Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3) 2015, pp.

41-48

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Design to Replace Steel Drive Shaft in Automobiles with Hybrid
Aluminium Metal Matrix Composite
M Ganesan1, *S Johny James2, P Santhamoorthy1
1
Ranipetttai Engineering College,Vellore, India
2
Kingston Engineering College, Vellore, India.
Received-25 September 2015, Revised-25 October 2015, Accepted-21 December 2015, Published-29 December 2015

ABSTRACT
Many research works have been carried out in automobile industry to optimize the weight of
the vehicle, as weight has a significant influence on fuel consumption. It is vital that weight
optimization process should be carried out without compromising the dynamic behaviours of the
components and its functions. In this paper an attempt has been made to check the suitability of hollow
drive shaft (propeller drive shaft) by varying the internal diameter of the shaft. Models were created by
varying the internal diameter of drive shaft as 70mm, 60mm, 50mm, 40mm, and 30mm using solid
works 2012. Static, model and buckling analysis were carried out in ANSYS 15.0 WORK BENCH.
Material chosen for comparison was forged steel SM45C and hybrid aluminum metal matrix
composite reinforced with zirconium di boride(ZrB2) and alumina (Al2O3). These Finite element
analysis results were compared with analytical values. The best design was identified to optimize the
weight in order to enhance fuel efficiency.
Keywords: Dynamic behaviours, Hybrid aluminium metal matrix composites, Finite alement analysis,
Optimization, Fuel efficiency.

1. INTRODUCTION carbon-epoxy and glass-epoxy drive shaft was

Drive shafts are used in automotive,
aircraft and aerospace applications. The
automotive industry is exploiting composite
materials for structural components
construction in order to obtain reduction of
weight without compromising quality and
reliability. It is known that energy conservation
is one of the most important objectives in
vehicle design and reduction of weight is one
of the most effective measures to obtain this
result. Actually, there is almost a direct
proportionality between the weight of a vehicle
and its fuel consumption, particularly in city
driving. The drive shaft plays a main role in
power transmission in automobiles. If the
weight of the component is decreased,
additional energy can be used to move the
vehicle.
In this paper the torsional buckling
load of composite drive shafts made of
carbon/epoxy are predicted and measured
using shell theory [1]. This paper concludes the
study as follows. A finite element analysis of
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +919443711170
Email address: johnyjames2002@yahoo.com (S.J.James)
Double blind peer review under responsibility of DJ Publications
http://dx.doi.org/10.18831/james.in/2015031005
2455-0957 © 2016 DJ Publications by Dedicated Juncture Researcher’s Association. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
carried out to investigate the effect of fibers
winding and layer stacking sequence on the
critical speed, buckling torque and fatigue
resistance and also showed that shear strength
is of minor design importance in tube since the
failure mode is dominated by buckling [2].
Analysis of buckling hollow laminated
composite drive shafts [3,4] describes the
theoretical analysis on torsional buckling of
composite drive shafts and predicted the
torsional buckling load of composite drive
shafts with various lay-ups. Study of shear
buckling of composite shafts under Torsion
Composite Structures [5] gives the effect of
boundary conditions and stacking sequence on
the strength of the drive shaft.
Design analysis of an automotive
composite drive shaft [6] have presented a
comprehensive approach to the design of
automotive drive shaft considering basic
requirements such as torsional strength,
torsional buckling and bending natural
frequency.
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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

Optimal sizing and stacking sequence 3.1. Design details of drive

of composite driveshaft [7] have proposed a shaft
design methodology for the drive shaft of The main objective of our work is to
passenger vehicles by considering torsional reduce the weight of the drive shaft by varying
transmission capability, bending natural its internal diameter to optimize the weight of
frequency and buckling torque as design the shaft without affecting the dynamic
constraints and number of plays, stacking performance of the shaft. So the weight has
sequence and thickness of the play as design been calculated as per the below given formula
variables. Design of composite drive shafts for
automotive applications [8,9] explained the
comprehensive approach to the design of The following equation (3.1) is
composite drive shafts and developed the considered to find the buckling load and is
preliminary design tools for quick analysis to taken from reference [2].
meet the drive shaft performance 2 3 0.25 1.5
requirements[10,11]. T =(2πr t)*(0.272)*(E E ) * (t/r) (3.1)
cr x y
where‘Ex’ and ‘E ’ are the Young’s
2. PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED y

