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of a Double-Cardan-Joint Driveline
I. S. Fischer
Assistant Professor.
Mem.ASME
New Jersey Institute of Technology,
Newark, NJ 07102
R. N. Paul
Mem.ASME
W. R. Graces Co.,
Columbia, MD 21044
Introduction
The double-Cardan-joint driveline has been extensively used
as a driveline in machinery, particularly the Hotchkiss
automotive drive. The geometry of an application is specified
by the offset angles (the angle between the input and intermediate shafts at the driving Cardan joint and the angle
between the intermediate and output shaft and the driven Cardan joint) and by the shaft offset (the minimum distance between the input and output shaft axes). In most applications
the mechanism is arranged so that the offset angles at the two
Cardan joints are equal and all the shafts are in the same
plane. Under those conditions the double-Cardan-joint
driveline will operate as a constant-velocity coupling. Analyses
of this arrangement are given in Doughtie and James (1954),
in Tyson (1954), and also by Austin, Denavit, and Hartenberg
(1965) who added consideration of manufacturing tolerance
effects. If the shafts are in different planes and the offset
angles are equal, then the Cardan joints can be phased relative
to one another to produce a constant velocity coupling. This
case was discussed by Mabie and Ocvirk (1975) and by Wagner
(1979).
Recently, the double-Cardan-joint driveline has been used
as a steering shaft in front-wheel-drive automobiles. As
reported in Cowles and Chiu (1984), this application does not
allow equal offset angles. The yokes of the two Cardan joints
on the intermediate shaft are located in different planes, a proContributed by the Mechanisms Committee for publication in the JOURNAL OF
MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received September 1989.
Analysis
The ideal double-Cardan-joint driveline is a six link spatial
mechanism with revolute joints. Although the Griibler equation predicts zero degrees of freedom, the mechanism operates
because of its special proportions. If those special proportions
are lost because of manufacturing tolerance errors such as
nonright angle moving link lengths and offset joint axes, then
it is necessary to consider one joint, in this study selected to be
the output joint, as cylindrical to accommodate the sliding
that occurs. This sliding motion is similar to that exhibited by
the single Cardan joint as described in Fischer and Freuden-
Fig. 1
stein (1984). Therefore, this study will model the doubleCardan-joint driveline as an RRRRRC mechanism.
A double-Cardan-joint driveline is illustrated in Fig. 1. It
has six joints numbered 1 through 6. At joint i 1 there is a
coordinate frame fixed on the link connecting joints i 1 and
/. Its position is specified by a z-axis aligned along the axis of
joint /1 and an x-axis aligned along the line of shortest
distance between the axes of joints / 1 and /. The transformation between the coordinate frame on the link connecting
joints i 1 and /' and the coordinate frame on the link connecting joints /' and /+ 1 can be expressed as a dual-number matrix
IA,] =
C(0,)
-5(0,)
c(ai_l)s(di)
c(a,_,)c(0,)
-.y(a,_i)
sia^Jsid,)
s(a,_i)c(0 / )
c(&,-_,)
(1)
-3(6,)
s(ai_l)c(Bi)
c(a,_,)
-d,c(et)
-djC^a^sidi)
-a,-_i.s(a!i_i)c(0i)
-,_,cCa,-.,)
-dis(al_l)s(6i)
+ai_lc(oti_l)c(6i)
-^.^(a,.,)
(2)
M=
0~
;_
(4)
-s(a,_l)
-diS(d,)
+e
where
(START)
A,^)7
. . .
(9)
and
Ax A2 A3 A4 A5
(10)
A6=B
1.2
1,1
1,3
3,2
B\,\~I
#2,1
B 1,2
B2,2
4,3
3,3 J
B 3,1
/
B 3,2
B 3,3 '
(12)
= Ft
-'reali T
-real-> ,
real 1,3
= Breal 3,1
V5
(STOP)
= R
'realj 3
and
dual 1,2
QpA68D6] = I
(5)
where A are each evaluated at 0 and D which are guesses of
the displacement variables, ddn and dD are the errors between the guesses and exact values of the displacements, and
Qr and Qp are the partial-derivative operators corresponding
to equation (1) such that
[Q,] =
-c(a)+eas(a)
-s(a)
c(a)-eas(a)
s(ot)+eac(ct)
[Qph
ec(a)
es(a)
0
0
real'2,1
+ Bn
= B "3,1 + Br,
-eac(a)
. ^dual .
'H,
H,
H.'r.1,2 H,
H,
H,
HA
(16)
(7)
(8)
H, V,l,2 Hi,'r.1,2
H-,
H.
