Traction Winch- Design, calculation and analyses

P.F. CABRAL

Departamento de Engenharia Mecnica
ISEL Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa
Rua Conselheiro Emdio Navarro, 1- 1959-007 Lisboa
Email: pedro.mf.cabral@gmail.com, web: http://www.otrimaran.blogspot.com

Keywords: Mechanical engineering design, traction winch, finite element analyses, traction
winch
Abstract This paper describes the ideation, design, conventional sizing calculation based on
expedite empirical equations and validation of the results by the use of finite elements
analyses of the critical components in a traction winch intended for use in marine
environment, such as those often found in shipyards slipways, leisure marinas and sailing or
boating clubs to winch boats out of the water. It transcribes and resumes the essence of the
project developed by the author for final evaluation at the Projecto Mecnico (Mechanical
Project) subject as lectured in ISEL during the summer semester of the 2012/2013 academic
period.
1. INTRODUCTION
Traction winches can be found in marinas, shipyards, boating clubs and generally wherever a
boat slipway is found all over the world. Their purpose is to provide a reliable and safe means
of pulling boats over wheeled dollies out of the water up an inclined plan, being found in
many sizes and pulling capacities adequate for the maneuver of all kinds of vessels from the
smallest leisure yacht to the largest ocean freighter.
2. GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
The traction winch hereinafter described shall have the following characteristics and
performance:
Suitable for long, maintenance free operation in marine environment;
Electrically driven;
Equipped with an adjustable brake;
Capable of a nominal traction speed of 0.5m/s at full load;
50m range;
Maximum pulling capacity of a 10t load over inflatable tires in a 15 inclined plan.
3. IDEATION
The authors experience in boating has contributed for the initial empirical ideation of the
mechanism. It has been observed that the rugged construction and apparent over-sizing
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normally associated with these equipments is needed to allow sustained safe operation and
reliability even under the harsh corrosive seaside environment and occasional overloads
imposed by careless operation such as the use of dollies with poorly inflated tires or badly
corroded bearings, unintentional inversion of the traction direction while lowering boats to the
water, operator disregard for the capacity of the machine, namely in what concerns maximum
pulling capacity, lack of or poor maintenance. In this regard the initial ideation has produced
the mechanism described as follows:
Electrical motor with high start-up torque, allowing for the winch to resume pulling
even if the load is for some reason brought to a halt while still in the inclined plan;
Multiple transmission stages after the and use of a high speed electrical drive motor to
allow for the use of as small a motor as possible, while keeping the considerations of
the previous point;
First transmission stage achieved with v-belts, thus allowing for smooth start-up and,
most importantly slippage if the maximum load is grossly exceeded;
Spur geared second and following transmission stages for maximum torque
transmission capability and system reliability;
Shafts, chassis, drums, gears, traction steel rope and accessories built of stainless-steel
alloys whenever possible;
Use of sealed, pre-lubricated bearings from a well regarded brand to keep the
maintenance intervals as far apart as possible;
Use of self-aligning bearings to allow for minor misalignments of parts during
installation and bending of shafts under effort while at load without imposing untimely
wear to the bearings;
Service brake coupled to the shaft of the steel-rope drum, thus allowing the operator to
maintain full braking capacity even after catastrophic failure of any of the
transmission stages (including belt breakage at the first stage);
Hand operated service brake of uncomplicated and reliable conception so that the
braking capacity is kept even after electrical failure
These considerations together with observation of similar mechanisms already in service have
allowed the author to proceed with an initial 3D modeling idealization of the traction winch as
follows:
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Image 1- Overall view of the traction winch, as initially idealized (full-scale human figure provided for scale
perception)


Image 2- Idealization of the drive train/brake assembly

4. SIZING
The sizing of all the components of the project has been developed from the effective traction
load imposed by the following conditions:
Inclined plan slope: 15
Inflatable rubber tire to concrete rolling friction coefficient: 0.035
Gravitational acceleration: 9.8 m/s
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Load to be pulled: 10 t
As this:

Image 3- Actuating force diagram

{

Applying a 50% safety factor to allow for misuse and overload comes:


4.1.Steel rope sizing
The steel rope has been sized following the recommendations of the manufacturers technical
catalogue [1], which also provides guidelines for the sizing of the drum.
Having followed the mentioned catalogue the author settled for an AISI304 (UNS S304000)
stainless steel 6x19, in wire rope with the following characteristics:

y
x

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Image 4- CERTEX catalogue screen capture showing the characteristics for the different sizes of the chosen steel
wire rope

