Week 8 - Universal Joint

Aim: 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 on the spring section to obtain the Equivalent stress and total deformation for all the three cases and compare them.

Setup: Assigning the material for the respective cases, we begin by defining the joints and deleting the contacts. The joints are as follows:

1. Fixed-Ground to Spring
2. Revolute-Ground to Gear
3. Revolute-Ground to Spring
4. Revolute-Gear Side Ball-Gear
5. Revolute-Gear to Gear Side Ball
6. Revolute-Gear Side Ball to Centre
7. Revolute-Gear Side Ball to Centre
8. Revolute-Spring to Spring Side Ball
9. Revolute-Spring Side Ball to Spring
10. Revolute-Spring Side Ball to Centre
11. Revolute-Spring Side Ball to Centre

The system is run through 5 steps with a rotational joint load on the Revolute-Ground to Gear Joint with weak springs on from 0-150 deg.

Results:

S.No	Material	Total Deformation(mm)	Stress Developed(MPa)	Strain Generated
1	Structural Steel	38.637	1622.7	0.00822
2	Stainless Steel	38.637	1569.9	0.00824
3	Titanium Alloy	38.637	792.12	0.0083

Conclusion: The deformation experienced among all 3 materials is the same where Structural Steel has the highest Stress Developed followed by Stainless and Titanium alloy having the lowest. The strain generated is opposite of the stress generated but the difference in magnitude is very small.