International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (IJMME), Vol. 3 (2008), No.1, 80-89.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF VALVE TRAIN SYSTEM FOR GASOLINE

ENGINE USING GT-SUITE SOFTWARE

A.K.M. Mohiuddin, Ataur Rahman and Asral Fikri

Mechanical Engineering Department, International Islamic University Malaysia,
Jalan Gombak, Kuala Lumpur 53100, Malaysia,
E-mail: mohiuddin@iiu.edu.my

ABSTRACT
term valve train is used to describe the mechanisms and
GT-VTRAIN, a multi-purpose simulation tool for the
parts which control the operation of the valves. The valve
mechanical design analysis of valve train systems is used
train typically includes the camshaft, valves, valve
to develop the system. GT-VTRAIN is one of the six
springs, retainers, rocker arms and shafts. The valve train
solvers of GT-SUITE. There are two ways of solving
also includes lifters and pushrods on engines with
models in GT-VTRAIN, either through a backward
traditional mounting of the camshaft in the cylinder block
solution or a forward solution. The backward solution is
[1].
an exact solution where the cam shape is calculated based
Overhead cam engines may use more than one
on a known follower lift or valve lift. In contrast, the
camshaft per cylinder head. Engines use different valve
forward solution is an iterative solution where the follower
configurations, such as two, three, four or five valves per
lift and valve lift are calculated based on a known cam
cylinder. These various valve arrangements are used for
shape. The backward solution is used to generate the cam
different engine breathing requirements. Some engines
profile from the known lift profile (direct acting). Five
also use variable valve timing, which allows the engine to
valve lift profiles were generated with the aid of the
change breathing characteristics under different operating
software. The five designs have the same maximum lift
conditions.
and duration but they differ in terms of intensity or
The key parts of any camshaft are the lobes. As the
aggression. The numerical differentiation of the valve lift-
camshaft spins, the lobes open and close the intake and
degree profile will produce a velocity-degree curve; the
exhaust valves in time with the motion of the piston. It
differentiation of the velocity-degree curve gives an
turns out that there is a direct relationship between the
acceleration-degree profile; and the differentiation of the
shape of the cam lobes and the way the engine performs in
acceleration-degree curve gives the jerk-degree
different speed ranges [2].
characteristics. The design goal is to use a valve lift
When the intake valve opens and the piston starts its
profile that is as aggressive as possible (higher
intake stroke, the air/fuel mixture in the intake runner
acceleration) so as to achieve superior engine breathing
starts to accelerate into the cylinder. By the time the piston
characteristics, but it must be done within the mechanical
reaches the bottom of its intake stroke, the air/fuel is
limitations of the engine design. A lift-duration envelope
moving at a pretty high speed. If required to slam the
ratio which is the area under the valve lift curve divided
intake valve shut, all of that air/fuel would come to a stop
by that of the rectangle in which it sits is defined to judge
and not enter the cylinder. By leaving the intake valve
the ‘aggression’, or otherwise, of a valve lift profile. The
open a little longer, the momentum of the fast-moving
cam design feature of VT-Design is an interactive cam
air/fuel continues to force air/fuel into the cylinder as the
design tool used to generate a smooth cam or lift profile
piston starts its compression stroke. So the faster the
using a multiple-polynomial scheme that meets the desired
engine goes, the faster the air/fuel moves, and the longer
specifications such as the duration of the cam event,
the intake valve is required to stay open. It is also required
maximum lift, and maximum accelerations. High quality
that to keep the valve open wider at higher speeds - this
smoothing technique is crucial to avoid the components
parameter is called valve lift and is governed by the cam
from being subjected to unnecessary high stress levels or
lobe profile [3].
unnecessary high power to drive them.
Any given camshaft will be perfect only at one engine
speed. At every other engine speed, the engine won't
Keywords: Valve train; GT-Suite; GT-Vtrain; Backward
perform to its full potential. A fixed camshaft is, therefore,
solution; VT-Design.
always a compromise. This is why car makers have
developed schemes to vary the cam profile as the engine
INTRODUCTION
speed changes.
A traditional reciprocating internal combustion engine
The valve train is the mechanical system responsible
uses valves to control air and fuel flow into and burned
for operation of the valves. Valves are usually of the
gasses out of the cylinders, facilitating combustion. The
poppet type, although many others have been developed

