Automotive Connecting Rod Development: Oval Beam Design and Testing

Automotive internal combustion engines use connecting rods to compose its mechanical set-up based on a piston-rod-crank mechanism. Typically, a connecting rod has an i-shaped beam along its length in order to have better moment of inertia distribution on two axes, one aligned to the engine rotating axis and other, orthogonal to the same. An alternative design was developed by the use of an oval shaped beam in order concentrate the moment of inertia just along the engine rotating axis. The structural simulations based on Finite Element Analysis showed that the fatigue and buckling strength were maintained and finally, experimental fatigue testing had proven that oval beam design kept the fatigue and also buckling strength