The FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS AND WEIGHT REDUCTION OF FLANGE COUPLING USING CAE TOOLS

Abstract

Coupling is a mechanical component used for transmitting power from one shaft to another shaft rotating at particular RPM at a
long distance. In flange coupling two shafts are connected together at their ends with the help of flanges for transmitting power.
The rigid flange coupling is specially designed and developed for horizontal shaft mounted gear unit applications. Today every
manufacturing industry has a challenge to increase the strength to weight ratio of the component. In the project our objective is to decrease the weight of flange coupling. For this, composite material aluminium silicon carbide is used for the flange which is
light in weight and good thermal and mechanical properties. In the project we used Finite Element Analysis method to optimize
the flange coupling design. In the work design of flange coupling is made by using CATIA V5 design software and static structural
analysis is carried out in ANSYS workbench software and the stress and deformation was calculated. The Finite Element Analysis
results are significant to improve the component design at the early developing stage. The main objective of the work is to reduce
the weight of the flange coupling without affecting the performance so as to minimize the cost of the material.