DESIGN AND COMPARATIVE STUDY OF “CONNECTING ROD BY FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS USING COMPOSITE MATERIALS”

Abstract

 The connecting rod is the intermediate member 
between the piston and the Crankshaft. Its primary function is 
to transmit the push and pull from the piston pin to the crank 
pin, thus converting the reciprocating motion of the piston 
into rotary motion of the crank. Most common cases of failure 
of Connecting Rod are of Tensile Failure, which happens due to 
high engine speeds, or Casting Defect, which develops due to 
cyclic load behavior. This project aims to replace the typical 
convention material used for manufacturing connecting rod 
like Steel, so as to improve the performance parameters while 
reducing the overall weight of the component. This study aims 
on comparing a connecting rod of standard dimensions and 
made up of convention material like Steel with that made up of 
composite materials like Aluminum-Beryllium Alloy, 
Aluminum-Silicon Carbide Composite and Titanium Alloy. The 
Shape and the Materials have been selected based on the 
Strength and Stiffness Criteria. The project also performed 
Static Structural parameters like Von-Mises Stress, 
Deformation, Factor of safety and Buckling Analysis of 
standard connecting rod design using FEM on a commercial 
software ANSYS workbench, to predict structural strength and 
buckling limit of the model.