TORSIONAL VIBRATION

CHARACTERISTICS OF
CRANKSHAFT OF A MEDIUM
SEGMENT CAR
BACKGROUND
The crankshaft and the connecting-rod convert the
reciprocating motion of the piston into one of rotation. The
crankshaft is made very stiff, since it is subjected to severe and
varying twisting and bending stresses, due to the combustion
pressures and also to the “inertia” effects of the reciprocating
parts. The latter effects are the forces due to the acceleration and
deceleration of the piston and connecting-rod in their strokes.
The twisting or turning action on the crankshaft, which is
generally spoken of as the Torque, is constantly changing; this
fact necessitates a stronger shaft than for a steady motion. The
manner in which the torque varies in the case of a single cylinder
engine is as shown fig-1.
 Fig-1

It will be observed that firing stroke gives the greatest

torque. In this case the greatest torque is no less than 8 times the
mean value.
CRANKSHAFT VIBRATIONS
Due to their mechanical design, all internal
combustion engines are subjected to two different sources of
vibration, that may cause the engine itself to vibrate seriously,
namely,
1.Torsional Vibrations, and
2. Engine unbalance vibrations

TORSIONAL VIBRATIONS
These vibrations are caused by the irregular turning or
torques on the crankshaft, due to the firing strokes of the different
cylinders. This force tends to twist the crankpin ahead of the rest
of the crankshaft. And when the force against the crankpin
recedes, it tends to untwist or move back into its original
relationship with the rest of the crankshaft. This twist – untwist
action, repeated with every power impulse, tends to set up an
oscillating motion in the crankshaft. This is shown in fig-2.
 Fig-2

When the period of these vibrations coincides with the

natural period of vibration of the crankshaft, this resonance effect
is liable to make the vibrations increase to such an extent that the
crankshaft is severely stressed above its designed values.
HOW TO TACKLE THE PROBLEM
In practice, the selection of working speeds away from the
resonant speeds and the use of vibration dampers (also called
Harmonic balancers) fixed to the end of the crankshaft are the
means used to eliminate or minimize torsional vibration effects. A
vibration damper is shown in fig-3.

Fig – 3
NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF TORSIONAL
VIBRATION
1. Idealization of I C Engine: The shafting of an I C Engine with all
its cranks, pistons, flywheel, and driven machinery is too
complicated a structure to attempt an exact determination of its
torsional natural frequency. Thus it is necessary to reduce the
machine to the shape as shown in fig-4.

Fig -4

The engine in the above fig. is replaced by a two mass system

for the purpose of an approximate calculation of the lowest
natural frequency.
2. Idealization of crank throw: The crank can be idealized into a
piece of ordinary shafting of the same torsional flexibility. This is
physically quite permissible, but the calculation of the flexibility is a
very difficult matter. In the fig-5 it is seen that, if the main shaft W
is subjected to bending moments and the crank pin P is in twist. It
is possible to calculate the angle of twist produced by a certain
torque by applying to the webs and pin the usual “beam” formulae
for bending and twist. But the results will be inaccurate because
these formulae are true only for long and slender beams.

Fig -5
3. Using Holzer’s Method to determine the Natural
Frequency:
Item Ji Ji ω 2
θi Ji ω θi
2
Σ Ji ω θi 2
Kij Σ Ji ω θi/Kij
2

1
2
.
.
Ji – Moment of Inertia
Ji ω2 – Inertia torque of each element for an amplitude of 1 radian at the frequency
assumed
Θi – Angular amplitude of each element
Ji ω2 θi – Inertia torque of each element at the amplitude Θi
Σ Ji ω2 θi – Value of the shaft torque beyond the element in question
Kij – Flexibility
Σ Ji ω2 θi/Kij – Windup angle in each shaft
 For the lowest natural frequency we make a rough guess, which can be made
by replacing the no. of different masses into two mass system of equivalent mass and
then we apply the formula:
ω=√k (Ia + Ib)/ Ia Ib rad / sec

This will be our first assumed natural frequency.

Finally the behavior of the assumed frequency against the remaining torque is plotted as
shown in the fig – 6, to get the other natural frequencies.

Fig - 6