Generally strength of the shaft refers to modulus of the composite shafts in axial and
the maximum torque or maximum power it can hoop direction. ‘r’ and ‘t’ are the mean radius
transmit[12,13]. The solid and the hollow shaft and thickness of the composite drive shaft.
have the same stiffness to transmit the power Table 1 shows the design details of drive shaft
with light variations so that there is no problem in automobiles.
to replace the solid shaft by hollow shaft. Table 1.Design details of drive shaft in automobile
Sl.
Proper care should be taken to replace the Contents Dimensions Units
no
power transmission line because too many
Length of
damages can occur during the accidents in the 1 1000 Mm
shaft
SUVs power transmission line especially in the Outer
propeller shaft. So the shaft can transmit 2 diameter of 80 Mm
power in the range of minimum 3500 N-m shaft
torque and 6500 rpm in rotational speed. Inner
3 diameter of 50 Mm
3. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS shaft
In the experimental region the drive Min.torque
shaft could be modelled in solid works 2012 by 4 required to 3500*103 N-mm
keeping the constant external diameter as transmission
80mm, length of the shaft as 1000mm and Min.Speed
5 6500 Rpm
required
varying internal diameter as 30mm, 40mm,
50mm, 60mm and 70mm for optimizing the
3.2. Finite element analysis
weight of the shaft. Five models have been
prepared for ANSYS analysis. Figure 1 shows In the finite element analysis region
the assembly of propeller shaft in solid works steel and composite shaft is developed for
2012 optimizing the design of drive shaft. The
geometry and material properties of steel and
composite drive shaft considered are shown in
table 2. Since the geometry of the model is
simple, an assumption of linear isotropic
material for steel and linear orthotropic
material for composites is made.
Table 2.Material properties of steel SM45C and
composite
Mechanical Symb Unit
Steel Composite
properties ol s
Young’s
E Gpa 207 190
Figure 1.Assembly of propeller shaft in solid works modulus
2012 Shear
G Gpa 80 90
modulus

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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

Poisson’s -------
υ 0.3 0.26
ratio -
Kg/m 760
Density Ρ 3 2900
0
Yield
Ys Mpa 370 660
strength
Shear
Ʈ Mpa 275 360
strength

The element size considered for

modelling steel and composite shaft is 0.01m. Figure 4.Shear stress distribution at 70mm internal
Each element is having 8 nodes and each node diameter steel shaft
is having 6 degrees of freedom. The finite
element model with load and boundary
condition is shown in figure 2.

Figure 5.Total deformation on 70mm internal

diameter in composite shaft

Figure 2.Load and Boundary Conditions of Shaft

3.3. Transient analysis

For transient analysis shaft is fixed at
one end and torque is applied at the other end.
The specifications can be described as 3500 N-
m on the fixed rigid element of size 0.01m
with center axis distance 1000mm.
The von misses stress distribution,
total deformation and shear stress distribution
of different shafts are shown in figures 3 to 10. Figure 6.Total deformation at 60mm as internal
They are 70mm, 60mm, 50mm, 40mm and diameter steel shaft
30mm respectively.

Figure 3.Total deformation on 70mm internal

diameter steel shaft
Figure 7.Total deformation on 50mm internal
diameter in steel

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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

Figure 8.Von-mises stress distribution on 40mm

internal diameter in steel
Figure 11.First bending mode of composite drive
shaft

Figure 9.Von-mises stress distribution on 40mm

internal diameter in composite shaft

Figure 12.First bending mode

of steel drive shaft

3.5. Linear buckling analysis

Linear buckling analysis is performed
to get the critical torsional buckling load. The
buckling frequency and its corresponding
mode shapes obtained for steel and aluminium
metal matrix composite ANSYS work bench
v15 are shown in figures from 12 to 14
Figure 10.Total deformation on solid shaft 80mm The buckling strength is calculated by
diameter steel shaft multiplying the critical speed with buckling
load factor.
3.4. Modal analysis
Modal analysis deals with un-damped
free vibration of a structure. It does not involve
any computation of response due to loading,
but yields the natural frequencies and
corresponding mode shapes. For eigen value
analysis the boundary conditions are assumed
to be of pinned-pinned condition. The first
mode shapes obtained for steel and aluminium
metal matrix composite materials using
ANSYS work benchv15 are shown in figures
10 and 12 respectively. Figure 11 shows the
first bending mode of composite drive shaft.
The frequencies of first modes are multiplied
by 60 to obtain critical speeds of drive shaft. Figure 13.First mode linear buckling analysis of
composite drive shaft

