Week 8 - Universal Joint

Universal Joint Report

 

Aim: For this challenge, you will have to perform a transient structural analysis on a double universal joint with a spring using three different materials: Structural Steel, Stainless Steel and Titanium alloy(They can all be found in the General Materials section) The three materials must be used on the joint with the springs alone. Use a refined mesh if possible, for the academic license. You need to obtain the Equivalent stress and total deformation for all the three cases and compare them. Submit a report regarding the same.

Procedure:

• Select Transient Structural, drag and drop into Project Schematic.
• Structural Steel, Stainless steel and Titanium alloy are chosen under Engineering Data.
• Change the material type of the joint with spring.
• Case 1: Joint with spring is of Structural Steel.
• Case 2: Joint with spring is of Stainless Steel.
• Case 3: Joint with spring is of Titanium alloy.
• Under geometry tab, import the given geometry, double-click to open Space Claim to register the model.
• A fixed joint was assigned to the end of the spring.
• A revolute joint (body-ground) was given to either ends of the universal joints.
• Revolute joints (body-body) were given to all the pin-to-joint interfaces.
• The mesh size was set to 2.6mm after adaptive sizing was switched off.
• Under transient structural tab, we set the analysis to 5 steps with timestep defined by time.
• A joint load is given to the revolute joint, with rotation in increments of 30deg.
• Equivalent Strain, total deformation and Equivalent Stress plots are requested from the solver as outputs.
• Run the simulation by clicking on “solve”.

  

Case1: Joint with spring is of Structural Steel

Total Deformation:

Eq. Stress:

Eq. Elastic strain:

Case2: Joint with spring is of Stainless Steel

Total Deformation:

Eq. Stress:

Eq. Elastic strain:

Case3: Joint with spring is of Titanium alloy

Total Deformation:

Eq. Stress:

Eq. Elastic strain:

Conclusion:

From the above cases, here is the inference:

Case	Material of joint w/ spring	Eq. Stress (MPa)	Tot. Deformation (mm)	Eq. Strain
1	Structural Steel	1561.1	38.637	0.0078934
2	Stainless Steel	1510.3	38.637	0.0079147
3	Titanium alloy	762.35	38.637	0.0080398

• We can observe the stress is maximum for case 1 where the joint w/ spring is made structural steel and is the least in case 3 where it is made of titanium alloy.
• Total deformation is independent of materials.
• Stainless and Structural steel will fail as the stress undergone is much greater than their tensile ultimate strength.