Research Article Stress Analysis of Nonhomogeneous Rotating Disc With Arbitrarily Variable Thickness Using Finite Element Method
Research Article Stress Analysis of Nonhomogeneous Rotating Disc With Arbitrarily Variable Thickness Using Finite Element Method
Research Article Stress Analysis of Nonhomogeneous Rotating Disc With Arbitrarily Variable Thickness Using Finite Element Method
DOI:10.19026/rjaset.7.650
ISSN: 2040-7459; e-ISSN: 2040-7467
2014 Maxwell Scientific Publication Corp.
Submitted: October 09, 2013 Accepted: October 24, 2013 Published: April 19, 2014
Research Article
Stress Analysis of Nonhomogeneous Rotating Disc with Arbitrarily Variable
Thickness Using Finite Element Method
Abstract: Rotating discs with variable thickness and nonhomogeneous material properties are frequently used in
industrial applications. The nonhomogenity of material properties is often caused by temperature change throughout
the disc. The governing differential equation presenting this problem contains many variable coefficients so that no
possible analytical closed form solution for this problem. Many numerical approaches have been proposed to obtain
the solution. However, in this study the Finite Element Method (FEM), which presents a powerful tool for solving
such a problem, is used. Thus, a turbine disc modeled by using ax symmetric finite elements was analyzed. But, in
order to avoid inaccuracy of the stress calculation quite fine meshing is implemented. The analysis showed that
maximum displacement occurs at the boundary of the disc, either at the outer or inner boundary, depending on the
loadings. The maximum radial stress occurs at an area in the middle of the disc which has the smallest thickness. In
this study, rotational blade load was shown to give the largest contribution to the total displacement and stress. Also,
the radial displacement and stress in a disc with variable thickness are found to be affected by the contour of the
thickness variation. In general, the results obtained show excellent agreement with the published works.
Keywords: Finite element method, nonhomogeneous material properties, rotating disc, variable thickness
Corresponding Author: Mahir Es-Saheb, Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University,
P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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d 2 2 d hE (20)
t =
1
( t r ) + T (11) f3 =
dr
( (1+ )T ) 1Eg r + (1 + ) T ln
dr 1 2
E
The coefficients of the ODE contain variable
Re-arranging Eq. (10) and (11), we get:
parameters:
r = E r + t E T (12) r , h = h (r ), E = E (r ), = (r ), = (r ), = (r ),T = T (r )
Fig. 7: Poissons ratio variation throughout the disc Element type, loads and boundary conditions:
Axisymmetric model is used due to the axisymmetric
E ( T ) = - 0.05 T + 200; E in GPa (29) geometry of the disc. Furthermore, because the model is
symmetric in longitudinal direction, then half of the
( T ) = (1.3333x10-4) T + 0.23 (30) section area was used.
Shrink fit with the rotor shaft causes a radial force
(T) = (6.6667x10-9) T + (10.6667x10-6) (31) in outward direction on the inner surface of the disc.
This force results in 300 MPa compressive pressures on
As the temperature is a function of radius, Eq. (29) the inner surface of the disc. The rotation of the disc
to (31) can be expressed as functions of radius, such causes a centrifugal body force in outward direction.
that E, v and are given by: The rotation velocity is 15,000 rpm = 1570 rad/s. The
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(a)
(b)
Fig. 11: (a) Radial displacement (mm) and (b) stress (MPa) due to shrink fit only
(a)
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(b)
Fig. 12: (a) Radial displacement (mm) and (b) stress (MPa) due to rotational body load only
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13: (a) Radial displacement (mm) and (b) stress (MPa) due to rotational body load only
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(a)
(b)
Fig. 14: (a) Radial displacement (mm) and (b) stress (MPa) due to thermal load only
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(a)
(b)
Fig. 16: Radial stress distribution, (a) with coarse meshing, (b) with refined meshing
direction. Thus, due to the thermal load, the disc minimum displacement of 1.136 mm occurs at the
expands to inward and outward direction. The radial middle of the disc.
