Acoustic Design of Rolling Bearings in Cranktrains

The fuel consumption of combustion engines is significantly influenced by engine friction as well as the efficiency of the charge cycle and combustion. Substituting the plain bearings, which are normally used as the main crankshaft bearings, with rolling bearings offers a significant potential for friction reduction, but simultaneously poses high requirements for an acoustically optimized design. Within the FVV (German Research Association for Combustion Engines) research project No. 881 “Acoustics of Rolling Bearing Bedded Crankshafts”, undertaken by the Institute for Combustion Engines (VKA) at RWTH Aachen University (Germany), the acoustics of rolling bearings used as crankshaft bearings was investigated and a simulation methodology was developed for calculating and analyzing the acoustic behavior of rolling bearing layouts in cranktrains.