Analysis of a diesel generator crankshaft failure

F. Jimnez Espadafor
*
, J. Becerra Villanueva, M. Torres Garca
Departamento Ingeniera Energtica, Escuela Superior de Ingenieros, Universidad de Sevilla, Camino de los Descubrimientos S/N, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 3 March 2009
Accepted 11 March 2009
Available online 20 March 2009
Keywords:
Crankshaft
Engine failure
Fatigue crack initiation
a b s t r a c t
This paper analyses a catastrophic crankshaft failure of a four-stroke 18 V diesel engine of a
power plant for electrical generation when running at a nominal speed of 1500 rpm. The
rated power of the engine was 1.5 MW, and before failure it had accumulated 20,000 h
in service operating mainly at full load. The fracture occurred in the web between the
2nd journal and the 2nd crankpin. The mechanical properties of the crankshaft including
tensile properties and surface hardness (HV
1
) were evaluated. Fractographic studies show
that fatigue is the dominant mechanism of crankshaft failure, where the beach marks can
be clearly identied. A thin and very hard zone was discovered in the template surface
close to the fracture initiation point, which suggests that this was the origin of the fatigue
fracture. A nite element model of the crankshaft has predicted that the most heavily
loaded areas match the fractured zone.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Diesel plants for electrical power generation are especially sensible to outage events. In case of a crankshaft failure, the
cost of the reparation includes not only that of the crankshaft itself, but also the cost of other parts of the engine affected by
crankshaft failure (connecting rod, piston, cylinder, and bearings) and the lengthy time period required for repair, mainly
because of the crankshaft location inside the engine. Smith and Donovan conducted a study [1] for US Army Engineering
and Housing Support Centre (EHSC) which showed results of up to 2 MW from diesel engines. This study includes a detailed
classication of the parts involved in the failure in this power range and reveals that even though failures per year related to
the engine crankshaft were low, these resulted in a higher mean time to performcorrective maintenance. Similar conclusions
are shown in [2,3].
The most common cause of crankshaft failure is fatigue. In order for fatigue to take place, a cyclic tensile stress and a crack
initiation site are necessary. Diesel engines crankshafts in power plants run with harmonic torsion combined with cyclic
bending stress due to the radial loads of combustion chamber pressure transmitted from the pistons and connecting rods,
to which inertia loads from pistons and connecting rods have to be added. Although crankshafts are generally designed with
a high safety margin in order to not exceed the fatigue strength of the material, the high cyclic loading and local stress con-
centrations allow cracks to grow even when fatigue strength does not exceed in average values. Pandey [4] analysed failures
in the crankshafts of 35 hp two-cylinder engines used in tractors, where the break plane was located between the main bear-
ing and the journal. The crack started in the crankpin web region in a plane of about 45 with respect to the rotational axis,
showing a typical fatigue failure with beach marks. The stress related to the fatigue initiation was estimated at 175 MPa, far
below the tensile stress of the nodular cast iron of these crankshafts which is close to 680 MPa. Taylor et al. [5] developed
two fatigue experiments in a crankshaft of a four-cylinder engine made of spheroidal graphite cast iron, with a tensile
strength of 440 MPa: one torsional and the other exural. The crankshafts underwent torsional and exural cyclic loading
1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2009.03.019
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 95 448 72 45; fax: +34 95 448 72 43.
E-mail addresses: fcojjea@esi.us.es, fcojjea@us.es (F.J. Espadafor).
Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341
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until failure, and in both types of tests the same fracture angle of 45 with respect to the rotational axis was observed. Yu
et al. [6] investigated the fracture of the web between the 2nd journal and the 2nd crankpin of the crankshaft of a four-cyl-
inder diesel engine of a truck plant. The failure occurred after 200 h in service and the fracture plane was inclined by about
45 with respect to the shaft axis. The macroscopic view of the fracture surface indicated stable crack growth regions with
beach marks in the middle of it. Bhaumik et al. [7] studied the fracture of the crankshaft of a four-cylinder aircraft engine
made of steel forging of SAE 4340 grade and case hardened. The fracture had occurred along the webs at No. 2 and No. 3
journals after 1460 h in service and 262 h since the last overhaul. In both cases, the fracture took place along the web radius,
and transverse to the axis of the crankshaft. In journal 3 the fatigue crack had propagated to about 80% of the web cross sec-
tion before giving rise to the nal overload fracture. In these cases it was possible to arrive at the fracture origin by tracing
back the beach marks, which were found to be in the web radius region. Other investigations related to crankshaft failures
produced similar results [8,9]: the fracture was due to fatigue initiated by cracks located at the web llet radius and pro-
gressed to the journal inner radius up to the nal overload fracture.
The present work is focused on a methodology that has allowed predicting the point of crack initiation at the surface of
the crankshaft, considering both torsional and bending loads, via the evaluation of the von Mises stress at the crankshaft sur-
face. It is based on the results of a dynamic lumped model developed jointly with a nite element model. The whole meth-
odology has been applied to a case study of a catastrophic failure of a diesel generator crankshaft. The names of the engine
manufacturers and power plant owners have been omitted to preserve the anonymity of the parts involved.
2. Crankshaft material and failure description
2.1. Engine description, crankshaft material and composition
The power generator is integrated by a four-stroke 16 V 60 turbo diesel engine coupled to an electrical generator. This
belonged to a 10 MW diesel power plant on a Spanish island which was not connected to the national electrical grid. The
system operates at 1500 rpm with a maximum electrical power of 1500 kW. Opposed cylinders of the two engine banks
are linked to the same crankshaft journal. This results in an uneven ring angle between cylinders; cylinders coupled to
the same crankpin re 60 each and cylinders linked to a different crankpin re 30 each.
The engine is linked to the alternator through a exible coupling. Between the coupling and the engine there is a ywheel.
At the free end there is a viscoelastic damper for detunning the natural frequency of the torsional system and for dissipating
the energy produced by torsional vibrations.
The crankshaft was made of low alloy steel forged as one, then machined and, nally, tempered. Chemical analysis of the
fractured crankshaft was carried out using a spectrometer, and is given in Table 1. Standard cylindrical tensile specimens
were machined from a crankpin portion far from the broken plane. Tensile properties are listed out in Table 2, and are within
the expected range for this application.
2.2. Crankshaft failure description
The crankshaft broke after 20,000 h of continuous operation next to maximum rating.
The fracture had occurred in the crank next to the alternator end, between the cranks where cylinders 1516 and 1413
are connected, see Fig. 1, and took place along the web radius, see Fig. 2. The fracture plane at the llet was inclined by about
45 with respect to the shaft axis. Careful examination revealed that the fracture surface had beach marks, with a progressive
crack that had propagated to about 70% of the cross section. These observations indicate a fatigue failure considered as being
a high cycle-low stress type. The initiation point can be observed from the evolution of the elliptical lines and is located on
the surface of the web radius, which is pointed out in Fig. 2. In the same gure the extension of the low speed growth of the
crack can be observed. So, the fracture surface commonly appears in a fatigue fracture, initiation point, lowspeed region with
beach marks and high speed fracture region [10].
2.3. Hardness and microstructure investigation
Two samples were taken from the crankshaft. One was cut vertically from the journal close to the fracture for the sake of
crack route observation (second journal). Another one was cut from a journal next to the cracked journal, but was not dam-
aged (third journal). Both samples are shown in Fig. 2 and are named R and L, respectively.
Fig. 3 shows the specimen cut from part L (see Fig. 2), where the lubricating oil channel can be seen next to the results of
the hardness test (HV1) through the tempered zone (see the white arrow indicating hardness measurement direction). A
Table 1
Chemical composition of the fractured crankshaft (wt%).
C Si Cr Mn Mo Ni V S P
0.38 0.29 1.11 0.83 0.23 0.42 0.10 0.012 0.014
2334 F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341
uniform tempered thickness of about 4 mm can be appreciated, with a smooth hardness evolution, from journal surface to
the more ductile nuclei.
