Fatigue and Bearing Analysis of an Engine Connecting Rod Based on Multi-body Dynamics

This paper has studied the fatigue and friction of big end bearing on an engine connecting rod by combining the multi-body dynamics and hydrodynamic lubrication model. First, the basic equations and the application on AVL-Excite software platform of multi-body dynamics have been described in detail. Then, introduce the hydrodynamic lubrication model, which is the extended Reynolds equation derived from the Navier-Stokes equation and the equation of continuity. After that, carry out the static calculation of connecting rod assembly. At the same time, multi-body dynamics analysis has been performed and stress history can be obtained by finite element data recovery. Next, execute the fatigue analysis combining the Static stress and dynamic stress, safety factor distribution of connecting rod will be obtained as result. At last, detailed friction analysis of the big-end bearing has been performed. And got a good agreement when contrast the simulation results to the Bearing wear in the experiment.