A FEM BASED ANALYSIS AND

MODIFICATION OF A COMPOSITE
AUTOMOBILE DRIVE SHAFT






Presented by: Guided by:
Narendra Kumar Gajpal Mr.Benedict Thomas
M.Tech 4
th
Semester Associate Professor
(Roll No. 5115809005) CCET,Bhilai


Objective of this thesis

In this thesis a study has been performed first to validate the
fact that composite drive shaft possess higher Torsional
Stress Bearing Capacity and Natural frequency which is
actually desired. And find the properties of composite
material with use of mat lab

To validate the above objective an international paper has
been reproduced with help of MATLAB and ANSYS 12.0.
Then a modification has been done on the design of the
shaft by changing its longitudinal profile.

A study has been conducted on its natural frequency and
torsional capacity for different profile dimensions and shape.



LITERATURE REVIEW


Efficiency enhancement of any car as a whole has become the
biggest challenge in the field of Automobile Engineering in this
century. The reason behind this is the continuous contraction of
fossil fuel resource.
To increase the efficiency of a car, so many steps may be
taken as , enhancement of engine efficiency,
decreasing of car body weight,
efficient design of car body to use the aerodynamics and
reduction of losses in power transmission.
Many researches are going on in each option.
In this paper a research has been done on drive shaft design
used in power transmission of a car.

Contd

In this work a drive shaft of dimensions as
mentioned in the work of Sanjay Gummandi et al [9] has been
considered. In their work Sanjay Gummandi et al [9] tested a
drive shaft under a torsion load and they considered three
types of material, one isotropic and three Composite
materials.
Isotropic material they considered is Steel (SM45C) and three
Composite materials which are orthotropic in nature are- E-
Glass/Epoxy, HS Carbon/Epoxy and HM Carbon/Epoxy. In
year of 1998


Contd

Fredrik Cato & Magnus Taskinen did a remarkable work on Noise and
Vibration Investigation of Composite Shaft [1]).

In same year S.Rajendran and D.Q.Song did a work on composite
panel and investigated its buckling capacity [2].

A meritorious work was done by Murat Ocalan in the year of 2002 on
High flexibility rotorcraft drive shaft using flexible matrix composites and
active bearing control [3].

Tomas Zackrisson did a remarkable work on automatic gearbox
driveline made of composite material in the year of 2003.

David B. Adamss work on optimization of staking sequence of
composite material in the year of 2005 is mentionable [6].

In the year of 2007 Yeow Ng & Al Kumnick did a work on Cross-Ply
Laminate Stacking Sequence for The Compression Strength Testing of A
unidirectional Boron EPOXY material . [7]

Contd..
In the same year Duncan J. Lawrie did a work on
Development of a High Torque Density, Flexible, Composite
Driveshaft [10]).

A work on Design Analysis of an Automotive Composite Drive
Shaft by M.A.K. Chowdhuri and R.A. Hossain was done in
the year of 2010.

Besides above mentioned papers and thesis few articles and
tutorials have also been referred. Mechanics of Composite
Materials with MATLAB , by Prof. George Z. Voyiadjis &
Prof. Peter I. Kattan (Springer Publication) gives a detailed
discussion about the methodology of solving composite
mechanics equations using MATLAB.

From a book written by Robert M. Jones on composite
mechanics as titled Mechanics of Composite Materials,
Taylor & Francis, 2
nd
Edition, a detailed concept and
information about composite material have been incurred. In
this work help has also been taken from ANSYS
Documentation



Introduction

Composite Materials:

Composites consist of two or more materials or material
phases that are combined to produce a material that has
superior properties to those of its individual constituents.

The constituents are combined at a macroscopic level and or
not soluble in each other.

The main difference between composite and an alloy are
constituent materials which are insoluble in each other and
the individual constituents retain those properties in the case
of composites, where as in alloys, constituent materials are
soluble in each other and forms a new material which has
different properties from their constituents.

