Some of the current engine design requirements are the reduction of the engine weight and size and the power increasing. The components, like the connecting rod, should be re-designed in order to attend the trends. Other important variables are the increase of the engine speed and the peak cylinder pressure, higher the engine speed and peak cylinder pressure, higher the inertia and the gas pressure loads, respectively [2].
The combination of the trends mentioned before directly affects the con-rod bearing performance. In most cases, the optimization of the bearing profile can generate a significant improvement on the bearing performance. The use of the EHL numerical simulation is a powerful tool to design bearings and evaluate their performance.
This paper presents, based on the EHL theory, a numerical evaluation of the performance of different connecting rod bearing profiles, both in circumferential and axial bearing directions. Some engines were tested in order to support some of the numerical results.