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such as sleeve, slide and rotary valves. Depending on the
design used, the valves are actuated directly by a rocker
arm, finger or bucket tappet. Overhead camshaft engines
use fingers or bucket tappets, upon which the cam lobes
contact, while cam-in-block engines use rocker arms.
Rocker arms are actuated by a pushrod, and pivot on a
shaft or individual ball studs in order to actuate the valves
[4].
Camshafts must actuate the valves at the appropriate
time in the combustion cycle. In order to accomplish this,
the camshaft is linked to and kept in synchronization with
the crankshaft through the use of a metal chain, rubber
belt or gear train. As these mechanisms are essential to the
proper timing of valve actuation, so these are called timing
chains, timing belts and timing gears respectively [5].
GT-SUITE SOFTWARE
The main objectives of this paper are to design and
develop the valve train for a four cylinder in-line gasoline
engine using the GT- SUITE software. GT-SUITE is an
integrated set of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools
developed by Gamma Technologies, Inc. to address
engine and power train design. These tools are contained
in a single executable form which is essential to its use in
"Integrated Simulations". GT-SUITE comprised of six
solvers (GT-Power, GT-Drive, GT-Vtrain, GT-Cool, GT-
Fuel, and GT-Crank), a model-building interface (GT-
ISE), a powerful post-processing package (GT-POST),
and a collection of supporting tools. GT-ISE provides the
user with the graphical user interface (GUI) that is used to
build models as well as the means to run all GT-SUITE
applications.
GT-SUITE comes with an individual solver
specifically to assist engineers in the design of valve trains
which is called GT-VTRAIN. A useful tool included in
GT-VTRAIN is the VT-Design. Valve train Design (VT-
Design) is a stand-alone, interactive polynomial cam
design/valve train mechanism design tool supplied with
GT-SUITE that may be used as a preprocessor to the
following applications: GT-POWER, GT-VTRAIN and
GT-FUEL. Two distinct features of the tool are Cam
Design and Valve train Kinematics [6,7].
VALVE LIFT PROFILE
Knowing the valve lift and duration it is required to
create valve lift profile and cam mechanism to achieve it
mechanically. Figure 1 shows five different designs of lift
profile generated by the software (VT-Design) with
identical total lift and total durations of 200 degrees
rotation of the camshaft or 400 degrees rotation of the
crankshaft. All subsequent angles reported in this paper
will be in degrees rotation of camshaft. In Fig. 1, it can be
seen that the first and last part of the lift is very shallow.
This is known as the ‘ramp’, which is designed to take up
the valve tappet clearance, the so-called ‘valve lash’. In
this case it is 25 degrees long and rises to 0.3 mm. When
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the engine is running hot, the valve lash will be set to
about 0.2 or 0.25 mm, which will translate to an
equivalent ‘cold’ valve lash setting which must be
determined as a function of the relative expansion
characteristics of the cylinder head and the cam follower
mechanism. If the engine uses hydraulic tappets the ‘lash
clearance’ is effectively zero and so the ramps would
normally be reduced in both amplitude and duration.
All of the designs A through E have a lift of 10 mm
above the 0.3 mm ramp and, 25 degrees are allocated to
the opening and closing ramps. The actual valve lift
