Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

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Materials and Design

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Technical Report

Developing a hybrid, carbon/glass ber-reinforced,

epoxy composite automotive drive shaft
A.R. Abu Talib a, Aidy Ali b,*, Mohamed A. Badie a, Nur Azida Che Lah b, A.F. Golestaneh b
a
b

Department of Aerospace Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 April 2009
Accepted 10 June 2009
Available online 14 June 2009

a b s t r a c t
In this study, a nite element analysis was used to design composite drive shafts incorporating carbon
and glass bers within an epoxy matrix. A conguration of one layer of carbonepoxy and three layers
of glassepoxy with 0, 45 and 90 was used. The developed layers of structure consists of four layers
stacked as 45glass =45glass =0carbon =90glass . The results show that, in changing carbon bers winding angle
from 0 to 90, the loss in the natural frequency of the shaft is 44.5%, while, shifting from the best to the
worst stacking sequence, the drive shaft causes a loss of 46.07% in its buckling strength, which represents
the major concern over shear strength in drive shaft design.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Drive shafts for power transmission are used in many applications, including cooling towers, pumping sets, aerospace, structures, and automobiles. In metallic shaft design, knowing the
torque and the allowable service shear stress for the material allows the size of the shafts cross-section to be determined. In order
to satisfy the design parameter of torque divided by the allowable
shear stress [1], there is unique value for the shafts inner radius
because the outer radius is constrained by the space under the
car cabin. Metallic drive shafts have limitations of weight, low critical speed and vibration characteristics.
Composite drive shafts have proven that they can solve many
automotive and industrial problems that accompany the usage of
the conventional metal ones. Numerous solutions, such as ywheels, harmonic dampers, vibration shock absorbers, multiple
shafts with bearings and couplings, and heavy associated hardware, have shown limited success in overcoming the problems [2].
When the length of a steel drive shaft is beyond 1500 mm [3], it
is manufactured in two pieces to increase the fundamental natural
frequency, which is inversely proportional to the square of the
length and proportional to the square root of the specic modulus.
The nature of composites, with their higher specic elastic modulus (modulus to density ratio), which in carbon/epoxy exceeds four
times that of aluminium, enables the replacement of the two-piece
metal shaft with a single component composite shaft which resonates at a higher rotational speed, and ultimately maintains a higher margin of safety. A composite drive shaft offers excellent
vibration damping, cabin comfort, reduction of wear on drive train
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 17 249 6293; fax: +60 38 656 7122.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Ali).
0261-3069/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2009.06.015

components and increased tire traction. In addition, the use of single torque tubes reduces assembly time, inventory cost, maintenance, and part complexity. The rst application of composite
drive shafts to automobiles was developed by Spicer U-joint divisions of the Dana Corporation for the Ford Econoline van models
in 1985 [3].
Polymer matrix composites such as carbon/epoxy or glass/
epoxy offer better fatigue characteristics because micro cracks in
the resin do not freely propagate as in metals, but terminate at
the bers. Generally, composites are less susceptible to the effects
of stress concentration, such as are caused by notches and holes,
compared with metals [4]. The lament winding process is used
in the fabrication of composite drive shafts. In this process, ber
tows wetted with liquid resin are wound over a rotating male
cylindrical mandrel. In this technique, the winding angle, ber tension, and resin content can be varied. Filament winding is relatively
inexpensive, repetitive and accurate in ber placement [5].
An efcient design of composite drive shaft could be achieved
by selecting the proper variables, which are specied to minimize
the chance of failure and to meet the performance requirements.
As the length and outer radius of drive shafts in automotive applications are limited due to spacing, the design variables include the
inside radius, layers thickness, number of layers, ber orientation
angle and layer stacking sequence. In the optimal design of the
drive shaft, these variables are constrained by the lateral natural
frequency, torsional vibration, torsional strength and torsional
buckling of the shaft. In this study, another constraint is added that
relates to torsional fatigue and selection of the stacking sequence.
The ability to tailor the elastic constants in composites provides
numerous alternatives for the variables to meet the desired
stability and strength of the structure. At rst, the bers are
selected to provide the best stiffness and strength, together with

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A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