From the required range for the winch it was also possible to calculate the needed number of
turns around the rolling drum and, consequently, the width of the drum that will dictate the
overall width of the winch. Note that the author as predicted the use of a non-overlapping
rolling drum:
As 50 meters of cable are needed and the perimeter of the 300mm drum is 0.942m:

Considering that each turn of cable is rolled around the drum with no gap to the previous:

(4)

4.2.Motor sizing
The torque needed at the rolling drum shaft has been determined knowing the pull at the rope
and the diameter of the drum, which has been established at 300mm (an acceptable value in
terms of the ropes cycling fatigue as per the manufacturers catalogue). The calculation
process was as follows:

Knowing the drums diameter (300 mm) and the required traction speed (0.5 m/s) it has also
been possible to calculate the angular speed required at the drum shaft:

Assuming the use of a 3600 rpm motor the total transmission ratio could be calculated as
follows:

This value, applied to the previously determined required torque at the drum shaft has allowed
the author to determine the required torque at the motors shaft:
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Consulting the chosen manufacturers catalogue [2] an electrical three phase induction motor
with the following characteristics has been chosen:


Table 1- Siemenss electrical motors catalogue screenshot with the selected model highlighted

Since the effective rpm of the chosen unit is 3555, not 3600 as previously considered, the
already determined values had to be fine tuned as below:

4.3. Drive train sizing- first stage
As previously mentioned, the first transmission stage is one of v-belt typology which has been
calculated by means of the comprehensive method proposed by the chosen manufacturers [3]
catalogue. Since the use of v-belt type transmission stages with ratios higher than 1:3 is not
recommended the author has settled for that value for the traction winchs first transmission
stage. The use of pulleys with primitive diameter smaller than 100 mm is also not advisable.
As such and taking into account the use of standard diameters the author has opted for a
transmission stage composed by a driving pulley with a primitive diameter of 100 mm and a
driven one of 315 mm. This conducts to an effective transmission ratio of 3.15 which results
in an output rpm of:

All the previous considerations applied to the catalogues sizing method have resulted in a
first transmission stage sized as follows:
Input rpm 3555
Output rpm 1128.6
Ratio 1:3.15
Type of belt V- belt
Quantity of belts 3
Belt section B
Primitive length 1800
Distance between shafts 644.6
Driving pulleys primitive diameter 100
Driven pulleys primitive diameter 315
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Table 2- First transmission stage main characteristics

4.4.Drive train sizing- second and third stages
The second and third drive train stages are composed by spur gears coupled to their shafts
with adequately sized parallel keys. The gears have been dimensioned following the method
proposed by the reference literature [4], namely the Lewis equation which equates the
bending tension acting on any tooth in a given spur gear in terms of the tangential force, the
gear teeths height, length and width as follows:

Solving for L and considering as the allowable tension for the selected material leaves us
with an expedite mean of determining the length of the teeth, which corresponds to the width
of the geared wheel:

As a starting point the author has chosen a module of 7 for the gears to be used and has
divided the reduction needs remaining from the first stage in equal parts for the second and
third stages, thus simplifying the project by means of using sets of similar gears. It was also
taken into account the recommendation of the reference literature that gear reductions shall
not be higher than 1:10 per stage. The calculations were developed as follows:
It is known that the primary shaft (coupled to the first transmission stages driven pulley) will
rotate at 1128.6 rpm. It is also known that the needed rpm for the drum shaft is 32 rpm. This
allows us to establish that the combined reduction of the second and third stages must be:
(

)
As previously mentioned it has been decided that the second and third stages will feature
equal ratios. This can be calculated by:

To avoid teeth interference the following equation [4] allows one to determine the minimum
number of teeth in any given gear train as a function of its module and angle of pressure:

)
Making k=1 (coefficient for spur gears) comes:

) teeth
This allows us to immediately determine the number of teeth for the driven wheel:

teeth (16)
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Widely know formulae allow the development of several simple calculations to determine the
remaining unknowns for the Lewis equation:
Teeth height:

Teeth width:

Tangential force:

