Optimal design and experimental investigation of teeth connection joint on a filament wound composite transmission shaft

Abstract

Abstract For limited weight reduction and avoidance of composite damage caused by the press mounting of the traditional metal teeth press-fit joint, a novel teeth connection joint technique of the fiber wound composite transmission shaft was investigated by theoretical analysis, finite element simulation, and experiment verification. Based on the mechanics of composite materials, the expressions of equilibrium torsional stiffness and static torsional strength were derived. According to the three-dimensional Chang-Chang failure criterion, its finite element model of progressive damage analysis was established through the user material subroutine. Applying the fast curing resin system, a typical sample of the structure was prepared through co-curing for the static torsional strength test, and its failure details of the fracture surface were observed by using a scanning electron microscope, which confirmed the validity of theoretical and numerical results. Based on this, the influence of the ply method and geometric characteristics on the failure strength was studied, and the optimal design of the joint was realized by the genetic algorithm. Compared with the press-fit joint, this structure reduces weight by 70 % under the same joint strength, which provides a new way for the connection of the composite transmission shaft.