International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016

DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF
COMPOSITE DRIVE SHAFT
Arthur Jebaraj J Y1 , Kaliappan S2 , Antony Micheal Prabhar A3

Assistant Professor, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli 627 003.1

Assistant Professor, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli 627 003.2
Assistant Professor, Francis Xavier Engineering College, Tirunelveli 627 003.3

ABSTRACT: Composite materials due to their high specific stiffness and high specific strength are
potential candidates in many drive shafts applications. Literature presents the application of composite
shaft design in both the "subcritical case"(automotive) &"supercritical regime"(helicopter). The design
of composite drive shaft is more complex due to the combinatorial behavior of design variables, therefore
calling for heuristic search to find optimal solution. The aim of this paper is to deal with Design
Optimization of Composite Drive Shaft using simulated annealing. Simulated annealing is a generic
probabilistic meta-algorithm for the global optimization problem, namely locating a good approximation
to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. An implementation of simulated
annealing procedure to determine the optimal design parameters viz. number of plies, ply orientation and
ply thickness that minimizes mass of the composite drive shaft is presented. In this study number of plies
(n) is determined by exhaustive search method .The components of seed consists of plies orientation for
n plies and the thickness. Here all the plies are assumed to have uniform thickness. Metropolis criteria
are adopted to select the worst seed with certain probability. Initially high temperature is set and reduced
logarithmically. The result obtained is compared with the result obtained from genetic algorithm and
particle swarm optimization.
Keywords: Design optimization, Composite drive shaft, Simulated Annealing.

I INTRODUCTION
A lightweight, one-piece driveshaft featuring
fiberglass/carbon fiber reinforced vinyl ester
pultruded over an aluminum tube was the first high
volume auto industry application of aerospace
technology. The Spicer Graph Lite driveshaft
made its market debut in 1987 on General Motors
1988 model GMT-400 pickup trucks. (Production
began
in
October,
1986.)
The graphite/fiberglass/aluminum driveshaft tube
was developed as a direct response to industry
demand for greater performance and efficiency in
light trucks, vans and high performance
automobiles. Replacing conventional two-piece
steel driveshafts, the Graph Lite composite
driveshaft offered the following benefits: 60%
lighter than a two-piece steel driveshaft, with an
average 20-pound weight saving per vehicle
Eliminated a multi-piece driveline, thus reducing
assembly time, inventory costs, maintenance and
part number complexity Eliminated warranty
associated with center bearings Transfer of
powertrain noise and vibration to the passenger
compartment decreased due to inherent dampening
characteristics of composite material and less
rotating mass Composite material protected against

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driveline deterioration from corrosionleading to

longer life Most significantly, it permitted custom
design of driveshaft performance based upon
vehicle use and powertrain systems. R & D for the
development of a composite driveshaft began in
1962 by the Spicer Universal Joint Division of
Dana Corporation, but the project was dropped in
the mid '60's because of lack of technology
throughout the industry. Research resumed in 1975,
and in 1986 Spicer Universal Joint Division of
Dana developed the graphite/aluminum tube design
and brought the project to Strongwell. Strongwell
developed new pultrusion equipment and
technology to produce the Spicer Graph Lite
design. A composite of fiberglass, graphite and a
special resin is pultruded directly onto the seamless
aluminum tube. This composite reinforces the tube,
eliminating the need for center bearings. The
composite is engineered with an isolation barrier
between the aluminum tube and the graphite to
eliminate electrolytic galvanic corrosion. The
product, once it was developed, was tested by
simulating 20 years of vehicle life before it reached
the market. Test engineers concluded that the
Spicer Graph Lite will outperform conventional
two-piece drive shafts in strength, weight saving
benefits and longevity. Strongwell and Dana

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016

continue their relationship today seeking new

applications for the carbon-over-aluminum
driveshafts as well as developing and testing allcomposite driveshafts of carbon and glass
fibers.previously paper entitled design of
composite drive shaft for first natural
frequency,optimal sizing and stacking sequence of
composite drive shaft,design and optimization of
composite gyroscope momentum wheel rings was
published. I have choose design optimization of
composite drive shaft using simulated annealing.

