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Study on design optimization of a crankshaft bearing considering crankshaft strength for an internal combustion engine
J Sun , Y Fu, M Deng, X Cai, and C Gui School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Peoples Republic of China The manuscript was received on 2 November 2008 and was accepted after revision for publication on 18 February 2009. DOI: 10.1243/13506501JET573

Abstract: The effect on a crankshaft was not generally considered in the current optimum design of a crankshaft bearing for an internal combustion engine, but the corresponding relation between the dimensions of a crankshaft bearing and those of a crankshaft journal exists. In this article, the crankshaft-bearing system of a four-stroke, four-cylinder internal combustion engine was taken as the research object, and the optimum design of crankshaft bearings considering crankshaft strength was carried out. The necessity of considering crankshaft strength in the optimum design of the crankshaft bearings was studied. Crankshaft strength was taken as one of the constraints in establishing the model of optimum design of the crankshaft bearings. The particle swarm algorithm was used to optimize crankshaft bearings. The results show that, compared with the design of bearings for the original engine, the calculated 14.21 per cent of the total average frictional power loss of the bearings can be reduced by the optimum design of crankshaft bearings on the condition that crankshaft strength is not exceeded. If the effect on a crankshaft is not considered in the optimum design of crankshaft bearings, although obviously the total average frictional power loss of the bearings is reduced, crankshaft strength cannot meet design demand. Therefore, a reasonable optimum design of crankshaft bearings should consider the whole crankshaft-bearing system and the effect on crankshaft strength. Keywords: optimum design, bearing, crankshaft, engine

INTRODUCTION

A crankshaft bearing is an important frictional coupling in internal combustion engines. The economics, reliability, and durability of internal combustion engines have a close relationship with crankshaft bearings. Many researchers have studied the optimum design of journal bearings [16]. However, current studies on the optimum design of journal bearings were all done based on the theory of tribology discipline. That is, in these studies, only demands about the bearing itself were considered; the correlative effects on the crankshaft were not considered. As we know, a
Corresponding

author: School of Mechanical and Automotive

Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, No. 193 Tun Xi Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230009, Peoples Republic of China. email: sunjun_hfut@163.com
JET573 IMechE 2009

crankshaft bearing is one part of a crankshaft-bearing system in the actual internal combustion engine. A relationship exists between the dimensions of the bearing (diameter and length) and those of the crankshaft journal (diameter and length). A change of bearing dimensions affects the dimensions of the crankshaft journal, which will affect the strength of the crankshaft. If the effect on the crankshaft is not considered, although the optimum design of the bearing can be obtained, the strength of the crankshaft may not meet the requirements. Therefore, to correspond with the present developing demands for the design of internal combustion engines and make the optimum design of crankshaft bearings more reasonable and close to actual conditions, the optimum design of crankshaft bearings should be carried out from the viewpoint of systemic optimization and considering the effect on crankshaft strength. In this article, the crankshaft-bearing system of a four-stroke, four-cylinder internal combustion
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engine was considered. The optimum design of the crankshaft bearing for the internal combustion engine considering crankshaft strength is presented. 2 MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF OPTIMUM DESIGN Objective function

lm thickness of the bearing cannot be very small to guarantee the normal operation of the bearing. Thus g1 (X ) = hmin [hmin ] 0 (3)

2.1

The frictional power loss of a crankshaft bearing occupies 1520 per cent of the total mechanical loss of an internal combustion engine. It is very signicant to reduce the frictional power loss of a crankshaft bearing for improving the efciency of an internal combustion engine. So, the frictional power loss was taken as the objective function of optimum design of the crankshaft bearing. The frictional power loss of a crankshaft bearing changes periodically during engine operation. In this article, the total average frictional power loss wm , which is dened as the sum of the average frictional power losses of all crankshaft bearings of an engine in an engine working cycle, was taken as the objective function of optimum design
N

where hmin is the minimum oil lm thickness of the bearing, which is obtained by computing the axis orbit of the bearing in lubrication analysis. The method of computing the axis orbit of the bearing is detailed in reference [7]. [hmin ] is the allowable minimum oil lm thickness of the bearing, which is determined by the sum of the average surface roughnesses of the journal and the bearing and chosen as [hmin ] = 1.5 m. 2.3.2 Length to diameter ratio of the bearing

