DESIGN AND MODAL ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE DRIVE SHAFT FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATION

This paper presents design method and vibrational analysis of composite propeller shafts. A propeller shaft is not limited to vehicles, but in many transmission applications can be used, but in this paper, the aim is to replace a metallic drive shaft by a two-piece composite drive shaft. Designing of a composite drive shaft is divided in two main sections: design of the composite shaft and design of couplings. In composite shaft design some parameters such as critical speed, static torque and adhesive joints are studied; the behavior of materials is considered nonlinear isotropic for adhesive, linear isotropic for metal and orthotropic for composite shaft. Along with the design all the analyses are performed using finite element software (ANSYS). The results show significant points about optimum design of composite drive shafts.