Bonding Carbon Fiber to Steel

[Sophie]

I am part of a design team for my university where we are building an off-road car. This year, our team is investigating the possibility of making some of our drive shafts out of carbon fiber, but we are unsure of whether we could make a strong bond between carbon fiber and steel. I have read that aluminum and carbon fiber should be separated due to galvanic corrosion, is this the same with steel? Are there any other factors which should be considered? 

Thank you.

[lo_0l]

On 10/11/2024 at 11:02 AM, Sophie said:

I am part of a design team for my university where we are building an off-road car. This year, our team is investigating the possibility of making some of our drive shafts out of carbon fiber, but we are unsure of whether we could make a strong bond between carbon fiber and steel. I have read that aluminum and carbon fiber should be separated due to galvanic corrosion, is this the same with steel? Are there any other factors which should be considered? 

Thank you.

Certainly doable! Rock West Composites already sells a lot of carbon fiber tubes for driveshaft purposes.

What kind of racing are you doing? Any pics of your car?

[Sophie]

Thank you for your response. The club is Baja SAE, so we do off-road racing. I attached an image of our car and circled the shaft which we are thinking of making carbon. The shaft will only undergo torsion and is constrained to a diameter of 2 inches. Could I kindly ask for a recommendation of Rock West Composites drive shafts which could be used for this purpose?

Thank you in advance. 

[lo_0l]

1 minute ago, Sophie said:

Thank you for your response. The club is Baja SAE, so we do off-road racing. I attached an image of our car and circled the shaft which we are thinking of making carbon. The shaft will only undergo torsion and is constrained to a diameter of 2 inches. Could I kindly ask for a recommendation of Rock West Composites drive shafts which could be used for this purpose?

Thank you in advance. 

The concern here would be the tube getting hit by rocks and debris. Most off-road vehicles continue to use steel for this reason. Off-road cars also tend to see consistent speeds where you won't see as much long-term benefit through the race from carbon fiber. A lot of the benefit in carbon fiber driveshafts come from reducing weight so the engine doesn't have to overcome as much inertia during acceleration.