High, speed composite rotors typically require containment structures to pr
otect personnel and equipment from high energy rotor material and fragments
that result from rotor burst events, which may occur during rotor overspee
d. Loading to the containment structure during a burst event is a function
of rotor design and containment geometry. A containment system proposed by
The University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics uses graphite
-reinforced composite cylinders to dissipate radial kinetic energy from the
rotor debris and reduce torque loads transmitted to the rotor housing and
mounting hardware Using an analogous mass-spring-damper system a model was
developed with bond graph techniques to estimate containment loads and resp
onse, The bond graphs, state equations, and simulation results are compared
with experimental results. The model is able to predict the general trends
observed in experimental data and is used as a design tool for containment
systems.