High-Fidelity CAE Simulation of 4-Cylinder 4-Stroke Hollow Assembled Camshaft under Multi Axial Load 2023-01-0163

The major area in which the automotive manufacturers are working is to produce high-performance vehicles with lighter weight, higher fuel economy and lower emissions. In this regard, hollow camshafts are widely used in modern diesel and gasoline engines due to their inherent advantages of less rotational inertia, less friction, less weight and better design flexibility. However, the dynamic loads of chain system, valve train and fuel injection pump (if applicable) makes it challenging to design over-head hollow camshafts with the required factor of safety (FOS).

In the present work, high-fidelity FE model of a hollow camshaft assembly is simulated to evaluate the structural performance for assembly loads, valve train operating loads, fuel injection pump loads and chain system loads. The investigation is carried out in a high power-density (70 kW/lit) 4-cylinder in-line diesel engine. The camshaft is used for operating the intake valves which induce varying stresses in-line with the engine firing order. Moreover, the camshaft is also used to drive the high-pressure fuel injection pump (FIP) at the rear-end which can add significant torsional stresses. Furthermore, the stresses induced by the hub-loads of timing chain is found to be having a significant effect on the bending behavior of the front-end of the camshaft. In addition to these operating stresses, the camshaft is subjected to different kinds of mean stresses induced by the bolt (used to fasten the drive-sprocket) and interference fit of the camshaft child parts (cam and front plug). Hence, the authors propose a robust and reliable evaluation methodology to evaluate the structural performance and factor of safety (FOS). The dynamic bending behavior of the camshaft under press-fit loads of cam lobes and front plug is discussed. The present work also covers the load-path and multi axial stress state induced on the hollow camshaft under varying load conditions apart from estimating the fatigue life. Moreover, the investigation includes the assessment of different parameters influencing the stress multi-axiality on the camshaft to arrive at potential improvements in the camshaft design. Overall, the results arrived using this methodology is found to be having a good correlation with the parts used for durability testing. Thus, the proposed methodology can be used for evaluating hollow camshafts of modern engines subjected to complex and highly dynamic loads.