static and dynamic characteristics of a hybrid aluminium composite drive shaft

Static and dynamic characteristics of a hybridaluminium/composite drive shaftS A Mutasher1, B B Sahari1, A M S Hamouda1,2�, and S M Sapuan1

1Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

The manuscript was received on 13 August 2005 and was accepted after revision for publication on 19 September 2006.

DOI: 10.1243/14644207JMDA63

Abstract: A static torque and power transmission capacities of a hybrid aluminium/compositedrive shaft, fabricated by a wetted filament winding method, were investigated. Specialmechanisms for static torsion and power transmission test setups were designed and fabricated.The following different fibre types were used: carbon, glass, one epoxy, and hardener. The staticand dynamic characteristic of the hybrid aluminium/composite drive shaft with respect to thefibre types stacking sequences winding angle and number of layers were investigated. From theexperiments, it was found that the static and dynamic torque capacity for a winding angle of 458is higher than 908 for both glass and carbon fibres. From the power transmission test, it was alsofound that the percentage between the static torque and dynamic torque is approximately7–15 per cent. In addition, in the static torsion test, the aluminium tube yielded first at thecentral region of the shaft, followed by crack propagation in the composite shaft alongthe fibre direction, which eventually caused the delamination of the composite layers fromthe aluminium tube. On the other hand, in the power transmission test, different locations offailure were observed along the gauge length of the specimen. The shaft’s being laminatedwith a stacking sequence of [90/þ 45/245/90] and [þ45/245/90/90] resulted in the samebehaviour in the torque–angle and the twist relation. The power transmission capacities wereclose to each other and this in turn satisfied the lamination theory. The finite-elementmethod was used to analyse the hybrid shaft under static torsion and ANSYS finite-elementsoftware was used to perform the numerical analysis for the hybrid shaft. A full scale hybridspecimen analysis was done. Elasto-plastic properties were used for the aluminium tube andlinear elastic for compositematerials. Good agreement was obtained between the finite-elementpredictions and experimental results.

Keywords: hybrid aluminium/composite, drive shaft, static torque, power transmission,filament winding, carbon fibre and E-glass

1 INTRODUCTION

Weight, vibration, fatigue, and critical speed limit-ation have been recognized as a serious problem inautomotive and industrial drive trains for manyyears. Composite tubing has long been recognizedas offering the potential of being made into lighterdrive shafts. Aerospace development efforts also

demonstrated that correctly designed compositecomponents have inherently superior fatigue andvibration damping characteristics compared tometals. Finally, the advent of higher modulus graph-ite fibres combined with these lighter weight andvibration-damping characteristics allowed thedesign of a drive shaft with much higher criticalspeed capabilities [1].

The two main functional requirements for powertransmission rotating shafts such as drive shafts ofmachinery and automotive propeller shafts are thetransmission of static and dynamic torsional loadsand the high fundamental bending natural frequency

�Corresponding author: Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Qatar University, PO Box 2713, Doha, Qatar. email: hamouda@

qu.edu.qa

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to avoid whirling vibration at a high rotational speed.Long shafts made of conventional material such asaluminium and steel cannot easily satisfy these twofunctional requirements simultaneously becausethey have lower specific stiffness, which limits themagnitude of fundamental bending natural fre-quency. Hybrid shafts composed of aluminium andhigh specific modulus carbon fibre-reinforced com-posite can circumvent these limitations because thealuminium, which has a much higher shear strengththan the unidirectional carbon fibre-polymericmatrix composite, transmits the required torque,while the unidirectional carbon fibre-polymericmatrix composite increases the fundamental bend-ing natural frequency, because the unidirectionalcarbon fibre composite has a much higher specificstiffness in fibre direction than aluminium. Theresulting hybrid shaft has higher torque transmissioncapability and higher fundamental bending naturalfrequency than that required for the shaft [2].