duration is nominally 150 degrees. The idea is to start at
an agreed on point where there is a "measurable" flow.
The assumption being that there is no meaningful flow in
the first 10 mm of valve lift. Longer duration can be
helpful in high RPM engines but not for low RPM
engines. The extra degrees of opening valve time in high
RPM engines gives the air flow a little more time to get
into (or out of) the cylinder [8]. However, at lower RPMs,
longer duration can cause less power because the valves
will be opened at the wrong time in relation to the piston's
stroke (up or down) in the cylinder.
Figure 1 Valve lift characteristics for designs A
through E
It can be seen that the designs A (black line), B (red
line) and C (blue line) are somewhat similar in valve lift
profile but the design D (cyan line) is more aggressive and
design E (green line) is less aggressive in profile.
The design goal is to use a valve lift profile that is as
aggressive as possible (higher acceleration) so as to
achieve superior engine breathing characteristics, but it
must be done within the mechanical limitations of the
engine design.
To judge the ‘aggression’, or otherwise, of a valve lift
profile, a lift-duration envelope ratio, KLD, is defined as
shown in Fig. 2. It is the area under the valve lift curve
divided by that of the rectangle in which it sits and can be
deduced at any valve lift. Normally it is determined for the
valve opening duration which in this case would be at a
lift of 0.3 mm or over the 150 degrees of actual valve
opening.
The characteristics of each of the designs A through E
are summarized in table 1. The profile is symmetrical
about maximum lift and the periods (in degrees) of
positive acceleration (PACC), transition acceleration
(TACC) and negative acceleration (NACC) are shown in
the table, making up 75 degrees in all cases. There is also
a negative acceleration exponent Z (NAEXPZ) and the
ensuing lift duration envelope ratio, KLD, for each of the
designs shown in the table can be seen to describe
perfectly the ‘aggressive’ nature of the several valve lift
profiles shown in Fig. 1. Designs A through C are within
2% of each other but design D is some 10% higher than
A-C, while design E is some 20% less aggressive than
design D. Fig. 3 also shows the KLD data drawn as a bar
chart. It could be deduced that design D might just breathe
20% more air as an intake valve, or pump 20% more
exhaust gas as an exhaust valve if compared with design
E.
table above, comparison of design D with design E
becomes obvious. It can be seen in Fig. 5, and from the
table above, that the totality of the transition and negative
acceleration periods for designs A through C is 55
degrees, so the portion of the acceleration lying below the
zero line is nominally 110 degrees. The difference in
profile is controlled by the negative acceleration exponent,
Z, which is 0.66 for A, 0.3 for B and 0.9 for C. Design C
is marginally the most aggressive lift profile, so the higher
is the exponent Z, the flatter is the majority of the negative
acceleration period and the more aggressive is the lift
profile. The converse of that statement can be seen in
design B. However, to produce the most aggressive design
D, it is necessary to reduce the ratio of the positive to the
negative acceleration periods, and vice-versa to create the
least aggressive design E. The acceleration in Fig. 5, and
hence the force, to move design D is nearly three times
that of design E and nearly twice that of designs A
through C.

