FEATURE | Materials

Characterization & Testing

Fatigue Testing of
Six-Cylinder Diesel
Engine Head
M.K. Paswan and A.K. Goel
National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, INDIA
This paper deals with fatigue assessment of cylinder
blocks in the automobile industry. The topic was chosen
because of increasing interest in higher payloads, lower
weight, higher efciency and shorter load cycles in
cylinder-block equipment. Fatigue results of inductionhardened and case-hardened cylinder blocks were
investigated in this experiment.

h cylinder block is among the

he
largest
components in internall
combustion
engines. Whether
c
a one-cylinder lawn mower
or large multi-cylinder diesel engine, the
cylinder block is one of the most critically loaded components, and it experiences cyclic loads in the form of bending
and torsion during service life. A typical
automotive cylinder block is produced by
hot impression-die forging of microalloyed
steel of SAE 1548 medium-carbon (0.40.44%), 1% Mn steel.
Fatigue is a major consideration in
the design and performance evaluation
of materials, components and structures
since 90% of all mechanical failures are
attributed to fatigue fractures. This is
especially true for motor vehicles and
parts. The investigation emphasized that
this cost could be signicantly reduced
by using proper and efcient design and
manufacturing. Such studies are necessary to enhance the competitiveness of
the vehicle components and their application in the automotive industry. This
helps in increasing performance together
with more efcient working of the cylinder block to the required higher and
more damaging fatigue cycles per hour
and focusing on weight reduction due to
the need for higher payloads and reduced
emissions.

The following areas are important for

the design of fatigue-loaded vehicle components in general and for cylinder blocks
in particular:
Loading conditions
Stress analysis
Fatigue testing
Material quality and defects
Inuence from the manufacturing
process
Fatigue assessments
Fatigue is the progressive, localized
and permanent structural change that
occurs in a material subjected to repeated
or uctuating strains at nominal stresses
that have maximum values less than the
static yield strength of the material. Fatigue may culminate into cracks and cause
fracture after a sufcient number of uctuations. Fatigue damage is caused by the
simultaneous action of cyclic stress, tensile stress and plastic strain. The plastic
strain resulting from cyclic stress initiates
the crack, and the tensile stress promotes
crack growth (propagation).
Although compressive stresses will not
cause fatigue, compressive loads may result in local tensile stresses. Microcracks
may be initially present due to heat treatment. Even in a ow-free metal with highly polished surface and no stress with no
stress concentrators, a fatigue crack may

form. The llets of cylinder-block pins are

the critical locations of the cylinder block
that endure the highest level of stress under service loading.
Microcracks may be generated during
induction hardening if quenching is not
controlled properly, which will affect the
fatigue life of the cylinder block adversely.
The material fatigue strength is determined using a fully reversed bending load
applied to a single throw cut from a cylinder block.
Data are recorded using a strain gauge
in a llet, so the results are in the form
of material strength, including effects
of process variables.

Fig. 1. Sectioned cylinder block

IndustrialHeating.com - August 2009 55

FEATURE | Materials
Characterization & Testing

Material and process variables

- Surface nish (grinding, lapping)
- Hardness
- Microstructure
- Residual stresses (induction hardening, grinding)
The cylinder-block material is tested
with the correct state of stress, and the
predominant engine-failure mode is duplicated exactly. Therefore, the failure
criteria can be ignored. Maximum principal stress is used for convenience.
Results are analyzed using statistical methods to determine the mean
strength and the standard deviation.

