Optimal Design Of Composite Power Transmission Shafting

The optimal design of composite drive shafting is developed with the goal of minimizing system weight. This study is illustrated with an application to a composite tail rotor drive shaft of advanced helicopters. However, it is also directly applicable to the design of composite synchronization drive shafts of helicopters and other composite shafts for aircraft, spacecraft and automobiles. The use and effectiveness of this optimal design procedure is demonstrated with . an illustrative example. In this example, an optimized Graphite/Epoxy (T300/5208) tail rotor drive shaft with a single tube operating supercritically at 6000 rpm, can reduce the system weight by as much as 63. 1% as compared to a conventional aluminum alloy tail rotor drive shaft system. Even constrained to subcritical operation, an optimized G/E (T300/5208) drive shaft with three tubes at 6000 rpm, can reduce the system weight by as such as 38. 1%. By comparison, simply replacing the fire aluminum shaft sections with G/E (T300/5208) composite tubes operating at 5000 rpm results in a system weight reduction of, at best, only 15. 3%.