ANALYSIS OF NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF A HYBRID ALUMINUM/COMPOSITE SHAFT

Abstract

The study analyzes the influence of material type, shaft wall thickness, and fiber orientation angle on the natural frequencies of a hybrid aluminum/composite driveshaft for a Nissan vehicle. The composite layers were made of carbon, glass, and aramid fibers combined with epoxy resin. The analysis was conducted using the Finite Element Method (FEM) within the FEMAP 2021.2 software package. The results showed that reducing the shaft wall thickness leads to an increase in the natural frequency values. It was also concluded that hybrid shafts combining aluminum and carbon fiber/epoxy composites exhibit the highest natural frequencies, while increasing the fiber orientation angle in the layers reduces the natural frequency values for all analyzed material types