Outer diameter = 90mm

Tmax = 3500 Nm
Fmax = 110 Hz

II MODEL FORMULATION
The objective for the optimum design of the
composite drive shaft is the minimization of weight,
so the objective function of the problem is given as
weight of the shaft:

d
4

m
Minimize

2
0

d i2 L

(1)

subject to

torque transmission capacity of the

shaft

T Tmin

bucking torque

T T

min
capacity of the shaft b
fundamental natural frequency

F Fcrt .
The design variables of the problem are

Number of plies (n)

Thickness of the ply (

tk )

Stacking sequence (
The limiting values of the design variables are
0 < n < 32
-90<

The shaft is perfectly balanced, i.e., at every

cross section, the mass center coincides with the
geometric center;
All damping and non linear effects are excluded;
The stress-strain relationship for composite
material is linear elastic; hence Hookes law is
applicable for composite materials;
Since lamina is thin and no out-of plane loads are
applied, it is considered as under the plane stress.
The length of the shaft = 1250 mm

k < 90

0.1 < t k < 0.5

where k = 1, 2, n
The number of plies required depends on the
design constraints, allowable material properties,
thickness of plies and stacking sequence. Based on
the investigations it was found that up to 32
numbers of plies are sufficient.

III ASSUMPTIONS
The following assumptions are made in the model:
The shaft rotates at a constant speed about its
longitudinal axis;
The shaft has a uniform circular cross section;

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IV SIMULATED ANNEALING
Simulated annealing is a generic
probabilistic meta algorithm for the global
optimization problem, namely locating good
approximation to the global optimum of a given
function in a large search space. It is often used
when the search space is discrete .for certain
problem s, simulated annealing may be more
effective than exhaustive enumeration- provided
that the goal is merely to find an acceptably good
solution in a fixed amount of time, rather than the
best possible solution. By analogy with this
physical process, each step of the SA algorithm
replaces the current solution by a random near
by solution ,chosen with a probability that
depends on the difference between the
corresponding function values and on a global
parameter T(is such that the current solution
changes almost randomly when T is large ,but
increase downhill as T goes to zero. The
allowance for uphill moves saves the method
from becoming stuck at local minima- which are
the bane of greedier methods.
Simulated annealing (SA) is a random-search
technique which exploits an analogy between the
way in which a metal cools and freezes into a
minimum energy crystalline structure (the
annealing process) and the search for a minimum in
a more general system; it forms the basis of an
optimisation technique for combinatorial and other
problems. Simulated annealing was developed in
1983 to deal with highly nonlinear problems. SA
approaches the global maximisation problem
similarly to using a bouncing ball that can bounce
over mountains from valley to valley. It begins at a
high "temperature" which enables the ball to make
very high bounces, which enables it to bounce over
any mountain to access any valley, given enough
bounces. As the temperature declines the ball
cannot bounce so high, and it can also settle to
become trapped in relatively small ranges of
valleys.A generating distribution generates possible
valleys or states to be explored. An acceptance

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016

distribution is also defined, which depends on the

difference between the function value of the
present generated valley to be explored and the last
saved lowest valley. The acceptance distribution
decides probabilistically whether to stay in a new
lower valley or to bounce out of it. All the
generating and acceptance distributions depend on
the temperature. It has been proved that by
carefully controlling the rate of cooling of the
temperature, SA can find th Simulated annealing
(SA) is a Monte Carlo approach For minimizing
multivariate function.
SA is a numerical optimization technique
based on the principles of thermodynamics. SA is
motivated by an analogy to annealing in solids. The
idea of SA comes from a paper published by
Metropolis et al1. In 1953, the algorithm in this
paper simulated the cooling of material in a heat
bath. This is a process known as annealing. If you
heat a solid past melting point and then cool it, the
structural properties of the solid depend on the rate
of cooling. If the liquid is cooled slow, large
crystals will be formed. However, if the liquid is
cooled (quenched) the crystals will contain
imperfections.

SIMULATED ANNEALING
ALGORITHM
Set Initial: Temp. T0, X0,..etc.

Find f0=f(X0), Set i=0

i=0
Generate aSet
cycle
random moves
Find Xi=Xi+r.VI, f1=f (Xi)

Find E=f1=f1=1

REJECT

NO

E=0

Accept with Probability

P=exp (-E/T)
YES
Accept Unconditionally
ACCEPT
NO

Metropoliss algorithm simulated the material

as a system of particles. The algorithm simulates
the cooling process by gradually lowering the
temperature of the system until it converges to a
steady, frozen called the temperature, that is
gradually decreased during the process .

Is number of cyles
Nmax
YES
Adjust step size Rest number
of cycles to 0

NO
Is number of step
Adjustment nmax

Reduce temperature
NO
Converged solution
YES
STOP

FIGURE 2: SIMULATED ANNEALING

ALGORITHM
FIG 1 : SEARCH TECHNIQUES

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016

TABLE 1 : MATERIAL PROPERTY

Longitudinal

modulus

VIII

Theta value are randomly generated using

normrand operator.the size of the theta value
depend on the nature of the problem.New seed
is calculated by using the summation of initial
seed and randomly generated value.