stress has outward direction. The rounded-off stress at The radial stress at the inner surface is negative,
the inner and outer surface of the disc is zero. The which means that it is compressive with outward
maximum stress occurs at the middle of the disc. direction. As the radius increase, this compressive
stress decreases until it reaches zero at some radius
Case 5: The disc is subjected to combined loads: By value, then it starts being positive, which means that it
combining all the loads, the radial displacament of the is tensile with outward direction. Near the smallest
disc with refined meshingis shown in Fig. 15. Large thickness of the disc, the maximum stress occurs. The
radial displacement occurs at the inner and outer stressat the inner and outer surface are 299.22 MPa
surface of the disc. The displacements at the inner and (compressive, outward direction) and 500 MPa (tensile,
outer surface are 1.31 and 1.33 mm, respectively. The outward direction) respectively.
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Figure 16 shows the radial stress distribution by all turbine discs as it depends on the values of different
using both the coarse and refined meshing. It is shown loads for any specific turbine disc.
that different plot got near the smallest thickness of the The radial displacement and stress in a disc with
disc where stress concentration occurs. variable thickness are affected by the contour of the
The maximum values of the radial displacement thickness variation. The middle area of the disc is
and stress due to each load as well as combined loads proposed to have smaller thickness, but should not be
are shown in Table 1. It is shown that the rotational too thin as stress concentration will occur there.
blade load contributes the most to the total In the stress analysis, a quite fine meshing
displacement and stress. To reduce its value, reducing particularly in area with stress concentration is required
the weight of the blades and/or the rotor speed can be to avoid inaccuracy of the stress calculation due to
proposed. The maximum displacement occurs at the concentrated stress which cannot be spread well to
outer surface, yet it is only slightly larger than that at surrounding area.
the inner surface. Reducing the rotational blade load
can be proposed to reduce the displacement at the outer NOMENCLATURE
surface, as excessive displacement at that part may
cause rubbing against the stationary parts. Assuming
: Displacement
that the shrink fit is fixed, reducing the rotor speed will
: Radial strain
reduce the displacement at the inner surface. The rotor
speed should not exceed a certain speed which causes : Tangential strain
looseness between the shaft and the disc hub. The : Radial stress
maximum total stress occurs at the middle, near the : Tangential stress
smallest thickness of the disc. Thickening this part can : Specific weight
be proposed to reduce the maximum total stress as it : Gravitational acceleration
was shown that stress concentration occurs there. : Density
: Young modulus
CONCLUSION : Poisson ratio
: Thermal coefficient
Analytical solution of rotating disc with variable : Thickness of the disc
thickness and nonhomogeneous material properties can : Radius of the disc
not be obtained because there are many variable : Inner radius of the disc
parameters in the coefficients of its governing : Outer radius of the disc
differential equation. For this reason, numerous : Shape function
numerical approaches have been proposed to obtain the : Element surface force vector
approximate solutions. One of the approaches having
: Element body force vector
been widely used recently is FEM.
: Element thermal force vector
Most rotating discs used in applications are ax
symmetric. Therefore, ax symmetric element is the : Surface force vector element in radial
most economical but adequate to use for the FE direction
analysis. A turbine disc was analyzed as an example in : Surface force vector element in axial
this study. Several loads were applied. It was shown direction
that maximum displacement occurs at the boundary of : Body force vector element in radial direction
the disc, either at the outer boundary or the inner : Body force vector element in axial direction
boundary, depending on the loadings. The maximum : B matrix
radial stress occurs at the area in the middle of the disc : Stress-strain (constitutive) matrix
which has the smallest thickness. Furthermore, the : Element stifness matrix
analysis showed that each load gives different : Nodal displacement vector
contribution to the total radial displacement and stress : Displacement function vector
of the disc. The rotational blade load was shown to give : Strain vector
the largest contribution. However, this does not apply to : Stress vector
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