A Finite Element Numerical Methodology for the Fatigue Analysis of Cylinder Liners of a High Performance Internal Combustion Engine

In this paper a numerical methodology is proposed, which aims at predicting the fatigue behaviour of engine cylinder liners in an eight-cylinder V-type four-stroke turbocharged engine. A preliminary kinematic and dynamic study of the crank mechanism is fulfilled in order to properly identify the load cycle that involves the cylinder liner. Finite Element analyses, both thermal and thermo-mechanical, are performed to evaluate the stress and the strain of the component. In particular, non-linear models are developed to mimic the piston-liner interaction when subjected to different loading conditions. A simplified approach is proposed in order to reduce the computational effort of the simulations. FEM results are then processed employing the multiaxial Dang Van fatigue criterion.