Preparation:
Cut and mark specimen
Gauge specimen
Install specimen into xtures

Bending Fatigue-Test Procedures

Inertial weights are attached to a cylinderblock specimen to create a tuning fork-like
dynamic system. The system is then excited
at resonance so that minimal input energy
is required to create alternating bending
stresses in the pin and main llets.
The test was modeled after the energy
loading. In an engine, the pin llets experience peak tensile bending stress a few
degrees after TDC during the start of the
power stroke. Likewise, the main llets
achieve peak tensile bending stress at TDC
during the start of the intake stroke due to
the inertial loading of the rod and piston.
The test process is as follows:

Inspection:
Metallurgical
Geometric

Setup:
Suspend weights from load frame
Setup shaker

Fig. 3. Engine for fatigue testing

56 August 2009 - IndustrialHeating.com

Test:
Run calibration curve
Calculate test strain levels
Set control parameters
Run test
Visual surface inspection

Fig. 2. Different
components of
the cylinder block

Analysis:
Run SAFL
Run cylinder block

system stiffness are the weight-suspension

technique and the clamping procedure.
When the suspension or clamping is
incorrect, the shape of the weights can
change, which could produce a change in
the g-level-to-strain relationship.

Documentation:
Records result
Test Setup
The setup only needs to be performed before the rst specimen is tested. Then, cycle through the preparation and test stages
until all specimens have been tested.
The test setup inuences the quality of
the results. The test system consists of the
cylinder-block specimen, attached weights
and suspension arrangement. The stiffness
of the test system has a direct effect on the
calibration curves, which are run later in
the process. Two areas that are believed
to have a signicant inuence on the

Weight Calibration
The inertial weights are suspended from a
load frame with adjustable threaded rods
and elastic bungee cords. The weights are
adjusted until they are level, parallel and
the centerlines of the cylinder-block holes
are aligned.
Specimen Preparation
Specimens are cut from the test cylinder
block so that a full main is on either side
of a pin (Fig. 1). Three specimens can be
cut from a single rank using every other
main-pin-main combination. Either the
odd or even pins will be used from a single
cylinder block. A source approval test will

Fig. 4. Strain-gauged cylinder-block sample

Fig. 5. Cylinder-block sample mounted on

xture

Fig. 6. Close-up of tested cylinder block

contain a maximum of 18 specimens, and

a production audit will typically contain
nine specimens.
Before cutting the cylinder block, mark
the pin number and the direction toward
the front of the cylinder block on a counterweight by each pin. The specimens should
be cut to allow the maximum clamping
area on the mains, and the cut should be
made perpendicular to the main axis of the
cylinder block. An even mix of odd and
even pins should be used so that processing
issues might be identied during testing.
After the cylinder block is cut, steel
stamp the serial number, pin number and
forging supplier initials on the end of the
main that originally faced the front of the
cylinder block. To prevent fretting in the
xtures, be sure to grind off the burrs on
the end of the mains, which were created
from cutting the specimens.
For more details of the test process or
specic calculations, contact the author.

Results and Discussion

Induction-hardened cylinder blocks usually have longer fatigue life than the alternative. Fatigue results of induction-hardened and case-hardened cylinder blocks
were investigated in this experiment.
The good fatigue properties of inductionhardened components mainly depend on
high surface hardness and high compressive residual stresses at the surface. The
compressive stress at the surface is caused
by the volumetric expansion from the
martensite transformation and the plastic
strains caused by fast cooling.
However, high hardness does not
mean higher fatigue limit. To utilize high
hardness, it is therefore important to use
material with high purity to avoid crack
and surface roughness. The transition
zone between the hardened and unhardened areas must be placed in a region
with relatively low stress. Straightening of the induction-hardened cylinder
block is necessary. This is because the
hardening process is not completed axisymmetric. IH
Conclusion
1. Using low induction-hardening power
and frequency, it appears to be possible
to reduce the tensile stress at the core
in the investigated cylinder block.
2. In spite of this, the transition zone between the hardened and unhardened
zones must be placed in a region with
relatively low stress.
3. Quenching for the induction-hardening
process must be optimized for a given
setup to prevent microcracks.
4. Reduction in cutting/testing frequency
saved 17 cylinder blocks per month resulted in a $3,000/month total savings.
For more information: Contact Dr. Manikant Paswan, professor, Dept. of Mechanical
Engineering, National Institue of Technology,
Jamshedpur, INDIA; tel: 09931185530; e-mail:
mkpaswan_1@rediffmail.com

References (online only)

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at www.industrialheating.com: fatigue,
bending, torsion, tensile stress, plastic
strain, microcracks, induction
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