The composite drive shaft has many benefits suchas reduced weight and less noise and vibration [3].However, because of the high material cost ofcarbon fibre epoxy composite, rather inexpensivealuminium materials may be used to combinepartly with composite materials to make a hybridtype aluminium/composite drive shaft, in whichthe aluminium transmits the required torque andthe carbon fibre epoxy composite increases thebending natural frequency. In the past, manyresearchers have investigated the use of hybriddrive shafts. For automotive application, the firstcomposite drive shaft was developed by the spicerU-Joint division of Dana Corporation for Ford econo-line van models in 1985. The General Motors pickuptrucks that adopted the spicer product enjoyed ademand three times that of projected sales in itsfirst year, i.e. in 1988 [4]. Furthermore, a compressivepreload method was developed to reduce the ther-mal residual stress of a hybrid aluminium/compositeshaft in the axial direction during operation, whichincreased the fatigue characteristics of the hybridaluminium/composite shaft [5]. The torsional stab-ility of a composite drive shaft under torsion wasstudied by Shokrieh et al. [6] using different fibreorientations and stacking sequence. They concludedthat the fibre orientation and the stacking sequenceof the layers of a composite shaft strongly affect thebuckling torque. Increasing the applied torquedecreases the natural frequencies of torsion.

The dynamic and static characteristics of thecarbon composite high-speed air spindle throughthe finite-element analysis (FEA) were investigated[7]. From the analysis results, the stacking sequencewas determined by considering the bending stiffnessof the carbon composite shaft and the static stiffnessof the air bearing. The static torsion capacity

was investigated experimentally for the hybridaluminium composite drive shaft [8], static torsioncapacity increases 3.5 times for six layers of glassfibre wound outside the aluminium tube as com-pared with a pure aluminium tube. Furthermore, aone-piece propeller shaft for rear wheel drive auto-mobiles was designed and manufactured with glassfibre epoxy and carbon fibre epoxy compositesbased on specifications such as static torque trans-mission capability, torsional buckling capability,and fundamental natural bending frequency. Thecomposite propeller shaft had about 40 per centweight saving compared with a two-piece steel pro-peller shaft [9]. In another study, a genetic algorithmwas used to minimize the weight of a one-piece pro-peller shaft for rear wheel drive automobiles [10].The shaft was subjected to constraints such astorque transmission, torsional buckling capacities,and fundamental of natural frequency. The staticand dynamic torsional characteristics of a hybridshaft composed of an aluminium tube and a thincarbon fibre composite layer were experimentallyinvestigated by Lee et al. [11]. They found that thethermal residual stress on the hybrid shaft affecteda little the static torque transmission capability,while the fatigue torque transmission capability ofthe hybrid shaft was much improved by compressiveresidual stress.

In this article, a static torsion capacity and powertransmission of a hybrid shaft manufactured by thefilament-winding method were investigated. Glassand carbon fibres were wound on the aluminiumtubes at different winding angles, stackingsequences, and in a number of layers. Special mech-anisms were designed and fabricated in order to per-form static torsional and power transmission tests.The modes of failure of a hybrid shaft were alsostudied.

2 GEOMETRY AND MATERIALS

The aluminium tube (AA6063) used for this inves-tigation has an outer diameter and thickness or12.7 and 1.5 mm, respectively. Table 1 shows themechanical properties of the aluminium tube[12]. The fibre used for the filament-woundlaminated hybrid aluminium/composite tube is of

Table 1 Mechanical properties of the aluminium tube

Tensile modulus E (GPa) 69Shear modulus G (GPa) 26.5Poisson’s ratio n 0.3Density r (kg/m3) 2700Ultimate tensile stress (MPa) 131Yield strength (MPa) 69Shear strength (MPa) 69

64 S A Mutasher, B B Sahari, A M S Hamouda, and S M Sapuan

Proc. IMechE Vol. 221 Part L: J. Materials: Design and Applications JMDA63 # IMechE 2007



glass-and-carbon fibre type. E-glass and carbonfibres (ZOLTEK Company, USA) were used in thisinvestigation; the mechanical properties of thefibres are shown in Table 2. The epoxy resin andhardener types used in this study were of MW215 TA and MW 215 TB, respectively. Table 3shows the physical and mechanical properties ofepoxy and hardener. The results of the mechanicalproperties for a glass and carbon epoxy compositeare summarized in Table 4.