With the reduction of the bearing length, the frictional power loss of the bearing is reduced generally, but the maximum oil lm pressure of the bearing will increase. If the length to diameter ratio of the bearing is too small, a lubricating oil lm cannot be formed easily. For these reasons, the length to diameter ratio of the bearing should be given within the right limits, and the necessary constraints are expressed as follows g2 (X ) = AU D B g3 (X ) = B AL D 0 0 (4) (5)

wm =
i=1

wmi =

N i=1

M j=1

Fij vij (1)

where N is the number of crankshaft bearings of an engine (including main bearings and bearings of connecting rods), wmi is the average frictional power loss of a crankshaft bearing, Fij is the frictional force of a crankshaft bearing at a certain time (which is calculated by numerical integration based on the oil lm pressure of the bearing from references [7] and [8]), vij is the surface velocity of a crankshaft bearing, which is calculated by the rotational speed and diameter of the bearing, and M is the number into which an engine working cycle is divided. 2.2 Design variables

where AL is the minimum value of the length to diameter ratio and chosen as AL = 0.3. AU is the maximum value of the length to diameter ratio and chosen as AU = 1.5. In optimum calculation, the values of AL and AU are determined by real conditions of the designed bearing. 2.3.3 Fatigue strength of bearing material

The following constraint is used in regard to the contact strength of the alloy material of the bearing and to avoid contact fatigue pmax = Thus g4 (X ) = [p] Pmax BD 0 (7) Pmax BD [p] (6)

The main conguration parameters of a bearing, i.e. length B, diameter D, and relative clearance , were chosen as design parameters, which are expressed by the design variable vector as X = [B, D, ]T = [x1 , x2 , x3 ]T (2)

The numerical values of the length and diameter of the crankshaft journal correspond to those of the length and diameter of the bearing. 2.3 2.3.1 Constraints Minimum oil lm thickness of the bearing

Considering the inuence of some factors such as the roughness of the bearing surface, the minimum oil
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where pmax is the maximum specic pressure of the bearing. Pmax is the maximum load of the bearing in an engine working cycle. The load of a connectingrod bearing is calculated by dynamic analysis in which the cylinder pressure and inertia force are considered. The load of a main bearing is calculated by a whole crankshaft beam-element nite element method. The method to calculate bearing loads is shown in reference [7]. [p] is the endurance limit (if pmax is less than [p], damage of the alloy material of the bearing will not occur) and chosen as [p] = 32 MPa.
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2.3.4

Relative clearance of a bearing

The relative clearance of a bearing, , is chosen ordinarily based on the frictional power loss and rotational speed. To make the frictional power loss low, large should be chosen, but very large may cause problems of noise and vibration. Therefore, the value of must be chosen within a certain range for different kinds of bearings for internal combustion engines L Thus g5 (X ) = U Dd D Dd g6 (X ) = L D 0 0 (9) (10) = Dd D U (8)

where U is the maximum value of the relative clearance of a bearing and chosen as U = 0.00198, L is the minimum value of the relative clearance of a bearing and chosen as L = 0.00118, and d is the journal diameter of the bearing. 2.3.5 Safety factor of a crankshaft

The safety factor of the crankshaft of an engine must be higher than the allowable safety factor, so g7 (X ) = n [n ] 0 (11)

where n is the safety factor of the crankshaft, which is calculated by the method shown in reference [7], and [n ] is the allowable safety factor. The range of allowable safety factor for the engine crankshaft is usually 1.31.8. Here, the crankshaft is made from ductile cast iron, so the allowable safety factor is chosen as 1.8. From the above points, the mathematical model for the optimum design of a crankshaft bearing of an internal combustion engine can be expressed by X = [B, D, ]T = [x1 , x2 , x3 ]T min F (X ) = wm = subject to gi (X ) 3
N i=1 M j=1

