A connecting rod is an important component of an internal combustion engine to transfer the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotary motion of the crank shaft. The possibility of fatigue failure is higher when it experiences alternative tensile and compressive cyclic loading as compared to steady load. Hence, it is very crucial to find out the fatigue life of the connecting rod’s materials. In this work, a new composite material of aluminum alloys reinforced with siliconcarbide (Al6061+20% SiC) is investigated for the design of a connecting rod. The geometric model of the connecting rod is developed in CATIA V5. The fatigue analyses are performed for two cases by fixing small and big ends alternatively in the ANSYS environment. The equivalent stress, mass of materials and number of cycles (life) of the considered composite material are compared with other existing materials like 42CrMo4, EN-8D and Al 6061 alloy. From the analysis, it is concluded that there is a significant reduction in the mass of the connecting rod as compared to other selected materials, with some loss of strength.

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