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The effect of rocker ratio and connecting rod length on the performance of a
crank-rocker mechanism with an extended rocker input link

Article · January 2016

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 VOL. 11, NO. 6, MARCH 2016 ISSN 1819-6608
ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
©2006-2016 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved.

www.arpnjournals.com

THE EFFECT OF ROCKER RATIO AND CONNECTING ROD LENGTH

ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A CRANK-ROCKER MECHANISM WITH
AN EXTENDED ROCKER INPUT LINK
Salah E. Mohammed, M. B. Baharom and A. Rashid A. Aziz
Mechanical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
E-Mail: Salah_7888@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
The effect of the rocker ratio, and the distance between the crank and rocker extreme positions, of a general four-
bar mechanism with an extended rocker arm length are analyzed. The crankshaft rotation was set at a constant rate of
2000rev/min, and all mechanisms had the same strokes. A constant input force of 100N was applied at the rocker tips of all
the mechanisms having a unit ratio of 1. A computer program using MATLAB code was developed for the kinematic and
dynamic analysis of the crank-rocker mechanism to solve the governing equations. The results obtained from
aforementioned analysis were plotted, compared and verified with the results obtained from ADAMS Software. It is
concluded that the variation of rocker ratio did not have any effect on the rocker angular acceleration and torque output.
However, a shorter distance, i.e. shorter connecting rod, is better than a longer connecting rod in terms of the peak values
of angular acceleration and torque output. The results of the analytical solution were in good agreement with those
obtained from ADAMS within 2% error. The findings are very significant for the improved design of the mechanism in
term of power and packaging advantages.

Keywords: Crank-rocker mechanism, extended rocker link, rocker ratio, connecting rod, extreme positions.

INTRODUCTION
A four-bar mechanism has been used for a long
time, and it has numerous applications in the industrial and
automotive engineering fields. Well-known applications
include the windshield wiper, vehicle suspension
subsystems and quick-return mechanisms. The concepts of
a four-bar mechanism have been widely used in other
various applications such as manipulators, flapping wings,
cutting mechanisms and internal combustion engines [1-
4].
In general, the crank-rocker mechanisms are used
to transform rotational motion of the crank into oscillating
Figure-1. The torque transmitted from crank-rocker
motion of the rocker and also to transmit the desired
mechanism.
output torque from a given input torque. The mechanism
has advantages of generating complex motion from a
The performance of a crank rocker mechanism
simple input rotational motion just using four linkages.
can be defined as the effective transmission of motion and
Figure-1 shows the crank rocker mechanism
force from the crank input-link to the rocker output-link.
where the torque, T2 is transmitted from the crank to the
For a constant input torque, a well-designed mechanism
rocker, T4. The torque applied by link L2 (crank) produces
produces a high torque output [5, 6].
a force at point B which is then transmitted to link L4 at
In the development of mechanisms, the kinematic
point C through link L3 (connecting rod). This force can be
synthesis is an important approach and must be considered
divided into radial and tangential components using an
in the design process. Many researchers have conducted
axis along and perpendicular to link L4. However, the
and studied the optimal synthesis of the crank-rocker
tangential force applied to joint C is the only one that
mechanism using different optimization approaches [6-
creates torque around the rocker pivot D. Neglecting the
11]. Based on their findings, it was concluded that the
inertia forces, the torque output can therefore be calculated
optimal design and synthesis of the crank rocker
as follows [5]:
mechanism depended on the linkage ratio, mechanism
time ratio and transmission angle. Also, most of the
(1) previous studies have analyzed the kinematics and kinetics
separately [7, 12].
Where µ is the transmission angle Most of the applications of the four bar
mechanisms are in the area of quick return mechanisms
where the crank is used as the input driver while the rocker
as the output. In this research, the analysis was conducted

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for the cases where the rocker is used as the input while The challenge associated with the synthesis of a
the crank is for the output. The configuration of the four- crank-rocker mechanism is to design appropriate
bar-mechanism for analysis and power optimization in this movements of the linkage for a given oscillation angle and
paper is shown in figure 2. The input motion comes from a time ratio. In addition, understanding and analyzing the
force acting perpendicularly at the rocker tip. The force motion is important for proper operation.
could be represented by a combustion force which decays In order to generate a smooth motion and good
at the end of the rocker stroke. The time taken for the transmissive force in a design, the angle between coupler
rocker to move from either extreme position to the other and rocker (transmission angle) should be as close as
should be equal to the time taken for the crank to rotate possible to 900 [6]. Most researchers and designers
180 degrees. Similar to the slider-crank engine, the gases recommended that the minimum transmission angle must
pressure produced from the combustion of fuel applies a be greater than 40o for best results [5, 15-17].
direct force to the piston which is attached to the rocker If the link lengths, time ratio and the rocker throw
tip. This force is transferred to the crank along the angle are specified, it is possible to determine the
connecting rod, and generates useful mechanical power. relationship between L2, L4, and S. The relationship can
be written in the following form:

