Title: Dynamic balancing and link shape synthesis of slider-crank mechanism for multi-cylinder engines

Authors: Kailash Chaudhary; Himanshu Chaudhary

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, JLN Marg, Jaipur, 302017, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, JLN Marg, Jaipur, 302017, India

Abstract: A two-stage optimisation method is proposed to dynamically balance a planar slider-crank mechanism to minimise the shaking force and shaking moment and synthesise its link shapes. In the first stage, the dynamic balancing is achieved by optimally distributing masses of crank and connecting rod using the equimomental system of point-masses. Their shapes are synthesised systematically by closed parametric curve, i.e., cubic B-spline curve corresponding to the balanced mechanism's inertial parameters in the second stage. When such optimised mechanism is used in a multi-cylinder inline engine, the loads on main bearings get reduced. The optimisation problem thus formulated to minimise shaking force, shaking moment and bearing loads as well as to find optimum link shapes are solved using the popular evolutionary optimisation algorithm, i.e., genetic algorithm.

Keywords: optimisation; dynamic balancing; link shape synthesis; shaking force; shaking moment; slider-crank mechanism; multi-cylinder inline engines; bearing loads; link shapes; genetic algorithms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRS.2015.074118

International Journal of Mechanisms and Robotic Systems, 2015 Vol.2 No.3/4, pp.254 - 275

Received: 19 Apr 2015
Accepted: 31 Jul 2015
Published online: 11 Jan 2016 *

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