Substructuring and Wave Propagation: An Efficient Technique for Impeller Dynamic Analysis

This paper is of particular interest of gas turbine designers because it proposes an efficient method for dynamic analysis of rotationally periodic structures encountered in turbomachines. It combines the advantages of a substructure technique and that of wave propagation in periodic systems. The mode shapes and frequencies are obtained from the analysis of a single repetitive sector of the whole structure. The finite element method is the numerical method used. A detailed application of the method to a centrifugal compressor impeller is reported along with experimental verification of the computed results.