MEE342 – Principles of Mechanical

Design

Shafts
Dr. Haolin Zhu
 Shafts
• A shaft is a rotating member or stationary
member, usually of circular cross section, used
to transmit power or motion. 𝑃 = 𝑇𝜔
• Shafts may carry gears, bearings, etc.
Gear Keyway
Shaft collars
Rolling element
bearing
 Shaft elements
• Keys, snap rings, or cross pins (alternative:
friction – clamp collars):
- to secure attached elements to the shaft
• Taper pin:
- Couple elements to shafts
• Rolling-element bearings
• Gears
 Shaft design
• Stress considerations (in general):
- multi-axial loadings
- fluctuating stresses

• Deflection considerations:
- Deflection causes rapid wear of shaft bearings
- Deflection causes misalignment of gears, etc.
 Shaft Materials
• Commonly used: steel
• Cast iron is also used if the attachments are
integrally cast with the shaft
• Bronze or stainless steel is sometimes used for
marine or other corrosive environment
 General design
considerations
• The shaft length should be kept as short as
possible (to minimize deflections & stresses)
• A cantilever beam has larger deflection than a
simply supported one
• A hollow shaft has better stiffness/mass ratio
• Try to locate stress-raisers away from regions
of large bending moment if possible
 General design
considerations
• If minimizing deflection is the primary
concern, then low-carbon steel may be the
preferred material
- Stiffness is the same as high-carbon steels
- Tend to have low stresses if low deflections
 Shaft Loads
• Torsion due to the transmitted torque
• Bending (one or two plane) due to the
transverse loads at gears, sprockets, etc.
• Axial loads
Axial stresses are often much smaller in
magnitudes as compared to those for bending
and torsion, and thus could be neglected (e.g.
axial loads from helical gears and tapered roller
bearings)
Loads from Spur Gears
Loads from Helical Gears
 Possible Failure Modes
• Static yielding
• Brittle fracture
• Fatigue
• Buckling
• Excessive elastic deflection
 Shaft stresses
• When there is fluctuating bending +
fluctuating torsion (circular shafts):

• Bending:

• Torsion:
 Shaft stresses
• For rotating beams with constant transverse
loads and steady torque, bending is fully
reserved, and torsion is steady, i.e.,

𝜎𝑚 = 0

𝜏𝑎 = 0
 Fluctuating combined stress case
for fatigue analysis
• Von Mises Stresses
– Amplitude

– Mean component
 Fatigue Failure Criteria

• Use mod-Goodman, Gerber, ASME-elliptic, or

Soderberg with von-Mises stress amplitude
and von-Mises mean stress component
 Fatigue Failure Criteria
• E.g. mod-Goodman:

Solved for d for design purposes:

Check for Yielding in Shafts

OR use:
𝑆𝑦
𝑛𝑦 = ′ ′
𝜎𝑎 + 𝜎𝑚
Shaft Design 1st Iteration
• A lot of parameters depend on the diameters
of the shaft and therefore need to be
estimated during the first iteration of the
design process

𝑘𝑏 , 𝐾𝑡 , 𝐾𝑡𝑠 , 𝑞

• These must be updated in subsequent

iterations
 Estimating Stress Concentrations
• Stress analysis for shafts is highly dependent on
stress concentrations.
• Stress concentrations depend on size
specifications, which are not known the first
time through a design process.
• Standard shaft elements such as shoulders and
keys have standard proportions, making it
possible to estimate stress concentrations
factors before determining actual sizes.
Estimating Stress
Concentrations
 Shaft Deflection
• Deflection analysis at a single point of interest
requires complete geometry information for the
entire shaft.
• For this reason, a common approach is to size critical
locations for stress, then fill in reasonable size
estimates for other locations, then perform
deflection analysis.
• Deflection of the shaft, both linear and angular,
should be checked at gears and bearings.
 Deflection Considerations
• Allowable deflections at components will depend on
the component manufacturer’s specifications.
• Typical ranges are given in Table 7–2
 Shaft Deflection
• For two plane bending, the total deflection of the
beam at gear and bearings could be determined
– By determining the deflection for bending in each plane
separately;
– And calculating the resultant total deflection

• At each gear and bearing location on the shaft:

2 2
𝛿𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝛿𝑦𝑧 + 𝛿𝑥𝑧
 Shaft Deflection
• Deflection analysis could be done using
shaft software, beam software, or finite
element analysis programs

– This is acceptable for your project

 Shaft Deflection
• Deflection analysis could be done using
shaft software, beam software, or finite
element analysis programs

– This is acceptable for your project

Adjusting Diameters for Allowable
Deflections
• If any deflection is larger than allowed, since I is
proportional to d4, a new diameter can be found
from

• Similarly, for slopes,