Study on Crankshaft Design Based on CAD/CAE

This paper presents an integrated method, which is based on the CAD/CAE, for engine crankshaft design. A parametric modeling system of engine crankshaft is established with the CATIA secondary development tools. Taking advantage of the finite element analysis procedure of engine crankshaft strength which is programmed with ANSYS APDL programming language, the parametric loading, automatic solution and result analysis of the crankshaft strength can be realized. Integrating the parametric modeling system of engine crankshaft and the special finite element analysis procedure of the engine crankshaft strength, the three-dimensional digital model of the crankshaft can be generated rapidly. By changing the structure dimension, the crankshaft series design is achieved and the design and analysis can be improved. Therefore, it is helpful to improve the design quality and efficiency of crankshaft and shorten the design cycle.