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Case Study-Strengthening of Axle Shaft by Heat 2014-28-0019

Treatment to Overcome Twist Published 04/28/2014

Yathish Rao
AAM Services India Pvt. Ltd.

CITATION: Rao, Y., "Case Study-Strengthening of Axle Shaft by Heat Treatment to Overcome Twist," SAE Technical Paper
2014-28-0019, 2014, doi:10.4271/2014-28-0019.

Copyright © 2014 SAE International

Abstract core strength. Design A meets the expected torque level for
which it is designed but when this shaft is tested on vehicle
An important use of axle shaft is to transmit the power between
under shock load the shaft experienced the permanent Twist.
two parallel planes. Axle shaft can experience severe impact
Upon failure analysis came to know that, the high torque
load when there is sudden drop in clutch pedal during the
generated during the vehicle clutch drop test caused the twist
vehicle operation under loaded condition. Insufficient case
in the shaft. The applied torque level was approximately 38%
depth and lower core hardness could cause the low subsurface
higher than the shaft design torque. The shaft is redesigned as
shear strength of the material. This would result in torsional
shaft B with increase in diameter, case depth and keeping the
permanent deformation, phenomenon called Twist in the axle
core strength same. The material shear strength and shaft
shaft. In order to improve the metallurgical property of the
applied shear stress is plotted on graph shows that the applied
material, the axle shaft is redesigned & strengthened by
stress is crossing the material shear strength at subsurface
suitable heat treatment process. The surface of the shaft is
near core. With the constraint on increase in shaft diameter
induction hardened and the core is toughened (hard &
which adds the mass and constraint on increase in case depth
tempered) which would enhance the subsurface & core
which makes the shaft through hardened, the only left out
property of the material particularly shear strength of the
option was toughening the core. The toughening (Harden &
material. The correlation between the applied shear stress &
Temper) helps to increase the subsurface strength near the
material inherent shear strength is used to determine the
core. The ultimate torsion test result of Shaft A & B shows that
optimum shaft diameter. The current shaft is modified for
the shaft B has 56% higher torque carrying capacity. The same
increase in case depth, core hardness, shaft diameter &
shock load test on vehicle is conducted on redesigned shaft B,
subjected to Ultimate Torsional bench Test. The test result of
found no twist.
modified axle shaft shows improvement in average B10 torque
carrying capability by 56% with no twist.

Introduction
Twist is a torsional permanent deformation phenomenon
observed in the material when the excess torsional load
applied on the shaft that exceeds the material shear strength.
Hardened case with normalized core shows lower shear
strength as compared to hardened case with toughened core. Figure 1. Axle shaft
Hardening & tempering after forging enhance the core
hardness there by increasing the torque carrying capacity of Torsional Deformation- Twist
the shaft. A comparison study between the two designs (A&B)
Torsion occurs when shaft is subjected to torque, no matter
carried out, where A is with normalized core and B is with
whether shaft is rotating (drive shaft) or stationary (Bolt). The
toughened core. Both designs calls for hardened surface by
torque makes the shaft twist when one end rotates relative to
induction method and they differ in diameter. No doubt the role
other inducing the shear stress on any cross section. Shear
of diameter is significant in improving the strength of the shaft
stress is maximum at surface and minimum at center.
however at some point when there is constraint in increase in
diameter; the toughening process helps a lot in enhancing the
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(Figure2). Permanent twist can be occurred if applied torque

overcomes the elastic limit of the material. Twist is maximum at
the surface and minimum at the center (Figure. 2).

Figure 4. Johnson's Apparent Elastic Limit

Figure 2. Shear stress distribution in circular section with applied
torque T

Determination of Shaft Diameter

The shaft diameter depends on the maximum applied torque
and shear strength of the material with over load factor. While
designing the axle shaft for a vehicle, three torques are
considered, Wheel Slip torque, Prime mover torque and
reverse Torque. In this case prime mover torque found
maximum which is calculated as per formula 1. While
calculating the diameter it is assumed that the ratio of shaft
forward stress to material shears strength to be 80% max.

Figure 3. Twist deformation of a torqued circular shaft (1)

A bar is loaded with a torsional load if the loading is a couple, Tmax =Max. Prime mover torque on shaft, N-m
called torque, T, directed along the axis of the bar. The
torsional loading of a round bar can be analyzed easily by the T = Max. Engine Torque, N-m
mechanics of materials method. The torsion of a round bar
results in a state of stress described as pure shear. Therefore G=First Gear Ratio
the strain is zero at the axis of the bar and reaches a maximum
at the external surface (Figure 3). A torqued shaft produces a R=Axle Ratio
relative rotation of one end respect to the other called the twist
angle φ. The twist angle per unit of x-length is called the twist F=Over load factor
rate dφ/dx. Often the design called for limitation on this rate or
angle. It is thus of interest to have expressions for both of them Now Diameter is calculated,
in terms of the applied torque and the properties of the shaft.

Since it is difficult to determine the true elastic limit accurately,

(2)
especially in hardened steel which does not show sharp yield
point, late Prof. J. B. Johnson proposed another point which he
called the “apparent elastic limit.” JAEL is point at which the τmax = Max shear stress on the shaft, kg/mm2
rate of change of strain is 50 % greater than the initial rate of
change of strain. It is that point on the curve at which the slope Tmax = Max. Prime mover torque on shaft, N-m
of the tangent from the vertical is 50 per cent greater than that
of the straight-line part of the curve. Twist occurs when applied D = Diameter of shaft, mm
torque crosses the JAEL. In this case, JAEL torque for the
design A is 8035 Nm and Ultimate torque is 13662 Nm. The
twist occurred at 10202 Nm Torque which is in between JAEL
& Ultimate Torque and hence shaft did not crack.
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Table: 1. Calculation table

Figure 5. Design A - Applied shear stress vs shaft material shear

strength

Generation of Shear Strength Curve

Applied shear stress which is shaft forward stress is plotted
from surface to core center of the shaft along with the material
shear strength. The material shear strength is determined with
respect to the surface hardness, hardness drop in case depth
region and core hardness. The hardness is converted to UTS
according to conversion table ASTM A370. Shear strength of
the material considered as half of the UTS. Design A plot
shows Shear Strength of the material is higher than the applied
shear stress on the shaft for diameter 37.5 mm, (Figure 5).
Design A works well under torque for which it designed.

