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Cylinder head design is a highly challenging task for modern engines, especially for the proliferation of boosted, gasoline direct injection engines (branded EcoBoost® engines by Ford Motor Company). The high power density of these engines results in higher cylinder firing pressures and higher operating temperatures throughout the engine. In addition to the high operating stresses, cylinder heads are normally heat treated to optimize their mechanical properties; residual stresses are generated during heat treatment, which can be detrimental for high-cycle fatigue performance. In this paper, a complete cylinder head high cycle fatigue CAE analysis procedure is demonstrated. First, the heat treatment process is simulated. The transient temperature histories during the quenching process are used to calculate the distribution of the residual stresses, followed by machining simulation, which results in a redistribution of stress.

High cycle fatigue material properties are not uniformly distributed on cylinder heads due to the casting process. Virtual Aluminum Casting (VAC) tools have been developed within Ford Motor Company to simulate the effects of the manufacturing process on the mechanical properties of cast components. One of VAC features is the ability to predict the high cycle fatigue strength distribution. Residual stresses also play an important role in cylinder head high cycle fatigue, therefore they are also simulated and used in the head high cycle fatigue analysis. Cylinder head assembly, thermal and operating stresses are simulated with ABAQUS™. The operating stresses are combined with the residual stresses for high cycle fatigue calculations. FEMFAT™ is used for the high cycle fatigue analysis. A user-defined Haigh diagram is built based on the local material properties obtained from the VAC simulation.