The main tasks of this thesis work were to investigate the size of the power losses in different parts on the propeller shaft, to design a computer program that calculates coordinates and angles on a propeller shaft and to investigate the possibilities to put together a simplified formula that calculates the natural frequencies on a propeller shaft.
The main parts of this report are a compilation of the theory about AWD and mostly about the parts on the propeller shaft, and also a description of the developed computer program called Propeller Shaft Calculator.
This report doesn’t concern power losses in the different joints because there were no such general equations to be found. The most common way to calculate the power losses inside a joint is to do tests were the power loss is measured at different angles, torque and speed and then use that data to put together an approximated equation.
Most of the work on this project has been on theory studies and on programming. The main result of the project is the program Propeller Shaft Calculator. Propeller Shaft Calculator is a program that is designed in Microsoft Excel. All the menus are programmed in the visual basic editor in Excel. The program is supposed to be used as a help while designing new propeller shafts.
Source: Jönköping University
Author: Robert Fredriksson, Milovan Trkulja