cannot be applied. In this article, the particle swarm optimization algorithm was used to conduct the optimum design of crankshaft bearings of internal combustion engines considering crankshaft strength. The particle swarm algorithm [9, 10] based on iterative search for the species swarm is a kind of evolutionary optimization algorithm, in which the information is exchanged and transferred continuously among different individuals, and the superior solution is searched during the evolution of groups composed of candidate solutions. The particle swarm algorithm specializes in simple rules, parallelism, easy programming, and a high rate of convergence. No information about gradient is needed, and the value of the objective function is the information merely needed, so the particle swarm algorithm is applicable to optimization problems in which the objective functions are not explicit expressions. The calculation procedure of the particle swarm algorithm is as follows. Step 1: Assuming randomly the initial position (value) xi0 and initial velocity (correcting value) vi0 of all particles (design variables), and calculating current adaptive values (objective function, i.e. the sum of the average frictional power loss of all crankshaft bearings) and constraints (the minimum oil lm thickness hmin , the maximum specic pressure pmax , the length to diameter ratio B/D of all crankshaft bearings, and the safety factor of crankshaft n ) of particles. Step 2: Judging if the constraints are satised for the particles. Particles whose constraints are not satised are eliminated. Step 3: Evaluating the optimum adaptive values of the individuals for particles that satisfy the constraints. Step 4: Evaluating the global optimum adaptive value.
k k Step 5: Updating the position xid and velocity vid of the particles according to the following equations and calculating the adaptive values and constraints of the particles

k1 k k xid = xid + vid

Fij vij

(i = 1, 2, . . . , m1; d = 1, 2, . . . , n1) (12) (13)

k1 k1 k1 k vid = qvid + c1 r1 (sbesti xid ) + c2 r2 (gbesti xid )

0 (i = 1, 2, . . . , 7).

(i = 1, 2, . . . , m1; d = 1, 2, . . . , n1)

OPTIMUM ALGORITHM

For the optimum design of crankshaft bearings of internal combustion engines considering crankshaft strength, the relationship between design variables and objective function in the mathematical model cannot be stated by explicit expression and the gradient of objective function cannot be solved directly; hence the conventional method for optimum design
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where m1 is the number of the particles, n1 is the dimensionality of the solution vector, c1 and c2 are the studying factors and taken as 2, r1 and r2 are uniformly distributed stochastic numbers between 0 and 1, sbesti is the individual extremum of particle i (the solution corresponding to the minimum adaptive values of particle i), and gbesti is the global extremum (the solution corresponding to the minimum adaptive values of all particle swarms in a successive searching procedure).
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Step 6: If the position of the particle is good enough or the maximum iterative number is reached, the solution procedure ends. Otherwise, go to step 2. 4 EXAMPLES

Table 2

Results of the bearing design for the original engine

B (mm) D (mm) 54 65 65 65 65 65 0.001 58 0.001 58 0.001 58 0.001 58 0.001 58 0.001 58 wmi (kW) 0.18 0.19 0.22 0.22 0.21 0.20

The crankshaft-bearing system of a four-stroke, fourcylinder internal combustion engine was taken as the researching objective to carry out the optimum design of crankshaft bearings for internal combustion engines considering the strength of the crankshaft. For comparison, the optimum design of crankshaft bearings for internal combustion engines with the strength of the crankshaft not considered was also done. The main conguration parameters of the crankshaft bearings for the engine are shown in Table 1. The results of the original design of the crankshaft bearings, the optimum design of the crankshaft bearings not considering the crankshaft strength, and the optimum design of the crankshaft bearings considering the crankshaft strength are shown in Tables 2 to 4, respectively. As shown in the tables, the total average frictional power losses of the crankshaft bearings (the sum of average frictional power loss of four connecting-rod bearings and ve main bearings) corresponding to the three aforementioned conditions are 1.76, 1.47, and 1.51, respectively. Compared with the original design of the crankshaft bearings, the total frictional power loss of the crankshaft bearings by means of the optimum design is reduced, and the total frictional power losses of the crankshaft bearings by the optimum design when not considering and considering crankshaft strength are reduced by 16.48 and 14.21 per cent, respectively. It can be clearly seen that the optimum design of crankshaft bearings can reduce signicantly the frictional power losses of crankshaft bearings and the mechanical loss of internal combustion engines. However, the above presentation is only about results on the optimum design for crankshaft bearings, and the effect on the crankshaft is not given. A relationship exists between the diameter and length of a crankshaft journal and the diameter and length of a crankshaft bearing. A change of bearing dimensions will change the dimensions of the crankshaft journal, which will affect directly the strength of the crankshaft. The diameter and length of the crankshaft
Table 1 Main conguration parameters of crankshaft bearings
r/min mm mm mm mm 2600 0.00158 65 22 54 26 QT800-2

