About Shaft Calculations (AutoCAD Mechanical Toolset)

Calculate deflection lines, bending moments, torsion moments, and safety factors for shafts or axles.

You can also use the shaft calculation to determine the strength of the shaft at selected points on the shaft periphery.

With the shaft calculation feature, you can carry out calculation on any of the following:

• Full or hollow shafts
• Rotating axles
• Stationary axles

Before you can start the calculation, you first must define a sufficient support for the shaft. You can then apply force moments, point loads, line loads, or gear forces to the shaft. The material for the shaft can be selected from the DIN or ANSI standards or specified manually.

When defining loads, you can specify that they are Dynamic Loads. After that you can specify a minimum and a maximum value for the load. The shaft calculation processes both these values simultaneously.

Note: When performing the strength calculation (based on DIN 743 or ANSI), the following assumptions are made:

• When a dynamic type of load is applied to the shaft, the average value of that load is assumed to be null.
• Performing calculation on a rotating axle or on a shaft is carried out in the same way. No torsion moment is considered in case of an axle.
• A constant and an oscillating bending moment can be applied to a stationary axle. No torsion moment is considered here. For safety reasons, the calculation uses the maximum amplitude of the oscillating bending moment and the value of the constant bending moment.