3 FABRICATION OF A HYBRID ALUMINIUM/COMPOSITE DRIVE SHAFT

The wet-winding method of filament winding wasused to manufacture the hybrid aluminium/compo-site drive shaft for both static torsion and powertransmission tests. The fibre was wound over an alu-minium tube mandrel of 12.7 mm outer diameter,followed by wet impregnation through a resin bath.The resin system was prepared by mixing epoxyand hardener with the weight ratio of 4:1. Duringthe whole filament-winding process, the fibre ten-sion was kept constant and the revolution speed ofthe mandrel was 13.6 rpm. The nose which fed thefibres was axially moved at a speed regulated to

generate the desired winding angles. The specimenswere fabricated in such a way that the stress level inthe central gauge section was greater than in all otherstructure points. This was done by paying particularattention to the end effect problem, which is a pointof stress concentration at the aluminium/compositedrive shaft. Therefore, the end part of hybrid speci-mens was reinforced using prepregs with a 908 stack-ing angle in an appropriate number of layers to makethe diameter of the reinforced ends equal to theinside diameter of the fixtures, with some tolerances.The selection of specimen tube size for static torsionand dynamic tests is dictated by the capacity of themachine test [13]. Figure 1 shows the proposed con-figuration for a static torsion test specimen [14]. Theaim of the reinforced ends is to avoid failure withinthe end regions and eliminate or, at least, minimizeconcentration of stresses. These additional stressesmay cause end failure for loads smaller than thosetolerated by the same drive shaft with uniformstress distribution. A filament winding machine hasenabled rotational speed of the mandrel to be asslow as possible so that the composites fibres werejust impregnated fully, and this process continueduntil the matrix was totally solidified. After solidifica-tion and curing, the aluminium/composite speci-men was completed. Using a lathe machine, thespecimen was cut to the final dimensions and thereinforced ends of the specimens were machined tofit within the fixtures that hold the specimen in thetest mechanism. The final shape of hybrid alu-minium/composite specimens is shown in Fig. 2for both static torsion and power transmissiontests. The average thickness of the composite layeris 0.8 mm.

4 STATIC TORQUE TEST OF THE HYBRID SHAFT

In order to test the hybrid shaft specimen with theaforementioned specifications, a special mechanismwas designed and fabricated to perform the statictorsion test. This mechanism was installed in auniversal tensile machine (Instron). When the

Table 2 Mechanical properties of the carbon and E-glass

fibres

Types of fibre Ef (GPa) nf Gf (GPa) r (g/cc)

Carbon fibre 228.0 0.31 41.16 1.81Glass fibre 72.52 0.33 29.721 2.54

Table 3 Physical and mechanical properties of the epoxy

and hardener

Property Unit WM-215TA WM-215TB

Appearance – White viscousliquid

Colourlessliquid

Viscosity Pas@ 30 8C 5.5 0.03Mixing ratio – 100 25

Table 4 Summary of the mechanical properties for the composite materials

Properties

Glass/epoxy (composite (vf ¼ 47.6%)) Carbon/epoxy (composite (vf ¼ 54%))

Experimental Predicted % Experimental Predicted %

Longitudinal modulus E11 (GPa) 36.6 35.88 1.96 101.2 119.192 15.09Transverse modulus E22 (GPa) 5.4 5.85 7.69 5.718 6.7 14.65Shear modulus G12 (GPa) 4.085 3.187 22 4.346 3.833 11.8Poisson’s ratio n12 0.3 0.303 2.25 0.31 0.29 6.45Volume fraction vf 0.476 – 0.545 –Longitudinal strength X L (MPa) 618.9 – 1475.4 –Transverse strength X T (MPa) 14 – 20 –Shear strength t0 (MPa) 28 – 36 –

Characteristics of a hybrid drive shaft 65




crosshead of the universal testing machine moves,the longitudinal force in the chain is translated intoa torsional moment to the specimen. Figure 3shows in detail the design of the static testmechanism, and Fig. 4 shows the installation ofthis mechanism on the universal tensile machine.

