BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
While the claims are not limited to the illustrated embodiments, an appreciation of various aspects is best gained through a discussion of various examples thereof. Referring now to the drawings, illustrative embodiments are shown in detail. Although the drawings represent the embodiments, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated to better illustrate and explain an innovative aspect of an embodiment. Further, the embodiments described herein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limiting or restricting to the precise form and configuration shown in the drawings and disclosed in the following detailed description. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail by referring to the drawings as follows.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the main portion of an internal combustion engine including a crankshaft according to a first exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 shows the internal combustion engine shown in FIG. 1 without a piston;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the crankshaft taken along line IV-IV shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view that is similar to FIG. 4 illustrating a second exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a sectional view that is similar to FIG. 4 illustrating a third exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 7 is a sectional view that is similar to FIG. 4 illustrating a fourth exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view of an in-line four-cylinder combustion engine;
FIG. 9 is a characteristic diagram showing the difference between piston acceleration of a simple-link type and that of a multiple-link type; and
FIG. 10 illustrates the forces of respective parts at a moment when inertial force in the multiple-link-type piston crank mechanism becomes a maximum.