Nomenclature
[A]
A66
E
Eh
Ex
G
g
I
Im
J
K
L
[N]
Q1j
r

stiffness matrix
shear stiffness component
modulus of elasticity
average modulus in the hoop direction
average modulus in the axial direction
modulus of rigidity
acceleration due to gravity
second moment of inertia
mass moment of inertia
polar moment of inertia
torsional spring rate
length
force matrix
reduced stiffness coefcient
radius

ey
/

cxy
g
h

sl
t
nTe

their cost. Indeed, it is the best choice to use carbon bers in all
layers to achieve desired stability. However, due to the cost constraint, a hybrid of layers of carbonepoxy and E-glassepoxy
was introduced. It is evident that the ber orientation angle dictates the maximum bending stiffness, in turn leading to the maximum natural frequency in bending. In this design, the bers were
arranged longitudinally at the zero angle with respect to the shaft
axis. On the other hand, the angle of 45 was used to obtain the
maximum shear strength, while 90 was the best for buckling
strength. The main goal was to achieve the minimum weight while
adjusting the parameters in order to meet a sufcient margin of
safety. The safety criteria specify that a critical speed (natural frequency) must be higher than the operating speed, a critical torque
must be higher than the ultimate transmitted torque and a nominal stress (the maximum at ber direction) must be less than the
allowable stress after applying the failure criteria.
In the shaft design, the shear strength could be increased by
increasing the diameter of the shaft. However, the crucial parameter to consider was the buckling strength. The variable of the laminate thickness has a big effect on the buckling strength and slight
effect on the natural frequency in bending. A discrete variable optimization algorithm could be employed for optimization of layer
thickness and orientation. Vijayarangan et al. [6] used a Genetic
Algorithm, and Rastogi [3] used GENESIS/I-DEAS optimizers for
the optimization of variables in the design of a drive shaft for automotive applications. In other work, Darlow and Creonte [7] employed the general-purpose package, OPT (version 3.2), in
optimizing the lay-up of a graphiteepoxy composite drive shaft
for a helicopter tail rotor.

2. Design procedure

Q 12

E1

1  t12 t21
t12 E2

;
1  t12 t21

Q 22

where E is modulus of elasticity, G is modulus of rigidity and t is

Poissons ratio.
The next step is to construct the extensional stiffness matrix [A].
This matrix is the summation of the products of the transformed
reduced stiffness matrix Q  of each layer and the respective thicknesses, represented as:

A

N
X
Q K zK  zK1 :

K1

The matrix, [A], is in (Pa  m), and the thickness of each ply is calculated in reference to their coordinate location in the laminate. The A
matrix is used to calculate Ex and Eh, which are the average moduli
in the axial and hoop directions, respectively:

"
#
1
A212
;
Ex
A11 
t
A22

"
#
1
A212
Eh
:
A22 
t
A11

2.1. Buckling torque

Since the drive shaft is considerably long, thin and hollow, there
is a possibility that it may buckle. The expression of the critical
buckling torque for thin-walled orthotropic tubes [9] is given as:

T cr 2pr 2 t0:272Ex E3h 1=4

 3=2
t
:
r

Here, r is the mean radius and t is the total thickness. It is obvious

that the stiffness modulus in hoop direction (Eh) plays most substantial role in increasing the buckling resistance. The safety factor
is dened as the ratio of the buckling torque to the ultimate torque.
2.2. Literal bending natural frequency

The material properties of the drive shaft were analyzed with

classical lamination theory. The theory treats with the linear elastic
response of laminated composite under plane stress, and it incorporates the Kirchhoff-Love assumption for bending and stretching
of thin plates [8]. From the properties of the composite materials at
given ber angles, the reduced stiffness matrix can be constructed.
The expressions for the reduced stiffness coefcients (Q1j), in terms
of standard material constants, are as follows:

Q 11

outer radius
inner radius
mean radius
torque
failure torque
thickness.
weight per unit length
strain in y direction
angle of twist
shear stress
coefcient of mutual inuence
carbon bers orientation angle
in-plane shear strength of the laminate
Poissons ratio
torque coupling coefcient

r0
ri
rm
T
Ts
t
W

E2

The drive shaft is designed to have a critical speed of 60 times

larger than the natural frequency of the rotational speed. If these
become coincident, a large amplitude vibration (whirling) will occur. The drive shaft is idealized as either a simply-supported or a
pinnedpinned beam. The lowest natural frequency expression
[10,11] is given as:

fn
;

1  t12 t21
E2
and t21 t12 ;
E1

Q 66 G12 ;
1

p gEx I
2

WL4

where g is the acceleration due to gravity, W is the weight per unit

length, L is the shaft length and I is the second moment of inertia
given, for a thin-walled tube, as:

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Ix

A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

p
4

r40  r4i  pr 3 t:

Here, r0 is an outer radius, and ri is an inner radius.