During the static torque test, the loading speed of48/min was used by fixing the speed of the crossheadof the universal tensile machine of 4 mm/min, andthis converted through the sprocket into 48/min.Four cases with a different number of layersand stacking sequences were used for thehybrid drive shaft for both glass and carbonfibres, as shown in Table 5. In order to study thestacking sequence, two laminates [90/45/245/90]and [þ45/245/90/90] were developed, bothhaving the same extensional stiffness matrix [A],but not the extension–shear coupling becauseA16 ¼ A26 ¼ 0 [15].

5 POWER TRANSMISSION MEASUREMENT

In the apparatus shown in Fig. 5, the specimenof a hybrid aluminium/composite driveshaft is

installed between the shaft that is driven by themotor and gearbox via a sprocket and chain toprevent slipping and the disc, a flange coupling,was used for the connection. The friction pad restson the disc and hangs by a cantilever beam in sucha way that during the operation the friction pad isat the centre of the disc to reduce vibration.During the run of the experiment, the load increasedslowly so that the brake pad applied friction on thedisc; the total load was recorded when the shaftfailed and broke. Figure 6 shows the setup of thepower transmission test apparatus. The torque andpower transmission of the hybrid shaft could becalculated as follows

Ffriction ¼ R� m

T ¼ Ffriction � r

P ¼ Tv

Where R is the reaction force between the disc andfriction pad (N), r is the radius of the disc (m), m isthe coefficient of friction, v is the speed of thehybrid specimen (rad/s), and, P is the power trans-mission by the hybrid specimen (W).

Fig. 2 Static torsion specimen: (a) carbon fibre and (b) glass fibre

Fig. 1 Configuration and dimensions of the test specimen





In order to measure the coefficient of frictionbetween the friction pad and the disc, the shaft ofthe disc mounted on two bearings rotated freelyand the friction pad rested on the disc by the beam,as shown in Fig. 7. In every experiment W1 isconstant and W2 increases at the point where thedisc starts to rotate, which means W2 is equal tothe friction force and the normal reaction betweenthe friction pad and the disc can be calculatedusing the static formula. Figure 8 shows the relationbetween the friction force and the reaction. The

slope of this curve represents the coefficient offriction, m ¼ 0.6.

6 A HYBRID ALUMINIUM/COMPOSITESPECIMEN MODELLING

A full length finite-element (FE) model wasconstructed for the 175-mm-long hybrid shaftunder static torsion load, as shown in Fig. 1.Each layer on the hybrid shaft was modelled as aseparate volume and meshed using Solid46element. The layered element Solid46 allows forup to 100 different material layers with differentorientations and orthotropic material propertiesin each layer [16]. The element has three degreesof freedom (DOF) at each node and translationsin the nodal x, y, and z directions. The layerswere assumed to be perfectly bonded with the sur-face of aluminium tube. An eight-node solidelement, Solid45, was used for the aluminiumtube. The element is defined with eight nodes

Fig. 3 Mechanism of the static torsion test

Fig. 4 Installation of the mechanism of the static

torsion test on an Instron machine

Table 5 Laminates and their stacking sequences

Glass fibre Carbon fibre

Case 1 [+45]n [+45]nCase 2 [90]m [90]mCase 3 [þ45/245/90/90] [þ45/245/90/90]Case 4 [90/+45/90] [90/+45/90]

n ¼ 1, 2, and 3; m ¼ 2, 4, and 6.





having three DOFs at each node translations in thenodal x, y, and z directions. Figure 9 shows the fillscale FE mesh for the hybrid aluminium/compo-site drive shaft. The mapping mesh techniquewas used for the entire domain. In general, phe-nomenological strength criteria such as maximumstress and Tsai-Wu criteria are used to detect thefailure status of composite laminates. Due to thecomplexity of failure mechanisms in the hybridaluminium/composite drive shaft, it is difficult to

define an applicable failure criterion [17].However, it is expected that the shear failure ofthe hybrid aluminium/composite drive shaft isdominated by properties of carbon and glassfibre/epoxy composite layers, and the laminatefails just after the shear strain reaches themaximum failure strain from experimental resultsin any direction. Thus, the maximum strain failurecriterion was used to predict the failure torque.The elastic constants were found experimentallyfor composite materials, as shown in Table 4.These properties were used with conventionallaminate theory to calculate the theoreticaleffective properties of the orthotropic monolithicmodel [18], as shown in Table 6. The glass andcarbon fibre/epoxy layers were modelled withhomogenized linear elastic orthotropic materials,