Figure 3 Lift-duration envelope ratios for designs A

through E

Figure 2 The lift-duration envelope ratio, K

Table 1 Characteristics of the cam designs A through E

DESI PAC TAC NAC NAEXP KLD

GN C C C Z
A 20 10 45 0.66 0.5435
B 20 10 45 0.30 0.5305
C 20 10 45 0.90 0.5507
D 10 10 55 0.90 0.5981
E 30 10 35 0.30 0.4849

The velocity, acceleration and jerk characteristics for

designs A through E are shown in Figs. 4 through 6 Figure 4 Valve velocity characteristics for designs A
respectively. The aggressive nature of design D over the through E
others now becomes clear from Figs. 4 through 6. From The jerk in Fig. 6, and hence the impact between cam
the acceleration diagrams in Fig. 5 and the numbers in the and cam follower to move design D is about four times

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that of design E and about twice that of designs A through
C. Depending on the cam follower mechanism involved,
the mechanical constraints involved in using design D
may not be sustainable under dynamic operation.
Figure 5 Valve acceleration characteristics for designs
A through E
Figure 6 Valve jerk characteristics for designs A
through E
If the cam follower mechanism is relatively light and
stiff, such as a finger follower or a direct-acting bucket
tappet, then it is possible to use a valve lift profile which
is aggressive. If the system is a single overhead cam
rocker system with a potentially higher inertia, then a less
aggressive design will almost certainly be more
appropriate. If the cam follower mechanism is a pushrod
overhead valve rocker device, then a much less aggressive
design is more appropriate where this type of profile will
successfully permit the movement of the greater masses,
and more flexible components, involved.
However, to produce the most aggressive design, it is
necessary to reduce the ratio of the positive to the negative
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acceleration periods and vice-versa to create the least
aggressive design.
A valve lift Design A shown in Fig. 7 is the selected
lift profile for this paper. It shows a lift profile generated
by the software with total lift of 10 mm and total duration
of 150 degrees rotation of the camshaft.
Figure 7 Valve lift characteristic
Figure 8 Velocity characteristic of valve
The numerical differentiation of the valve lift-degree
profile will produce a velocity-degree curve; the
differentiation of the velocity-degree curve gives an
acceleration-degree profile; and the differentiation of the
acceleration-degree curve gives the jerk-degree
characteristics. As acceleration is directly related to force;
jerk - the rate of change of force is an ‘impulse’ or
‘hammer blow’. The velocity, acceleration and jerk
characteristics for design are shown in Figs. 8-10
respectively.
Figure 9 Acceleration characteristic of valve
Figure 10 Jerk characteristic of valve
SMOOTHING THE CURVES
The Cam Design feature of VT-Design is an
interactive cam design tool used to generate a smooth cam
or lift profile using a multiple-polynomial scheme that
meets desired specifications such as the duration of the
cam event, maximum lift, and maximum accelerations.
The cam design is saved in a *.vtd file that may be
retrieved for additional design or analysis and may be
directly imported into other GT-SUITE applications.
User-defined methods may be easily entered into Cam
Design, if multiple-polynomial scheme is used.
The multiple-polynomial scheme is a mathematical
technique used by Cam Design to create the curves. In
this technique, the cam shape or lift profile (either half or
whole, depending on the method used) is divided into a
number of zones (m zones). In each of the zones the
profile is assumed to be a polynomial of order n. The
(n+1) x m coefficients of the polynomials and thus the
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cam or lift profile are determined by solving a system of
(n+1) x m linear equations associated with the following
three types of constraints:
1. Continuity constraints - These constraints impose
continuity of shape/lift and its derivatives at zone
boundaries (excluding the outermost boundaries).
2. Internal and definition constraints - These constraints
set the value of lift, velocity, acceleration, jerk, 1st
derivative of jerk or 2nd derivative of jerk to zero
either at a boundary or over an entire zone. These
constraints define the characteristics of a cam/lift
profile shape. Examples of these constraints are lift
being zero at the beginning of the profile, velocity
being zero at maximum lift, constant acceleration in a
specific zone, etc. Constant velocity or acceleration
can be set in a zone by defining the next derivative
(acceleration or jerk, respectively) to be zero in that
zone. Linear combinations (sums) of the same
derivative from 2 or 3 different boundaries may also be
set to zero. The most obvious example of this would
be the combination of symmetrical boundaries to
create a symmetrical cam with user constraints on only
one side.
3. User-imposed constraints - The user is allowed to
