UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

MACHINE DESIGN
MOW 312
Semester Test 2
June 2021
Lecturer: RJ Huyssen
Student: Initials Surname Student #
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Marks 60 Time: 90min

Themes Addressed
Pressure Vessels Welding & Bonding Heat Treatment Gears

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 Question 1
[28]

Background
Your design team is working on the development of a Small Personal Vehicle (SPV), which allows
pressurization of the occupant protection structure as an energy store in a pneumatic power system. In a design
report, your team is proposing the manufacturing process for the pressure vessels (PVs) which form this
protective structure shown in Fig. 1. Your help is required to provide missing information, to review the draft
and to answer some questions.

Extract from the Project Proposal

‘… For the production vehicle, the PVs are to be made from seamless stainless steel tubing which will be
drawn to the required diameters. This cold forming process may Q1a: introduce residual stresses and cause
work hardening. The tubes will be heated into the austenite region before shaping the ends by a hot forging
process. Thereafter, the end details shown in Fig. 2 will be cut by lath to form the end domes with the thread.
The heat treatment of Q1b: spherodization would improve machinability. After the machining on the lath,
the tubes are bent into their final shape. The material property of Q1c: good ductility is desired for this cold
bending process so that smaller forces are required and large deformations can be achieved. This technique is
preferred over welding of machined end domes onto the tubing Q1d: given the risk of introducing defects
and changing the corrosion resistance of the stainless steel.
However, to make some prototypes of such PVs, machined end domes of the same material are to be welded
to the tube ends as illustrated in Fig.2 to form a Q1e: butt joint with a single bevel groove (of 30°, no gap, all-
round). The propose welding technique suitable for such prototypes is Q1f: TIG because Q1g: it requires no
setting up, offers highest weld quality, has no risk for slag inclusions, offers best control over joint quality
and the filler material can be the same as the base material. For prototypes, automation is not required.
This welding technique can be described with reference to the principles of heating, shielding and filling as
follows: Q1h: An electric arc between a non-consumable tungsten tip and the work piece introduces the
heat for melting, a shielding gas e.g. argon around the arc prevents oxidation, a filler stick of the same
material can be fed into the weld pool by hand. …’
[2+2+2+2+2+1+4+3 = 18]

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Instructions
On one prototype PV, after grinding the welding joint down to the tube diameter, the joint defects of underfill
and incomplete penetration were noticed.
i) Comment on whether these could be fixed without redoing the joint.
[2]
The underfill is on the outside and by TIG welding this can be filled (corrected, fixed).
The incomplete penetration is inaccessible from the inside and would require a deep re-melt or grinding
down. It may then be easier to rather redo the joint or to label the PV with a lower operational pressure.

The joint is measured to have only penetrated to halve the joint depth. With the tube outside diameter of
80 mm, the wall thickness of 3 mm and the operational pressure of 200 bar, the material strength of the tube
and dome of 420 MPa and that of the filler material 480 MPa the design was based on a load factor of 1.1 and
a safety factor of 1.5.
j) Work out the axial stress in the welding joint when the PV is subjected to its test pressure.
[4]
Axial Force (with defect) = 116.4 kN, Axial Stress (with defect) = 315 MPa

k) Mention any assumptions.

[2]
 No other loads are acting on the PV
 the underfill has been fixed
 residual stresses have been relived
 stress concentrations are not considered
 defect is the same all-round

l) Estimate the effective safety factor during the test.

[2]
Effective SF = Strength / Actual Stress = 420/315 = 1.3

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 Question 2
[12]

Background
For the design of the wheel-based gearbox in the SPV, your team has selected an epicyclic gear train
arrangement to match the torque supplied by the air motor to the torque demand from the wheel. A colleague
has worked out the gear ratio needed to be 4.2. He found that this ratio can be achieved with the sun gear
having a pitch circle diameter of 40 mm, and then the outer gear diameter must be 128 mm. This allows for
using 5 planet gears in the arrangement.
The housing is to be mounted directly onto the air motor and the assembly will be mounted on the suspension
struts of the vehicle (thus not rotating). The ring gear is fixed to the housing and the wheel is driven by the
Arms. The driving gear is mounted on the air motor shaft. As compressor (during braking), the air motor can
put the highest torque of 250 Nm onto the sun gear shaft. The efficiency of the gearbox in the gear-up direction
(output torque being higher than the input torque) is 96% while in the gear-down direction (when the air motor
is working as compressor) the efficiency is only 90%. Each planet gear is carried by two ball bearings on the
arms.

Instructions
a) Work out the pitch circle diameter of the planet gears.
DPlanet = (DRing –DSun)/2 = (128 – 40)/2 = 44 mm
[2]
b) Work out the maximum torque on the shaft holding the arms.
TArm = TComp*GR/ηGear-Down = 250*4.2/0.9 = 1167 Nm
[3]
c) Work out the radial bearing loads on each planet bearing during maximum braking.
FBearing = TArm/Arm/NPlanets/NBearings = 1167/[(0.04+0.044)/2]/5/2 = 2.8 kN
[4]
d) Propose for which gear in this arrangement would you do the structural design for tooth bending loads
and explain why you propose this gear?
The sun gear:
 as it is the smallest and therefore has the smallest tooth base t to have the highest bending
stress at the tooth base.
 Also, it has the highest load cycles per tooth given that 5 planes are meshing with it.
[3]

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 Question 3
[20]
Q3a For the production SPV a proper material and appropriate final heat treatment must be selected for the
PVs in the occupant protection structure. The material property most decisive for this selection is its: [2]
Toughness

Q3b In order to obtain the desired final material property of the PVs, the last heat treatment must be: [2]
Hardening and tempering

Q3c When cyclic loads may lead to fatigue failure one should avoid placing a welding or bonding joint: [2]
where the effective stress range is large

Q3d The cooling rate during quenching is highest during the: [2]
(make two selections!)
nucleate boiling stage, in brine

Q3e As energy building block, a gearbox is typically considered as: [2]

energy converter

Q3f When having a gear in hand, which diameter can be measured directly: [2]
Addendum circle

Q3g Which of the treatments listed below would be the last which a high quality gear may undergo: [2]
nitriding

Q3h While reviewing the writing of a team member about the choice of the gear train and gear type for the
gearbox described above, you spot one statement in the report, with which you disagree: [2]
The input and output shafts are concentric but counter-rotating.

Q3i For a pair of gears with a given centre distance and pitch diameters, the following will change when a
larger pressure line angle is selected for the design: [2]
Their base circles become smaller

Q3j The module of the gears in the gearbox described above should be the same for all gears: [2]
True