Image 5- Schematic of the forces acting upon spur gears teeth

Taking into account that all wheels must have the same module, construction material and
width the author has simplified the calculations by developing these for the worst case
scenario which is the last gear of the mechanism.
It is known from previous calculations that the torque at the drum shaft is:

Also knowing that the primitive radius of the bigger gears is:
707/2=353.5
Fn can now be determined:

Followed by Ft:

The author as opted for the use of AISI 410 cast stainless steel allow for the construction of
the gears. This material, while presenting reasonable mechanical characteristics and very good
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corrosion resistance also allows surface hardening by nitriding, which makes it adequate for
gear building. The yield tension for this material is 276 MPa.
The Lewis equation can now finally be applied and the teeth length determined as follows:

Since the catastrophic failure of the last gears teeth can result in an uncontrolled descent of
the load, thus jeopardizing people and property, the author has implemented a safety factor of
2 to L:


Input rpm 1128.6
Output rpm 32
Ratio 1:5.94 per stage
Pressure angle 20
Number of teeth z
Wheels 1,3 17
Wheels 2,4 101
Module m
Wheels 1,2 7
Wheels 3,4 7
Primitive diameter Dp
Wheels 1,3 119
Wheels 2,4 707
Distance between shaft centers c
Wheels 1,2
Wheels 3,4
413
Wheel width
Wheels 1,2
Wheels 3,4
100
Table 3- Second and third transmission stages characteristics

4.5.Brake
The author as decided for a simple band brake acting upon a drum coupled to the last shaft of
the transmission. The brake is to be manually operated through a crank wheel coupled to a
threaded rod that will tighten or loosen the band against the drum.
The sizing method for the apparatus was that suggested by the reference literature [4]
The diameter of the brake drum and the hugging angle of the band have been set respectively
at 700mm and 270.
The speed and torque considered were the same determined as for winching up.
To choose an adequate friction material the linear speed at the contact surface must be
determined:
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From the following table an adequate material is chosen based upon the previously calculated
speed, the choice of the highest friction coefficient and on the assumption that the brake will
be of the dry type (this excludes resilient paper material with an even higher friction
coefficient):


Table 4- Screenshot of Shigleys Mechanical Engineering Design table 16-3 regarding clutch and brake friction
materials characteristics.

Calculations for the acting loads follow:






Image 6- Schematic of the loads acting upon the brake band


{

The maximum pressure that the friction material will suffer can be calculated by:

P1 P2
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This confirms the adequacy of the chosen friction material, which according to table 4 is able
to withstand pressures as high as 100 psi.
The sizing of the threaded rod has been developed as follows, based as well on the
methodology proposed by the reference literature [4].
Condition for the thread system to be self-locking under load:

Considering a coefficient of friction of 0.15 (typical for dry steel to steel interaction) the
thread helix angle can be calculated as follows:

Considering a 28mm threaded rod with a 5 x 5 square section thread the pitch can now be
determined:

The force needed to apply the needed braking effort to the system can be determined as
follows:

Followed by the needed torque to apply this force:

(


)

The study of the tensions in the threads fillets can now be developed:
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Image 7- Schematic of a square section thread fillet

The following equations have been solved, as suggested in the reference literature [4], to
determine if the thread (machined from AISI 410 stainless steel rod with 276MPa yield
strength) is able to withstand the loads imposed upon it:

This confirms the adequacy of the chosen material and section.
To finalize the dimensioning of the brake system remains the calculation of the force that an
operator needs to exert in the crank wheel to actuate the brake at full braking capacity. To do
so it is needed to calculate torque resulting from the friction between the threaded rods collar
and its mounting:
Admitting a collar with a 60mm diameter, a 0.15 coefficient of friction and considering the
previously calculated 3700N force comes:

The total force to exert by the operated can now be calculated as follows, admitting a crank
wheel with a 218mm radius:

This is considered an acceptable value for an average adult to be able to apply effortlessly.
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Image 8- Detail rendering of the brake system
4.6.Shafts
The three transmission shafts of the winch have dimensioned taking into account all the loads
applied to them, including their own weight due to their relatively high diameter to length
ratio. The calculations have been developed in terms of yield strength, fatigue and resonance
as below described for the primary shaft (for the remaining two the same procedure was
used). The used method was that suggested by the complementary reference literature [5]:

