Abstract
Main bearing cap is one of the essential structural elements in internal combustion engine. Main bearing cap guides and holds the crankshaft, withstanding the full combustion and inertia loads of the engine. A seamless design methodology using FEA has been proposed to produce a reliable design of main bearing cap. A Levy's thick cylinder model was applied to calculate the contact pressure between bearing shell and housing bore. A calculated contact pressure at housing bore is within the allowed limit comparing with that from bearing shell model. An adequate FEA model was suggested to obtain reliable solutions for the durability of main bearing cap. 3D global model consists of engine bulkhead, main bearing cap, and bolts. Sub-model consisting of cap and part of bolts is used to get detailed solution of main bearing cap. A very careful contact modeling practice is needed to resolve the convergence problems frequently encountering during combined geometric and material non-linear problems. A proposed methodology has been applied to the main bearing cap model successfully and obtained reliable stress results and fatigue safety factors.