2.3. Load carrying capacity
The composite drive shaft is designed to carry the torque without failing. The torsional strength, the torque at which the shaft
will fail, is directly related to the laminate shear strength through:

T s 2pr 2m t sl :

Here, Ts is the failure torque, sl is the in-plane shear strength of the

laminate, rm is the mean radius and t is the thickness. The same formula is used in the laboratory after a torsion tube test to determine
the shear modulus and shear strength of materials. Since the laminate is assumed to have failed according to the rst ply failure convention, the maximum-stress failure criterion could be used after
nding the in-plane stresses at every ply to specify the safety factor
for torque transmission capacity. Again, the rst steps are to construct the transverse of the extensional stiffness matrix [A] and then
solve for the overall strains. Once complete, the stresses in each
layer can be examined by transforming these stresses into the

Z
X

Fig. 1. The rst bending mode as a function of natural frequency.

Table 1
Material properties [12].
Material

E11 (GPa)

E22 (GPa)

E12 (GPa)

Ultimate strength (MPa)

Weight density (kg/m2)

E-glassepoxy
Carbonepoxy

40.3
126.9

6.21
11.0

3.07
6.6

827
1170

1910
1610

Fig. 2. Set of the rst six modes as a function of natural frequency along with their corresponding frequency values.

A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

direction of bers at each layer. The layers of ber direction 45 are

of special concern since they have a substantial contribution to the
load carrying capacity. The A1 matrix, multiplied by the laminate
thickness and the resultant forces matrix, N, gives the resultant
strain as follows:

9
9
8
8
>
>
=
=
< Nx >
< 0 >
0 ;
A1
feg A1 Ny
>
>
>
>
;
;
:
:
Nxy
Nxy

N xy

T
:
2pr 2

Here, the axial force is Nx = 0, the centrifugal force, Ny, is neglected

and Nxy is the resultant shear force. The torque, T, is the peak torque
if the design involves fatigue considerations [12]. The resultant
strains are transformed to the ber direction by multiplying these
strain matrices by the transformation matrix. From this, the plane
stress transformations can be obtained.

8
>
<

38

9 8

e1 >
m2
n2
mn
>
> r1 >
=
= <
=
< ex >
6
7
2
e2 4 n
r2
m2
mn 5 eh
>
> >
>
>
>
:
:
c12 ;
cxh ; : s12 ;
2mn 2mn m2  n2
9
2
38
Q 11 Q 12
0 >
=
< e1 >
6
7
4 Q 21 Q 22
0 5 e2
>
>
:
c12 ;
0
0 Q 33

2.4. Torsional frequency

517

accounting for varying thicknesses and supporting the denition

of anisotropic and composite material properties. Since it is quadrilateral, it uses an assumed strain eld to dene transverse shear,
which ensures that the element does not lock when it is thin. Such
elements can accommodate a broader range of curved geometries
than other element types can [14]. A cylindrical local coordinate
system was dened in order to align the material axis of the layup, and to apply xities and load cases.
Eigenvalue linear buckling analysis was performed to dene the
critical buckling torque. The output from this analysis is a factor
that is multiplied by the applied load to determine the critical
buckling load. The linear analysis is considered satisfactory in comparison with nonlinear analysis due to the fact that cylindrical
shells under torsion are less sensitive to imperfections [15]. In this
study, the position of the buckling region along the axial length of
the shaft was detected as being shifted towards the end of the shaft
when a nonlinear analysis was performed. Modal analysis is a technique used to analyze structures dominated by global displacement, such as in vibration problems. It was used to dene the
natural frequency of the drive shaft. The Eigenvectors resulting
from the Eigenvalue analysis are the modes of the buckling deformation and the natural frequency in bending, as presented in Figs.
1 and 6.
A composite drive shaft design example, presented by Swanson
[12], was taken as a reference model for all analyzes. In this example, a shaft of length 1730 mm, mean radius 50.8 mm and consist-

The torsional frequency is another parameter and is directly related to the torsional stiffness (T/u), where u is the angle of twist
and T is the applied torque. The frequency of torsional vibration
can be presented as:

1
ft
2p

s
K
;
Im

10

where K is the torsional spring rate, and is equal to the torsional

stiffness, and Im is the mass moment of inertia at propeller. For a given geometry in a specic drive shaft, the torsional stiffness is directly related to the modulus of rigidity (Gxy) as follows [2]:

T Gxy J

;
/
L

11

where J is the polar moment of inertia and L is the length. The shear
modulus can be tailored to its maximum value by orienting the bers at an angle equal to 45. In some applications, like racing cars,
less torsional stiffness is required [2]. The shear modulus can be directly obtained from the extensional stiffness matrix [A], by dividing the shear stiffness component, A66, by the total thickness of
the drive shaft as follows:

Gxy

A66
:
t

Fig. 3. The effect of ber orientation angle on the natural frequency as determined
by changing the rst two 45 layers angles.

