MACHINE DESIGN

Lecture 8
Department of Production Engineering and Metallurgy/
Industrial Engineering Branch/ Third Stage

BY
Dr. Omar Hashim Hassoon
Shafts and Shaft Components
A shaft is a rotating member, usually of circular cross section, used to transmit
power or motion. It provides the axis of rotation, or oscillation, of elements such as
gears, pulleys, flywheels, cranks, sprockets, and the like and controls the geometry
of their motion. An axle is a nonrotating member that carries no torque and is used
to support rotating wheels, pulleys, and the like. The automotive axle is not a true
axle; the term is a carryover from the horse-and-buggy era, when the wheels
rotated on nonrotating members. A nonrotating axle can readily be designed and
analyzed as a static beam.
Shaft Materials
Necessary strength to resist loading stresses affects the choice of materials and
their treatments. Many shafts are made from low carbon, cold-drawn or hot-rolled
steel, such as ANSI 1020-1050 steels. Cold drawn steel is usually used for
diameters under about 3 inches. The nominal diameter of the bar can be left
unmachined in areas that do not require fitting of components. Hot rolled steel
should be machined all over. For large shafts requiring much material removal, the
residual stresses may tend to cause warping. If concentricity is important, it may be
necessary to rough machine, then heat treat to remove residual stresses and
increase the strength, then finish machine to the final dimensions.
Shaft Layout
The general layout of a shaft to accommodate shaft elements, e.g. gears, bearings,
and pulleys, must be specified early in the design process in order to perform a free
body force analysis and to obtain shear-moment diagrams. The geometry of a shaft
is generally that of a stepped cylinder. The use of shaft shoulders is an excellent
means of axially locating the shaft elements and to carry any thrust loads. Figure
(8–1) shows an example of a stepped shaft supporting the gear of a worm-gear
speed reducer. Each shoulder in the shaft serves a specific purpose, which you
should attempt to determine by observation.
The geometric configuration of a shaft to be
designed is often simply a revision of existing
models in which a limited number of changes
must be made. If there is no existing design to use
as a starter, then the determination of the shaft
layout may have many solutions. This problem is
illustrated by the two examples of Fig. (8–2). In
Fig. (8–2a) a geared countershaft is to be
supported by two bearings. In Fig. (8–2c) a fan
shaft is to be configured. The solutions shown in
Fig. (8–2b) and (8–2d) are not necessarily the
best ones, but they do illustrate how the shaft-
mounted devices are fixed and located in the axial
Figure (8–1) A vertical worm-gear speed
direction, and how provision is made for torque
reducer
transfer from one element to another. .
Figure (8–2)
(a) Choose a shaft configuration to support and locate the two gears and two bearings. (b) Solution uses an
integral pinion, three shaft shoulders, key and keyway, and sleeve. The housing locates the bearings on their outer
rings and receives the thrust loads. (c) Choose fan shaft configuration. (d) Solution uses sleeve bearings, a
straight-through shaft, locating collars, and setscrews for collars, fan pulley, and fan itself. The fan housing
supports the sleeve bearings.
There are no absolute rules for specifying the general layout, but the following guidelines
may be helpful.
➢ Axial Layout of Components

