Balance mechanism design of single cylinder engine based on continuous mass distribution of connecting rod

For a single cylinder engine, the total unbalanced inertial forces occur in the engine block, which results in engine’s vibration and deteriorated noise. In order to eliminate the unbalanced forces, counterweight and primary balance shaft should be attached to the cylinder block so that engine durability and ride comfortability may be further improved. Traditionally one third of connecting rod assembly’s mass is treated as reciprocating mass, and two thirds as rotating mass when designing balance mechanism. In this paper, a new method based on the multibody dynamics simulation is introduced to separate the reciprocating mass and rotating mass of connecting rod assembly. The model consists of crankshaft, connecting rod, piston and the simulation is performed subsequently. According to the simulation results of the main bearing loads, the reciprocating mass and rotating mass are separated. Finally a new balance mechanism is designed and simulation results show that it completely balances inertial forces to improve the engine’s noise vibration and harshness performance.