Structural analysis and optimization of an automotive propeller shaft

It is a trend to implement weight reduction in parts in recent years when developing a new car. This trend is because weight reduction is essential to respond to tightening environmental regulations. In other words, parts manufacturers of body, chassis, and power train systems have made considerable efforts to reduce weight from the proto design stage. This study performed structural analysis and optimization for weight reduction of a propeller shaft for a passenger car. The natural frequency and the durability of the developing propeller shaft were examined through finite element analyses and tests. Then, optimization was accomplished by focusing on the weight reduction of the tubes made of given steel material. In this process, the metamodel-based optimization technique, kriging interpolation, was applied, and the weight was reduced by 5.3% based on the propeller shaft and 14.1% based on the tube. ANSYS Workbench was used for structural analysis, an in-house program was used to build the kriging model, and MATLAB was used for optimization.