12

A practical application of torsional vibration systems is in engines.

These engines have damping (source of energy dissipation) in the
crankshafts (hysteresis damping), and damping in torsional vibration (in propellers). Since the damping present is normally small
in magnitude, it can be neglected when determining the natural frequency [13].

3. Finite element analysis of drive shaft

Finite element models of the drive shaft were generated and
analyzed using LUSAS (version 13.5-7) commercial software. A
three-dimensional model was developed and meshed with threedimensional thick-shell elements (QTS8). This degenerate continuum element is capable of modeling warped congurations,

Fig. 4. The effect on natural frequency of changing the carbon ber orientation
angle in a hybrid drive shaft of stacking 45glass =  45glass =0carbon =90glass .

518

A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

ing of three layers of (45, 90) glassepoxy and 0 carbonepoxy

layer was used. The ultimate torque was 2030 Nm and the minimum natural frequency in bending is 90 Hz. The material properties are listed in Table 1.
4. Specimens fabrication
Four layers of carbon/epoxy, glass/epoxy and a hybrid of both
were wrapped around aluminium tubes of length equal to
216 mm and outside diameter equal to 12.7 mm. For easily removing the aluminium tubes, thin lm of oil was formed then a thin
plastic sheet wrapped around. The epoxy impregnated carbon
and glass fabrics had been wrapped with plastic sheet at outside
surface for the purpose of producing smooth surface. These tubes
are removed after curing under room temperature. The ends of
the specimens were reinforced by the winding of carbon or glass
bers tows used in lament winding. The stacking of these specimens is as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

[45]4 All layers are of glass/epoxy.

[45]4 All layers are of carbon/epoxy.
[90]4 All layers are of glass/epoxy.
[90]4 All layers are of carbon/epoxy.
[(45)2 glass/(90)2 carbon].
[(45)2 carbon/(90)2 glass].

Woven roving Fabric bers used in both [0/90] and [45] lay-up.
The thicknesses of the composites were measured to be: Carbon/
epoxy layer thickness = 0.35 mm and glass/epoxy layer thickness =
0.37 mm.

frequency, it is not a good selection when an optimization with

other parameters, such as buckling resistance and fatigue strength,
is made.
From Fig. 4, the drive shaft loses 44.5% of its natural frequency
when the carbon bers are oriented in the hoop direction at 90 instead of 0. The cost factor plays a role in selecting only one layer of
carbon/epoxy.
The analysis was conducted on comparatively thin composite
tubes, and shows that the behavior of the thinner tube is different.
Specically, the critical speed and the natural frequency did not increase as the orientation angle approached the value of zero. As
seen in Fig. 5, three models of the same material (carbon/epoxy)
and different thicknesses were constructed. It was found that the
critical speeds for all models were the same when the bers of
all layers were oriented at 3890. The ber angle of 38, or 37,
as mentioned in the literature (Herakovich, 1998) imparts special
properties, since, at this angle, unidirectional off-axis tubes under
pure torque loading exhibit the maximum coupling between shear
strain and axial strain. The axial strain reaches as much as 50% of
the shear strain. However, from this gure, it is clear that, for the
tubes of smaller thickness, the membrane stress plays an effective
role in the lateral stiffness of the tube. At 38, the torque coupling
coefcient (nTe) is at the maximum, and hence the axial strain is at
the maximum. This directly leads to the highest bending stiffness,
implying a higher natural frequency. The stacking sequence has no
effect on the natural frequency because the matrix form of the
equation of dynamic equilibrium for an elastic body only contain
stiffness and mass matrices when no damping and external forces
are applied. The mass matrix is a function of the total density and
the absence of loads make the stacking sequence irrelevant.
5.2. Effect of ber orientation angle on buckling torque

