Composite Drive Shaft Grooves for Misalignment Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drive shafts often face misalignment issues between input and output during operation, requiring enhanced flexibility, which existing designs with single tubular members and flexible diaphragms or grooves fail to adequately address.
Innovation Solution
A drive shaft with a tubular portion featuring deformations such as grooves or detents extending less than 180° around the central axis, formed from a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix material, providing axial spacing and varying groove densities to enhance flexibility and mitigate stress concentrations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single tubular member with flexible diaphragms or grooves is used, then some flexibility is provided, but the flexibility is insufficient to adequately address misalignment issues
Solution Approach 1:
The drive shaft is segmented into multiple modular sections that can independently deflect and rotate relative to each other. This segmentation allows the drive shaft to accommodate complex misalignments through cumulative angular deflections across multiple segments, providing superior flexibility compared to a single tubular member with limited diaphragms or grooves.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces multi-directional flexibility by enabling deflection in multiple dimensions. Each modular section can deflect angularly in various directions and rotate about the longitudinal axis, transforming the single-dimensional flexibility of traditional grooves into multi-dimensional adaptability that effectively addresses complex misalignment issues.
2Adaptability or versatility
If grooves extend across 360° on the shaft to provide flexibility, then flexibility is enhanced, but stress concentrations increase
Solution Approach 1:
Each modular section incorporates localized flexibility features such as grooves or bumps only in specific circumferential regions rather than extending 360° around the shaft. This local quality approach provides necessary flexibility at critical locations while maintaining structural integrity and reducing stress concentrations in other areas, optimizing the balance between flexibility and stress distribution.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix material is used, then flexibility and stress distribution are improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The drive shaft utilizes fiber-reinforced polymer matrix composite materials that combine the flexibility and stress distribution benefits of composite structures with the modular segmented design. These composite materials provide enhanced toughness, fatigue resistance, and adaptability while the modular architecture simplifies manufacturing by allowing pre-fabrication of individual sections followed by assembly, reducing overall manufacturing complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves improved flexibility and reduced stress concentrations, effectively addressing misalignment issues and enhancing the operational performance of drive shafts in applications like aerospace.
Implementation Method 1
wherein the drive shaft is formed of a fiber-reinforced polymer matrix material
Implementation Method 2
Deformations are formed from an outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical shaft portion. The deformations extend for a circumferential extent that is less than 180° about a central axis of the tubular portion
Implementation Method 3
providing axial spacing and varying groove densities to enhance flexibility and mitigate stress concentrations
Data Source
Figure 1~2C
Figure 3A~3D
Figure 4A~4D
AI summary
A drive shaft (26) has a tubular portion (31) extending between axial ends and is hollow. There are deformations on the tubular portions (31). The deformations extend for a circumferential extent that is less than 180° about a central axis of the tubular portion (31).