient and steady conditions. The
mp R = mu Ru 34 highest value of the torque appears in the start-up pro-
cess, which is about 480 Nm. When the engine reaches
is found to be appropriate for the minimization of the its steady running speed and the external load is applied
vertical vibration of the block induced by the inertia of to the crankshaft, the torque of the crankshaft varies
reciprocating masses (piston mass plus one-third of the between 300 Nm and 2200 Nm. The external torque
connecting rod mass). It is important that a counter- applied to the crankshaft is 35 Nm, while the peak
weight added to the crankshaft opposite to the crank value of the torque appearing at steady running of the
pin not only reduces the vertical vibration, but also engine is 300 Nm, which is nine times higher than the
generates a horizontal vibration of the same amplitude. external load. This result is a clear indication of crank-
Therefore, instead of using a counterweight to draw the shaft failure, which appears from time to time in diesel
vertical vibration to zero, using a counterweight to engines. As seen in Figure 13, the period of the main
minimize both vibrations becomes imperative. For this speed fluctuation of the crankshaft appears as 2p
purpose, half of the mass of the counterweight deter- radians, which is caused by gas forces.
mined via equation (34) can be used, which minimizes Figure 14 illustrates the variation in the vertical dis-
both vibrations. In this paper, however, all of the placement of the block versus the engine rotation speed.
numerical results were obtained for a 700 g counter- The graph was obtained with zero external load. Since
weight by disregarding the horizontal vibration. the vertical vibration of the block is caused by the iner-
In Figure 11, the mount forces, appearing on mount tia force of the reciprocating parts, high-amplitude
A at steady running of the engine, are compared for vibrations appearing below 20 Hz are not expected to
k = 250, 000 and k = 750, 000 N/m stiffnesses. For a decrease, even at the low gas positions of the engine.
750,000 N/m stiffness, the amplitude of the wave is For this engine, an idling speed above 1200 r/min seems
460 N, while it is 271 N for a 250,000 N/m stiffness. to be obligatory.
Karabulut 625

Block vertical displacement (mm)

0.1 Funding
0.05 This research received no specific grant from any fund-
0 ing agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
-0.05 sectors.
-0.1

-0.15
References
-0.2
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Karabulut 627

ICR combined inertia moment of the R crankshaft radius (m)

crankshaft and flywheel (m2 kg ) Ru , Ro distances between crank counterweights
k stiffness of unique mount (N/m) and crankshaft centre (m)
kA , kB stiffness of mounts A and B, Figure 5 (N/m) s distance between the piston pin and
KC equivalent stiffness of the block torsional crankshaft centre (m)
spring (Nm/rad) x, y displacements of piston-1 (m)
Ky equivalent stiffness of the block xc , yc displacements of the crankshaft centre (m)
translational spring (Ns/m) yA , yB displacement of mounts A and B (m)
me total mass of the engine (kg) b, q connecting rod obliquity (rad)
mp mass of the piston plus one-third of the u angular displacement of engine block
connecting rod mass (kg) (rad)
mu , mo masses of the counterweights added to the h the angle between crank arms (rad)
crankshaft (kg) u crankshaft rotation with respect to the
MQ external load (as moment) (Nm) block (rad)
MS start-up moment (Nm) l connecting rod lengths (m)
Mm total hydrodynamic friction moment V, Q angles between counterweights and yc
exerted on main journals (Nm) (rad)
Mn1 , Mn2 moments generated by big-end Y, x displacements of piston-2 (m)
hydrodynamic friction (Nm)
p working gas pressure (Pa)