"OPTIMIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF DRIVE SHAFT OF AN AUTOMOBILE BY USING E-GLASS/EPOXY AND CARBON/EPOXY"

Almost all vehicles (at least those that correspond to design with rear wheel drive and front engine installation) have transmission shafts. The load reduction of the drive shaft will have a particular role within the general weight reduction of the vehicle and could be an extremely fascinating goal if it may be achieved without a rise in cost and reduction in quality and reliability. It's doable to achieve the design of the composite drive shaft with less weight to increase the natural frequency of the shaft, decrease the bending stresses, maximize the torque transmission and torsional buckling capabilities. Substituting composite material structure for typical metallic structure has several benefits owing to high specific strength and stiffness of a composite material. This work deals with the replacement of the traditional two-piece drive shaft with a single piece of E-glass/Epoxy, high strength carbon/epoxy, high modulus carbon/epoxy composite drive shaft for an automotive application. The design parameter was optimized with the target of minimizing the weight of the composite drive shaft. The design optimization additionally showed significant potential improvement within the performance of the drive shaft