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Since the sizes of the flywheel and clutch have been enlarged due to downsizing of diesel engines, the mass and moment of inertia at the crankshaft rear end have increased. Consequently, the serious bending stresses have appeared in the crankshaft rear. This paper describes the characteristics of those serious bending stresses, based on the mechanism for whirl resonance. The whirl resonance is largely impacted by the mass of the flywheel and clutch and by the distance from the crank-journal center of the rear end to the center of gravity of the flywheel and clutch.

As the issue of global warming has become more serious, needs for downsizing or weight saving of an engine has been getting stronger, and forces exerted on engine parts, especially force on a crankshaft, have been getting larger and larger. In addition, since a crankshaft is a heavy engine part, needs for saving weight have been getting stronger and stronger. Therefore, determining the mechanism of high stress generation in a crankshaft system is urgently needed. This paper describes the characteristics and mechanism of a severe bending stress caused by the whirl of crankshaft rear end of an inline 6-cylinder medium-duty diesel engine. The authors measured bending stress on the fillets of the crankshaft, and found severe levels of sharp peaks in the stress curves for the crankshaft rear. To figure out why the severe levels of sharp peaks appear, they analyzed and studied the measured data.