Design and analysis of a camshaft for multi – cylinder spark ignition engine using finite element method

Abstract

Camshafts are widely used in regulating, opening and closing of valves (inlet and exhaust) in the internal combustion engines. Proper design of camshaft is required for perfect tuning between opening and closing of valves. This thesis reports an investigation that was carried out for modelling, prototyping, static and modal analysis of a multi cylinder I C engine camshaft using existing materials like chilled grey cast iron and Structural Steel and implementing material that’s aluminium 6061 t6. The modelling of the camshaft was done in Autodesk Inventor and static and modal analysis was carried in ANSYS version. By using ANSYS version the static and modal analysis was done to determine the total and directional deformation, equivalent (Von Mises) stress, maximum and minimum principal stresses, natural frequencies etc. of the various camshaft materials. The results obtained from the static analysis indicate that aluminium 6061 t6 is also applicable for manufacturing of the camshaft, as the equivalent (Von-Mises) stress values of camshaft is less compared with chilled grey cast iron and structural steel. The study provides a high-performance lightweight aluminium camshaft and a manufacturing method which can enhance engine durability. The modal analysis revealed the natural frequencies and total deformation of the various materials at different modes for all the selected materials. The values of natural frequency for the aluminium 6061 t6 at different modes are higher than the existing materials.