Failure mode analysis of a 1.9 turbo diesel engine crankshaft

This paper reports a failure mode analysis of a 1900 cm(3) turbo diesel engine of a well-known commercial brand. The engine is a supercharged diesel engine with turbocharger, producing a maximum power of 81 kW; it was produced in 1999 and collapsed at 120,000 km without warning. A fracture occurred at the crankpin n degrees 1 of the crankshaft in the region of web-fillet. Crankshafts are mechanical power transmission components with complex geometries and experience multiaxial stress states in main journals and crankpins. The objective of this work is to determine the root cause that led to the crankshaft collapse. A fractographic, metallographic, and numeric analysis were performed to understand the crankshaft failure mode and its mechanical mechanisms. Results show that the crankshaft failure resulted from a fatigue process governed by normal stresses raised by two possible processes, namely, a notch in the crack initiation spot, or the crankshaft misalignment.