Design of Shaft

A shaft is a rotating member usually of circular crosssection (solid or hollow), which is used to transmit power and rotational motion. Axles are non rotating member. Elements such as gears, pulleys (sheaves), flywheels, clutches, and sprockets are mounted on the shaft and are used to transmit power from the driving device (motor or engine) through a machine. The rotational force (torque) is transmitted to these elements on the shaft by press fit, keys, dowel, pins and splines. The shaft rotates on rolling contact or bush bearings. Various types of retaining rings, thrust bearings, grooves and steps in the shaft are used to take up axial loads and locate the rotating elements.

Automobile manual transmission

Worm gear box

Reduces speed, increases torque output. Power = F.v (force x velocity) For rotational power Power P = Torque x angular velocity P = T. ( in rad/sec) = 2 n/60 (n is rpm) T= 63,025HP/n (in-lb) T= 9,550,000kW/n (N-mm)

Other shaft examples

Bevel gear box: changes rotational axis

Lawn mower drive: Belt pulley

Bearing mounting considerations and stress concentration

Conventional retaining (or snap) rings fit in grooves and take axial load, but groves cause stress concentration in shaft
Retaining rings are standardized items, available in various standard sizes with various axial load capacities.

Push type retaining rings no grooves required, less stress concentration, but less axial support

Various types of keys for transmitting torque

Other common types of keys

Various types of collar pins

Splines in hubs and shafts allow axial motion and transmits torque

All keys, pins and splines give rise to stress concentration in the hub and shaft

Loads on shaft: Shaft loaded in only torsion: torsion may have a steady (Tav) and a cyclic (Tr) component.

Loads on shaft due to gears

From power and rpm find the torque (T), which gives rise to shear stress. From Torque (T) and diameter (d), find Ft = 2T/d. From F t and pressure angles of gears you can find F r and Fa. Fr and Ft are orthogonal to each other and are both transverse forces to the shaft axis, which will give rise to normal bending stress in the shaft. When shaft rotates, bending stress changes from tensile to compressive and then compressive to tensile, ie, completely reversing state of stress. Fa will give rise to normal axial stress in the shaft.

Loads on shaft due to pulleys and fly-wheels

Pulley torque (T) = Difference in belt tensions in the tight (t1) and slack (t2) sides of a pulley times the radius (r), ie T = (t1-t2)xr Left pulley torque T1 = (7200-2700)x380=1,710,000 N-mm Right pulley has exactly equal and opposite torque: T2 = (6750-2250)x380=1,710,000 N-mm Bending forces: Left pulley: F V1=900N; FH1=7200+2700 = 9900N Right pulley: F V2=900+6750+2250=9900N; FH2=0
FV2

Bending moment and torque diagrams for the pulley flywheel system 9900N
T1
1,710,000 N-mm Torque diag.

T2
2,227,500 MH

FH

900N

9900N

From Horizontal forces (FH) and vertical forces (Fv), Bending moments MH & MV are drawn seperately. Then the resultant moments at various points on the shaft can be found from
911,250

FV M

2,227,500

MR = M + M
2 H

2 V
2 2 M R = M H + MV

The section containing the left pulley has obviously the highest combination of Torque (1,710,000 N-mm) and Bending moment (2,406,685 N-mm)

2,227,500 2,406,685 Resultant bending moment

Design of shaft
Axial dimensions are often fixed from the layout of the mechanism. Design recommendation is to keep the axial lengths as short as possible to limit bending stress. Simply supported shaft is better than cantilever or overhang shaft. Shaft design is to determine the diameter of the shaft such that it withstand the applied loads, after stress concentrations, with a known factor of safety.

Design of shaft (continued)

Shear () and bending () stresses on the outer surface of a shaft, for a torque (T) and bending moment (M)
=
For solid circular section: = For hollow circular section:

T T d 16T r= = 4 J ( d / 32) 2 d 3

M M d 32 M r= = I ( d 4 / 64) 2 d 3

do T T 16T 16T r= = do = 4 3 J ( ( d 0 d i4 ) / 32) 2 ( d 04 d i4 ) d 0 (1 4 ) do M M 32M 32 M r= = do = 4 3 I ( ( d 04 d i4 ) / 64) 2 ( d 0 d i4 ) d 0 (1 4 )

where, =

di do di do

where, =

Principal Normal Stresses and Max Distortion Energy Failure criterion for non-rotating shafts
The stress at a point on the shaft is normal stress () in X direction and shear stress () in XY plane. From Mohr Circle:

S1 = + + 2 and S 2 = + 2 2 2 2 2 Max Distortion Energy theory:

2 2

S yp S + S S1S 2 N fs
2 1 2 2

Putting values of S1 & S2 and simplifying:

S yp + 3 N fs
2 2

This is the design equation for non rotating shaft

Design of rotating shafts and fatigue consideration

The most frequently encountered stress situation for a rotating shaft is to have completely reversed bending and steady torsional stress. In other situations, a shaft may have a reversed torsional stress along with reversed bending stress. The most generalized situation the rotating shaft may have both steady and cyclic components of bending stress (av,r) and torsional stress (av,r). From Soderbergs fatigue criterion, the equivalent static bending and torsional stresses are: Using these equivalent static stresses in our static design equation, the equation for rotating shaft is: