Inspection & Testing Services, Inc.

1601 Lower Road, Linden, NJ 07036 Tel: (908) 862-4800 Fax: (908) 862-4825
Website: www.inspecttest.com

Case Study: Failure Analysis of Diesel Engine Crankshaft

Three pieces of a broken crank shaft of a 1300 HP V-12 twin-turbo

charged, inter-cooled Man Diesel Engine from a 61 Ft Yacht were
submitted for failure analysis. Two main bearings and two rod bearing
halves were also submitted.

ITS©
Figure 1: Crankshaft in as received condition

ITS is a proud member of these Organizations :

Inspection ● Testing ● Failure Analysis ● Engineering ● Research

Metallurgical ● Mechanical ● Physical ● Chemical ● Non-Destructive ● Product
A Minority Business Enterprise
 Key Words Car, Engine, Diesel, Shaft, Failure Analysis, Bearing

Alloy Steel

Circumstances Excessive stress and failure of the welds.

leading to
failure
Visual The shaft had fractured on a connecting rod journal. The fracture extended from a fillet to a
Examination diagonally opposite fillet and further extended through the wall, thus leaving the crankshaft in
of General three pieces. The middle piece that hd a complete fracture face was totally black in color. Fine
Physical Area fracture features in the projecting zones were obliterated because of rubbing with the mating
surfaces was observed. Photographs submitted with the crankshaft showed that two pistons
had chipped edges. One connecting rod had blackening too.

Both of the journal bearing rods had worn, blackened, squeezed out and detached from the
base. The base of one of the bearings had heat tinting while the other still maintained its
original blue.

ITS©

Figure 2: The broken middle piece.

2
 ITS©

Figure 3: Fracture surface on the broken middle piece.

ITS©

Figure 4: The journal bearing pad halves

3
 ITS©

Figure 5: The journal bearing base halves.

One cylinder sleeve showed a crack starting from the edge. No obvious damage was
observed to the cylinder heads at the incident site though the possibility of valve
damage was not ruled out. Six push rods were also bent.

ITS©

Figure 6: Damaged pistons and connecting rods.

4
 ITS©

Figure 7: Sectioning location on broken middle piece of the crankshaft.

Figure 8: Scoring at surface of broken journal

5
 Chemical A chemical analysis conducted on the crank shaft journal
Analysis
Element Crankshaft SAE 1536
Percent Percent
Carbon 0.37 0.30/0.37
Manganese 1.24 1.20/1.50
Phosphorus 0.008 0.040 Max
Sulphur 0.056 0.050 Max
Silicon 0.30 0.15/0.30
Chromium <0.06 ---
Nickel <0.06 ---
Molybdenum 0.03 ---
Copper 0.01 ---
Vanadium 0.13 ---

The shaft is fabricated from an SAE 1536 carbon steel, the requirements of which are shown
above for comparison only since no requirements are specified.

Macro The cut surface of section 2 showed a crack connecting the fracture surface to the fillet of the
examination rod journal.

Fillet Surface

ITS ©

Figure 9 :Showing crack connecting the fracture surface to the fillet of the rod
journal.

Macro The Cut surface of section 2 revealed a crack connecting the fracture surface to the fillet of the
examination connecting rod.
A section of end rod journal was cut and prepared for examination. The polished sample
showed that the journal surface had been hardened and the hardened layer had a thickness of
approximately 0.14 inch. The micro structure of the cross section below the hardened layer
showed ferrite envelops at the former austenite grain boundaries with generally spheroids
cementite matrix. Partially transformed pearlite could be observed at some locations.

6
 A Rockwell hardness survey made on the cross section using the 30N scale yielded the
following obtained:

Distance from outer surface(in) 0.02 0.05 0.075 0.115 Core 1 Core 2
Hardness 30N82 30N691/2 30N68 30N681/2 30N44 30N45
Rockwell C Equivalent C65 C51 C50 C37 C23 C24

A location below the fillet where the direction of the fracture changes and appeared to be the
origin was selected for microscopic examination. Microscopic cracksITSwere©
observed in this
region. The cracks were found to be intergranular. The microstructure was found to be
essentially similar to what was observed in the specimen taken from the unaffected journal,
above. There was no massive inclusion or lack of homogeneity observed.

Scanning The fracture surface edges at section 3 and 6 were examined under Scanning Electron
Electron Microscope. There was no indication of any fatigue markings observed.
Microscopy

Figure 10: Microstructure below the fillet of the fractured journal showing a
trans-granular crack. 275 Magnification

7
Figure 11: Fracture Surface at location 3. 930X Magnification

Figure 12: Fracture surface at location 6 showing metal flow close to surface at
location 6. 1420X Magnification.

8
 Figure 13: Microstructure under the hard case of a journal away from the fractured
journal. 100X Magnification.

Figure 14: EDS of Black Film

9
 Figure 15: EDS at the dark globular feature of the microstructure.

Discussion The blackening of the journal surface indicates that the surface had been over heated. Since
the surfaces of other journals were unaffected, it was clear that the heating was localized and
for a short duration. This ruled out general starvation of oil arising from low oil level. There
were no significant changes in the microstructure suggesting that temperatures and time were
lower than when such a change would place.

Scanning electron microscopic examination indicated that the fracture did not take place by
fatigue. Microscopic examination at the location below the filler which would be the likely
origin of failure showed no in-homogeneity, massive inclusions or other discontinuities.

Scoring on the surface of the broken journal suggests contact between the pad and the journal
surface with hard a foreign object like a metallic fragment, harder than the journal surface.
The bearing pads are softer and are an unlikely cause of the scoring. Such a hard fragment
would normally get imbedded in the pad. The frictional forces may detach the pad in such a
case, as observed by discoloration of one of the bases, and block the lubrication hole in the
shaft, eventually depriving the journal of oil supply. Such an event will manifest itself by
interactive features such as localizes heating, softening, wear and squeezing out of the bearing
metal and imbalance of the shaft.

The unexpected combination of bending and torsion stresses thus produced exceeded the
design limits of the shaft which gave way along its weakest plane, the diagonal distance
between the fillets.

The damage on the small end of the connecting rods was consequential to fracture.

Conclusion From above observations and discussion it is concluded that the failure of the crankshaft
occurred because of a combination of bending and torsional stressed beyond design. The
stresses were caused by imbalance of the shaft due to localized heating. Ingress of foreign
matter could be the cause of the observed localized heating.

10
11