Development of analysis tools for spline couplings

Improved shaft spline design methods are required to meet the needs of new civil aero engine designs that have higher bypass ratios and reduced core s izes. The paper describes the development of new analytical techniques to p redict the contact stresses and load transfer mechanisms in spline coupling s. Applications are presented and comparisons made with experimental data. The availability of prediction from the computational models for proposed t ransmission joint designs will allow the exploitation of fretting and wear experimental data to predict durability.