π D K
2172 INVOLUTE SPLINES
Table 9. Fatigue-Life Factors, K
f
, for Splines
No. of Torque
Cycles
a
Fatigue-Life Factor, K
f
Unidirectional Fully-reversed
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
1.8
1.0
0.5
0.4
0.3
1.8
1.0
0.4
0.3
0.2
a
A torque cycle consists of one start and one stop, not the number of revolutions.
Table 10. Wear Life Factors, K
w
, for Flexible Splines
Number of
Revolutions of Spline
Life Factor,
K
w
Number of
Revolutions of Spline
Life Factor,
K
w
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
4.0
2.8
2.0
1.4
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
…
1.0
0.7
0.5
…
Wear life factors, unlike fatigue life factors given in Table 9, are based on the total number of
rev- olutions of the spline, since each revolution of a flexible spline results in a complete cycle of
rocking motion which contributes to spline wear.
Definitions: A fixed spline is one which is either shrink fitted or loosely fitted but
piloted with rings at each end to prevent rocking of the spline which results in small
axial move- ments that cause wear. A flexible spline permits some rocking motion such
as occurs when the shafts are not perfectly aligned. This flexing or rocking motion
causes axial movement and consequently wear of the teeth. Straight-toothed flexible
splines can accommodate only small angular misalignments (less than 1 deg.) before
wear becomes a serious prob- lem. For greater amounts of misalignment (up to about 5
deg.), crowned splines are prefer- able to reduce wear and end-loading of the teeth.
Shear Stress Under Roots of External Teeth: For a transmitted torque T, the
torsional shear stress induced in the shaft under the root diameter of an external spline
is:
16 TK
a
S = ------------------
s
3
re f
16 TD
re
K
a
for a solid shaft (1)
S
s
= - for a hollow shaft
4 4
(2)
-----------------------------------
π ( D
re
– D
h
)
K
f
The computed stress should not exceed the values in Table
11.
Table 11. Allowable Shear, Compressive, and Tensile Stresses for Splines
Material
Hardness
Max. Allowable Stress
Shear Stress,
psi
Compressive Stress, psi
Tensile Stress,
psiBrinellRockwell C StraightCrowned
Steel
160–200
230–260
302–351
—
—
33–38
20,000
30,000
40,000
1,500
2,000
3,000
6,000
8,000
12,000
22,000
32,000
45,000
Surface-hardened Steel — 48–53 40,000 4,000 16,000 45,000