Advantages of Composites
The advantages of composites over the conventional
materials are:
High strength to weight ratio
High stiffness to weight ratio
High impact resistance
Better fatigue resistance
Improved corrosion resistance
Good thermal conductivity
The limitations of composites are:
Mechanical characterization of a composite structure is more
complex than that of a metallic structure
The design of fiber reinforced structure is difficult compared
to a metallic structure, mainly due to the difference in
properties in directions
The fabrication cost of composites is high
Rework and repairing are difficult


Applications of Composites

Automotive : Drive shafts, clutch plates, engine blocks, push
rods, frames, Valve guides, automotive racing brakes, filament
wound fuel tanks, fiber Glass/Epoxy leaf springs for heavy trucks
and trailers, rocker arm covers, suspension arms and bearings
for steering system, bumpers, body panels and doors
Aircraft: Drive shafts, rudders, elevators, bearings, landing gear
doors, panels and floorings of airplanes etc.
Space: payload bay doors, remote manipulator arm, high gain
antenna, antenna ribs and struts etc.
Marine: Propeller vanes, fans & blowers, gear cases, valves
&strainers, condenser shells.
Chemical Industries: Composite vessels for liquid natural gas
for alternative fuel vehicle, racked bottles for fire service,
mountain climbing, underground storage tanks, ducts and stacks
etc.
Electrical & Electronics: Structures for overhead transmission
lines for railways, Power line insulators, Lighting poles, Fiber
optics tensile members etc.
Sports Goods: Tennis rackets, Golf club shafts, Fishing rods,
Bicycle framework, Hockey sticks, Surfboards, Helmets and
others.

About drive shaft
The torque that is produced from the engine and transmission
must be transferred to the rear wheels to push the vehicle
forward and reverse.
The drive shaft must provide a smooth, uninterrupted flow of
power to the axles. The drive shaft and differential are used to
transfer this torque.
Function of drive shaft are
First, it must transmit torque from the transmission to the
differential gear box.
During the operation, it is necessary to transmit maximum low-
gear torque developed by the engine.
The drive shafts must also be capable of rotating at the very fast
speeds required by the vehicle.
The drive shaft must also operate through constantly changing
angles between the transmission, the differential and the axles.
As the rear wheels roll over bumps in the road, the differential
and axles move up and down. This movement changes the angle
between the transmission and the differential.



Different type of shaft
Transmission shaft:
These shafts transmit power between the source and the
machines absorbing power.
Machine Shaft: These shafts form an integral part of the
machine itself.
Axl e: A shaft is called "an axle", if it is a stationary machine
element and is used for the transmission of bending moment
only. It simply acts as a support for rotating bodies.
Spindle: A shaft is called "a spindle", if it is a short shaft that
imparts motion either to a cutting tool or to a work-piece.
Automobile Drive Shaft: Transmits power from main gearbox
to differential gear box.
Ship Propeller Shaft: Transmits power from gearbox to
propeller attached on it.
Helicopter Tail Rotor Shaft: Transmits power to rail rotor fan.
This list has no end, since in every machine, gearboxes,
automobiles etc. shafts are there to transmit power from one end
to other.







Design of a Composite Drive Shaft


Design specifications & Assumptions

Design specifications
The fundamental natural speed - 6,500 rpm to avoid whirling
vibration and the torque transmission capability of the drive
shaft should be larger than 3,500 Nm.
The drive shaft outer diameter should not exceed 100 mm
due to space limitations. Here outer diameter of the shaft is
taken as 90 mm.
The drive shaft of transmission system is to be designed
optimally for above specified design requirement.
Assumptions
The shaft rotates at a constant speed about its longitudinal
axis.
The shaft has a uniform, circular cross section.
The shaft is perfectly balanced, i.e., at every cross section,
the mass center coincides with the geometric center.


