Week 8 - Universal Joint
Introduction: A universal joint is a mechanical device that allows one or more rotating shafts to be linked together, allowing the transmission of torque and/or rotary motion. It also allows for transmission of power between two points that are not in line with each other.
Universal joints come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and configurations to accommodate the infinite amount of applications they can go into.
Objective:
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.
Procedure:
* Open ANSYS Work bench, from the analysis systems drop the Transient structural in Project schematic.
* Select required material from materials tab, In our case-1 we need Structural Steel only (Default).
* Import Geometry and open in design moduler to check the geometry. Open in Mechanical module and rename the parts (if required) for easy identification purpose.
* Delete default contacts which are available in model and create joints as shon below.
- spring end need to fix by fixed joint to get results on it. and remaining are revolute joints.
* Mesh generated as default size from ansys as shown below.
* To do the transient structural analysis, delete the static structural and insert Transient structural. anlysis settings as follows.
No.of steps: 5 (for step and from step 2 to 5)
Auto time stepping: off
Time step: 0.1s
Weak springs: Program controlled
Large deflection: On
* Insert joint under Transient and select Revolute-Ground to Component joint, change the type into Rotation. by using tabular data, enter the rotation angles are 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150.
* Insert Output results which we need analyse, in our case equivalent stress and total deformation need to insert, and click on the solve button.
Results: For case 1 - Structural steel
Total Deformation: 38.63mm (max)
Equivalent stress: 1611.6 MPa
Case 2- Titanium Alloy(only Spring):
Total deformation: 38.637mm
Equivalent stress: 782.2 MPa
Case 3- Stainless Steel (only spring):
Total deformation:38.637 mm
Equivalent stress:
Discussion:
| Material type | Total Deformation,mm | Equivalent stress, MPa |
| Structural Steel | 38.637 | 1611.6 |
| Titanium alloy (spring only) | 38.637 | 782.2 |
| Stainless Steel (spring only) | 38.637 | 1557.5 |
By observing the above result deformation point of view no difference with respect to material.
In stress point of view:
Structural steel > stainless steel > Titanium alloy