5. Results and discussion

The vibration problem is described by a set of equations, and

there is a natural vibration mode for every equation that can be extracted by using an eigenvalue extraction analysis. The displacement behavior dominating any structure subject to vibration is
global; therefore, modal analysis is utilized in these types of problems. In modal analysis, the model of the drive shaft does not need
a ne mesh because the stress output is not required. Additionally,
there is no requirement to input an applied load, because the natural frequency is only a function of mass and stiffness.
The ends of the drive shaft model were modeled as simply-supported, and the boundary condition was varied until the value of
the natural frequency became nearly coincident with that presented by a reliable example. It was recognized that the end support conditions must also be applied to the edges of the drive
shaft. For simplicity, the contact area between the shaft tube and
the yoke joint, as well as the join itself, were not considered in
the calculations of the natural frequency.
In any structural design with vibration concerns, only the rst
mode is of concern for engineering applications. Fig. 1 presents
the shape of the rst bending mode based on natural frequency.
Fig. 2 shows a set of the rst six natural frequencies in bending.
The drive shaft specied in the previous section was used to
investigate the effect of ber orientation angle on the natural frequency. This structure consists of four layers stacked as
45glass =  45glass =0carbon =90glass . From Figs. 3 and 4, it is clear that
the bers must be oriented at zero degrees to increase the natural
frequency by increasing the modulus of elasticity in the longitudinal direction of the shaft. This explains why the carbon bers, with
their high modulus were oriented at the zero angle. In Fig. 3, despite the conguration [0, 0, 90, 0] resulting in the highest natural

A linear eigenvalue buckling analysis was conducted to estimate the maximum torque that can be supported prior to losing
stability. In this analysis, the specied load must be closer to the
collapse load in order to obtain accurate results. The output from
the analysis is a factor that can be multiplied by the actual magnitude of the applied load in order to obtain an estimate of the critical torque. Fig. 6 presents the contour of maximum shear stress,
and the deformed shape after linear eigenvalue analysis.
From the contour of maximum shear stress, it can be observed
that higher shear stress accumulated at the two bands that heli-

7000.00

glass ( 0.762)
carbon (0.3022)
carbon (0.532)
carbon (0.762)

6000.00

Critical Spead (r.p.m)

5.1. Effect of ber orientation angle on natural frequency

5000.00
4000.00
3000.00
2000.00
1000.00

0.00
0

10

21

30

38

50

60

70

80

90

Fiber Orientation Angle (deg)

Fig. 5. Comparisons between the critical speeds of composite tubes having four
layers and stacking of [h]4 (glass and carbon are abbreviations of glass/epoxy and
carbon/epoxy, respectively, and parentheses indicate thickness in millimeters).

519

A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

Fig. 6. First buckling mode shape, and the corresponding contour of maximum shear stress.

1 [ , 0, 90 ]

3 [ 45,45,0, ]

2 [ 45, 45, ]

4 [ 45, 45, ,90]

3000
2500

Buckling Torque (N.m)

cally wrapped the cylindrical tube at 45. The tubes buckled when
they lost their stability, and the circular cross-sections became
ovoid.
The best ber orientation angle for maximum buckling strength
is 90. At this angle, the bers are oriented in the hoop direction,
thereby increasing the hoop modulus (Eh). Fig. 7 presents the effect
on buckling torque of changing the ber orientation angles with
only two glass/epoxy layers.
As shown in Fig. 8, there is little dependence of the buckling torque on the ber orientation. It can be observed that, by changing
the angles of the 3rd or the 4th layer, the critical buckling torque
of the drive shaft is not substantially affected by the ber orientation angles. This is attributed to the fact that the modulus, Ex, has
its maximum value at the zero degree ber orientation angle,

2000

1500
1000

500

Critical Buckling Torque (N.m)

3200

y = 0.00x - 0.01x + 0.79x - 7.24x + 1784.11

R = 1.00

2700

10

20 30 40 50 60 70
Fiber Orientation Angle (Deg.)

80

90

Fig. 8. Effect of ber orientation angle on the buckling torque of a drive shaft having
stacking of 45glass =0carbon =90glass .

2200

1700
Table 2
Five selected laminates with different stacking sequences and their corresponding
stiffness component D22 (the bulking strength descending from top to bottom).

1200

700

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
Fiber Orientation Angle (Deg.)

Fig. 7. Effect of ber orientation angle on buckling torque by changing the rst two
layers of a hglass =0carbon =90glass  stack.

