Design and Analysis of Carbon-Kevlar/Epoxy Hybrid Composite Propeller Shaft

Abstract

Propeller Shaft Connects Gearbox To The Final Drive Gears Of The Vehicle. Propeller Shafts Are Traditionally Made Of Steel And According To Various Researches, The Majority Of The Propeller Shafts Suffer Damage From Corrosion, High Fatigue, High Bending, High Impact, High Vibration, High Compressive Loading And Severe Shock Loading. Fortunately, Composite Materials Have A Great Damping Capacity, They Produce Less Vibration And Noise While Also Being Corrosion Resistant. Therefore, In This Thesis, The Propeller Shaft Of Tata 207 Di Single Cabin Pick Up Was Replaced With A Two-Piece Propeller Shaft Carbon-Kevlar Epoxy Hybrid Composite Drive Shaft. The Main Objective Of This Thesis Is To Design And Analyses Of Propeller Shaft Using Carbon-Kevlar Epoxy Hybrid Composite. Modeling Of The Existing And The Composite Propeller Shaft Is Carried Out In Catia V5 And Its Analysis Is Performed In Ansys. Basic Dimensions Of The Existing Model Are Taken By Direct Measurement Whereas The Dimension Of The Composite Propeller Shaft Is Obtained From Analytical Design. The Analysis Which Is Done On Ansys Are Static Structural, Transient Structural, Modal Analysis, Harmonic Analysis And Rigid Dynamics. Three Modified Models Were Prepared In Order To Consider All The Necessary Conditions And To Select The Similar Design Two Piece Mode Propeller Shaft For Compare Result From Analysis. These Are Two-Piece Modified Propeller Shaft, One-Piece Modified Propeller Shaft Without Center Bearing And One-Piece Modified Propeller Shaft With Center Bearing. According The Result Obtained From The Analysis The Two-PieceModified Propeller Shaft Selected. The Result From The Analysis Shows That The Weight Of The Two Piece Modified Propeller Shaft Is Improved By 45.25% Compared To The Existing Propeller Shaft. It Also Has A Lowest Stress Distribution, Lowest Deformation And Better Performance In Terms Of Vibration Compared To The Existing And The Other Modified Propeller Shaft. It Has The Lowest Deformation At Higher Frequency Ranges, For Instance The Maximum Deformation Of The Two-Piece Modified Propeller Shaft At 368.94hz Is 23.295mm Which Is Less Than The Existing Model.