Modelling and Dynamic Analysis of an Unbalanced and Cracked Cardan Shaft for Vehicle Propeller Shaft Systems

The vibrational behaviour of misaligned rotating machinery is described and analysed in this paper. The model, constructed based on the equations of vehicle dynamics, considered the dynamic excitation of a single Hooke’s joint. The system adopted the breathing functions from a recent publication to approximate the actual breathing mechanism of a cracked driveshaft. The study aimed to understand the transmission of a nonlinear signal from the unbalanced and cracked driveshaft to an unbalanced driven shaft via a Hooke’s joint. The governing equation of the system was established based on the energy principle and the Lagrangian approach. The instantaneous frequency (IF) identification of the cracked driveshaft was extracted based on the synchrosqueezing wavelet technique. To correlate the results, the nonlinear synchrosqueezing wavelet transforms combined with the classical waves techniques were experimentally used in various scenarios for dynamic analysis of the Cardan shaft system. The variations in the dynamic response in the form of a rising trend of higher harmonics of rotational frequency and increased level of sub-harmonic peaks in both shafts were presented as significant crack indicators. The synchrosqueezing response showed breathing crack excitation played a crucial role in the mixed faults response and caused divergence of the vibration amplitudes in the rotor’s deflections. The simulation and test results demonstrated that the driveshaft damage features impacted the transfer motion to the driven shaft and the Hooke’s joint coupling was the principal source of instability in the system. The proposed model offers new perspectives on vibration monitoring and enhancement analysis to cover complex Cardan shaft systems.