No. 1 connecting-rod bearing No. 1 main bearing No. 2 main bearing No. 3 main bearing No. 4 main bearing No. 5 main bearing

26 22 22 22 22 22

Table 3

Results of the optimum design of bearings not considering crankshaft strength

B (mm) D (mm) 50 61 61 61 61 61 0.001 62 0.001 62 0.001 62 0.001 62 0.001 62 0.001 62 wmi (kW) 0.15 0.16 0.18 0.19 0.18 0.16

No. 1 connecting-rod bearing No. 1 main bearing No. 2 main bearing No. 3 main bearing No. 4 main bearing No. 5 main bearing

24 20 20 20 20 20

Table 4

Results of the optimum design of bearings considering crankshaft strength

B (mm) D (mm) 52 63 63 63 63 63 0.001 69 0.001 69 0.001 69 0.001 69 0.001 69 0.001 69 wmi (kW) 0.15 0.16 0.19 0.20 0.19 0.17

No. 1 connecting-rod bearing No. 1 main bearing No. 2 main bearing No. 3 main bearing No. 4 main bearing No. 5 main bearing

23 19 19 19 19 19

Rotational speed Relative clearance Diameter of main bearing Length of main bearing Diameter of connecting-rod bearing Length of connecting-rod bearing Material of crankshaft

journal corresponding to the discussed three designs of crankshaft bearings are different. The safety factors of the crankshaft corresponding to the original design of the crankshaft bearings, the optimum design of the crankshaft bearings not considering the crankshaft strength, and the optimum design of the crankshaft bearings considering the crankshaft strength are 1.93, 1.66, and 1.88, respectively. Compared with the design of the original engine, the safety factors of the crankshaft in the condition of the optimum design of crankshaft bearings are all slightly reduced, but the reduction of the safety factor of the crankshaft in the optimum designs of crankshaft bearings considering crankshaft strength is signicantly different from that in the optimum designs of the crankshaft bearings when not considering the crankshaft strength. Although the safety factor of the crankshaft in the optimum design of crankshaft bearings considering the crankshaft strength is lower than that of the original engine, its value (1.88) is larger than the allowable safety factor (1.8) and the strength of the crankshaft can meet the demand because of the safety factor of the crankshaft being taken as the constraint
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condition. In the optimum design of bearings not considering crankshaft strength, although the optimum result of bearings design is achieved and the total average frictional power loss of crankshaft bearings is 2.27 per cent less than that in the optimum design of bearings considering crankshaft strength, the safety factor of the crankshaft is signicantly lower. Its value (1.66) is smaller than the allowable safety factor (1.8); thus the strength of the crankshaft cannot meet the demands. This is because the bearing is the one and only objective of optimum design and the effect on the strength of the crankshaft is not considered, which results in the dimension of a crankshaft journal being changed a lot, especially the diameter of the journal, which is signicantly reduced. Thus, the results of the optimum designs of crankshaft bearings not considering crankshaft strength cannot be used directly in actual design. Optimum designs of crankshaft bearings have to be carried out once more after considering the strength of the crankshaft. The dimensions of the crankshaft journal need to be modied till the demand for crankshaft strength is met. To make the results more reasonable and close to actual conditions, the optimum design of crankshaft bearings should consider the whole crankshaftbearing system and the effect on crankshaft strength. Thus, the optimum solution, which meets the demands of the system can be obtained.

