slider-crank engineering analysis tool

[Art Smith]

for the bored and/or curious, an Excel based engineering "slider crank" tool can be down loaded from:

http://www.apexspeed.com/member_uplo...ider_crank.zip

slider crank as is in: crankshaft, connecting rod, and piston...........! a quick look at the FF and FC forums suggests the winter BLUES have set in early this year.

in a software sense, think of the tool as the very first "BETA release" from a developer known for brute force frontal assaults and NOT elegant well documented user friendly applications! more can be found on slider cranks in just about any undergraduate or graduate kinematics or machine design text. all of the constant crank speed code has been checked with simple geometry and differencing approximations of velocity and acceleration. there is no written or implied warranty; users do so at their own risk. if any problems are found with the tool, I'd appreciate an e-mail to:

artesmith@earthlink.net

with a simple: is, should be, and why for anything found.

while developed for something completely different, proponents of "different" rods and pistons for 2-liter Pinto's might find a comparison of the 2-liter Pinto, 2-liter Zetec, and the 1600 Kent baseline numbers interesting, enlightening, fascinating, depressing, ................. it is assumed potential users are familiar enough with Excel to create their
own graphs; my graphics have been stripped from this version.

Art
artesmith@earthlink.net

[Jonathan Hirst]

Neat.

I am playing with kinematics of a 4 bar linkage these days too. I have been doing it by hand, geometry, and on CAD though. This will be another option.

Thanks for the program - I will look into it further.

Jonathan