A Study on Mode Shape and Natural Frequency of Rotating Flexible Cracked Annular Thin Disk

As an important rotating component, the flexible annular thin disk is widely used in mechanical engineering. Cracks may occur in some weak disk parts, which will greatly shorten the equipment service life and even cause equipment failure. Due to the centrosymmetric structure of the flexible annular disk, two typical cracks are studied in this paper; one is radial crack parallel to diameter, including radial closed crack (RC-crack) and radial opening crack (RO-crack); the other one is vertical crack perpendicular to diameter, including circumferential crack (CF-crack) and tangential crack (TG-crack). The effect of crack parameters, such as crack length, direction, and position, on disk vibration characteristics are studied through theoretical simulation and experimental verification. The research shows that the effect of cracks on vibration characteristic gets more obvious with cracks extending in most cases, RO-crack decreases the natural frequency obviously, and vertical cracks would affect mode shapes. In addition, the bigger the nodal diameter is, the more obvious the effect gets. Meanwhile, the most obvious effect appears in the mode of a nodal diameter locating on the crack. The research possesses some guiding significance in industrial production; by comparing with the vibration characteristics of the flawless disk, the integrity of the rotating flexible disk can be judged to prevent possible equipment damage.