COMPARATIVE COMPOSITE AND CONVENTIONAL DRIVE SHAFT ANALYSIS

Abstract

Composite materials are still not in widespread use in the industry due to their unexplored potential. One of the uses of composite materials can be in drive shafts. Using lightweight materials for propulsion components can potentially significantly decrease their weight in comparison to their metal counterparts, while maintaining performance characteristics. Drive shafts are subjected to torsion and in rare cases they are subjected to bending. This paper explores the angle of twist in case of torsion, deflection in case of bending, mass, and eigenfrequencies (1st mode) in three cases of frequently used composites (E Glass, High Strength Carbon, and Kevlar-49), and compares the results to those of conventional material shafts. Numerical testing of examples was conducted in Autodesk Helius Composites 2016. The research also covers possible variations of composite shafts to include the influence of the number of layers in the composite, their directions, and possible combination of composite and metal in shaft design and their respective influences on shaft characteristics.