DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE DRIVE SHAFT

Mechanical Engineering

Almost all automobiles which correspond to design with Rear wheel drive and front engine installation have transmission shafts. In heavy duty vehicles driveshaft is one of the important components. 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, it can be achieved without increase in cost and decrease in quality and reliability. The investigation of this work is to replace the conventional steel driveshaft of automobiles with an appropriate composite driveshaft. The conventional drive shafts are made in two pieces for reducing the bending natural frequency, whereas the composite shafts can be made as single-piece shafts, thus reducing the overall weight. The design parameters were optimized with the objective of minimizing the weight of composite drive shaft. The composite drive shaft made up of high modulus material is designed by using CAD software and tested in ANSYS for optimization of design or material check and providing a best material. The replacement of composite materials can results in considerable amount of weight reduction if compared to conventional steel shaft.

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