Most of the automobiles has Rear wheel drive and front engine installation consists a transmission shaft. Substitution of conventional metallic Propeller Drive Shaft with the composite structure has many advantages due to its less weight, high strength and higher specific stiffness. The reduction of weight of the Propeller Drive Shaft will lead to reduction in overall weight of the vehicle which will aid to achieve the desired goal. Because of the high specific strength and high specific modulus, the advanced composite materials such as Carbon and Glass Fibers with suitable resins are widely used. The advance Composite materials seem ideally suited for long power Propeller Drive Shaft applications. The main considerations are total deformation, stress and strain distribution in the modified model of the drive shaft. In this paper we analyze a composite Propeller Drive Shaft for power transmission, it demonstrates the favorable factors and identifies the suitable composite Propeller Drive Shaft that can replace the conventional steel drive shafts for an automotive application. The aim is to reduce the weight of drive shaft. This research paper basically deals with FEM analysis by using it we analyze and compare the design of various composite materials.

Keywords : Drive shaft; conventional shaft; Composites drive shaft; SM45C; Carbon Epoxy; Glass Epoxy; Kevlar49; CATIA ; ANSYS.