The micrograph of Specimen L is shown in Fig. 4, where a matrix formed by ferrite and pearlite can be appreciated. The
image is compatible with an induction surface hardening treatment and does not reveal any anomaly.
Fig. 5 shows the results of the hardness test (HV1) through the tempered zone of part R. The white arrow indicates the
hardness measurement direction. In this case the tempered thickness is not uniform, it presents low depth (about 1 mm) and
a very high hardness value (up to 670 HV1) as compared to part L. The hardness transition to the more ductile nuclei is also
quite sharp, giving an all together fragile behaviour to this zone.
Table 2
Tensile properties.
Yield strength, r
0.2
(MPa) Tensile strength, r
b
(MPa) Elongation, d
5
(%)
760 895 16
Fig. 1. Finite element model of the crankshaft.
Fig. 2. Fracture surface in the crankshaft.
F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341 2335
The micrograph of specimen R is shown in Fig. 6. Here a matrix formed by martensite can be seen next to surface cracks
that show indications of oxidation which are not recent.
Fig. 3. Specimen L cut and hardness distribution through tempered zone.
Fig. 4. Micrograph of specimen L.
2336 F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341
3. Estimation of maximum stress level and location in the healthy crankshaft
In order to analyse crankshaft failure more profoundly, a torsional lumped dynamic model of the system with 12 degrees
of freedom (DOF) [11] linked to a nite element (FE) model was developed.
3.1. Torsional lumped system model
The inertia of each DOF was evaluated directly fromcrankshaft dimensions, and material characteristics and torsional stiff-
ness of each crank were simulated with FE. Fig. 7 shows the lumped system scheme next to the FE model, which has allowed
computationof the stiffness of each crank through a torsional static simulation. There are eight cranks, with two pistons linked
to each one. Positions A and B in Fig. 7 refer to different stiffnesses of these cranks, which are 11.9 MN m/rad for DOF A and
13.07 MN m/rad for DOF B. The alternator inertia is enormous (91 kg/m
2
), which is typical of a diesel engine generator, and
the inertia of the ywheel and torsional damper are 18.2 kg/m
2
and 5.82 kg/m
2
, respectively. The inertia of the cranks is be-
tween 1.06 kg/m
2
and 1.22 kg/m
2
. The torsional damper is connected to the last crank through a uid of high viscosity, in this
case, it is connected through silicon-based oil. The drag torque is proportional to the instantaneous angular velocity, and the
damping coefcient depends on the clearance between the external ring and the housing that is attached to the last DOF.
The main contribution to the torque on each crank is due to the pressure developed on the top of the piston of every cyl-
inder. This was simulated through the development of a combustion model [12] compatible with engine power at nominal
rating (1500 kW to 1500 rpm). Also mechanical losses produced by friction [13] were considered. The torsional lumped sys-
tem model has been formulated as:
J J
alter:

h C
_
h K h M
fric:
h;
_
h; l; dim: M
alternator
M
indicated
1
where J is the inertia matrixassociatedto elements whichrotate inthe system(kg m
2
); J
alter
the inertia matrixassociatedtorecip-
rocatingelements (kg m
2
);

h theaccelerationvector for eachDOF (rad/s

2
); K thestiffness matrix(N m/rad); h theangular displace-
ment vector for each degree of freedom(rad); C the damping matrix (N m s/rad);
_
h the velocity vector for each DOF (rad/s); l the
Fig. 5. Hardness distribution of specimen R through tempered zone.
Fig. 6. Micrograph of specimen R.
F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341 2337
torsional damper dynamic uidviscosity (Ns/m
2
); M
fric:
the mechanical losses for each DOF (N m); M
alternator
the alternator torque
(N m); and M
indicated
is the torque for each DOF generated by the combustion chamber pressure at each cylinder (N m).
Solving the model (1) produces the instantaneous angular oscillation of each DOF from which torsional loads in the whole
crankshaft can be estimated.
