Static Analysis of Hybrid Composite Propeller Shaft

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to model, design and statically analyse the propeller shaft made from composite materials consisting of low carbon steel, epoxy, S-glass and T-700 fiber. The static structural analysis is administered for both conventional steel propeller shaft and hybrid composite propeller shaft to estimate the displacements, stresses, strains and forces in structures or components caused by loads that don't induce significant inertia and damping effects. Comparative results show that The steel shaft exhibits minimum value for directional deformation along y-axis, equivalent elastic strain, Maximum shear elastic strain and Maximum shear stress compared to hybrid composite shafts, which means that, steel shaft can withstand more load compare to hybrid composite one. But, for the Equivalent (Von Mises) stress hybrid composite shaft exhibits minimum value leading to more load withstand ability. From the analysis, it can be justified that for minimum load conditions, i.e., for light weight passenger's vehicle, the hybrid composite shafts can be considered rather than steel shaft thus reducing the overall weight of the vehicle and increasing the performance.

Keywords: Hybrid Composite Propeller Shaft, static analysis, ANSYS