The two plots below show the various materials in the CES Materials Database and how they rank according to the material selection indices I used (explained in the full report). I did the material selection in five stages, selecting by stiffness, strength, durability, and weight (the durability-weight comparison is shown in the CES-generated plot below) followed by cost and manufacturing method.
At the end of this process I selected a low-alloy steel and entered the material properties into the Matlab program. The Matlab program then ran the numbers to optimize the shaft diameters for the front and rear axles and driveshafts. The program then outputs the four plots below, which are visualizations of the shaft geometry and contain information about the cost of the shaft and the factors of safety for each section of each shaft.
