In this paper a two-piece steel drive shaft was
considered to be replaced by a one-piece
composite drive shaft. Its design procedure was
studied and along with finite element analysis
some important parameter were obtained. The
composite drive shaft made of high modulus
carbon/epoxy multilayered composites has been
designed. Modal analysis was conducted to obtain
natural frequencies of the composite shaft. The
effect of changing the carbon fiber orientation
angle on natural frequency was also studied. The
replacement of composite materials has resulted in
considerable amount of weight reduction about
72% when compared to conventional steel shaft.
Also, the results showed that the orientation of
fibers has great influence on the dynamic
characteristics of the composite shafts.