Design Analysis and Weight Optimization of LMV Drive Shaft by Using AL + GF Material

Abstract

Aluminium is mainly used due to their lower weight and high strength among the Metal Composites. Fabrication of composite is done by the winding of composite glass fibre over the aluminium shaft method. Each shaft fabrication content of E-glass fibre and Aluminium with different ratios depends on ANSYS results. The present article attempts to evaluate the mechanical results for Aluminium and Glass fibre composite shaft for torsion test. The results are analyzed for different combination of Aluminium and glass fibre layer. The mechanical properties of composites have improved with the increase in the weight percentage of Aluminium in composite.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

An automotive drive shaft is a rotating shaft that transmits power from the engine to the differential gear of rear wheel drive (RWD) vehicles. The torque that is produced from the  engine  and  transmission  must  be  transferred  to  the  rear  wheels  to  push  the  vehicle forward and reverse. The drive shaft must provide a smooth, uninterrupted flow of power to the axles. The drive shaft and differential are used to transfer this torque. Moreover, a composite driveshaft can be perfectly designed to effectively meet the strength and stiffness requirements. Since  composite  materials  generally have  a  lower  elasticity  modulus,  during torque  peaks  in  the  driveline,  the  drive  shaft  can  act  as  a  shock  absorber.  Moreover,  the breakage of composite a drive  shaft (particularly in  SUV’s)  is less -risky, since it results in splitting  up of the fine fibres as  compared to  the  scattering of  broken steel parts in  various directions. Composite materials have been widely used to improve the performance of various types of structures. Compared to conventional materials, the main advantages of composites are their superior stiffness to mass ratio as well as high strength to weight ratio. Because of these advantages, composites have been increasingly incorporated in structural components in various industrial fields.  Some  examples  are  helicopter  rotor  blades,  aircraft  wings  in aerospace  engineering,  and  bridge  structures  in  civil  engineering  applications. Some of  the And Weight Optimization Of Composite Drive Shaft Using ANSYS Design, Analysis  basic  concepts  of  composite  materials  are  discussed  in  the  following  section  to  better acquaint ourselves with the behavior of composites.

A.  Introduction to Drive Shaft

Drive shaft is been used in the automobiles. They are mainly used in the commercial vehicles such as vans, trucks, SUV’s etc. There should be a medium from where the motion from engine is been transferred to the rare wheels. To transfer this motion from the engine to the rare wheels, drive shaft plays an important role.  Whenever  the  distance  between  the engine and rare wheels is  more  than 1.5m  use of  two-piece  drive  shaft  is been used.  Dive shaft is one of the important parts of the vehicle, without which we cannot transfer motion from engine to the rare wheel smoothly. In order to conserve natural resources and economize energy, weight reduction has been the main focus of Automobile manufacturer in the present scenario. Weight reduction can  be  achieved  primarily  by  the  introduction  of  better  material,  design  optimization  and better manufacturing   processes .The suspension drive shaft is one of the potential items for weight  reduction  in  automobile  as  it  accounts  for  ten  to  twenty  percent  of  the  unsprung weight.

II. METHODOLOGY

After  referring  to  multiple  references  it  was  understood  that  how  composite  drive shaft having optimum weight can be selected using the exact methodology.

For this process we use CATIA V5 R20 and ANSYS workbench 14.5 software

1. CAD model of conventional drive shaft is prepared in CATIA V5 R20 as per actual dimension.  Then this model is imported to ANSYS workbench 14.5 software.  For pre-processing  and  to  derive  a  final  solution  results  are  derived  from ANSYS software.
2. CAD  model  of  composite  drive  shaft  is  prepared  in  CATIA  V5  R20  as  per  actual dimension.  Then this model is imported in ANSYS workbench 14.5.  For pre- processing and to derive a final solution results are derived from ANSYS software.
3. Compare conventional drive shaft and composite drive shaft results.
4. For  validation,  we  require  the  results  derived  from  theoretical  and  experimental calculations.
5. To  perform  the  experiment,  we  manufacture  the  sample  composite  material  and conventional  drive  shaft.  Testing  of  these  two  shafts  is  been  done  in  torsion  test machine and the results are been derived.
6. Later CAD model for these two shafts having same dimensions was been generated and was imported in ANSYS.  Results were derived after this process and were compared with the experimental results.
7. Theoretical calculations for sample conventional and composite drive shaft were calculated.
8. Lastly  ANSYS,  theoretical  and  experimental  results  were  compared  and  preferable shaft was selected in automobile.

Conclusion

In this work, an attempt was made to fabricate Al/E-glass fibres composites by the layer lamination process. The effect of the E-glass fibres on the bonding properties of Al strips was investigated because of its impact on the mechanical properties of the composites. The results were concluded as follows: 1) Stress occurred in the composite drive shaft is within the allowable limit. 2) Results obtained through ANSYS are validated from experimental testing. 3) Comparison of the results also shows that the results derived using all the calculation methods are similar to each other. Hence, FEA results can be considered as valid method for design purpose. 4) Composite Glass fibre shaft has less weight than conventional steel drive shaft for analyzed stress. So composites can be suggested for driving shaft of light passenger vehicle.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2022 Nikita Suryakant Bhamare, Dr. Avinash M. Badadhe. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.