Design, Comparison and Analysis of a Composite Drive Shaft for an Automobile

Almost all automobiles (at least those which correspond to design with rear wheel drive and front engine installation) have transmission shafts.

The weight reduction of the drive shaft can have a certain role in the general weight reduction of the vehicle and is a highly desirable goal, if it can be achieved without increase in cost and decrease in quality and reliability. It is possible to achieve design of composite drive shaft with less weight to increase the first natural frequency of the shaft and to decrease the bending stresses using various stacking sequences. By doing the same, maximize the torque transmission and torsional buckling capabilities are also maximized.This work deals with the replacement of a conventional steel drive shaft with High Strength Carbon drive shafts for an automobile application.

A drive shaft, also known as a propeller shaft or cardan shaft, it is a mechanical part that transmits the torque generated by a vehicle’s engine into usable motive force to propel the vehicle. Now a day’s two piece steel shaft are mostly used as a drive shaft. The two-piece steel drive shaft consists of three universal joints, a center supporting bearing and a bracket, which increases the total weight of an automotive vehicle and decreases fuel efficiency. This work deals with the replacement of conventional two-piece steel drive shafts with a one-piece E-glass/epoxy composite drive shaft for an automotive application. The basic requirements considered here are total deformation, stress and strain distribution in the modified model of the propeller shaft. The analysis is also repeated by applying the normal structural steel which is the usual material for manufacturing the propeller shaft and the obtained results are compared. Results obtained from this study shows that the modified model is compact and due to the usage of Epoxy component the data obtained are satisfactory. A one-piece hybrid composite full drive shaft is designed using 3D modelling software called SOLIDWORKS 2016 and its structural behavior is optimally analyzed using Finite Element Analysis Software called ANSYS WORKBENCH R 2016.

1. Modeling of the High Strength Carbon/Epoxy composite drive shaft using ANSYS.

2. Static and Buckling analysis are to be carried out on the finite element model of the High Strength Carbon/Epoxy composite drive shaft using ANSYS.

3. To investigate

a) The stress and strain distributions in High Strength Carbon composite drive shafts.

b) Calculate mass reduction when using the High Strength Carbon.

Modeling of implant and surrounding bone

The 3D Model of Propeller Shaft is done using Solidworks which enables design automation and product development processes and thereby brings about an optimum design.The major dimensions of propeller shaft considered for present analysis are as follows :-

A. Hollow shaft

I. Outside diameter of hollow shaft = Outside diameter of solid shaft

doh = 100mm,dih= 50mm K=dih/doh=0.5 L= 900mm

Finite element model

For the present study ANSYS Workbench 12.0 is used. The propeller shaft model is imported into Workbench. The imported model is meshed using Tetrahedral and Hexahedral elements.

Loading and boundary conditions

Maximum load condition for a shaft is the condition at which the Differential (Wheel) movement is arrested and the Gearbox is on action. So that we are applying three boundary conditions, a Moment of 350000 Nm (anti-clockwise), a Rotational Velocity of 650 rad/s ( anti-clockwise) and a fixed end.