Selection of Cross-Section & Selection of Materials
The drive shaft can be solid circular or hollow circular. Here
hollow circular cross-section was chosen because:
The hollow circular shafts are stronger in per kg weight than
solid circular.
The stress distribution in case of solid shaft is zero at the center
and maximum at the outer surface while in hollow shaft stress
variation is smaller. In solid shafts the material close to the
center are not fully utilized.
Material
The important considerations in selecting material are cost,
temperature capability, elongation to failure and resistance to
impact (a function of modulus of elongation). The material
selected for most of the drive shafts are either epoxies or vinyl
esters. Here, epoxy resin material was selected due to its high
strength, good wetting of fibers, lower curing shrinkage, and
better dimensional stability
Based on the advantages discussed earlier, the E-Glass/Epoxy,
High Strength Carbon/Epoxy materials are selected for
composite drive shaft.



Properties of High Strength Carbon/Epoxy

S1.No

property
Units
HS
Carbon/Epoxy
1. E
11
Gpa
Longitudinal elastic modules of
lamina
134.0
2. E
22
Gpa
Transverse elastic modules of
lamina

7.0
3. G
12
Gpa
Shear modules of lamina in 12
direction
5.8
4.
12
-
Major Poisson ratio
0.3
5. S
t
1
=S
c
1
Mpa
Ultimate longitudinal tensile and
compressive strength
880.0
6. S
t
2
=S
c
2
Mpa
Ultimate transverse tensile and
compressive strength
60.0
7. S
12
Mpa
Ultimate in plane shear strength
97.0
8. Kg/m3
Density of shaft material
1600.0

FEA MODEL OF A UNIFORM COMPOSITE DRIVE SHAFT


In this work a uniform composite drive shaft of following
dimensions has been modeled in ANSYS with composite
element SOLID46.
Then the FEA model has been tested statically under a
torque load to examine its deflection and Von-misses stress
distribution.
It has also been tested or simulated in ANSYS to determine
natural frequencies of 1
st
, 2
nd
and 3
rd
mode.
Before FEA model development of uniform drive shaft with
composite element, a detail discussion has been taken place
about the behavior of a composite material
Geometry and parameters of the uniform drive shaft made of
composite material
A drive shaft of OD 90mm and thickness 2.04 mm has been
considered for analysis. Length of the drive shaft is 1250mm.
It is made out of a composite material High Strength Carbon/
Epoxy. Property of the HS Carbon/Epoxy has been presented
above .
Mechanical properties of each lamina of composite
The composite drive shaft has been made with 17 layer each
of having thickness 0.12mm and stacking sequence
[-56/-51/74/-82/67/70/13/-44/-75]s.
After putting the value of E
11
, E
22
, G
12
and
12
in MATLAB
program shown in appendix A we get lamina-wise mechanical
properties have been shown.

Mechanical property of whole lamina
Exy (GPa) Exz (GPa) Eyz (GPa)
xy

yz

zx

Gxy
(GPa)
Gxz
(GPa)
Gyz
(GPa)
26.6893
71.6799 71.6799
0.2090 0 0
20.0170 20.0170 20.0170
Modeling of composite drive shaft in ANSYS.
Modeling and Meshing of composite drive shaft
have been done through an ANSYS APDL
programming which has been produced in
appendix C. Meshed model of uniform composite
driveshaft as per the ANSYS APDL program has
been shown below
Meshed model of composite drive shaft
Meshed model of composite drive shaft showing 17 layers
Boundary Conditions and Loading
Here investigation has been done on composite drive shaft
made of High strength Carbon/ Epoxy which has been
imposed of torque 3500Nm
To impose torque on each nodes of drive shaft FEA model
MASS-21 element has been introduced. Figure bellow
depicts the Boundary Conditions and Loading of composite
drive shaft
Static analysis of the shaft

Shaft has been fixed with all boundary conditions zero at one
end and torque 3500Nm has been imposed on the other end.
After imposing boundary conditions and loading model has
been solved for the static loading.
After solution rotational deflection(0.102337mm) has been
checked which agree with the result of Sanjay et. al. [9].
Deflection result of work (0.103686mm) has been shown
below.


Torsional deflection 0.103686mm mm about axis of
composite shaft as per this work.


