TITLE:
Modal and Thermal Analysis of a Modified Connecting Rod of an Internal Combustion Engine Using Finite Element Method
AUTHORS:
Nkrumah Jacob Kwaku, Baba Ziblim, Sulemana Yahaya, Sherry Kwabla Amedorme
KEYWORDS:
Connecting Rod, Steady-State Thermal Analysis, Deformation, Heat Flux, Thermal and Modal, Finite Element Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science,
Vol.13 No.3,
July
25,
2023
ABSTRACT: The connecting rod is one of the most important moving components in an internal combustion engine. The present work determined the possibility of using aluminium alloy 7075 material to design and manufacture a connecting rod for weight optimisation without losing the strength of the connecting rod. It considered modal and thermal analyses to investigate the suitability of the material for connecting rod design. The parameters that were considered under the modal analysis were: total deformation, and natural frequency, while the thermal analysis looked at the temperature distribution, total heat flux and directional heat flux of the four connecting rods made with titanium alloy, grey cast iron, structural steel and aluminium 7075 alloy respectively. The connecting rod was modelled using Autodesk inventor2017 software using the calculated parameters. The steady-state thermal analysis was used to determine the induced heat flux and directional heat flux. The study found that Aluminium 7075 alloy deformed more than the remaining three other materials but has superior qualities in terms of vibrational natural frequency, total heat flux and lightweight compared to structural steel, grey cast iron and titanium alloy.