Design And Optimization Of Automobile Propeller Shaft With Composite Materials Using FEM Analysis

Abstract

The Roadway vehicles like cars, buses, trucks and land movers having many mechanical parts in common like Engine parts, Propeller shafts, Gearbox, Brakes, Clutches, Wheels, etc., To make the vehicle fuel efficient which in result make the transportation economical, the weight of that vehicle should be reduced. Since the composite materials are light weight with more strength & stiffness, inclusion of composite materials to conventional steel materials used in auto parts will reduce the weight and improve the mechanical properties of those components. This paper deals with propeller shaft of heavy vehicle to design the shaft for its minimum dimensions to satisfy current problem specification and then replace conventional steel material with composite material. The design of the propeller shaft is first theoretically designed for steel, Carbon/Epoxy and Glass/Epoxy composite material for its safe dimensions. Then they can be created as a part model for respective dimensions in CREO software. After modeling, Torsional buckling analysis can be carried out in the propeller shafts using Ansys software to check whether theoretical calculations and analytical results are similar. Then obtained results are compared among those three materials and Carbon/Epoxy composite material is selected as suitable replacement material for conventional steel material in terms of several mechanical properties.