Image 9- Primary shafts free body diagram in the horizontal plane



Image 10- Primary shafts free body diagram in the vertical plane


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Image 11- Primary shafts applied torsion distribution diagram

RA, RB: Reactions at the supports
FC: Load due to the forces exerted by the belts
FR: Load due to the forces exerted by the gears
M: Applied torsion
Knowing the needed torque at the last shaft and also knowing that the transmission ration
from there to the primary shaft is 1:111.4 the applied torsion at this shaft can be determined
as:

All the applied forces in the previously drawn free body diagram were equated in force
equilibrium equations which resulted in the following bending moment diagrams:

Image 12- Bending moment in the horizontal plane

Image 13- Bending moment in the vertical plane


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From here the combined bending moment can be calculated as a vectorial sum:

Having the author decided to manufacture the shafts from AISI 304 stainless steel with a yield
strength and 215MPa and to implement a safety factor of 3, the Von Mises criteria can be
applied as follows to determine a suitable shaft diameter:

As there the axial loads are negligible comes:

Thus a shaft with a diameter bigger than 30.2 mm is required to withstand the loads applied
upon it.
The dimensioning for fatigue has been developed from the following criteria:

As previously, the axial loads are negligible, so

Considering the following S-N curve for AISI 304 steel a value of 150 MPa for

is chosen.
The correction factor have been set as follows:
Surface finish factor ks=0.78 (as machined surface finish);
Size factor kt=0.85 (diameter between 7.5 and 50mm)
Reliability factor kfb=0.702 (99.9% reliability is chosen as human or property damage
can result from failure of this element)
Temperature factor kt=1 (temperature never exceeding 70C)
Fillet factor kf=1 (as the shaft is of constant section no fillets are required)
Also knowing that the ultimate strength for AISI 304 steel is 515 MPa the criteria can now be
solved for d:
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)
Meaning that the previous sizing for yield strength of 30.2 mm still prevails.
The dimensioning against the occurrence of resonance was developed under a principle of
sizing the shaft in such way that the first vibration mode is never achieved under operation.
These calculations have been developed as follows:
The 30mm shaft has been reduced to two mass-spring systems, one regarding the part
between supports and another regarding the overhanging part where the v-belt pulley is
coupled:

Image 14- Schematic of the considered mass-spring systems

The first calculation was performed with reference to the longest beam since this is the worse
case scenario for this system:
The mass of the part of the shaft confined between the supports has been calculated:

The mass of the spur gear has also been determined with the mass properties resource of the
CAD system used
1
:

The mid-beam deflection caused by the shafts own weight was calculated as follows:

Followed by the mid-beam deflection caused by the spur gears weight:

Solving Rayleighs equation for the first vibration mode comes:

1
Dassault Systmes Solid Works 2012
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Since the primary shafts angular speed has already been determined to be of 1128.6 rpm the
shaft is found to be oversized by ~25%. However the author has decided to perform one more
iteration since, due to the high gear ratio, small variations in the load speed, namely while
descending, can easily cause the primary shaft to achieve critical speed. Solving the previous
method for a 40mm shaft returns an acceptable oversizing allowing the shaft to turn safely
bellow its first mode vibration at up to approximately 31000 rpm.
Parallel keys have been sized by simple shear resistance calculations. Adequate DIN 6885
types have been chosen for all shafts.
4.7.Bearings
Bearings have been chosen for the determined loads, angular speeds and shaft sizes using
FAGs proprietary online sizing tool. As previously mentioned, sealed self aligning types
have been chosen in order to absorb the bending of the shafts without imposing the damaging
loads that would result from the use of cheaper non self-aligning components. The mounting
of the bearings is achieved by use of circlips.
4.8.Fixtures
The winch is to be fixed to its anchoring with stainless steel machine bolts. As the resulting
loads at these bolts is expect to be of the shear type, pre loading of the bolts is required to
eliminate its adverse effects. The calculation methods used follows:
The winchs own weight has been estimated to be around 1000kg with the mass properties
resource of the used CAD system
2
.

