A Numerical Analysis of Shaft Stress Concentration Using ANSYS

Abstract

Stress Concentration (SC) in shafts is a critical factor leading to deformation and failure, particularly in power transmission systems. This study investigates Stress Concentration Factors (SCFs) for three shaft geometries—shoulder fillet, chamfer, and key-seat—under tension, torsion, and bending loads using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) in ANSYS 2023 R2. The numerical results revealed significant variations in SCFs across the geometries and load types. Under tension, the chamfered shaft exhibited the highest SCF (2.967), while the shoulder fillet (1.645) and key-seat (1.603) showed comparable values. Torsion loading maximized the SCFs in the key-seat (2.413), whereas bending produced nearly identical SCFs for the chamfer (2.512) and key-seat (2.503). Validations against previous studies confirmed the accuracy of the FEA approach. The findings highlight that the shoulder fillets consistently minimize the SC, while chamfers, despite the higher SCFs, offer cost-effective manufacturability.