Experimental Investigations on Static and Dynamic Parameters of Steel and Composite Propeller Shafts with an Integrated Metallic Joints. (2018) - Prasad, Ammineni Syam
Abstract: Propeller shafts are used to transmit power from engine to gearbox in automobiles. Substituting composite structures for conventional metallic propeller shafts has many advantages because of higher specific stiffness and higher specific strength of composite materials. In the present work a one-piece propeller drive shaft for rear wheel drive automobile was designed optimally using E-glass/Epoxy composites with an integrated steel yokes by filament winding technique. The versatility of filament winding saves weight by tailoring the winding patterns to carry the load. The overall objective is to design an optimal stacking sequence of the composite layers for the drive shaft and the design constraints being angle of twist and natural frequency. The Finite element analysis was carried out with full torsional load on 3-D model of composite propeller shaft for torque bearing capacity, stiffness, bending natural frequency. Experimental investigations were carried out on static and dynamic structural parameters to determine angle of twist, torsional shear strength and shear modulus torsion test rig and bending natural frequency of the shafts using accelerometer and FFT analyzers. It was observed that Composite propeller shaft had greater angle of twist, higher stiffness and higher natural frequency than that of existing steel propeller shaft. Also, substantial weight reduction is achieved by using composite propeller shaft.