Vibration and stress analysis of thin rotating discs using annular finite elements

Abstract The finite element method is applied to the stress and vibration analysis of thin rotating discs. By making use of the axisymmetric properties, annular finite elements are derived which describe the bending and stretching of such discs and are characterized by having only four degrees of freedom. These elements incorporate the desired number of diametral nodes in their dynamic deflection functions, and allow for any specified thickness variation in the radial direction. The resulting mathematical model is thus particularly efficient for numerical computation. The accuracy and convergence of the method is demonstrated by numerical comparison with both exact and experimental data.