The Design A which has normalized core when tested on

vehicle experienced Twist (Figure 9) due to the sudden shock
load. The torque Vs material strength graph (Figure 6) shows
the inadequate material shear strength at subsurface level near Figure 6. Design A- Applied shear stress vs shaft material shear
the core to withstand the applied shear stress, causing plastic strength- normalized core
deformation of the shaft. Since the material shear strength was
higher near the surface than the core center, the crack is not
initiated on the surface of the shaft. The applied torque was in
between the JAEL and Ultimate Torque of the shaft. The
forward shear stress is 98.5% of the material shear strength.
(see table1) which exceeds the design acceptance criteria. i.e.
80 % max.

There were constraint in improving the design A by keeping the

diameter same. The case depth could not be increased as it
could lead to risk of through hardened shaft which is not
advisable for such application. Core property can be enhanced
replacing the normalizing treatment by harden & tempering
process (Figure 7)but the shaft would not be free of risk of
failure as applied shear stress is 98% of the material shear
strength. All these lead to redesign the shaft as B.
Figure 7. Design A- Applied shear stress vs shaft material shear
Design B (Figure 8) shows the shear strength of the material strength - hard & tempered core
with normalized core is touching the applied shear stress and
hence not recommended. The shear strength of material with
toughened core is well above the applied shear stress and
hence is recommended. No twist (Figure 10) was observed
upon validation.
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Heat Treatment of the Shaft

Both design A & B are heat treated. Design A is normalized
core to hardness of 200 BHN and design B is toughened
(Harden & temper) core to hardness 28 HRC. Medium Carbon
micro alloy steel is used for both the design. Metallurgical test
details as in table 2.

Table 2. Metallurgical test results

Figure 8. Design B- Applied shear stress vs shaft material shear

strength, comparison normalized core vs toughened core

Figure 11. Design A, Case depth

Figure 9. Design A shaft showing twist

Figure 12. Design B, Case depth

In figure11 & 12 X-axis shows the depth of hardened surface

and Y-axis shows the hardness in HRC. The effective case
depth is measured at hardness level of 40 HRC. Both design A
Figure 10. Design B shaft showing no twist & Design B show 8mm and 9mm effective case depth
respectively. No significant difference in case depth of both the
design.
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Figure 13. Design A, Case micro structure showing tempered Figure 16. Design B, Core micro showing tempered martensite
martensite
Figure 15 & Figure 16 show core microstructure for design A &
design B respectively. Design A shows normalized structure
ferrite & pearlite in core where as design B shows quench &
tempered martensite structure. There is significant different in
core microstructure of design A & design B. Design B core
exhibit higher strength than the design A core.

Figure 14. Design B, Case micro showing tempered martensite

Fig13 &14 show the case microstructure tempered martensite

at induction hardened area for both design A & design B. The
samples are etched with 2% nital etchant. A typical
microstructure of Induction hardening heat treatment. No Figure 17. Design A & B, Induction Harden Pattern, spline end area
significant difference in case micro of both the design.

Figure 18. Design A & B, Induction hardened pattern, flange area

Figure 17 & Figure 18 show induction hardened pattern for

both the design A & B at shaft spline end and flange end area.
A typical induction hardened pattern.

Figure 15. Design A, Core micro structure showing ferrite & pearlite
phase
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Shaft Validation References

Both design A & B shafts are validated on bench for ultimate 1. ASM Handbook, Vol 8, “Mechanical testing and
torsion test. Six samples are tested and average B10 torque evaluation”
value is calculated. Design B has improvement of 56.7% in
2. ASM Handbook, Vol 11, “Failure analysis and prevention”
JAEL torque and 57.3% improvement in ultimate torsion torque
over design A. 3. Colorado.edu/engineering/CAS/…/IAST.Lect07.d/IAST.
Lect07,” Torsion of Circular section Chapter 7”
Table 3. Validation test results 4. Freestudy.co.ukc103 t3, “Engineering Council Certificate
Level, Engineering Science C103, Tutorial 3 Torsion”
5. Aeromech.usyd.edu.auAMME2301Documentsmos
“Chapter04 -Torsion of Circular Shaft”
6. Nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu∼tia 3501-13

Contact Information
Yathish.rao@aam.com

Conclusions
Two different design axle shafts A & B had studied. The design Acknowledgments
A is with normalized core whereas design B is with toughened Appreciation to the Automotive Research Association of India
core. The reason for failure was identified and analyzed. The (ARAI) in association with Society of Automotive Engineers
constraint in design A to withstand the applied torque was India (SAEINDIA) for organizing the International Conference
discussed as well. On comparison, the performance of both the on Automotive Materials & Manufacturing 2014 (AM&M).
design shows that, the toughening heat treatment process
adopted in design B, enhanced the shaft strength resulting in
no twist. The design B shows better performance over design
A, with 56.7 % improvement in JAEL and 57.3% improvement
in Ultimate Torsion Test. The twist issue is solved by
redesigning the shaft with increase in diameter and increasing
the shaft sub surface shear strength through toughened core.

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