(2)
The relationship between the crank-rocker stroke and
throw angle can be defined as follows:
(3)

Substituting equation (2) into equation (3), the crank-

rocker stroke is then given by:

(4)

Figure-2. Crank-rocker mechanism with unit time ratio. Where L41 is the extended rocker- link.
The main purpose of the analysis was to Dynamic analysis of the crank-rocker mechanism
determine the optimized dimensions of the rocker and In addition to the kinematic requirements of the
connecting rod links which would yield the maximum crank-rocker mechanism, it is important to make sure that
torque and power outputs with better packaging the mechanism is able to transmit output torques from the
advantages. The effect of the rocker ratio and the length of rocker to the crankshaft smoothly. Also, in order to carry
the connecting rod in obtaining the optimal results which out the optimum design of a crank rocker mechanism, it is
meet the design requirement were investigated. The very important to understand the dynamic performance of
optimization was done using analytical solutions of a the mechanism.
general four-bar mechanism. For validation purposes, In figure-3, the rocker length, L4 has been
different types of crank rocker mechanisms were modeled extended (L41) to a specified constant length. A constant
and analyzed using ADAMS software. force is applied at the tip and it is always perpendicular to
the rocker length.
ANALYTICAL METHOD
In this section, the analytical method is discussed
in details for the kinematic and dynamic analysis of the
crank-rocker mechanism. The calculations of the
kinematic and dynamic properties of the crank-rocker
mechanism such as link position, angular velocity, angular
acceleration, and torque outputs from the crank are
presented.

Kinematic analysis of the crank-rocker mechanism

The kinematic analysis of the crank-rocker
mechanism (Figure-2) is performed in order to obtain the
values of position, velocity and acceleration. For a given Figure-3. (a-c) Crank-rocker mechanism free-body
input velocity and crank angle, the angular velocity and diagram.
acceleration of the coupler and rocker can be analyzed
using the first and second derivative of the closure loop In order to calculate the transferred force from the
equations which can be found in [13, 14]. rocker arm tip to the crank via the connecting rod,

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dynamic force analysis has to be performed on the crank-

rocker mechanism. The free-body diagram method is used
to derive the equation of motion [5]. The free-body
diagram of link 4, 3, and 2 are shown in Figure-3a,
(13)
Figure-3b, and Figure-3c respectively.
The crank-rocker mechanism in this analysis is For the given link lengths L1, L2, L3, and L4 at
assumed to be balanced and for each case the value of certain crank angle , the interior joint angles ( ,
moment of inertia is assumed to be the same. Therefore, and ) and the angular velocity and acceleration for the
the centre of mass of the mechanism is assumed to be rocker arm can be calculated, and the equations can be
concentrated at the rocker pivot. By taking the moment summarized as follows [14]:
about D from Figure-3a, the dynamic equilibrium equation
for the link is given below. (14)

The values for L3 were set to be equal 3.5*L2 as

suggested by [18] while the values for L1 was calculated
based on the value of the throw angle and upon
substitution of L2 and L4 is given by:

(5) (15)
From figure 3b, the force magnitude at point B
must be equal to the force at point C, thus Where H and H1 are:

(6)
The force transmitted from the rocker to crank
pin B is equal to

(7)
The angle between the connecting rod and the
However, only the tangential force (F32) applied rocker and the rocker angle are given by:
at joint B creates torque around point A on Link 2. Finally,
from Figure-3c the torque output T12 can be calculated as (16)
follows:
(8)

Where
(9)
(17)
Substituting (7) and (9) into (8) and simplifying:
The connecting rod inclination angle is given by
(10)
(18)
Which upon Substitution in equation
The angular velocity and acceleration can be
(10), finally, the torque output will be
calculated as follows:
(11)
(19)

The extended rocker length L41 and the amplitude

of oscillation angle have been fixed to constant values.
The ratio k is defined as follows:

(12)
(20)
Substituting the value of L4=L41/k into equation
(11) yields,

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For validation purposes of each case, ADAMS

(21) models were constructed using the dimensions specified in
the previous equations with the values of k to be 0.8, 1 and
Where Q is: 1.2. All the three values were selected and tested based
on the following conditions:

L41 < L4, L41 = L4 and L41 > L4

The input forces acting on the mechanisms and
their characteristics were kept the same as specified in the
analysis.

