Experimental and finite element analysis of vibrations of a rotating annular plates

The aim of this study is to investigate the small amplitude transverse vibration characteristics of an annular thin plate (disk) which rotates about its axis with the rotational speed. The disk is clamped at the inner circumference and free at the outer circumference. This study contains two sections, first one is the experimental investigation of the transverse dynamical behavior of the disk at various rotational speeds, the second section includes modelling the disk numerically using Finite Element Method (FEM). For the experimental part of the study, a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is used. The disk is rotated with various rotational speeds and measurements are made using non-contacting systems for each rotational speed value. For the numerical part, a finite element model is built and the natural frequencies with the related mode shapes are obtained. The natural frequencies are plotted for various rotational speeds. Using the data obtained from the results of the study Campbell diagrams are drawn. In order to validate the results of this study, the numerical and experimental results are compared to each other and also to the literature.