Von-Mises stress
As it has been mentioned above that layered composite drive
shaft has yield strength 440 MPa so the Von-Mises stress
should come below 440 MPa. Figure below shows the Von-
Mises stress distribution of composite drive shaft.

As per the figure it is clear that equivalent stress or Von-
Mises stress is 350.927 MPa which is well below the value of
yield strength (440 MPa) after imposing the limiting torque
value of 3500 Nm. So the model of composite drive shaft has
been validated.

Von-Mises stress is 350.927 Mpa as per this work
Modal analysis of the shaft
Another analysis has been done on this composite drive shaft
is the Modal analysis. By this analysis natural frequency of
the shaft has been found out up to three modes.
Below are the figures for 1
st
, 2
nd
and 3
rd
mode vibration
Frequencies of the composite drive shaft at different modes of
vibration.
It is clear from the above figures that the drive shaft will
collapse on 3
rd
mode of vibration.
Set Time /
frequency
Load step Substeps cumulative
1 12.053 Hz 1 1 1
2 12.053 Hz 1 2 2
1
st
mode vibration

2
nd
mode vibration.

3
rd
mode vibration


DESIGN MODIFICATIONS ADOPTED


Behind this idea the main reason is that a taper beam always
exhibits lower stress than a uniform beam. To perform the
static and modal analysis of a taper beam two taper angles
have been taken. These two angles are 1 and 1.5.
Geometry of a tapered drive shaft having taper angle 1
shown in ANSYS
.
After generating geometry and meshing it in ANSYS, it has
been simulated for a torque of 3500 Nm. Material used for
this drive shaft is HS Carbon/Epoxy. The APDL program for
generating geometry, meshing it and imposing boundary
conditions has been represented in appendix C.

After solving under the given load and boundary conditions
following results have been derived.
First vector sum of rotational deflection has been calculated
due to the above torque at different sections of the drive
shaft.

Then Von-Misses stress has been calculated for different
sections of the tapered drive shaft.

Results of the above investigations have been presented in
the figures below

Vector sum of rotational deflection of taperd shaft with taper
angle 1is 0.058858mm

Von-Misses stress of the tapered shaft with taper angle
1.347.839 MPa
Result.
It is clear from the above figure that deflection and Von-Misses
stress of the tapered drive shaft with taper angle 1 are of lesser
value. Rotational vector sum of the uniform drive shaft with same
torque load is 0.103686 mm but in case of the tapered drive shaft
with taper angle 1 is 0.058858 mm
Similarly Von-Misses stress of the uniform drive shaft is 350.927
N/mm
2
which is larger than the value of Von-Misses stress of
tapered shaft which is 347.839 N/mm
2
.
After analyzing static analysis of the tapered shaft under torque
load of 3500 Nm, Modal analysis has been done on the taper shaft.
Figure below represents the result calculated from the modal
analysis.

Modal analysis of 1 tapered drive shaft in 3 different mode of
vibration.
Deflection of shaft under 1
st
mode of vibration
Deflection of shaft under 2
nd
mode of vibration and 3
rd
mode
of vibration
Deflection of shaft under 3
rd
mode of vibration
It is clear from the above figures that the drive shaft will collapse
on 3
rd
mode of vibration.
now taper angle has been increased to 1.5 and all the
results have been represented now Vector sum of rotational
deflection of taped shaft with taper angle 1.5.
Von-Misses stress of the tapered shaft with taper angle
1.5.is 346.386 MPa
Deflection of 1.5 taper shaft under 1
st
mode of vibration
Deflection of 1.5 taper shaft under 2
nd
mode of vibration It
is clear from the above figures that the drive shaft will
collapse on 1st mode of vibration.

Result and discussion

Parameters Uniform Shaft 1 Taper 1.5 Taper
Rotational
Deflection
0.103686 Degree 0.058858 Degree 0.048072 Degree
Von-Misses Stress 350.927 N/mm
2
347.839 N/mm
2
346.386 N/mm
2

From the above study it is clear that tapered drive shaft exhibits lesser
deflection and less Von-Misses stress under a given torque. But with
increase of taper angle it shows some instability under vibration. So it is a
matter of further research to find out optimized taper angle so that
natural frequencies in different modes remains as low as possible.


CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE SCOPE


From the research made in this work a conclusion may be drawn
that any other profile than the conventional uniform cylindrical
profile can also be used as transmission shaft. In this work instead
of an isotropic material like steel, a composite material used which
is orthotropic in character. Same torque has been imposed on an
uniform drive shaft and on a tapered drive shaft made of High
strength Carbon/Epoxy composite material. From the result it is
clear that in tapered drive shaft less stress is created due to same
torque as applied on uniform drive shaft. But a problem is there as
tapered drive shaft is more vulnerable under vibration because
tapered drive shaft shows more natural frequency than uniform
drive shaft.

It has been clearly proved from this work that induced stress in the
tapered drive shaft decreases with increase in taper angle of shaft
but natural frequency also increases with increase of taper angle
which makes the concept unacceptable. Because, increase in natural
frequency makes the design vulnerable under vibration.

So it is a matter of further research to find out optimal taper angle
so that stress as well as natural frequency both can be reduced.


REFERENCES

[1] Fredrik Cato, Magnus Taskinen Noise and Vibration Investigation of Composite Shaft, A Master
Degree Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kralskrona, Sweden, 1998;
[2]S.Rajendran and D.Q.Song, Finite Element Modelling of Delamination Buckling of Composite
Panel Using ANSYS, Proceedings of 2nd Asian ANSYS User Conference, Nov 11-13, 1998,
Singapore.
[3]Murat Ocalan, High flexibility rotorcraft drive shaft using flexible matrix composites and active
bearing control., Master Degree Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The
Pennsylvania State University, 2002.
[4]Tomas Zackrisson, The Modeling and simulation of a driveline with an automatic gearbox, A
Master Degree Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology,
2003;
[5] T.Rangaswami, S.Vijayanarangan, R.A.Chandrashekhar, T.K.Venktesh and K.Anantharaman, optimal
design and analysis or automotive composite drive shaft. International Symposium of Research
Student on Material Science and Engineering, 2002-2004 chennai.
[6]David B. Adams, Optimization Frameworks for Discrete Composite Laminate Stacking
Sequences, A Thesis for DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, 2005.
[7]Nicholas M. Northcote, The Modeling and Control of an Automotive Drivetrain, A Master Degree Thesis,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sellenbosch, 2006;
[8]Yeow Ng, Al Kumnick, Determination of Cross-Ply Laminate Stacking Sequence for The Compression Strength
Testing of A unidirectional Boron EPOXY material., SAMPE Fall Technical conferences-Dallas, November 6-9,
2006 Dallas, TX.
[9] Gummandi Sanjay & Akula Jagadeesh Kumar, Optimum Design and Analysis of a Composite Drive Shaft for an
Automobile, Master Degree Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology,
Karlskrona, Sweden, 2007.
[10]Duncan J. Lawrie, Development of a High Torque Density, Flexible, Composite Driveshaft, American Helicopter
Society 63rd Annual Forum, Virginia Beach, VA, May 1-3, 2007.
[11]M.A.K. Chowdhuri, R.A. Hossain, Design Analysis of an Automotive Composite Drive Shaft, International
Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol.2(2), 2010, 45-48

.
[12]Matthew james vick, Finite Element Study on the Optimization of an Orthotropic
Composite Toroidal Shell A Master Degree Thesis, School of Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 2010
[13]Prof. George Z. Voyiadjis & Prof. Peter I. Kattan, Mechanics of Composite Materials
with MATLAB, Springer Publication.
[14]Robert M. Jones, Mechanics of Composite Materials, Taylor & Francis, 2
nd
Edition.
[15]The Focus, A Publication by Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies (PADT) for
ANSYS Users.
[16]A Tutorial on Composite Analysis in ANSYS, ANSYS Inc.



Thank you sir