Fig. 5 Schematic of the apparatus to measure the power transmission of a hybrid shaft

Fig. 6 Power transmission test apparatus with the

specimen setup Fig. 7 The setup to measure the friction coefficient





and the elasto-plastic characteristic of thealuminium tube was modelled by inputting thestress–strain relationship to ANSYS program. Tomodel the shaft in FEA, it was subjected to puretorsion with the first end fixed and with all DOFarrested. On the other end, the torque was appliedas distributed forces in the tangential direction tothe outside of the fixture of the hybrid shaft. Thedistributed forces were calculated converting theapplied torque to tangential force by multiplyingwith outer diameter and dividing it by thenumber of nodes on the side of the fixture ofthe shaft model. To restrict the movement of thenodes in the radial direction at the end at which

the force is applied, the DOF in r-direction wasarrested. The nodes are to be rotated along thecylindrical coordinate system so that the appliedforces in nodal u-direction are tangential to theperimeter of the shaft. No cantilever effect willbe formed since the forces will deform the shaftabout its axis by pure twisting.

7 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

7.1 Static torsion results

Figure 10 shows the static torsion and angle of twistrelation for an aluminium tube being wound bytwo types of glass fibre laminates with differentstacking sequences, namely, [90/þ 45/245/90] and[þ45/245/90/90]. These laminates had the sameextension stiffness matrix [A] and did not have theextension–shear couple. Theoretically, in laminationtheory, these laminates should give the same tor-sion–angle of twist behaviour, and this is obviousfrom Fig. 10. The only difference observed in thetwo laminates is the phenomena during failure.This may be due to a microcrack or some errorsduring manufacture and due to void contents.

The comparison of torsion–twist angle diagramsof aluminium tuber wound by carbon fibre/epoxycomposite and glass fibre/epoxy composite at differ-ent angles of winding, number of layers, and stackingsequences are presented in Fig. 11. It is obvious thatin all cases, the carbon fibre/epoxy composite gave ahigher static torsion capacity than did the glass fibre/epoxy composite.

The effect of winding angles and the number oflayers for both carbon and glass fibres on the maxi-mum static torque are shown in Fig. 12. Generally,the in-plane shear modulus for winding angle 458 ishigher than 908. It is a well-known fact that the

Fig. 8 Coefficient of friction measurements

Fig. 9 FE meshes

Table 6 Effective properties of the orthotropic monolithic

model

Properties

Carbon fibre Glass fibre

458 908 458 908

Er (GPa) 9.789 5.71 9.072 5.4Eu (GPa) 9.789 101.2 9.072 36.6Gru (GPa) 5.22 4.346 4.368 4.085nru 0.126 0.0186 0.11 0.074

Fig. 10 The effect of the stacking sequence of glass

fibre composite on torsion capacity





maximum shear stress occurs at 458 from the planeof loading. This means that it can withstand moretorque and this is clearly seen in Fig. 12. Byincreasing the number of layers the static torsioncapacity for the hybrid aluminium/compositeshaft can be enhanced. This figure also shows

that the carbon fibre composite can withstandmuch more torque compared to glass fibre in allcircumstances.

7.2 Failure modes

Observation of the failure of hybrid aluminium/composite specimens in torsion has shown differenttypes of failure – aluminium tube buckling andcrack, fibre breakage matrix cracking, and delamina-tion between the composite layers. From this test, itwas found that the aluminium tube yielded first,followed by crack propagation in the compositealong the fibre direction. This eventually causeddelamination between the composite layers, andthen the white regions appear in the compositelayers, especially in the glass fibre/epoxy composite.Finally, fibre breakage and a catastrophic failuretook place as shown in Fig. 13. A cross-sectionalong the gauge length of hybrid specimens forcarbon and glass/epoxy composite are shown inFigs 14 and 15, respectively. It is clear that thealuminium tube yields first and the lobe of bucklingis initiated gradually until sudden failure. During the

Fig. 11 Static torque–twist angle comparisons between carbon and glass fibre/epoxy composite

Fig. 12 Static torsion capacities for different winding

angles and number of layers





initiation of the lobe of buckling, the crack initiatedin the region free from fibre and also delaminationbetween the composite layers took place. Finallythe fibre breaks.