H- r,2,3 H,Jr,2,3 H*
where
+ H6886 + H18D6=BT-I
+ BTi "2,2
+ B
.-Mdual.
es(a)
(14)
'real
=R
and
ec(a)
'dual3 j
-dual3 2
(15)
'real 3
^real2,2
'real-i
^real2,3
The left-hand side of equations (14) and (15) contain the
linear combination of the respective elements of the H
matrices and the error terms as can be seen from the left-hand
side of equation (8).
Equations (14) and (15) can be combined as partitions of a
single matrix of real-number equations. The resultant equation will have the form:
(6)
0
"2,1
The real set, equation (13), however, does not include the
constraint that the diagonal terms must each be equal to unity
at closure. This constraint can be included either as three additional equations as described by Uicker, Denavit, and
Hartenberg (1964) or through modification of the current
equations set as discussed in Sandor and Erdman (1984).
Adopting the second method modifies equation (13) to
reaij 3
dualj
3
^dual2 3
^realj 2
= B,
(13)
3,2
= R
real
H<
H, V,2,3
^r.2,3
M=
H, d,l,2 H,3d,l,2 HA4 rf,l,2 H<
HK
5
rf,l,2 "d,l,2
Hn>d,l,2
^'d.U
ld,l,3
H,
rf,2,3
3d,l,l
H,3
*d,l,3
H,
d,2,3
5d,l,3
6rf,l,3
H,5 d,2,3 H
Hr d,2,3
(17)
Orpal
real-)2 ji +
^ -"reaij
^reali ji
real31
"3,2
with its position. It is usually safe to use 20 degrees as a maximum step size.
+ ^rea]^
+ -^real 3,3
+ B
+ BreaU
BA
(18)
L^dual 3 2
^ = E
and
E l t ^ e a ^ - M ^ ' + ^dua,]^ 2 )
(21)
/=i y=i
be2
504
865
866
5D6
(19)
j=l
(20)
The guesses of the displacement variables d and Dn are revised by the error terms, A, and this new set of joint variable
positions is used in the next iteration to compute a new set of
error terms. Convergence is obtained when each of the error
terms obtained from equation (20) is less than some specified
resolution limit.
After obtaining a solution for the given position of the independent variable Q{, a new position is selected and the entire
process repeated. The solution set from the previous position
is used as the starting values for the new iteration. The step
size between successive positions must be small enough to
allow the Newton-Raphson technique to find closure. This
step size depends upon the specified mechanism and varies
ax
k= \
d[Bd
duaUjfc
y'=l
(22)
dXi
k=\
Equations (21) and (22) are used by the DFP method to find
a solution. The DFP algorithm is described in detail by Fox
(16) and basically consists of selecting the direction of steepest
descent of the objective function from the variable vector,
proceeding in that direction by an amount determined by the
closeness of the objective function to the target value (in this
case, zero) and then repeating three steps until the convergence
criteria is satisfied.
Experimental Investigation
A series of experiments were conducted to validate the
results of the numerical analysis. An experiment apparatus in-
BASEPLATE
PHASE COWLING
1HPW
SHAFT MODULE
DOlME-CAftOAN-JOJNT
SHAFT
lhelo-2
lhcto-3
thelo-4
lheto-5
lheto:6
d - 6 , inches
350325
300
275
250
225
200-J
175
150
125 -j
100
75
50 H
25
OH
-25
-50 H
T i i i \ i i i i i i
i
i
i
i
i
i
i
r
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 2B0 300 320 340 360
THOA-I POSITION, degrees
Fig. 4 Computed joint motions offset angles both 35 deg., offset 0.867
in., phase angle SO deg.
-9
-10
T
20
40
1 i i i i i i i i i i i i i r
80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360
corporating a double-Cardan-joint driveline was designed on a motion of each joint in the double-Cardan-joint driveline. A
modular basis so that the offset angle at each Cardan joint, plot of the joint motions for a typical double-Cardan-joint
the angle between the input and output shafts, the offset driveline are shown in Fig. 4. i?-type joints numbered 2
distance between the input and output shafts and the phase through 5 display single-cycle variation per revolution of the
angle between the two Cardan joints could be varied. It is il- , input shaft. Motion of prismatic joint D6 is zero for this examlustrated in Fig. 3. Although provided for in the analysis, the ple. The motion of the output shaft is displayed as angle 66
experiment apparatus did not permit variation of link angular and varies with two cycles per input-shaft revolution. This
dimensions and joint-axis offsets within the two Cardan nonuniform motion can best be visualized by the input-output
joints. Both the input and output shafts were equipped with (IO) relationship, the lead and lag of the output-shaft rotaoptical shaft encoders to measure rotation. These were inter- tion with respect to the input-shaft rotation. Figure 5 illustrates the IO relationship for the joint motions in Fig. 3.
faced to a microcomputer for data acquisition.
