Numerical analysis of elastic-plastic rotating disks with arbitrary variable thickness and density

A unified numerical method is developed in this article for the analysis of deformations and stresses in elastic-plastic rotating disks with arbitrary cross-sections of continuously variable thickness and arbitrarily variable density made of nonlinear strain-hardening materials. The method is based on a polynomial stress-plastic strain relation, deformation theory in plast icity and Von Mises' yield condition. The governing equation is derived fro m the basic equations of the rotating disks and solved using the Runge-Kutt a algorithm. The proposed method is applied to calculate the deformations a nd stresses in various rotating disks. These disks include solid disks with constant thickness and constant density, annular disks with constant thick ness and constant density, nonlinearly variable thickness and nonlinearly v ariable density, linearly tapered thickness and linearly variable density, and a combined section of continuously variable thickness and constant dens ity. The computed results are compared to those obtained from the finite el ement method and the existing approaches. A very good agreement is found be tween this research and the finite element analysis. Due to the simplicity, effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method, it is especially suit able for the analysis of various rotating disks, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.