define the value of lift, velocity, acceleration, or jerk at
a boundary. These constraints provide the remaining
equations for the solution of the system of equations.
These are the 'design' constraints that can be edited
interactively to define the values of lift, velocity,
acceleration and jerk at selected zone boundaries. A
cam design is completed once the values of these
constraints are defined. In cam design, the set of
constraint equations is referred to as a "method". Once
a method is created or modified, it can be saved in the
VT-Design Cam Design User Method Library. The
method acts as a template from which cam designs can
be created. Multiple cam design can be created using a
single method by simply varying the values assigned to
the user constraints and/or changing the widths of
zones.
The lift design A is smoothed and shown in figures 11
through 14. In Fig. 11, the difference between the
smoothed and the unsmoothed valve lift is barely visible
and amounts to lift differences of no more than ± 0.01 mm
at several locations. The effect on the lift-duration
envelope ratio, KLD, barely shows at the fourth decimal
place. In Fig. 12, the unsmoothed valve velocity (in red)
appears briefly, and barely, at the beginning and end of the
opening and closing ramps and at the locations of
maximum velocity. In Fig. 13 the problems begin to
appear at the same ramp locations with a 40% higher
acceleration at the very start of the ramp, where a
hydraulic tappet would surely notice it. The maximum
positive acceleration is also increased by 5%. Note that
acceleration translates to ‘force’ under dynamic
conditions.
 Figure 11 Valve lift with and without smoothing for
design A
Figure 12 Valve velocity with and without smoothing
for design A
Figure 13 Valve acceleration with and without
smoothing for design A
However, in Fig. 14, the problems with the
unsmoothed profile really show up for the jerk curves.
Here, the jerk at the end of the ramps and at the beginning
of the true valve lift, which are the normal locations of
maximum jerk, are now increased by 90%. It is to be
remembered that jerk translates to an impulse and
excessive impact ultimately leads to scuffed and pitted
cam followers [9].
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Figure 14 Valve jerk with and without smoothing for
design A
THE CAM
BACKWARD AND FORWARD SOLUTION
There are two ways of solving models in GT-
VTRAIN, either through a backward solution or a forward
solution. The backward solution is an exact solution where
the cam shape is calculated based on a known follower lift
or valve lift. In contrast, the forward solution is an
iterative solution where the follower lift and valve lift are
calculated based on a known cam shape. Frequently, it is
required to use both the backward and forward solutions
in the same model. For instance, suppose the user has a
known linear follower lift profile (roller or flat) and would
like to know the valve lift based on a cam-rocker-valve
mechanism that does not even have a linear follower. In
this case, the backward solution would run first to
calculate the cam shape based on the known linear
follower lift profile. Then, the forward solution would be
carried out to calculate the valve lift of the cam-rocker-
valve mechanism based on the cam shape that was
calculated in the backward solution. The backward and
forward solutions can be run for any type of mechanism.
In this paper, the backward solution will be used to
generate the cam profile from the known lift profile (direct
acting). The forward solution will be carried out once the
cam profile is generated.
THE HERTZ STRESS AT THE CAM
Consider the case of a spherical ball rolling in a
straight line against a flat surface with no slip, and under a
constant normal load. If the load is such as to stress the
material only below its yield point, the deflection in the
contact patch will be elastic and the surface will return to
its original curved geometry after passing through the
contact. The same spot on the ball will contact the surface
again on each succeeding revolution. The resulting stress
in the contact patch is called contact stress or Hertz
stress[2]. As the cam lifts the tappet and the valve through
the particular mechanism involved, the force between the
cam and tappet is a function of the opposing forces created
by the valve springs and the inertia of the entire
mechanism at the selected speed of camshaft rotation. The
force between cam and tappet produces deformation of the
surfaces and the “flattened” contact patch produces the so
called Hertz stresses in the materials of each contact
surface. The extent of this deformation depends on the
materials involved and their physical properties. Racing
cams are normally made from hardened steel, but chilled
cast iron is used in many industrial engines and ‘plastic’
cams with sintered iron tappets can be found there as well.
The computation of the Hertz stress must take account of
the physical properties of both the cam and the cam tappet
surfaces and the permissible Hertz stresses then depend on
the desired duty cycle [9].

