An investigation into hybrid aluminium/composite cardan shaft

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce. Consequently, whenever possible in the machine element manufacture, metallic materials should be replaced with new artificial materials. This paper studies the possibility of replacing two cardan shafts of a truck TURBO ZETA 85.14B with one shaft made of aluminium and a composite material, while the basic requirements concerning the given load transfer and fundamental natural frequencies remain satisfied.