REFERENCES
1 Li, Z. and Lu, L. G. Application of improved ant colony algorithm to optimization of radial bearing in internal combustion engine. Chin. Intern. Combust. Engine Eng. (Chin.), 2004, 25(5), 3841. 2 Hashimoto, H. and Matsumoto, K. Improvement of operating characteristics of high-speed hydrodynamic journal bearings by optimum design, part I formulation of methodology and its application to elliptical bearing design. J. Tribol. (Trans. ASME), 2001, 123(2), 305312. 3 Hirani, H. and Suh, N. P. Journal bearing design using multiobjective genetic algorithm and axiomatic design approaches. Tribol. Int., 2005, 38(5), 481491. 4 Hirani, H. Multiobjective optimization of a journal bearing using the Pareto optimality concept. Proc. IMechE, Part J: J. Engineering Tribology, 2004, 218(J4), 323336. DOI: 10.1243/1350650041762668. 5 Zengeya, M. and Gadala, M. Optimization of journal bearings using a hybrid scheme. Proc. IMechE, Part J: J. Engineering Tribology, 2007, 221(J5), 591607. DOI: 10.1243/13506501JET258. 6 Song, J. D., Yang, B. S., Choi, B. G., and Kimet H. J. Optimum design of short journal bearings by enhanced articial life optimization algorithm. Tribol. Int., 2005, 38(4), 403412. 7 Sun, J. and Gui, C. L. Effect of lubrication status of bearing on crankshaft strength. J. Tribol. (Trans. ASME), 2007, 129(4), 887894. 8 Sun, J. and Gui, C. L. Hydrodynamic lubrication analysis of journal bearing considering misalignment caused by shaft deformation. Tribol. Int., 2004, 37(10), 841848. 9 Eberhart, R. and Kennedy, J. A new optimizer using particle swarm theory. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Micro Machine and Human Science, Nagoya, Japan, 1995, pp. 3943. 10 Kennedy, J. and Eberhart, R. Particle swarm optimization. In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Neural Networks, Perth, Australia, 1995, pp. 1942 1948.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The reasonable optimum design of crankshaft bearings should consider the whole crankshaftbearing system and the effect on crankshaft strength; thus the optimum solution relevant to actual conditions and meeting the requirements of the system can be obtained. 2. The optimum design of crankshaft bearings can reduce remarkably the frictional power loss of the bearings and the mechanical loss of internal combustion engines. 3. The method of the optimum design of crankshaft bearings considering the crankshaft strength presented here can be applied directly to the shaftbearing system used universally in general machinery.

APPENDIX Notation AL AU B c1 , c2 d D Fij gbesti hmin [hmin ] m1 minimum value of the length to diameter ratio maximum value of the length to diameter ratio bearing length studying factors journal diameter of a bearing bearing diameter frictional force of a crankshaft bearing at a certain time global extremum minimum oil lm thickness of a bearing allowable minimum oil lm thickness of a bearing number of particles
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50175023, 50575065), the Tribology Science Fund of State Key Laboratory of Tribology of China (SKLTKF08B05), and Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (090414171).
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M n1 n [n ] N pmax [p] Pmax r1 , r2 sbesti

divided number of period of an engine working cycle dimensionality of solution vector safety factor at a dangerous point on the crankshaft allowable safety factor number of crankshaft bearings of an engine maximum specic pressure of a bearing allowable intensity of alloy material of a bearing maximum load of a bearing in an engine working cycle uniformly distributed stochastic numbers individual extremum of particle i

vi0 vij wm wmi xi0 L U

initial velocity (correcting value) of all particles (design variables) surface velocity of a crankshaft bearing total average frictional power loss average frictional power of a crankshaft bearing initial position (value) of all particles (design variables) relative clearance of a bearing minimum value of relative clearance of a bearing maximum value of relative clearance of a bearing

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