Stress and Fatigue of Connecting Rod in Light Vehicle Engine

The connecting rod (CR) is the main moving parts and an important component of engine. If the reliability is not strong enough, fatigue failure of the CR would occur, thereby leading to component fracture and engine failure. So much so that CR fracture. It will lead to engine fault as well as serious outcome. In this paper, stress distribution and fatigue life of CR in light vehicle engine were analyzed using the commercial 3D finite element software, ANSYS TM . The results showed that the medial surface of small end will be the critical surface whereby damage will initiate at the maximum stretch condition. The maximum stress and deformation values are 190.23 MPa and 0.0507mm respectively. The critical location is at the transition region between the big end and connecting shank at maximum compression condition. The maximum stress and deformation values are 459.21 MPa and 0.0702283 mm respectively. Safety factor is 1.584. In order to increase the reliability of CR, some improvement is carried out. Safety factor of CR increases by 59%.