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With strict government requirements for automobile fuel economy and global climate warming concerns, powertrain design becomes ever more challenging and complicated. New technologies come out daily, and each component, small or large, is scrutinized for weight, cost, performance, etc. To meet these ever demanding requirements, Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) becomes very critical in the product development process. It not only saves tremendous developing time and cost, but also helps discover new and innovative ideas very quickly. Digital product development process is an industrial norm nowadays. Parts are modeled in 3D in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system, and then they are passed to and modeled in a Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) software package for analysis. If the analysis results do not meet the requirements, engineers either modify the FEA models or 3D CAD geometry for re-analysis.

Strict requirements for fuel economy and emissions are the main drivers for recent automotive engine downsizing and an increase of boosting technologies. For high power density engines, among other design challenges, valve and guide interactions are very important. Undesirable contact interactions may lead to poor fuel economy, engine noise, valve stem to valve guide seizure, and in a severe case, engine failure. In this paper, the valve stem and valve guide contact behavior is investigated using computational models for the camshaft drive in push and pull directions under several misalignment conditions for an engine with roller finger follower (RFF) valvetrain and overhead cam configuration. An engine assembly analysis with the appropriate assembly and thermal boundary conditions are first carried out using the finite element solver ABAQUS.