If tolerance errors result in offset joint axes, then sliding
Results and Conclusions
will occur at the prismatic joint. Figure 6 shows the sliding
The numerical solution is capable of producing data on the which was computed by the numerical method for a doubleJournal of Mechanical Design
-5.15
-5.2 H
-5.25
-5.3
-5.35
-5.4 i
-5.45
-5.5
-5.55
-5.6
-5.65
-5.7
-5.75
1
0
1 I
1 1 I
I
I
I
I
1 I
1 1
I
I
1 1
20 40 60 80 100 120 HO 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360
i~~[
7
9
i
II
i
i
i
13 15 17
i
i
i
i
i
i
19 21 23 25 27 29
i
i
i
r
31 33 35 37
alpha-6
alpha-6
alpha-6
1
= 0.000 in
= 0.867 in
= 2.169 in
10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
10
9
AA
*
#--
9-9
smaller
smaller
smaller
smaller
/
,
8
7
'
6
5-
-t/
4 -
21-
3"
/ '
,y' /
.-'*''
,'S'
*'
-'
..-*
-"
-'*'"'
"
JS
^ J f ^ ^
s*
/ ^ ...-
.--
0-
1
8
1 I I
10 12 14
I I I 1
I I I I I I
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36
for zero relative phase angle. This is seen in Fig. 9 which provides a measure of the input-output fluctuation amplitude for
various combinations of joint angles at zero RPA. Larger
amplitudes would be obtained for non-zero RPA's. Several
characteristics can be observed in Fig. 8:
(1) Increasing the difference between the two joint angles
results in larger amplitudes.
(2) Larger joint angles, with the difference between them
held constant, produce greater amplitudes.
These facts point to the conclusion that the need to
minimize joint angle difference becomes ever more important
with larger joint angles.
SEPTEMBER 1991, Vol. 113 / 269
Conclusions. The relative phase angle is the most important variable affecting the input-output displacement relationship of the double-Cardan-joint driveline. Relative phase
angle is defined as the difference between the measured phase
angle and the angle of twist between the planes of each Cardan
joint. These planes are described geometrically by the center
lines of the two shafts connected to either end of each Cardan
joint.
Fluctuation in the input-output displacement relationship
vanishes when the joint angles at the two Cardan joints are
equal and the relative phase angle is set to zero.
Conditions where the two joint angles are unequal will
always produce some fluctuation in the input-output displacement relationship no matter what the relative phase angle. The
amplitude of this fluctuation is minimized when the relative
phase angle is zero. If the difference between the joint angles
and the relative phase angle are held constant, then the
amplitude of fluctuation will increase for larger joint angles.
An estimate of the magnitude of these effects is obtained by
noting that a double-Cardan-Joint driveline with both joint
angles equal to 45 degrees has an input-output fluctuation
amplitude that grows from zero to about 20 degrees as the
relative phase angle is varied from zero to 90 degrees. The
designer should remember the importance of the relative phase
angle and the joint angle difference on the input-output
displacement relationship, and that these quantities become
increasingly more important with larger joint angles.
Acknowledgments
S<S^*sJ
~l
0
20
phase
phase
phose
phose
ontjle
angle
angle
ongle
=
=
=
-
-20.1
0
30
60
10
60
80 100 120 HO 160 180 200 220 240 260 200 300 320 340 360
/ / "
\
7
~vwr-\~r
TAT
\v
A:__
n
0
20
40
60
80
= -20.1 deg
-20.1 deg '
= 0 deg
0 deg
irii
ir
100 120 HO 160 100 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360
10
. / ' ~v\
4J
*>
'',-v
/'"
"NOI
l
Ln
O
CL
LU
/ /
/ e
./ /
-2
-4
-<
-6
-10
-o
' -
/ /
-7
\\
''
i i
\\
''
//
'"/
-
\ \
\ \
':
\
\
\ \
\ \
\ \
\^
/ /
\^/^
Vv
i
V-.
= 30 deg
30 deg
= 60 deg
60 deg
1
i
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1 1 1
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360
T HE T A - 1 POSITION, d e g r e e s
Fig. 12 Comparison of experimental and computed data phase angles
- 20.1 and 0 deg. Offset angles both 30 deg., offset 0.867 in.
Doughtie, V. L., and James, W. H., Elements of Mechanism, John Wiley &
Sons, I n c , New York, NY, 1954.
Duffy, J., Analysis of Mechanisms and Robot Manipulators, WileyInterscience, Somerset, NJ, 1980.
Fischer, I. S., and Freudenstein, F., "Internal Force and Moment Transmission in a Cardan Joint with Manufacturing Tolerances," ASME JOURNAL OF
MECHANISMS, TRANSMISSIONS, AND AUTOMATION IN DESIGN, Vol. 106, September
353-357.
Hall, A. S., Root, R. R., and Sandgren, E., " A Dependable Method for Solving Matrix Loop Equations for the General Three-Dimensional Mechanism,"
ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry, August 1977, pp. 547-550.