Image 15- Schematic of the forces acting upon the winch


2
Dassault Systmes Solid Works 2012
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The reactions at A and B supports have been found to be as follows under full load
conditions:

Since there are 2 forward and two rear support points these loads need to be divided by 2 to
found the values corresponding to each support point.
The calculations for the forward supports is omitted because the rear set it that under more
significant solicitation, not only due to the larger shear loads but also because the tractions
loads observed tend to pull the winch away from the mounting plane. Calculating for the
required pre-load to promote a friction force enough to overcome the shear condition returns:

Solving for the resulting traction effort (traction imposed by the load + pre load) on the rear
sets of bolts:

Admitting the use of A2-70 stainless steel bolts with a proof strength for metric series of
and implementing a safety factor of 10, given the risks associated with the
failure of these components and also due to the fact that bolt oversizing translates into little
additional cost in such project comes:

Being 33mm the minimum diameter if only one bolt were to be used in each support. Since
this is a relatively high diameter, not promptly available, the author has decided to implement
4 bolts in each support. In this case the diameter of each one decreases as below determined:

Finally the following empirical expression was applied as suggested by Shigleys Mechanical
Engineering Design to determine the torque to be applied while tightening the bolts in order
to bring them to the project pre-load:

Admiting k=0.2 comes:

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4.9.COMPILATION OF THE RESULTS
The previous calculations have returned the following table which resumes the main
characteristics of the traction winch as well as those of its most important mechanical
components:
ELECTRICAL TRACTION WINCH FOR MARINE ENVIRONMENT OPERATION
Drive Electrical, three phase (380V, 40.5A)
Nominal load 10t
Load support Rubber tire dolly over concrete
Nominal slope 15
Traction speed @ full load 0.4995m/s
Range 50m
Brake Band type acting at the rolling drum shaft. Manually operated.
Table 5- Winchs characteristics

Component Characteristics Qty
Steel rope AISI304, 6x19 50m
Motor 22kW, 3555rpm 1
Belts V type, Section B, L=1800 3
Driving pulley 100mm, 3slots,seco B 1
Driven pulley 315mm, 3slots seco B 1
Primary shaft AISI304, 40x1490 1
Secondary shaft AISI304, 70x1405 1
Drum shaft AISI304, 120x1405 1
Spur gears 1, 3 AISI410, z=17, Dp=119, L=100 2
Spur gears 2,4 AISI410, z=101, Dp=707, L=100 2
Primary shafts bearings 80x40x23, sealed self aligning ball bearings 2
Secondary shafts bearings 125x70x31, sealed self aligning ball bearings 2
Drum shafts bearings 215x120x42, sealed self aligning ball bearings 2
Brake threaded rod Square thread, 5x5, d=28, AISI410 1
Brakes friction material Cinta 10x100 woven asbestos yarn and wire 1.65m
Fixing bolts M18 A2-70 16
Table 6- Winchs main components

It as also been possible to deduce na equation to calculate the maximum weight of the load to
be pulled as a function of the slope, shall the winch be used in an inclined plane with a slope
diferent of the 15 used as a reference for the sizing process:

)
5. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSES
Dassault systmes Solid Works Simulation module has been used with the objective of
compare its findings with the analytical results. The following paragraphs present the study
performed upon the dimensioning of the more severely solicited spur gear while under full
service load:

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Support type Considered loads Type Value
Bearing suport
Gravity Gravity 9.8m/s
Gearing force
Applied along a split line drawn longitudinally
across a tooth at primitive diameters height.
18246N
Room temperature
Table 7- Simulation conditions for spur geared wheel number 4


Images 16 and 17- Simulation fixtures and loads


Image 18- Finite element mesh

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Image 19- Maximum simulated Von Mises stress

A maximum Von Mises strees of 90.31 has been observed as the result of the simulation. This
corresponds to a factor of safety of safety of around 3, a results that classifies Lewiss
equations numbers as conservative.
6. CONCLUSIONS
From the development of this paper, and of the complete report on which it is based, the
author has been able to conclude the following:

The process of conception and calculation of mechanical systems is one of heavily
iterative nature, experience being a very important factor in allowing the engineer to
approach the design with empirical initial sizings close to those that calculations will
confirm to be the final components characteristics, thus savig precious design time;

The sizing equation used to dimension the spur gears (Lewis equation) is fairly
conservative by comparison with the finite element analyses results. This illustrates
the principle that shall govern every engineering project and by wich the designer
must always be suspicious of the results obtained by a single methodology, being a
good principle and practice to always confirm results by means alternative to those
used in the first place, especially if major personell or property damage is probable of
resulting from failure of the designed equipment.