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Volume 5, Issue 5
Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci. 2017
ISSN: 2321-6212
Advanced Materials 2017
September 07-08, 2017
September 07-08, 2017 | Edinburgh, Scotland
Advanced materials & Processing
11
th
International Conference on
Fatigue analysis of a failed connecting rod in race car engine
K. Bari
1
, A. Rolfe
1
, A. Christofi
1
, C. Mazzuca
1
and
K.V. Sudhakar
2
1
University of Derby, United Kingdom
2
Montana Tech of the University of Montana, USA
I
n the present work, a failed connecting rod from a motorcycle engine was investigated for the root cause of and possible mechanisms
leading to its premature failure. In addition to finding the root cause, the expectation from this study was to possibly improve the
existing designs or practices to avoid similar failures in future. These results were validated using a finite element analysis (FEA)
simulation. A Scanning Electron Microscope was used for investigating the mechanisms of fracture modes, optical microscopy for
studying the microstructures and visual inspection were primarily utilized to determine the root cause of the failure. In conclusion,
it was determined that the root cause for the premature failure of the connecting rod was the presence of scale build-up inclusions,
which led to micro cracking during fatigue loading of the component. It is most likely that the connecting rod failed on the end of
exhaust stroke, due to the tensile force being at its highest, when the piston reaches TDC. This is due to the inertia of the piston, pin,
and upper end of the connection rod moving upwards while there are no compressive forces to take them under consideration.
Biography
Dr. Klaudio Bari is a senior Lecturer at University of Derby. He has passion for fatigue in engine component, in particular race car, that endure stress, heat and
corrosion environment at the same time. Stress crack corrosion is a complex subject and can be only understood after comprehensive analysis in term of using
scanning electron microscope and particular mode (EBSD). In general, visual analysis can be helpful sometime, but often is misleading the fact and lead the
investigator to wrong conclusion. Conservative approach in failure analysis is definitely his strong point in Engineering.
k.bari@derby.ac.ukK. Bari et al., Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci. 2017, 5:5
DOI: 10.4172/2321-6212-C1-005
Figure1:
(a) Diagram of an assembled
connecting rod, rod cap, bolts and
slip bearing with key features and
components annotated in red; (b)
The intact and failed connecting rod
and piston assemblies, left and right
consecutively, are shown with the
failure.