A study on design modification and validation by static and dynamic load analysis of SAE-1020 and 40C8 grade steel connecting rods of 4-stroke petrol engine

The connecting rod (CR) is one among the vital component of automotive engine of internal combustible type which sustains both static and fatigue loads and as a transmission member it converts linear movement of piston to circular movement of crank. Present literature describes about validating previously obtained results, to alter the design of the CR to increase its mechanical efficiency using finite element analysis, here outcomes of previous work have been extrapolated to 40C8 steel grade, by replacing SAE-1020 steel connecting rod of existing Pulsar 150cc, 4-stroke petrol engine and results have been compared for 40C8 and SAE-1020 steel grad. Present investigation has addressed two fields, primarily load stress analysis(static) and then dynamic load analysis of CR of two different materials. In this context, pulsar CR is procured and specimen is 3-D scanned, the stereolithographic data thus obtained is used to generate CAD model in NX-UG. Then the model is meshed using HYPERMESH thereafter stresses and fatigue life of CR for two different materials considered were found under given loading conditions using FEA software OPTISTRUCT. Finally, the results were interpreted using post-processor HYPERVIEW. Results of the analysis showed that the component of both steel grades was safe under given static loading conditions and dynamically it possessed infinite life and taking factor of safety and cost under consideration paper suggests the use 40C8 steel grade rather than SAE-1020 steel.