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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

and analysis results are tabulated in table 3 and

7
Table 3.Comparison of shear strength
Material
Composite
Steel(Mpa)
Stress (Mpa)
(Mpa)

Theoretical
175.4 265.0
shear stress

Figure 14.First mode linear buckling analysis of

steel drive shaft
4. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Static analysis of steel and aluminium
hybrid composite drive shaft
The analysis is conducted with one end
6
fixed and a torque of 3.5 ×10 N-mm applied at
the other end. A rotational speed of 6500 rpm
is applied. The shear and von mises stresses
achieved from solver are compared with
theoretical results. From the above transient
analysis outcome of the optimized shaft
diameter, one with 40 mm internal diameter
was selected. The 70 mm internal diameter
hollow shaft produced more vibrations and
instability at critical speeds. So the design is
found to be unsafe to use.
In the internal diameter 60mm drive
shaft the shear stress distribution is more in
deformation and so this model is also unsafe to
use and the total deformation was very high at
buckling torque.
In the internal diameter 50mm drive
shaft the stress distribution is more in model
analysis and so the material failure occurs at
critical speeds and torque. Hence it is also
difficult to use.
The 40mm internal diameter drive
shaft has better strength to withstand the
critical speed and torque. Similarly 30 mm
internal diameter also possess good strength
equal to the solid shaft but when considering
weight parameter 40mm internal diameter is
more suitable for the shaft design. The shear
strength is used to describe the strength of a
shaft where the ductile material fails in shear.
FEA solver results show that torque
carrying capacity is more in 40mm internal
diameter composite shaft than in conventional
steel driveshaft. The steel drive shaft has lesser
shear strength. Comparison of the theoretical
ANSYS V15
120 98
shear stress
Table 4.Comparison of von-mises stress
Material
Composite
Steel(Mpa)
Stress (Mpa)
(Mpa)
Theoretical
von-misses 370 410
stress
ANSYS
V15 von- 220 180
misses stress
4.2. Transient analysis of steel and
aluminium hybrid composite drive shaft
The analysis is used to find out the
natural frequencies and corresponding mode
shapes to find the critical speed of the shaft.
Using solver, first natural frequency and its
mode shape is extracted as the first few natural
frequencies are more critical and dominant to
failure. The critical speed is obtained from FE
solvers for steel and aluminium metal matrix
composite material. It is observed that
composite material shafts have minimum
amount of critical speed compared to the steel
material shafts. The critical speed depends
upon the shaft dimensions, materials and loads.
In design optimization, the shaft dimensions
and load are constant but stacking sequence is
varied. As the critical speed depends upon
stiffness and density, the material having high
stiffness value will have maximum critical
speed. Finally it is evident from the table 5 that
composite materials have more torque carrying
capability. This clearly establishes the fact that
torque capability of any material is reflected
through critical speed values.

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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

4.3. Buckling analysis of steel and For composite,

aluminium hybrid composite drive shaft
2 9 3 0.25
Buckling analysis predicts the T =(2π*0.04 *0.02)*(0.272)*{(190*10 ) } *
cr
theoretical buckling strength of an ideal elastic 1.5
structure. It is the mathematical instability (0.02/) = 5495.40 Nm
leading to a failure mode. Buckling loads are
Table 6.Comparison of critical speed
critical loads where the structures become
unstable and each load has an associated Material
buckled mode shape. The critical buckled Steel Composite
torque obtained from FE solvers for steel and Critical speed (rpm) (rpm)
aluminium metal matrix composite materials (rpm)
are tabulated in table 6. The composite
Theoretical
material have load factor around 1 and have 6638.3 7183.032
critical speed
very high critical buckling torque. It is
observed that the buckling strength of the
composite shafts is high compared to steel ANSYS V15
8715 9245
shaft of the same geometry because these critical speed
properties depend on the stiffness and cross
section of the material. It also depends upon
the length to radius ratio (L/R), radius to The FEA and theoretical results are
thickness ratio (R/t) and unsupported length. compared and tabulated in table 7. It is
Therefore, the composite shaft observed that both results possess good
Kevlar49/Epoxy has higher critical buckling agreement with each other.
torque.
Table 5.Buckling analysis results Table 7.Comparison of buckling torque
Material Material
Steel(MPa) Composite
Composite Factors
Steel(Mpa)
(Mpa)
Analyse Theoretical
method buckling 5064.245 5495.40
torque

Load factor 97.98 78.65 ANSYS

V15
5398.289 6219.28
buckling
torque

ANSYS V15 5. CONCLUSION

buckling 5398.28 6219.28 When a long monolithic hollow
torque composite driveshaft is subjected to torsional
load, an instability occurs which is more
critical in the design of composite drive shaft.
The prominent failure mode of composite drive
shaft is shear buckling rather than material
Using equation (3.1) and data from
failure. In this work an attempt is made to
table 4, the theoretical buckling torque is
check the suitability of one piece composite
calculated for steel and composite drive shaft.
drive shaft with various internal diameters of
For steel, composite material combinations to fulfill the
functional requirements. First, a finite element
2 9 3 0.25 model of drive shaft made of steel SMC45,
T =(2π*0.04 *0.02)*(0.272)*{207*10 ) }
cr aluminum hybrid metal matrix composite is
1.5 developed and analyzed for static, modal &
*(0.02/0.04) buckling analysis using ANSYS WORK
BENCH V15
=5064.245 Nm Results clearly indicate that,

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 M.Ganesan et al./Journal of Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Vol. 1(3), 2015 pp. 41-48

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