Damping Analysis of Composite Drive Shaft using Computational methods

Abstract

Drive shaft used in automotive is a critical component which comes under the influence of different types of loads in operation. Torsional loading is one of the prime causes contributing to its failure. Most of the research on drive shaft was focused on evaluating natural frequency, torsional strength, buckling torque using analytical approach and also using FEM. This project work deals with the analysis of damping behavior of E-glass/epoxy composite drive shaft for an automotive application. Torsional load will be considered for the load amplitude and the analysis will be carried out based on finite element method. The main aim of the project was to compute the loads on a drive shaft of an automobile by FEA using ANSYS 12 for evaluating natural frequency, torsional frequency and to predict its damping behavior. Drive shaft was modeled using CATIA, which was imported as IGES format to ANSYS workbench. The model was meshed in ANSYS workbench using hex dominant method and boundary conditions were applied. Natural frequency, torsional frequency, and damping behavior were evaluated for different volume fractions of glass fiber–epoxy composite. The obtained results from the ANSYS workbench were validated with the calculated analytical results.

Keywords: FEA, ANSYS, IGES, FEM, CATIA