All of the previous equations have been derived Effect of changing the distance D, on the rocker
to be dependent on variables k and while the other angular acceleration and torque output
parameters are constants. Due to the complexity of The connecting rod is responsible for the
simplifying the previous equations, the characteristics of transmission of torque from the rocker to the crank shaft.
angular accelerations and torque output as functions of k In the conventional slider crank engine, the connecting rod
cannot be designed to be very short because it can create
and were analyzed using graphical plots. high friction on the piston skirts and cylinder walls. Also,
In this analysis, is kept constant for all the it cannot be too long because of the weight and the size of
cases. Therefore, the linkage performance is purely the engine will become very tall.
measured based on the output torque T12. The constant In the crank rocker mechanism, the connecting
speed applied at the crank acts like a dynamometer which rod length can be calculated using the following equation:
provides brake torques to the system.
(22)
The effect of variation in geometry Where d is the distance between the crank and
In this paper, analysis was conducted in order to rocker extreme positions (see Figure-2).
determine the best crank-rocker mechanism which will For analysis, the following parameters are defined:
give the highest delivered torque, leading to the highest Ratio of connecting rod length to crank radius,
power output (angular speeds are kept constant).
The analysis is divided into two parts:
 Part 1 - Investigation of the relationship between
Ratio of length d to crank radius,
rocker ratio k, on the angular acceleration and
torque output. Therefore, the relationship between the two parameters is
 Part 2 – Observation of the effect of changing the given as follows:
distance between crank and rocker extreme
position (d) or connecting rod lengths on the (23)
angular acceleration and torque output.
The results from the analysis were validated using In this analysis, only one of the crank rocker
ADAMS software. mechanism dimensions from part 1 was selected for
analysis, i.e. for k = 1.2. The main objective was to
Effect of rocker length ratio on the rocker angular determine the best dimension, d which can produce the
acceleration and torque output optimum results. Therefore, the dimensionless parameter
In order to study the effect of changing the ratio k C was analyzed for general solutions. Different values of
on the angular acceleration and torque output of the crank- C from 0 to 7 with an incremental value of 0.5 were used
rocker mechanisms shown in figure 2, the stroke S, was to compute the torque outputs and the angular
fixed. This was done in order to keep all the input energy acceleration. Similar to part 1, the crank speed was fixed
to all the systems the same. Therefore, link L41 and throw at 2000 rpm. The maximum value of C was chosen due to
angle are maintained with the same values for all the the requirements for the design of a connecting rod for
mechanisms, while Link L3, is set to be 3.5 times the crank slider engine. For internal combustion engines, the
crank radius. The crank speed for this analysis was fixed at ratio of connecting rod length to crank radius (R) is
2000 rpm. between 3 to 4 for small and medium size engines, while
The analysis was conducted by plotting the for large engines it is between 5 to 9 [18].
derived equations using MATLAB. The minimum k was
set to 0.1 (must be non-zero) with increments of 0.1, while Verification of results using ADAMS software
the maximum ratio was 3. A MATLAB program code was In order to verify the results, 3D models of crank-
developed to compute the kinematic and dynamic analysis rocker mechanisms were developed using ADAMS
of the mechanisms in order to obtain the values of angular software. The models of the crank-rocker mechanisms
acceleration of the rocker, and from the crank at different were simulated using a constant force of magnitude 100N
crank angle positions. on the rocker tip and perpendicular to the linkage at all

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times while their directions change when extreme

positions are reached. The dimensions as well as the
moment of inertias were set to be the same as the
theoretical analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the kinematic and dynamic analysis
for different rocker ratio calculated using MATLAB
programs are plotted in Figures-4 and 5. The results from
the ADAMS software are also included in these figures for
comparison purposes.

Figure-5. Output torque vs rocker ratios (k) at different

crank angle position.

