Design of Shaft

• A shaft is a rotating member usually of circular cross-

section (solid or hollow), which is used to transmit power
and rotational motion. Axles are non rotating member.
• Elements such as gears, pulleys (sheaves), flywheels,
clutches, and sprockets are mounted on the shaft and
are used to transmit power from the driving device
(motor or engine) through a machine.
• The rotational force (torque) is transmitted to these
elements on the shaft by press fit, keys, dowel, pins and
splines.
• The shaft rotates on rolling contact or bush bearings.
• Various types of retaining rings, thrust bearings, grooves
and steps in the shaft are used to take up axial loads
and locate the rotating elements.
Automobile manual transmission
Worm gear box
Reduces speed, increases
torque output.
Power = F.v (force x velocity)
For rotational power
Power P = Torque x angular
velocity
P = T.ω (ω in rad/sec)
ω = 2 π n/60 (n is rpm)
T= 63,025HP/n (in-lb)
T= 9,550,000kW/n (N-mm)
 Other shaft examples

Bevel gear box: changes Lawn mower drive:

rotational axis
Belt pulley
Bearing mounting considerations
and stress concentration
Conventional retaining (or snap) rings fit
in grooves and take axial load, but groves
cause stress concentration in shaft

Retaining rings are

standardized items,
available in various
standard sizes with
various axial load
capacities.
Push type retaining rings – no grooves
required, less stress concentration, but
less axial support
Various types of keys for transmitting
torque
Other common types of keys
Various types of collar pins
Splines in hubs and shafts allow axial
motion and transmits torque

All keys, pins and splines give rise to stress

concentration in the hub and shaft
Loads on shaft:
Shaft loaded in only torsion: torsion
may have a steady (Tav) and a cyclic (Tr)
component.
Loads on shaft due to gears

From power and rpm find the torque (T), which gives rise to shear stress.
From Torque (T) and diameter (d), find Ft = 2T/d. From F t and pressure
angles of gears you can find F r and Fa.
Fr and Ft are orthogonal to each other and are both transverse forces to
the shaft axis, which will give rise to normal bending stress in the shaft.
When shaft rotates, bending stress changes from tensile to compressive
and then compressive to tensile, ie, completely reversing state of stress.
Fa will give rise to normal axial stress in the shaft.
Loads on shaft due to pulleys and fly-wheels

Pulley torque (T) = Difference in belt

tensions in the tight (t1) and slack (t2)
sides of a pulley times the radius (r), ie
T = (t1-t2)xr
Left pulley torque
T1 = (7200-2700)x380=1,710,000 N-mm
FV2
Right pulley has exactly equal and
opposite torque:
T2 = (6750-2250)x380=1,710,000 N-mm

Bending forces:

Left pulley: F V1=900N; FH1=7200+2700 = 9900N

Right pulley: F V2=900+6750+2250=9900N; FH2=0

Bending moment and torque diagrams for the pulley
flywheel system 9900N

T1 T2 FH

1,710,000 N-mm 2,227,500

Torque diag. MH

900N 9900N
From Horizontal forces (FH) and vertical
forces (Fv), Bending moments MH & MV are FV
drawn seperately.
Then the resultant moments at various 911,250 M V
points on the shaft can be found from
2,227,500
MR = M + M 2
H
2
V

M R = M H2 + M V2
The section containing the left pulley has
obviously the highest combination of 2,227,500
2,406,685
Torque (1,710,000 N-mm) and Bending
Resultant bending moment
moment (2,406,685 N-mm)
Design of shaft
Axial dimensions are often fixed from the layout of the mechanism.
Design recommendation is to keep the axial lengths as short as
possible to limit bending stress.
Simply supported shaft is better than cantilever or overhang shaft.
Shaft design is to determine the diameter of the shaft such that it
withstand the applied loads, after stress concentrations, with a known
factor of safety.
Design of shaft
(continued)
Shear (τ) and bending (σ) stresses on the outer surface of
a shaft, for a torque (T) and bending moment (M)

T T d 16T
τ = r= =
J (π d / 32) 2 π d 3
4

For solid circular section:

M M d 32 M
σ= r= =
I (π d 4 / 64) 2 π d 3
For hollow circular section:
T T do 16T 16T di
τ = r= = d = where, λ =
(π ( d 04 − d i4 ) / 32) 2 π ( d 04 − d i4 ) π d 03 (1 − λ4 )
o
J do

M M do 32M 32 M di
σ = r= = d = where, λ =
(π ( d 04 − d i4 ) / 64) 2 π ( d 04 − d i4 ) π d 03 (1 − λ4 )
o
I do
 Principal Normal Stresses and Max Distortion Energy
Failure criterion for non-rotating shafts
The stress at a point on the shaft is normal stress
(σ) in X direction and shear stress (τ) in XY plane.

From Mohr Circle:

σ σ  σ σ 
2 2

S1 = +   + τ 2 and S 2 = −   + τ 2
2 2 2 2
Max Distortion Energy theory:
2
 S yp 
S + S − S1S 2 ≤ 
2 2 
1 2
 N fs 
 
Putting values of S1 & S2 and simplifying:
2
 S yp 
σ + 3τ ≤ 
2 2  This is the design
N 
 fs  equation for non
rotating shaft
 Design of rotating shafts and fatigue consideration
The most frequently encountered stress situation for a
rotating shaft is to have completely reversed bending and
steady torsional stress. In other situations, a shaft may
have a reversed torsional stress along with reversed
bending stress.

The most generalized situation the rotating shaft may

have both steady and cyclic components of bending
stress (σav,σr) and torsional stress (τav,τr).

From Soderberg’s fatigue criterion, the equivalent

static bending and torsional stresses are:

Using these equivalent static stresses in our static

design equation, the equation for rotating shaft is: