Review of Information Engineering and Applications

2014 Vol. 1, No. 1, 1-10.

ISSN(e): 2409-6539
ISSN(p): 2412-3676
DOI: 10.18488/journal.79/2014.1.1/79.1.1.10
© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved.

INVESTIGATE OF MECHANICAL FUSE IN CARDAN SHAFT USING

FEM

Sayed Poorya Rabiei1 --- Reza Azarafza2

1
Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Sanandaj, Iran
2
Department of mechanical Engineering, Malek Ashtar University of technology, Tehran, Iran

ABSTRACT
A Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect
drive shaft to driven shaft that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for
relative movement between them. If overload is applied to cardan shaft, failure can occur in each part of the
cardan shaft and maybe some irreparable damage occur to the cardan shaft. Thus it is important to
investigate the existence of mechanical fuse in cardan shaft, and this subjcet is analyzed by Abaqus software
and the results are illustrated that the cross shaft of an standard cardan shaft, fails first and is the best part
as a mechanical fuse.
Keywords: Cardanshaft, Cross shaft, Abaqus, Analysis, Mechanical fuse, Failure.

1. INTRODUCTION
The reasons of failures a cardan shaft, while transmitting torque and rotation, are analyzed
by some researches. Some of them have done some research on the design of the universal joints.
They have offered some helpful suggestions about the configuration design and improvement of
universal joints with manufacturing tolerances [1]. Bayrakceken, et al. [2] have done some
research about the fracture analysis of a universal joint yoke and a drive shaft that belong in an
automobile power transmission system, and they used finite element method for stress analyses
that determine stress conditions at the failed section. SirajMohammadAli Sheikh has done some
research about analysis of universal coupling under different torque condition [3] using finite
element method as stress analysis to determine the stress at the failed section. Mile, et al. [4]
have done some research about analysis of the drive shaft fracture of the bucket wheel excavator,
and they found out that there are no significant inhomogeneities and errors in the material of the
shaft and that they do not cause damage, and significant inhomogeneity of the material,

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

occurrence of cracks as well as the difference in the microstructure appear in this zone, which is
the cause of shaft damage.
Valentin, et al. [5] have done some research about buckling of a twisted and compressed rod
supported by Cardan joints, and using numerical integration of a system of ten nonlinear first
order differential equations the post-critical shape of the rod was determined. Jeanette Edlund et
al. have done some research about effects of two different forwarder steering and transmission
drive systems on rut dimensions [6] and they found out that a transmission drive system with
axles and wheels that can be individually steered seems advantageous to reduce rut formation,
especially if the wheels have reduced ground pressure on soft soils. Danial, et al. [7] have done
some research about optimum design of a quasti-homokinetic linkage for motion transmission
between orthogonal axes [7] and they mentioned that homokinetic motion transmission between
two shafts with axes intersecting at right angles is a recurrent problem, and they came up with a
solution with a minimum structural error, but with a slightly compromised transmission quality.
Gys and Abdulmohsin Al-Sahli [8] have done some research about failure analysis of conveyor
pulley shaft [8] and they mentioned that the shaft of a conveyor belt drive pulley failed in service.
In their subject an investigation was performed in order to determine the failure root cause and
contribution factors. Investigation methods included visual examination, optical and scanning
electron microscope analysis, chemical analysis of the material and mechanical tests. A finite
element analysis was also performed to quantify the stress distribution in the shaft and in their
research it was concluded that the shaft failed due to fatigue and that the failure was caused by
improper reconditioning of the shaft during routine overhaul.

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Cardan shafts play an important role in industry, and generally they are used for
transmitting torque and rotation, and they consist of some components and these components are
susceptible to fatigue or failure due to overload or the nature of their operation. Failure can occur
in each part of a cardan shaft and maybe because of this failure some irreparable damage occurs to
the cardan shaft. In most of former researches, as some of them mentioned in introduction, were
not considered that which component of a cardan shaft fails first due to overload and whether
mechanical fuse was designed for cardan shaft or not.
Hence we recommend that it is better to find out which part of a cardan shaft fails first and
then we will realize whether a cardan shaft has a mechanical fuse or not, and if it does we will find
out that this part is the best part that was chosen as a mechanical fuse or not, and raise awareness
about behavior of cardan shaft can be great help for designers and consumers.

3. ANALYIS BY EFM METHOD

In this paper, the finite element method is used to gain precise results at critical zones. The
analysis by finite element method is more precise than analytic method. The EFM methods

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

provide possibility of faster repeated calculations after some modifications than analytic method.
Thus Abaqus 6.12-1 is used for simulation of cardan shaft failure.
Two different cardan shafts were chosen for analyzing and every single one of them belonged
to a different company. The first company Dana Company [9] and the second one Elbe Company
[10].
Today, there are basically two types of cardan shafts that have evolved into a worldwide
technology standard [9]. Their main difference lied in the design of the bearing eye.

3-1. Closed Bearing Eye

This is a design used mainly in the commercial vehicles sector and for general mechanical
engineering application, presented at Fig. 1.

3-2. Split Bearing Eye

Developed for heavy and super-heavy duty application, presented at Fig. 2.

Fig-1. Closed bearing eye

Fig-2. Split bearing eye

The chosen cardan shafts have standard number 687/688.15 and 0.113.100 for Dana and
Elbe respectively.

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The analysis by EFM method demand following procedure: creating the models; defining the
materials and section properties; creating an assembly; defining steps and specifying output
requests, since applied loads on cardan shafts in real conditions are dynamic not static, so in this
step, dynamic explicit method is employed for solving the problem; defining interactions;
prescribing boundary conditions for parts and applied loads, which torsion is applied to the
reference points (RP) that are defined on flange yokes that is presented at Fig.3; designing the
mesh, creating, running and monitoring the job. In this simulation the maximum torsion force
must be applied to the cardan shafts. The maximum torsion force happens when driven shaft is
jammed due to some reasons and the drive shaft tries to rotate driven shaft. Thus, in order to
simulate this conditon, one of the flange yoke is fixed and then the next end of the cardan shaft
that has another flange yoke is rotated until the maximum tension appeared in one of the
components, in this way the maxim torsion force will be applied to the cardan shafts, and the part
that has the most tension will fail first.
The element types were chosen: Standard, Linear and Tetrahedral. The element sizes were
chosen between 0.01m to 0.003m. Applied mesh for Dana and Elbe cardan shafts is presented at
Fig.4
Fig-3. Applied load to the reference points.

Fig-4. Applied mesh for cardan shafts. Dana on the right and Elbe on the left of the picture.

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3.3. The Results of the Simulations for Cardan Shafts Belonged to Elbe
The results of the simulations for cardan shafts belonged to Elbe are presented at Fig.5, Fig.6
and Fig.7.
At the Fig.5 an assembly of cardan shaft is presented and a cardan shaft which its flange yoke
and two bushes are separated and a separated cross shaft from the cardanshaft, are presented at
the Fig.6 and Fig.7 respectively. At the presented figures the components are showed with ten
deformation scale factor.
The maximum stress due to the torsion at the cross shaft for cardan shaft belongs to Elbe is
determined 745.3Mpa. Since a cardan shaft with these materials cannot tolerate this stress at
cross shaft, so the cardan shaft will failed at cross shaft.

Fig-5. FEM analysis of the cardan shaft belonged to Elbe.

Fig-6. FEM analysis of the cardan shaft belonged to Elbe.

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

Fig-7.The cross shaft belonged to Elbe.

3.4. The Results of the Simulations for Cardan Shafts Belonged to Dana
The results of the simulations for cardan shafts belonged to Dana are presented at Fig.8,
Fig.9 and Fig.10.
At the Fig.8 an assembly of cardan shaft is presented and a cardan shaft which its flange yoke
and two bushes are separated and a separated cross shaft from the cardanshaft, are presented at
the Fig.9 and Fig.10 respectively. At the presented figures the components are showed with ten
deformation scale factor.
The maximum stress due to the torsion at the cross shaft for cardan shaft belongs to Dana is
determined 791.4Mpa. Since a cardan shaft with these materials cannot tolerate this stress at
cross shaft, so the cardan shaft will failed at cross shaft.

Fig-8. FEM analysis of the cardan shaft belonged to Elbe.

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Fig-9. FEM analysis of the cardan shaft belonged to Dana.

Fig-10. The cross shaft belonged to Dana.

Thus, according to simulation results, the part of a cardan shaft that fails first, due to applied
overload is the cross shaft.

4. JUSTIFY SIMULATION RESULTS WITH EXPERIMENTAL SAMPELS

In this part, we are going to justify simulation results with some samples that failed due to
overload. Five different cardan shafts were chosen, that four of them belong to Dana company and
the other one belongs to Elbe company. All these cardan shafts were used at Bonab Steel
Company [11] and all of them failed after over load were applied to them.

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

As it is illustrated at the following figures, and as it is clear, the part of a cardan shaft that
fails first due to applied overload is the cross shaft.

Fig-11. A simulated cross shaft and a sample of cross shaft that belongs to Dana, which shows
that cardan shaft failed from the cross shaft.

Fig-12. Three cardan shafts that belong to Danaand all of them failed at the cross shaft
due to overload

Fig.13 implicates that maximum stress in a cross shaft occur at the basis of the branches of
the cross shaft and this fracture zoon, the zoon that fracture starts, is specified with red oval and

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

justifies the simulation results that cross shaft will fail from the fillet of a cross shaft. In this
figure a simulated cross shaft and a sample of cross shaft are presented and both of them show the
same result.

Fig-13. A simulated cross shaft and a sample of cross shaft that belongs to Elbe.

Fig-14. A cardan shaft that belongs to Elbe company that failed at cross shaft.

5. CONCLUSION
For some economic and safety aspect, this subject must be perceived that which part of a
cardan shaft fails first and whether a cardan shaft has a mechanical fuse or not. A cardan shaft
consist of some components and these components are susceptible to fatigue or failure due to

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 Review of Information Engineering and Applications, 2014, 1(1): 1-10

overload or the nature of their operation, and this failure can occurs in each part of a cardan shaft
and maybe causes some irreparable damage to the cardan shaft or the system. Hence awareness of
this subject can be a great help for designers, and they perceive that in some cases they do not
have to spend a lot of time and energy on designing a mechanical fuse for their design.
The considerations that are presented in this paper, according to the results of simulation
with FEM method and experimental samples, that were presented at parts three and four,
indicate that cross shaft fails first due to applied overload. For some economic points of view and
other aspects such as repairing expenses and manufacturing cost, the best part of a cardan shaft
that can be chosen as mechanical fuse, according to the criteria for choosing mechanical fuse, is
the cross shaft and prevent the cardan shaft from some irreparable damage that can occur to the
cardan shaft or even worse, to the system. Thus a standardized cardan shaft that is made by an
authoritative company has a mechanical fuse.

REFERENCES
[1] R. S. Humell and Chassapis, "Configuration design and optimization of universal joints with
manufacturing tolerances," Mechanism and Machine Theory, vol. 35, pp. 463-476, 2000.
[2] H. Bayrakceken, S. Tasgetiren, and I. Yavuz, "Two cases of failure in the power transmission
systemon vehicles: A universal joint yoke and a drive shaft," Engineering Failure, Analysis, vol. 14,
pp. 716–724, 2007.
[3] Siraj Mohammd Ali Sheikh, "Analysis of universal coupling under different torque condition,"
IJESAT, Mechanical Engineering Department, vol. 2, pp. 690-694, 2012.
[4] S. Mile, G. I. Milomir, P. Dragan, A. Z. Neboj, and P. Radmila, "Analysis of the drive shaft fracture
of the bucket wheel excavator," Engineering Failure Analysis, vol. 20, pp. 105-117, 2012.
[5] B. G. Valentin, B. M. Ratko, and M. G. Nenad, "Buckling of a twisted and compressed rod
supported by cardan joints," European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids, vol. 28, pp. 131-140, 2009.
[6] E. Jeanette, B. Urban, and L. Bjorn, "Effects of two different forwarder steering and transmission
drive systems on rut dimensions," Journal of Terramechanics, vol. 49, pp. 291-297, 2012.
[7] A. Danial, A. Jorge, and N. Scott, "Optimum design of a spherical quasi-homokinetic linkage for
motion transmission between orthogonal axes," Mechanism and Machine Theory, vol. 59, pp. 107-
118, 2013.
[8] V. Z. Gys and Abdulmohsin Al-Sahli, "Failure analysis of conveyor pulley shaft," Case Studies in
Engineering Failure Analysis, vol. 1, pp. 144-155, 2013.
[9] Dana Company.
[10] Elbe Company.
[11] Bonab Steel Company, Bonab steel company. East Azerbaijan, Iran: Bonab.

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