Combustion engine crankshaft balancing analysis

This thesis is focused on the study of the crankshaft balancing. The aim of the work is to analyze different engine configurations in terms of cylinders number and layout and, therefore, different crankshaft arrangement. Both In-Line engines and V engines are treated. The goal is to find, for each system considered, a configuration as much as possible balanced in terms of forces and couples acting on the engine supports, with the lowest possible bearings reactions and a crankshaft as light as possible. All of the above is done by developing a Matlab script that allows to calculate the unbalanced forces acting on the system and to find, to a first approximation, the best balanced configuration, according to the balancing strategy chosen. The Matlab script does an optimization of the key parameters as the balancing factors, the bearings reactions and the crankshaft weight. All the results are shown through representative plots, depending on the crank angle. This script can be useful to have, as already said to a first approximation, the orders of magnitude of the forces acting on the system in order to have a first talk with the bearing supplier.