Location of unbalance mass and supporting bearing for different type of balance shaft module

Abstract

Abstract. The dynamic characteristics of balance shaft module is controlled by the design of rotating parts as how to allocate both a unbalance mass and a supporting bearing so that the concept design of a rotor structure is the key issue on determining the overall quality of dynamic performance as well as fatigue resistance. Even the design on balance shaft has some limitation from the lay-out of a vehicle engine system, there is still chance to enhance the reliability of the balance shaft module by the promising design model of the rotor structure including support bearing locations. In this paper, an optimal location of unbalance mass and supporting bearing is proposed to make an efficient conceptual design using an objective function to minimize a bending deformation of rotor as well as a reaction force at supporting bearing. In addition, the application of design optimization of a balance shaft model is explained using an in-house program for inline 3-cylinder and inline 4-cylinder engine, respectively.