Analysis of precession vibrations of thin-wall elastic shells in compound rotation

This paper is concerned with a numerical study of spinning thin-wall disks, conic and spherical shells whose axes perform additional forced slewing. Position and gyroscopic type inertia forces are taken into account. The technique based on linearization of the shell dynamic equations in the vicinity of the state of simple rotation and use of the transfer matrix method is proposed. It has been found through the numerical calculations that the compound rotation of the elastic thin-wall systems may be a reason for their precession vibrations which may reveal a resonant character under certain conditions. The results of experiments with spherical shells are discussed. The elaborated approach may be used for numerical simulation of dynamics of thin-wall elastic rotors of engines of aircraft during manoeuvres. (C) 2001 Academic Press.