Design, Fabrication and Stress Analysis of a Composite Propeller Shaft 2011-28-0013

Fuel efficiency and weight of passenger cars are two important issues. Best way to increase the fuel efficiency without sacrificing safety is to employ fiber reinforced composite materials in vehicle components. Substituting composite structures for conventional metallic structures has advantages because of higher specific stiffness and strength of composite materials. Weight of composite drive shaft is less compared to conventional steel shaft. This work deals with the replacement of Maruti Omni 5 seater vehicle's conventional steel drive shaft with an E-Glass/Epoxy composite drive shaft. The design parameters were used with the objective of minimizing the weight of composite propeller shaft and the shaft is analysed using ANSYS 11. After the confirmation, that the design meets all requirements, the composite shaft is fabricated. Fabricated composite propeller shaft was then subjected to bending, torsion and fatigue test to find its performance.