TECHNICAL PAPER Design of high duty diesel engine connecting rod based on finite element analysis Mirsadegh Seyedzavvar 1 • Mirali Seyedzavvar 2 Received: 20 July 2017 / Accepted: 25 November 2017 / Published online: 22 January 2018 Ó The Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering 2018 Abstract Connecting rod of an internal combustion engine is subjected to complex loading conditions. These mainly include the forces created through combustion in the combustion chamber of cylinder causing compression and bending of the connecting rod. This paper reports the results of a project objected to design the connecting rod of a heavy duty marine diesel engine and to modify its structural details based on finite element analysis. For this purpose, the initial design of the connecting rod was conducted by CATIA software and imported as stp file in Abaqus software. Results of the FEM model were utilized to modify the CAD model based on critical stress spots and magnitude of deformations of different sections of analyzed connecting rod model. Also, these results were used to introduce appropriate materials to tolerate the mag- nitude of forces developed under maximum combustion pressure of 190 bar. Further FEM analyses were carried out to modify the design in order to reduce the weight of final model of connecting rod. Results of finite element analysis of the final model revealed that the levels of stresses of the designed connecting rod are reduced significantly below the yield stresses of suggested materials for production of the connecting rod. Keywords Connecting rod Á Finite element method Á Maximum combustion chamber pressure 1 Introduction Connecting rod of an internal combustion engine is con- sidered one of its dynamic components converting the linear displacement of piston to the rotational motion of crankshaft. Therefore, the connecting rod is considered a key component of an engine highly influencing its dura- bility and efficiency [1]. This part is subjected to a complex condition of loadings that change from compression caused by ignition of compressed fuel in the combustion chamber to tension because of inertia and high speed of crankshaft. It is under cyclic loadings that based on the type of engine could be in the range of 10 8 –10 9 . Therefore, the durability of the connecting rod is of crucial importance and for this reason many studies have been conducted to study the technological aspects of production, material and simula- tion of performance and fatigue of this component of engines [2]. Production of connecting rods for most of the auto applications are conducted by forging of wrought steel or powder material. However, the parts made of casting pro- cesses are likely to have blow holes which are highly destructive in terms of durability and life span of con- necting rods under dynamic loading conditions. This fact that the forging process is capable of producing parts without blow holes is considered a major advantage over casting processes. The powder metallurgy method has the advantage of tight tolerances and high accuracy over metal forging process. However, this method is very expensive because of high price of powders as raw materials. In contrast, although the forging process of wrought steel is economical, the secondary machining operations are required to bring the dimensions of manufactured con- necting rods within the specified tolerances [3]. Reviews of previously published articles show that there are a number of studies concerning stress analysis of connecting rods of internal combustion (IC) engines. Technical Editor: Paulo de Tarso Rocha de Mendonc ¸a. & Mirsadegh Seyedzavvar mseyedzavvar@khazar.org 1 Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Khazar University, Baku, Azerbaijan 2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran 123 Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (2018) 40:59 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-018-0988-9