Viscoelastic characterization and self-heating behavior of laminated fiber composite driveshafts

The high cyclic strain capacity of fiber reinforced polymeric composites presents an opportunity to design driveshafts that can transmit high power under imperfect alignment conditions without the use of flexible couplers. In weight sensitive applications such as rotorcraft, the design of highly optimized driveshafts requires a general modeling capability that can predict a number of shaft performance characteristics-one of which is self-heating due to dynamic loading conditions. The current investigation developed three new flexible matrix composite materials of intermediate matrix modulus that, together with previously developed composites, cover the full range of material properties that are of potential interest in driveshaft design. An analytical model for the self-heating of spinning, misaligned, laminated composite shafts was refined to suit the full range of materials. Inputs to the model include ply-level dynamic material properties of the composite, cyclic strain amplitude and frequency, and various heat transfer constants related to conduction, radiation, and convection. Predictions of the surface temperature of spinning shafts correspond well with experimental measurements for bending strains of up to 2000 με, which encompasses the range of strains expected in rotorcraft driveshaft applications.