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Serious efforts have been put in space to focus on lowering the fuel consumption and CO2 discharge to the environment from Automotive Diesel Engines. Though more focus is put on material up gradation approach on weight perspective, it is accompanied by undesirable cost increase and manufacturing complexity. As a part of development of a single cylinder engine for a light commercial vehicle application, a unique approach of integrated split type crankcase design is designed and developed. This design have addressed all the key factors on Weight, Cost and Manufacturing perspectives. The split type crankcase configuration, particularly middle-split configuration, integrates the oil sump, front cover and flywheel housing in a single unit beneficial from the point of view of reducing engine weight and thus reducing the manufacturing costs. This crankcase is also excellent from the serviceability point of view.

The design and development of cylinder head and crankcase is the most critical activity in a new Engine program. These two components are subjected to complex and cyclic loading as a result of the interaction between fluid flow, heat transfer and mechanical loads. Apart from structural durability, bore distortions, the need of effective sealing at the head and crankcase joint has to be ensured. The physical validation of the structure requires the components to be developed and this is a long phase including the validation itself. Any modification due to failure or optimization at this stage can be a set back in meeting the deliverables within the given time lines. Physical testing does not provide any means of visualization of the flow and the structural deformation modes.

The problem of crankshaft torsional vibrations is inherent to the reciprocating internal combustion engines. Till date, in multi-cylinder internal combustion engines torsional vibrations which increases vibratory torque is the major reason for the failures of crankshaft due to raised fillet stresses. The torque applied to crankshaft is not constant in time, but it varies in a complex manner as a function of crankshaft position for each cylinder. The excitation that causes torsional vibrations of crankshaft is the Gas firing pulse phasing in the cylinders of an engine. The Crankshaft natural frequencies get excited several times through out the operating speed of engine by different components of firing pulse harmonics, called orders of an engine. The vibration amplitudes at these critical speeds are commonly high enough, so that the crankshaft as well as any accessory coupled to the crankshaft may fail.