One of my colleagues at work approached me about a shaft in a test rig that has a crack and he was wondering if the rig case would be able to contain the shaft if it boke at the location of the crack. I've done analysis of various ballistic impacts from flying debris, but even though I have designed shaft coupling guards I have never approached it from this point of view. Is there a standard for containment of failed drive shafts? I haven't found one. Most of the literature seems to be centered around not allowing an operator to touch a moving shaft, not impact containment.

Anyone out there have experience with this. I can't share the specifics, but I'm looking for some guidance on methods and containment energy for what I would assume would be a whirling/whipping shaft as the rig spools down. There are vibe sensors and torque measurement plus they would hear it through the cell walls so the operator would shut down when a failure occurs.

And before anyone asks why they want to use a cracked shaft, its mainly schedule driven and no personnel are exposed to any danger.