Design and Analysis of Steel Reel Shaft by Using FEA

This paper describes the analysis of steel reel shaft as drive shaft in a process of umbilical spooling of wire rope. There is a need to investigate shaft behaviour in the conditions of increasing workload. The aim is to investigate avoiding possible redesign or enabling redesign with minimal costs. Stress analysis has been carried out by using finite element analysis (FEA) and results are compared with the analytically calculated values. Finite element analysis has been carried out using maximum stress criteria and the area of potential failure is found. The main objective of this paper is to find balance in results between "design by rule" and "design by analysis". Design by rule provides rules on how to design a steel reel shaft using analytical equations and other strict rules from design elements. Design by analysis provides rules on using numerical analysis, typically finite element analysis to design a steel reel shaft. The steel reel shaft has been geometrically modelled using SolidWorks. To check all stresses, linear static analysis is done using DSS Simulation and Ansys