APPLYING LIFT PROFILE TO DIRECT ACTING

MECHANISM
Within the GT-VTRAIN software, the data is entered for
the physical properties of the materials (normally steel)
involved for the bucket and the cam. The oil at the
interface is selected from a wide range of straight and
multi-grade oils. The cam profile and the cam tappet
interface are normally produced by grinding and polishing
of the surfaces. There is a good reason for having a good Figure 15 Bucket tappet cams for valve lift designs A, D
surface finish on the cam and cam tappet profile as the and E
lubrication film between them tends to be of the order of
0.4 to 1.0 micron thick. To illustrate the design of a bucket Nevertheless, the most aggressive lift profile, Design
tappet when the valve lift profiles are known, the selected D, does not yield the highest Hertz stress whereas the
oil is SAE 30 at 80ºC oil temperature. Appropriate values sharper nose of the least aggressive valve lift profile,
for the mass of the valve, the bucket, and the valve springs Design E, does and reaches the nominal 1250 MPa limit.
and the spring (combined if two) stiffness are also inserted The Hertz stress levels are principally related to the
as input data. sharpness of the profile of the cam, i.e., the radius of
The base circle radius of the cam is selected as 12 mm curvature of its shape can be seen when the cam to tappet
with a total valve (and bucket tappet by definition) lift of forces are plotted in Fig. 17. They are found to be
10.3 mm. The complete geometry of the camshaft is somewhat similar for all three valve lift profiles and are
shown in Fig. 18 and Table 2 below. The bucket tappet is highest around the nose of the cam.
considered as flat, although the computation permits a
spherical or domed top to be employed instead. The
diameter of the follower is declared as 35 mm and its
height as 30 mm. The follower is assumed to have zero
offset. The bucket is presented as having the minimum
possible diameter to keep the declared width of the cam in
full contact with the flat tappet surface at all times.
With the valve lift profile employed as Designs A, D
and E, the different cam profiles are computed within the
software and shown in Fig. 15. The more aggressive
profile for the cam to lift the valve is Design D (in red). Its
shape makes that quite obvious. The profile for Design E
(in blue) is very different because a larger base circle
radius of 16 mm had to be used to prevent a very sharp
nose developing on that particular cam. Actually, at a base
circle radius of 12 mm, as used for the others, it virtually Figure 16 Bucket tappet Hertz stresses for designs A,
had a point for a cam nose with an associated and D and E
impossibly high Hertz stress. The Hertz stress levels for
Designs A, D and E are plotted in Fig. 16 when the The Hertz stress is a function of this force but the
selected camshaft speed was 3000 rpm (6000 rpm at the ‘indent’ at, and the area of the contact patch between cam
engine crankshaft). Hertz stress characteristics are a and tappet is primarily a function of the radius of
function of camshaft speed and so are the inertia forces. curvature of each of the three cams if the forces are

86
 somewhat similar. As the bucket tappet is flat, the
maximum force at this camshaft speed is at the nose, and
so the maximum Hertz stress occurs at the nose of that
cam with the smallest radius of curvature, which is the one
for Design E.
Figure 17 Bucket tappet to cam forces for designs A, D
and E
Figure 18 Camshaft geometry
This can be either a ‘conical spring’ in one format or a
‘beehive spring’ depending on the outer profile of the
windings. Although the input data sheet asks the user to
enter the measured values of (initial) spring stiffness and
spring mass, a high-quality computation will actually
calculate such data for any wire material selected and
compute not only the natural frequency of the spring but
the changing spring stiffness with deflection if it happens
to be ‘progressive’. In short, accurate valve train design
software should be able to design the valve springs as well
as compute their effect on the valve train dynamics.
87
DIRECT ACTING MECHANISM
VALVE SPRINGS
Valve springs come in a variety of shapes, wire types
and wire materials. Wire materials may be Cr-Si steel, Cr-
Va steel, stainless steel, or titanium and the computation
must be able to cope with any particular material
selection. Wire types can be of a round or oval cross-
section. The winding of the spring can produce a parallel
spring with equal diameter coils and with even spring
spacing which usually exhibits a constant spring stiffness
with deflection.The winding of a spring can also produce a
parallel spring with equal diameter coils but with unequal
spring spacing. This will have increasing spring stiffness
with deflection and is known as a ‘progressive’ spring.
Yet another type of spring winding can produce a tapered
spring with unequal diameter coils and unequal spring
spacing which will also have increasing spring stiffness
with deflection.
THE FOLLOWER AND VALVE DIMENSIONS
The input dimensions and characteristic of the valve are as
follows:
The outer seat diameter is 40 mm. Also specified as input data
is the material for the manufacture of this valve. The material
is specified as steel, therefore the mass of the valve is declared
as 150 g and the stiffness of the stem, Kst, is 49,744 N/mm and
the stiffness of the valve head, Kh, is 47,900 N/mm. The input
dimensions of the bucket tappet follower are as follows: the
bucket diameter is 35 mm, the lifter height is 30 mm and
offset is assumed to be equal to zero. All the data are inserted
in the input screen as shown in Fig.19.
 Table 2 Camshaft geometry

