Dynamic Structure and Vibration Characteristics Analysis of Single Piece Drive shaft Using FEM *Ashwani Kumar Department of Mechanical Engineering Graphic Era University, Dehradun India-248002 *Kumarashwani.geu@gmail.com Rajat Jain, Himanshu Jaiswal, # Pravin P Patil Department of Mechanical Engineering Graphic Era University, Dehradun India-248002 # pravinppatil2004@gmail.com Abstract— The main objective of this research work is dynamic structure and vibration characteristics analysis of single piece drive shaft of a heavy vehicle truck transmission system. The research work focused on replacement of conventional two piece stainless steel drive shaft with single piece kevlar epoxy composite material drive shaft for heavy vehicle. A single piece drive shaft was designed using Pro-E. Structural analysis was performed to check the design suitability and modal analysis was performed to find the natural frequency and mode shape. Now a day’s composite material are used very frequently in automobile industry due to strength, weight and long life span advantage. Kevlar epoxy composite material has been used for driving shaft to reduce the weight and cost. The main function of driving shaft is to transmit torque from vehicle transmission system to rear wheel differential system. During this process of torque transmission it is subjected to shear stress, deflection, bending and torsional vibration. The weight of drive shaft was reduced by using new design which solved the deflection and bending problem. FEM based Ansys 14.5 has been used as an analysis tool. The FEM simulation result determines the strain, stress, deflection, principal stress, strain energy, natural frequencies and mode shapes under real time boundary conditions. The result concluded that kevlar epoxy composite material suited more for single piece drive shaft. Keywords— Transmission drive shaft, Kevlar Composite Material, Natural frequency, Weight, Single piece. I. INTRODUCTION Drive shaft is manufactured in two pieces using steel material. An attempt has been made to replace two piece drive shaft in composite material single piece drive shaft. In rear wheel drive system, drive shaft transmits torque and connects vehicle transmission or engine system to rear end of vehicle. This type of transmission drive shaft is known as propeller shaft. Two-piece drive shaft is fitted with three universal joints, with jaw coupling. Universal joints and coupling increases the total weight of drive shaft. Higher weight of drive shaft causes bending and torsional vibrational problem. Kevlar epoxy composite material drive shaft have two universal joints and jaw coupling. The simple design of single piece drive shaft reduces the weight. The reduced weight and use of composite material increases the mechanical strength and prevents failure condition. Sevkat et al. [1] authors have studied the problem of residual torsional properties of composite shafts. Shafts are subjected to impact loading condition. Impact and without impact properties of shaft was compared for torsion. The research work concludes that the impact loading reduce the maximum torque, twisting angle and this reduction increases as increase in impact energy. Baryrakceken [2] research work concerned with the failure analysis of pinion shaft mounted at the entrance. The pinion gear and shaft are manufactured in single part. The fatigue and fracture condition was monitored. The mechanical property of material was obtained and then chemical and microstructure properties were determined. Zhang et al. [3] authors have studied the self-excited vibration of a propeller shaft. The excitation is caused due to friction induced instability. The shaft is supported on rubber bearing lubricated by water. The system was modeled in consideration with torsional vibration of continuous shaft and tangential vibration of rubber bearing. Authors have determined the stability and vibrational characteristics using complex eigenvalues analysis method. Solanki et al. [4] have studied the failure reason of AISI 304 stainless steel drive shaft. The main vibration reason for failure is low natural bending frequency. The failure of drive shaft hampers the function of vehicles. Mutasher [5] research work present study of advanced composite, aluminum/ composite for hybrid shaft having high torque transmission, high natural bending frequency with less noise and vibration. Ansys and FEM have been used for numerical simulation. The linear and nonlinear properties of materials were considered. The maximum torque transmitted through hybrid shaft is 295Nm. The numerical result was verified with experimental results. Aleyaasin et al. [6] have investigated the problem of flexural vibration for cantilevered marine propeller shaft. The frequency response method with inverse Fourier transform technique was used for identification of resonance and gyroscopic effects. Kim et al. [7] authors have investigated the problem of thermal residual stresses setup during bonding process of composite layer and aluminum tube for hybrid shaft. Thermal residual stresses are resultant of difference in coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) for two materials. To eliminate the residual stresses a smart cure cycle of cooling International Journal of Applied Engineering Research ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 11 (2015) © Research India Publications ::: http://www.ripublication.comb 10263