Strength of the shaft/hub joint using a finite element model

This article describes the effect of the roughness size on the axial slip strength between the parts of shaft/hub joints with interference fit. The surface roughness was obtained from a turning process with different finishes (fine, medium and rough). A finite element modeling was developed, which uses a normal contact stiffness equivalent to the size of the surface roughness between the joint pieces to represent the real contact. In order to validate the numerical model, theoretical results of contactpressure and extraction force of the shaft/hub joint with smooth elements were compared with the corresponding numerical results obtained. The numerical results from studies that considered the size of the surface roughness showed that the axial load capacity of the joint decreased with larger roughness.