Energy and Power Engineering, 2012, 4, 241-247 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/epe.2012.44033 Published Online July 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/epe) Finite Element Analysis of Dynamic Damper for CV Joint Rahul N. Yerrawar 1 , Vinod B. Tungikar 2 , Shravan H. Gawande 1 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.E.S. College of Engineering, Pune, India 2 Department of Production Engineering, S.G.G.S. Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded, India Email: yerrawar@mescoepune.org Received March 14, 2012; revised April 20, 2012; accepted May 11, 2012 ABSTRACT Constant Velocity (CV) Joints are one of the most important components of front wheel drive axles. It is subjected to various stresses such as bending stress, shear stress and bearing stress. Apart from these stresses, it is also subjected to vibrations, due to out of balance tire or wheel and an out of round tire or wheel, or a bent rim. The main objective of this work is to reduce the stiffness of the damper, so that the damper can withstand within the required constraints (i.e. the forced frequency range of 80 Hz to 150 Hz). The free vibrational and forced vibrational effects are investigated to predict the resonance phenomenon of the damper. Finite Element Analysis in ANSYS-11 software was performed to predict the dynamic behavior of the system under the required vibrational frequencies ranging from 80 Hz to 150 Hz at given loading conditions. Keywords: Constant Velocity (CV); Finite Element Analysis (FEA) 1. Introduction The drive axle assembly transmits torque from the engine and transmission to drive the vehicle’s wheels. Front wheel drive axles transfer engine torque from the trans- axle’s differential to the front wheel. One of the impor- tant components of front wheel drive axles is the constant velocity joint as shown in Figure 1. These joints are used to transfer uniform torque at a constant speed while op- erating through wide range of angles. A damper is used to minimize the structure borne en- ergy that is present in a system from being converted to sound. When system vibrates at a resonance, a damper reduces the amplitude of vibrations, which in turn results in less sound radiation. The additional mass of a damper may help to change the resonant frequency and thereby aid in reducing damping. Equal length shafts are used in vehicle to help to reduce torque steer, the tendency to steer to one side as engine power is applied. For this ap- plication intermediate shaft is used as a link from trans- axle to one of the half shaft. This intermediate shaft can use an ordinary universal joint to a yoke at the transaxle. At the outer end is having a support bracket and a bear- ing assembly. Looseness in the bearing or bracket can create vibrations. A damper weight called as dynamic damper is attached to one half shafts serves to dampen harmonic vibration in the drive train and to stabilize the shaft as it spins [1]. With front wheel drives the force produced by engine is transferred through gear box and then to the constant velocity drive shafts to the wheels. As per [2] it has been found that CV Joints significantly improves the per- formance of driveshaft in which CV Joints for Light Truck drive shafts have to meet the specific requirement for this vehicle. A Service-free life of 150,000 miles is standard for the Light Truck market segment and the joints have to be designed and sized accordingly. Torque, speed and angle define the operating envelope of a CV Joint and the durability is determined by the loads trans- mitted and the numbers of revolutions during its life. As per [3] it is clear that in the absence of prototypes, ana- lytical methods such as finite element analysis are very useful in resolving noise and vibration problems by pre- dicting dynamic behavior of the automotive component and systems. The crank dampers which were implemented on en- gine damper in dual mode state, frequencies were defined by using transmissibility ratio to simplify the test process and eliminate effects of boundary conditions [4]. To ver- ify the effectiveness of the damper, the engine dyno and vehicle road tests were conducted. The results show that dual mode dampers cannot substantially reduce airborne noise. As per [5] the steering motion and the movement of the engine and the wheels drive shaft provide the compensation for the length change and achieve the re- quired articulation angle. Whereas as per [6] the practical Copyright © 2012 SciRes. EPE