CALCULATION AND TEST OF UNIVERSAL COUPLING STRENGTH

摘要

The stress distribution of the marine cross universal coupling is difficult or impossible to compute by using classical methods because it has high working rotating speed and large transmission torque and its parts such as its cross and yoke have complicated structures. The strengths of the cross and yoke make dominant effects on the load capacity of the universal coupling and their calculations heavily affect its application. This paper makes use of CAD forming techniques and the finite element method to compute the strengths of the cross and yoke, employs the three-dimensional photoelastic analysis methods to verify them, and finds that the calculation results are fundamentally consistent with the experimental results. Therefore, more accurate formulae of computing the strengths of the cross and yoke are developed. The calculation results and the relationship between the finite method and the photoelastic experiment are also discussed in this paper.