Layers stacking sequence

D22 (Pa m3)

[45,45,0,90]
[0,45,45,90]
[0,45,90,45]
[45,45,90,0]
[0,90,45,45]

58.8
55.4
42.9
36.31
36.23

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A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

Buckling Torque (Nm)

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

[4

5,

[9 4 5,
0, 0,
0, 90
[ 9 45 ]
0, ,
0 [9 ,-4 45]
0, 5
4 ,
[0 5, 45]
,4 0,
5, -4
[0 -4 5]
, -4 5
,9
[9 5 ,4 0]
0, 5,
9
[ 0 4 5 0]
,4 ,0
,
5
[ 9 ,90 45]
0, ,
45 -4
[0 , 5]
,-4 -4
5
[4 5 ,9 ,0]
5, 0
,4
[-4 4 5, 5]
5, 90
[0 45 ,0]
,9 ,9
0 0
[ 0 ,45 ,0]
,9 ,
0, -4
- 4 5]
5,
45
]

Fig. 9. Effect of stacking sequence on buckling torque.

and the modulus, Eh, has its maximum value at a 90 angle. Since
the expression of buckling torque is related to both moduli, then
the peak value for this torque is realized when the bers are oriented at 0 and 90.

[]4

Carbon-epoxy

The stacking sequence of the layers has an effect on the buckling strength. Although the [A] matrix is independent of the stacking sequence, both the [B] and [D] matrices are dependent upon it.
The drive shaft buckled when its bending stiffness along the hoop
direction could not support the applied torsion load. This normal
bending stiffness is correspondent to the component, D22, of the
bending stiffness matrix [D].
Therefore, the value of D22 species the buckling strength. Fig. 9
presents the effect of stacking sequence on the buckling strength
and it is concluded that the best case scenario stacking sequence
is [45/45/0/90], and the worst case scenario is [0/90/45/45].
Table 2 shows the correspondent D22 components for ve laminates with different stacking sequences. The best stacking offers a
buckling torque of 2303.1 Nm and the worst stacking offers a torque of 1242 Nm, with a loss in buckling resistance capability equal
to 46.07%.
5.4. Effect of coupling between the twisting moment and normal
curvature
The twisting moment resulted from a pure torque loading coupled with a normal curvature in terms of the components D16 and
D26 in the bending stiffness matrix [D]. The D16 component represents the curvature in the longitudinal direction, and as its value
increases the drive shaft tends to bend, and its natural frequency
in bending decreases. The coupling between the twisting moment
and the normal curvature in the hoop direction can be directly related to the coefcient of mutual inuence (g), which is a normalshear coupling. One form of this coupling is:

e
S
gx;xy y 26 :
cxy S66

13

Here, ey is strain in y direction and cxy is the shear stress.

This coefcient represents the radial strain resulting from a torque loading, and it may have a negative or positive value. If the
sign is positive, the diameter of the cross-section tends to decrease,

Buckling Torque (N.m)

5000
5.3. Effect of layers stacking sequence on buckling torque

- - - []2

6000

4000

Glass-epoxy

3000
2000
1000
0
0

10

20

30
40 50
60
70
Fiber Orientation Angle

80

90

Fig. 10. The effect on the buckling torque of coupling between twisting moment
and normal curvature in hoop direction.

or the curvature in the hoop direction (D26) tends to increase. Angle-ply laminates that consist of 0 and 90 angles do not experience such coupling. On the other hand, a conguration of [h2n]
has a zero coupling or zero for D16 and D26, because for every +h
there is h at the same distance from the mid-plane. However, a
laminate of the conguration [hn]S has a coupling. Here, the component D26 contributes to the buckling strength of the drive shaft.
Fig. 10 exhibits the effect of coupling on the buckling torque for
two congurations having the same value of the component of normal bending stiffness in the hoop direction, D22.
6. Conclusions
The present nite element analysis of the design variables of ber orientation and stacking sequence provide an insight into their
effects on the drive shafts critical mechanical characteristics and
fatigue resistance. A model of hybridized layers was generated
incorporating both carbonepoxy and glassepoxy. Buckling,
which dominates the failure modes, has a value does not increases
regularly with increasing the winding angle. For the worst stacking
sequence, the shaft loses 46.07% of its buckling strength compared

A.R. Abu Talib et al. / Materials and Design 31 (2010) 514521

to what it achieves with the best stacking sequence. On the other

hand, the stacking sequence has an obvious effect on the fatigue
resistance of the drive shaft.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the University Putra Malaysia
for supporting these research activities.
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