7.3 Power transmission results

The comparisons between the static and dynamictorque capacities for a hybrid aluminium/compositehybrid shaft are shown in Table 7. Different windingangles, numbers of layers, and stacking sequences

were used. The results show that the carbon fibrecomposite gives more strength in both static anddynamic tests. As can be seen, the percentagebetween the static and dynamic torque is �7–15 percent for the carbon fibre composite. Also, it can beseen that there is some inconsistency in the resultsbetween the dynamic and static tests because thereis some vibration in the dynamic test, which maycause precrack in the specimens and which wouldaffect the results. In addition, there may be someerrors in the fabrication of specimens.

Fig. 13 Failure mode of a hybrid shaft in static torsion test

Fig. 15 Cross-section along the gauge length of

aluminium tube wound outside by glass

fibre/epoxy composite

Fig. 14 Cross-section along the gauge length of

aluminium tube wound outside by carbon

fibre/epoxy composite





Table 8 shows that the maximum power could betransmitted by the hybrid shaft compared to the alu-minium tube. The power of aluminium tube woundoutside by four layers [+45]2 of carbon fibre is

about nine times more than the pure aluminiumtube. Figure 16 shows different location of failurealong gauge length of the hybrid specimens forboth glass and carbon fibres.

8 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE EXPERIMENTALAND FE RESULTS

The torque–angle of twist relation comparison forthe aluminium tube wound externally by twolayers of composite material at winding angle of458 is shown in Fig. 17. The trends shown by theresults of the experiment and FEA are similar.The FE model has lower angle of twist than theexperimental drive shaft for same torque. At thefailure point, the maximum torsion capacities for

Table 8 Power transmission capacity

Power transmission (W)

Laminates sequence Glass fibre Carbon fibre

[90/90] 132.57 161.13[90/90]4 198.86 388.60[þ45/245] 142.00 216.76[þ45/245]2 298.44 464.31[90/þ45/245/90] 276.45 408.40[þ45/245/90/90] 279.59 411.54

Aluminium tube52.2

Fig. 16 Failure mode shapes of a hybrid specimen in power transmission test (a) Carbon fibre

and (b) Glass fibre

Table 7 Comparisons between the static and dynamic torque for a hybrid specimen

Laminates sequence

Static torque (N m) Dynamic torque (N m) Percentage %

Glass fibre Carbon fibre Glass fibre Carbon fibre Glass fibre Carbon fibre

[90/90] 49.60 60.00 42.20 51.29 14.92 14.52[90/90]4 83.00 133.00 63.30 123.70 23.73 6.99[þ45/245] 51.00 74.60 45.20 69.00 11.37 7.51[þ45/245]2 126.20 157.90 95.00 147.80 24.72 6.40[90/þ 45/245/90] 106.00 145.00 88.00 130.00 16.98 10.34[þ45/245/90/90] 100.00 142.00 89.00 131.00 11.00 7.75





carbon fibre are 74.32 and 86.5 Nm in the exper-iment and by FEA, respectively, and for glassfibre it is 50.9 and 67 Nm respectively. Thesedifferences occur because in FEA, it is assumedthat the hybrid aluminium/composite drive shaftis homogenous in terms of dimensions, properties,and winding pattern. Whereas in the experimentaltest, homogeneity is never exactly the samethroughout the positions in each hybrid shaft.Figure 18 shows the torque–angle of twist relationcomparison for an aluminium tube wound exter-nally by [þ45/245]2 laminate. The results obtainedfrom FEA and the experiment show the sametrends. At failure point the maximum torques forcarbon fibre is 157.52 and 195 Nm, whereas forglass fibre it is 126.2 and 137.2 in the experimentand by FEA, respectively. Figure 19 shows thetorque–angle of twist diagram comparison for an

aluminium tube wound externally by [þ45/245]3laminate. Again the results are very similar. Atthe point of failure, the maximum torsioncapacities for carbon fibre is 273.2 and 295 Nmand for glass fibre 173.5 and 188 Nm in the exper-imental test and by FEA, respectively. These differ-ences are attributed to the fact that in FEA, thehybrid aluminium is assumed perfect in terms ofdimensions and properties. Comparison of maxi-mum torsion capacities between the experimentand FEA for an aluminium tube wound externallyby glass fibre at different winding angles and anumber of layers is shown in Fig. 20. It shouldbe noted that the differences of torsion capacityare from 10 to 19 per cent. For an aluminiumtube wound externally by glass fibre at 458 in a

