Energy analysis of propulsion shaft fatigue process in rotating mechanical system Part I Testing significance of influence of shaft material fatigue excitation parameters

The article discusses the problem of mathematical modelling of energy conversion processes in a rotating mechanical system for the purpose of identifying fatigue states of propulsion shafts in this system. A simplified physical model of the analysed system, constructed in an appropriate scale, has made the basis for the experimental research. The research programme took into consideration mechanical fatigue excitation of the model propulsion shaft to find the correlation between the dynamic system load generated by a bending moment and the energy state of a specified shaft segment. A physical model of the analysed process was proposed, for which the plan of static randomised block experiment was worked out. The recorded experimental results were used for statistical analysis of the significance of influence of the quantities exciting the propeller shaft fatigue process and the adequacy of the developed mathematical model describing shaft’s durability. The analysis made use of the F-Snedecor test. The article describes the general concept of the research, the constructed laboratory test rig, and the methodology of statistical inference concerning the significance of influence of input (exciting) parameters of the physical model on the recorded output parameters. The results of the performed statistical tests confirm the absence of the significance of influence of the rotational speed of the propulsion shaft on the selected types of rotating operation of the mechanical system. As a consequence, only one exciting parameter, which is the loading mass, is going to be taken into account in the functional description of fatigue life of the propulsion shaft.