The simulation result in figure 5 shows the torque

tracking performance of the proposed crank-rocker
mechanisms at a constant speed (N= 2000 rpm) and the
same mechanism stroke. Despite the variation of the
rocker ratio k, the mechanism still produces the same
output torque. This means that the toque output is
independent of the rocker ratio. The explanation is mainly
due to the fact that the moment of inertia and angular
acceleration of the rocker links remain the same.
Figure-4. The rocker angular acceleration vs rocker ratios It can be noticed that the maximum negative
(k) at different crank angle position. value of the torque output is -2.21N.m which occurs at
345o (i.e. 62o after the left extreme position of the rocker),
From Figure-4, it can be noted that the rocker while the peak positive value is 2.12N.m which occurs at
angular acceleration remain constant for all the 125o (i.e. 78o after the left extreme position of the rocker).
mechanisms for any value of k. For the amplitude of Based on the kinematic and dynamic analyses, it can be
oscillation at 30o, the peak positive value of the rocker validly concluded that the variation of the rocker ratio k
angular acceleration is found to be 15,133rad/s2 which while keeping other parameters constant does not have any
occurs at 40o crank angle (i.e. 7o before the left extreme effect on the proposed crank-rocker performance.
position of the rocker). For validation purposes, the output results for
It is concluded that the value of the rocker ratio rocker angular acceleration and torque computed using
does not have any effect on the rocker angular ADAMS software are also plotted in figures 4 and 5
acceleration. The explanation to this is because all the respectively. Three rocker ratios were selected with the
links, except the extended rocker link, are reduced in values of k of 0.8, 1 and 1.2 for this purpose. It was found
proportion. Therefore, all the angles are kept constant and that the curves match almost perfectly with an error less
this means that the kinematic for the mechanisms remain than 2%, indicating agreement of the results from
the same. Based on the selected axis, the extreme positions MATLAB and ADAMS software.
occur at 47o and 227o. It can be observed from figure 4 The results for the angular acceleration and
that at a crank angle of about 125o (i.e. 78o after the left torque output for different ratio of C using the MATLAB
extreme position of the rocker), the rocker angular code are plotted in Figures-6 and 7 respectively. For
acceleration begins to change from positive to negative validation purposes, the results from ADAMS software are
values and reverses direction again from negative to also plotted on the same figures.
positive at about 350o (i.e. 57o before the left extreme
position of the rocker).

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It can be concluded that at any fixed crank angle,

the smaller ratio of C resulted in higher torque. However,
for all the cases, there is only a small variation in the peak
torque values. This is because the peak values occurred at
the late crank angles for small values of C as compared to
larger values. The magnitudes of the peak torque when C
equals to 0, 3.5 and 7 are 2.23, 2.1, and 2.08N.m and
occurred at 135o, 115o, and 105o (i.e. 73o, 82o, and 81o
after the left extreme position of the rocker) respectively.
For validation purposes, three different ratios
were selected with the values of C to be 2, 3.5 and 5. The
results from figures 8 and 9 shows that they tend to agree
to the simulation results obtained from ADAMS
software. As can be seen, slight difference or error
between MATLAB and ADAMS software results is less
Figure-6. The rocker angular acceleration vs ratios (C) at than 1.5%.
different crank angle position.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
From Figure-6, it can be observed that for To summarize, this work presents the analysis of
different ratio of C and at any fixed crank angle, the values a general four-bar mechanism with extended rocker arm
of angular acceleration and their peaks vary as well. It was link in order to determine the optimized dimensions of the
found that the maximum acceleration was about rocker ratio and connecting rod lengths. The effect of the
18,330rad/s2 which occurred at an angle about 50° (i.e. 12o rocker ratios, k and the distance between the crank and
before the left extreme position of the rocker) when the rocker extreme positions, d in obtaining the optimal results
ratio C is zero, while the minimum peak value was about which meet the design requirement was analyzed.
13,092rad/s2 and it occurred at an angle about 20° (i.e. 3o It is concluded that varying the rocker ratio k
before the left extreme position of the rocker) when the while keeping other parameters constant does not have any
ratio C was 7. In general, the smaller values of C resulted effect on the crank-rocker performance. There is a
in higher values of acceleration. significant effect of varying the distance d on the angular
The explanation to this is because each acceleration and torque output. It was found that the
mechanism has different extreme position angles. The shorter connecting rod is better than the longer connecting
mechanism with smaller ratio reaches the extreme position rod in terms of the peak values of angular acceleration and
late in terms of the crank angle and this leads to the higher torque.
peak points of angular acceleration. In other words, For better power outputs and packaging
variations in the lengths of connecting rods result in the advantage, the mechanism can be designed to have smaller
difference of extreme positions. crank radius and shorter connecting rod. The presented
results are useful and reliable since they can be used to
design any similar mechanisms with different dimensions
and parameters. Moreover, the accuracy of results was
further validated using ADAMS software.

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