3.2. Finite element model
A nite element (FE) model of the crankshaft was developed using MSC/Nastran for Windows, with Fig. 1 being the model
used for stress analyses. The model was meshed using a four-node tetraedric solid element, which is well suited to model
irregular meshes. The whole model has 62,990 elements and 17,172 nodes. Each journal is supported by its bearing which
allows free rotation. In order to consider the proper reaction when the forces applied to each crankpin are considered, journal
and bearing are linked through non-linear gap elements. These develop radial forces only when both surfaces are com-
pressed. The same type of element has been used to transmit the forces from the connecting rod big end to each crankpin.
3.3. Loading conditions
Two different types of loads were applied simultaneously to the crankshaft:
Torsional loads. These are derived from the lumped model described in 3.1. On each of the planes where the DOF are
dened, see Fig. 7b, the angular displacement produced by the dynamic lumped model has been imposed. Fig. 8 shows
Fig. 7. (a) Dynamic lumped model scheme of the crankshaft and (b) nite element model of a crank.
2338 F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341
the angular displacement on the eight cranks during one engine cycle. The oscillation amplitude is higher for the crank
closer to the engine generator and progressively diminishes till the last crank links to the damper.
Radial and tangential loads. The connecting rod big end transmits gas pressure from each cylinder to every crankpin as
forces distribute along the pin surface. These forces can be decomposed in tangential, which produces engine torque,
and radial, which produces bending on the crankshaft. Fig. 9 shows radial and tangential forces during an engine cycle,
where the 0 crank angle indicates the top dead centre of this cylinder. As can be observed, the maximum of the radial
and tangential force is not produced at the same crank angle.
3.4. Finite element analysis and results
Torsional loads and radial and tangential forces described in Section 3.3 were applied to the FE model shown in Fig. 1.
These loads applied simultaneously are an estimation of the dynamic loading of the whole crankshaft and, therefore, the
FE results are close to its stress behaviour under operation. Fig. 10a shows equivalent von Mises stress distribution provided
from the FE analysis. The maximum estimated stresses are between 260 MPa and 275 MPa; which is about 40% of the yield-
ing point of the material, the most loaded cranks being closer to the alternator end. In Fig. 10b, crankshaft zones have been
highlighted where von Mises stresses are maximum for the four cranks closer to the generator side. It can be observed that
the cracked zone of the crankshaft, see Fig. 2, is located in the same part as shown in Fig. 10b.
4. Conclusions
The crankshaft fracture of a 1.5 MW diesel engine generator was due to fatigue. The fractured crank was the closest to the
generator end of the crankshaft. It was feasible to identify the crack initiation due to the elliptical beach marks, which were
located between the crankpin and the main journal. The fracture plane formed an angle of about 45 with respect to the
crankshaft axis. The fracture was investigated by material analysis and by a dedicated simulation model. Hardness and
microstructure investigation revealed that the failure area had a martensitic structure with very high hardness distributed
in very thin depth. Surface cracks were also observed. On the other hand, the healthy part of the crankshaft had a microstruc-
ture formed by ferrite and pearlite with appropriated hardness.
Fig. 8. Angular displacement for all the cranks during one engine cycle.
Fig. 9. Radial and tangential forces over crankpin for an engine cycle.
F.J. Espadafor et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 16 (2009) 23332341 2339
The simulation model was composed of a dynamic lumped model linked to a nite element model. The analysis of the
simulation results revealed different zones where the maximum stresses are reached, which could be considered to have
the same failure probability, with the estimated stress level for fatigue initiation being in the range 260275 MPa. One of
these zones coincides with the zone where the fatigue failure originated and so it is well matched to the results of the mate-
rial analyses. It can be concluded that the failure was produced in one of the most stressed areas, where the material had
anomalies. By using this simulation analysis, location of the failure can be predicted. This can be considered as a tool for
selecting crankshaft areas where especial quality control should be considered in order to prevent fatigue failures.
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