High vibration stimulus is a characteristic of single cylinder diesel engines. The load carrier segment driven by single cylinder diesel engine operates on low running speeds and heavy load. This operating condition pushes the vibrations generated in the engine to extreme level making it challenging to design peripheral components.
More-over, simulation of components involving welded joints becomes further more challenging as virtual representation of welded joint and prediction of its behaviour under high vibrations is difficult to model. Also, the behaviour of over-all design changes drastically when the position and orientation of welding seam is altered. Different weld seam positions under high vibration input may lead to varied mechanisms of weld seam opening and it changes the stress distribution on the mating component leading to different mechanics of failure.
This paper exhibits an approach used to optimize the design of EGR cooler bracket through a combined approach of measurements & virtual validation. The main challenging part covered in the paper is related to simulation of welded joint behaviour with various iterations of weld seam.
Vibration measurement is performed on a prototype engine at very early stage of project and the results of measurement are applied in virtual simulations to optimize the design. Iterations are performed to exactly simulate the behaviour of welded joint present in the bracket design.
Similar approach can be useful for other peripheral components design and optimization which may or may not involve welded joints.