Diagnostics of Fatigue Failures of Internal Combustion Engine Crankshafts. Part 2. Metallurgical Defects—the Source of Fatigue Failure of Internal Combustion Engine Crankshafts

The second part of the article series devoted to the topic of “Diagnostics of fatigue failures of internal combustion engine crankshafts” shows an example of diagnostics of a fractured crankshaft of a stationary generator ICE. To determine the source of failure and establish the initial failure site that led to the complete crankshaft failure, a wide range of studies are used, allowing us to show the sequence of diagnostics to determine the exact cause of the crankshaft failure. As the study showed, the failure of the crankshaft of the stationary generator ICE occurred as a result of the initiation and propagation of a fatigue crack along its cross-section in the most loaded crankshaft section. The cause of the fatigue crack is a metallurgical crankshaft defect in the form of large non-metallic inclusions directly in the failure site.