The axial positioning of components is often dictated by the layout of the housing and other
meshing components. In general, it is best to support load-carrying components between
bearings, such as in Fig. (8–2a), rather than cantilevered outboard of the bearings, such as
in Fig. (8–2c). Pulleys and sprockets often need to be mounted outboard for ease of
installation of the belt or chain. The length of the cantilever should be kept short to
minimize the deflection.
Only two bearings should be used in most cases. For extremely long shafts carrying several
load-bearing components, it may be necessary to provide more than two bearing supports.
In this case, particular care must be given to the alignment of the bearings.
In cases where axial loads are very small, it may be feasible to do without the shoulders
entirely, and rely on press fits, pins, or collars with setscrews to maintain an axial location.
See Fig. (8–2b) and (8–2d) for examples of some of these means of axial location.
Supporting Axial Loads
In cases where axial loads are not trivial, it is necessary to provide a means to transfer the
axial loads into the shaft, then through a bearing to the ground. This will be particularly
necessary with helical or bevel gears, or tapered roller bearings, as each of these produces
axial force components. Often, the same means of providing axial location, e.g., shoulders,
retaining rings, and pins, will be used to also transmit the axial load into the shaft.
It is generally best to have only one bearing carry the axial load, to allow greater
tolerances on shaft length dimensions, and to prevent binding if the shaft expands due to
temperature changes. This is particularly important for long shafts. Figures (8–3 & 8–4)
show examples of shafts with only one bearing carrying the axial load against a shoulder,
while the other bearing is simply press-fit onto the shaft with no shoulder.
Figure (8–3) Figure (8–4)
Tapered roller bearings used in a A bevel-gear drive in which
mowing machine spindle. This design both pinion and gear are
represents good practice for the situation straddle-mounted.
in which one or more torque-transfer
elements must be mounted outboard.
Providing for Torque Transmission
Most shafts serve to transmit torque Common torque-transfer
from an input gear or pulley, through elements are:
the shaft, to an output gear or pulley. Of • Keys
course, the shaft itself must be sized to • Splines
support the torsional stress and torsional • Setscrews
deflection. It is also necessary to • Pins
provide a means of transmitting the
• Press or shrink fits
torque between the shaft and the gears.
• Tapered fits
In addition to transmitting the torque,
many of these devices are protecting
designed to fail if the torque exceeds
acceptable operating limits, more
expensive components.
One of the most effective and economical means of transmitting moderate to high levels of torque is
through a key that fits in a groove in the shaft and gear.
Splines are essentially stubby gear teeth formed on the outside of the shaft and on the inside of the hub
of the load-transmitting component. Splines are generally much more expensive to manufacture than
keys, and are usually not necessary for simple torque transmission. They are typically used to transfer
high torques.
For cases of low torque transmission, various means of transmitting torque are available. These include
pins, setscrews in hubs, tapered fits, and press fits.
Press and shrink fits for securing hubs to shafts are used both for torque transfer and for preserving
axial location. The resulting stress-concentration factor is usually quite small.
Tapered fits between the shaft and the shaft-mounted device, such as a wheel, are often used on the
overhanging end of a shaft. Screw threads at the shaft end then permit the use of a nut to lock the
wheel tightly to the shaft. This approach is useful because it can be disassembled, but it does not
provide good axial location of the wheel on the shaft.
At the early stages of the shaft layout, the important thing is to select an appropriate means of
transmitting torque, and to determine how it affects the overall shaft layout. It is necessary to know
where the shaft discontinuities, such as keyways, holes, and splines, will be in order to determine
critical locations for analysis.
Shaft Design for Stress
Bending, torsion, and axial stresses may be present in both midrange and alternating
components. For analysis, it is simple enough to combine the different types of stresses
into alternating and midrange von Mises stresses, as shown in the fatigue part. It is
sometimes convenient to customize the equations specifically for shaft applications. Axial
loads are usually comparatively very small at critical locations where bending and torsion
dominate, so they will be left out of the following equations. Neglecting axial loads, the
resulting equations for several of the commonly used failure curves are summarized
below. The names given to each set of equations identifies the significant failure theory,
followed by a fatigue failure locus name. For example, DE-Gerber indicates the stresses
are combined using the distortion energy (DE) theory, and the Gerber criteria is used for
the fatigue failure.
For a quick, conservative check, an estimate for σ′max can be obtained by simply
adding σ′a and σ′m. (σ′a + σ′m) will always be greater than or equal to σ′max, and
will therefore be conservative.
EXAMPLE 8–1
At a machined shaft shoulder the small diameter d is 1.100 in, the large diameter D is 1.65
in, and the fillet radius is 0.11 in. The bending moment is 1260 lbf·in and the steady
torsion moment is1100 lbf·in. The heat-treated steel shaft has an ultimate strength of Sut =
105 kpsi and a yield strength of Sy = 82 kpsi. The reliability goal is 0.99.
(a) Determine the fatigue factor of safety of the design using each of the fatigue failure
criteria described in this section.
(b) Determine the yielding factor of safety.