Notation Significance Value

SEGLEN Length of camshaft segment 200mm
SEGDIA Diameter of camshaft segment 20mm
SEGIDIA Inner diameter of camshaft segment Ignore (solid shaft)
BRGLEN Journal length 20mm
BRGDIA Journal diameter 50mm
ENDSDIA Diameter of drive end 25mm
ENDSLEN Length of drive end 20mm
CAMPOS Cam position 40mm, 80mm, 120mm….

Figure 19 Input valve and follower dimension

COMPUTING THE REST OF THE SYSTEM
Valve overlap is the angle in crankshaft degrees when both
the intake and exhaust valves are open. This occurs at the end
of the exhaust stroke and the beginning of the intake stroke.
Increasing lift, duration and/or decreasing lobe separation
increases valve overlap. Valve overlap is important in a
performance engine because it helps improve the scavenging
effect of a well-designed set of exhaust headers which helps to
remove most of the excess of the combustion process and
increases the amount of air and fuel that enters the cylinder for
the next firing. At high engine speeds, overlap allows the
exhaust gasses out the exhaust valve to help pull the fresh
air/fuel mixture into the cylinder through the intake valve.
Increased engine speed enhances the effect. Therefore
increasing overlap, increases top-end power and reduces low-
speed power and idle quality.
The exhaust valve was created by scaling the duration of
the intake lift profile to be a little bit longer. In the GT-
VTRAIN software, the user is able to scale an existing profile.
In this particular design, the duration of intake valve profile is
scaled from 150 degrees to 155 degrees in order to enable
longer exhaust valve opening. The same type of valve,
follower and valve spring are used for the exhaust system.
Since we need to design for four cylinders, the exhaust and the

88
intake system which was already finished is cloned (a GT- parts were linked together and the finished four cylinder
VTRAIN tool) three times to represent the other three design is as shown in figure 20 below.
cylinders. Note that the camshaft must also be cloned. All the

Figure 20 A direct acting four stroke four cylinder GT-VTRAIN model

CONCLUSION
A valve train system is successfully developed using a [4] Blair, G.P.; McCartan, C.D.; and Hermann, H. 2005.
multi-purpose simulation tool GT-VTRAIN. Five valve Pushrod operation. Race Engine Technology. Iissue
lift profiles were generated with the aid of the software. 019.
Most aggressive valve lift profile is considered for cam [5] Hughes, J G. 2003. Automotive Engine Rebuilding.
design. The backward solution method is used to New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
generate the cam profile from the known lift profile. [6] Gamma Technologies. (2004). GT-Suite,
High quality smoothing technique is employed to avoid http://www.gtisoft.com.
unnecessary stress. [7] Gamma Technologies. (2004). GT-VTRAIN user’s
manual and tutorial: GT-SUITE version 6.1.
REFERENCES Illinois: Gamma Technologies.
[1] Crouse, W. H. and Anglin, D. L. 1993. Automotive [8] SAE International. (1996). Variable valve actuation
Mechanics.New York: McGraw Hill. and power boost. Warrendale, Society of
[2] Norton, R. L. 2002. Cam Design and Manufacturing Automotive Engineers.
Handbook. New York: Industrial Press Inc. [9] Lewis, R. and Dwyer-Joyce, R. S. 2002. Automotive
[3] Ganesan, V. 2004. Internal combustion engines. New Engine Valve Recession. London: Professional
York: McGraw Hill. Engineering Publishing Limited.

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