Development of ACM-made Intermediate Shaft

ACM (Advanced Cmoposite Material), typically classified as CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics), is applied to the material for aeronautical and astronautical engineering, armaments, and general use for sporting goods such as skis, tennis racket and etc. In this paper, a CFRP intermediate shaft for marine use has been studied for adaptability in order to avoid the engineering problems on the shafting and propulsion system, which are increasing of torsional stress and vibration of the shafting in the case of an advanced high performance marine diesel engine. First, the various land ecperiment of the mechanical properties, by using the scale models of CFRP tubes, was carried out for the practical use. And then, a conventional steel-made shaft of the small ship was replaced to CFRP one and sea-trial tests were performed for evaluating torsional stress and hull vibration. Last, from these data we designed the optimum CFRP intermediate shaft of 80, 000 DWT Tanker and were able to verify that this advanced shaft should be practical for marine use and has the same function as a conventional highly elastic coupling assembled into the steel-made propulsion shafting.