Shaft
Shaft is a common and important machine element. It is a rotating member, in
general,
has a circular cross-section and is used to transmit power. The shaft may be
hollow or solid. The shaft is supported on bearings and it rotates a set of gears or
pulleys for the purpose of power transmission. The shaft is generally acted upon
by bending moment, torsion and axial force. Design of shaft primarily involves in
determining stresses at critical point in the shaft that is arising due to
aforementioned loading. Other two similar forms of a shaft are axle and spindle.
Axle is a non-rotating member used for supporting rotating wheels etc. and do
not transmit any torque. Spindle is simply defined as a short shaft. However,
design method remains the same for axle and spindle as that for a shaft.