190.0(GPa)

E11
Transverse modulus
Shear modulus

E 22

G12

Poissons ratio 12
Longitudinal tensile &
compressive stress XT =
XC
Transverse tensile &
compressive stress

NEXT SEED GENERATION:

7.7 (GPa)
4.2 (GPa)
0.3

thetai=normrnd(30,0);

870.0(MPa)

thetai=thetai.*(pi/180);
endt=normrnd(0.066,0);

54.0(MPa)

newseed=seed+thetai;
newt=seedt+t;

YT = YC
seed2=[newseed newt];
Shear stress
Density

12

Volume fraction

display(seed2);

30.0(MPa)
1600.0 Kg/m3

Vf

0.6

V INITIAL SEED GENERATION:

Initially many individual solutions are

randomly generated to form an initial seed.The
seed size depends on the nature of the
problem .Initial
seed is randomly generated
satisfying symmetric condition of laminate. Tk,k
variables are used to generate the initial seed for
the given (n).

VI FITNESS EVALUATION:
The objective of the design optimization problem is
to minimize themass of the drive shaft. SA mimics
the survival-of-the fittest principle of nature to
make a search process. Therefore SA is naturaly
suitable for solving minmisation problems. For
mimimisation problems the fitness function can be
calculated.
VII PROCEDURE TO DETERMINE THE
FITNESS VALUE:

(i) Input the drive shaft parameters.

(ii) Calculate the elements of [Q] matrix.
(iii) Calculate the elements. [ ] [A] and [D]
matrices.
(iv) Calculate m, T,Tb and F.
(v) Verify Metropolis criterion.
(vi) Determine the objective function.

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FIG 3: COMPARISON OF MASS VS

NUMBER OF ITERATIONS
IX

CONCLUSION:

Here the design optimization of composite drive

shaft using simulated annealing was briefly
discussed. The mass of the carbon epoxy composite
drive was reduced to the optimum level by using
simulated annealing.
Nomenclature:
m = Mass of the drive shaft

(kg)

= Density of the material

(kg / m3)

do = Outer diameter of the shaft

(m)

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International Journal of Research in Advanced Technology - IJORAT

Vol. 1, Issue 10, DECEMBER 2016

di = Inner diameter of the shaft

(m)

T = Torque transmission capacity (Nm)

Tb = Buckling Torque

(Nm)

F = Natural Frequency

(Hz)

k = Orientation Angle of kth ply

t k = Thickness of kth ply

(Deg.)

(m)

and E.H.L. Aarts, (1987) ISBN 90-277-2513-6

6. D. Hull and T.W. Clyne,''An Introduction to
Composite Materials,'' 2nd Ed.,
Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1996.
7. R.F. Gibson, ''Principles of Composite Material
Mechanics,'' McGraw-Hill Int., New
York, 1994.
8. R. M. Jones,''Mechanics of Composite Materials,''
1974.

k = 1, 2... ,n
n = Number of lamina
T = Torque transmission capacity

(Nm)

F = Fundamental natural frequency

(Hz)

= Density of the shaft

(kg / m3)

= Strain induced

= Angular velocity of the shaft (rad/sec)

XT = Strength of unidirectional fiber composite
under tension along fiber direction(N/m2)
XC = Strength of unidirectional fiber composite
under compression along fiber direction (N/m2)
YT = Strength of unidirectional fiber composite
under tension perpendicular to fiber direction
(N/m2)
YC = Strength of unidirectional fiber composite
under compression perpendicular fiber direction
(N/m2)

REFERENCES
1. R M Jones. Mechanics of Composite
Materials. Taylor & Francis, Blacksburg, VA, 1999, pp
1, 15 and 26-27.
2. Metropolis., A. Rosenbluth, M. Rosenbluth, A. Teller,
E. Teller, "Equation of
State Calculations by Fast
Computing Machines", J. Chem. Phys.,21, 6, 10871092, 1953.
3. Kirkpatrick, S., Gelatt, C.D., and Vecchi, M.P.,
Optimization by Simulated Annealing, Science,
Volume 220, Number 4598, 13 May 1983, pp. 671-680.
4. Crama, Y., and M. Schyns, 1999, "Simulated annealing
for complex portfolio selection problems."
5. Simulated Annealing: Theory and Application by
P.J.M. van Laarhoven

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