Fig. 18 Torque–angle of twist comparison

for aluminium tube wound externally by

[þ45/245]2 laminate at different composite

materials



[þ45/245]3 laminate at different composite

materials

Fig. 20 Comparison of torsion capacities comparison

between experimental and FEA for

aluminium tube wound by glass fibre/epoxy

composite



[þ45/245] laminate at different composite

materials





different number of layers, the percentage differ-ences between the experimental and FEA resultsare from 4 to 20 per cent. Comparisons similarto those for glass fibre were drawn for an alu-minium tube wound externally by carbon fibre.Figure 21 shows the comparison between theexperiment and FEA results for an aluminiumtube wound externally by carbon fibre for a differ-ent number of layers at 908 and 458, respectively.The percentage differences of 9–22 per cent andfrom 7–20 per cent for 908 and 458 windingangles respectively, are observed.

9 CONCLUSIONS

Static torsion and power transmission capacitiestests were carried out for a hybrid aluminium/composite drive shaft. Four cases with differentcomposite materials, stacking sequences, and anumber of layers were studied. The conclusionsobtained in this study are summarized as follows.

1. Increasing the number of layers can increase thestatic torque and power transmission capacitiesof the hybrid shaft for both carbon and glassfibre composite materials.

2. A hybrid aluminium/composite wound with 458layers can withstand higher static torsion andpower transmission compared to 908.

3. The power transmission capacity of the alu-minium tube wound outside by [þ45/245]2 and[þ45/245]3 carbon fibre is �9 and 14 timeshigher than the pure aluminium tube.

4. The shaft being laminated with a stackingsequence of [90/þ45/245/90] and [þ45/245/90/90] gave the same torque–angle of twist

relation, and this in turn satisfied the laminationtheory.

5. The aluminium tube yielded first at the centralregion of the shaft, followed by crack propagationin the composite shaft along the fibre direction,which eventually caused the delamination of thecomposite layers from the aluminium tube.Finally, the fibre broke and a catastrophic failuretook place. On the other hand, different locationsof catastrophic failure along the gauge length ofhybrid specimens were observed.

6. A FE study was carried out using ANSYS softwareto predict the static torsion capacity includingthe elasto-plastic properties or the aluminiumtube and linear elastic properties of compositematerials. The comparisons between the exper-imental and predicted results carried out usingANSYS software showed good agreement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to express their gratitude andsincere appreciation to the Ministry of Science,Technology and Innovations, Malaysia (MOSTI,Project No. 09-02-04-0824-EA001) for financialsupport, and the Department of Mechanical andManufacturing Engineering, University PutraMalaysia for their support of the project.

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APPENDIX

Notation

Aij extension stiffness matrixBij coupled stiffness matrixCLT classical laminate theoryEm Young’s modulus of matrixE11 longitudinal Young’s modulusEr effective longitudinal Young’s modulusE22 transverse Young’s modulusEu effective transverse Young’s modulusG12 in plane shear modulus (in the 1–2 planes)Gru in plane shear modulus (in the r–u planes)P power transmission by the hybrid

specimenr radius of the diskR reaction force between the disk and friction

padT torquevf volume fraction of fibrevm volume fraction of matrixX L longitudinal strengthX T transverse strength

u fibre orientation angle relative to globalcoordinate axis

m coefficient of frictionnf major Poisson’s ratio of fibrenm major Poisson’s ratio of matrixto shear strengthf angle of twistv speed of the hybrid specimen





static and dynamic characteristics of a hybrid aluminium composite drive shaft

Documents

hybrid shaft

static torque

static torsion test

power transmission test

dynamic characteristics

dynamic torque capacity

winding angle

carbon bres