Accurate Characterization of Torsional Stiffness of Flexible Disk Couplings

Abstract

Flexible torsional couplings are used primarily to transmit power between rotating components in industrial power systems, including turbomachinery, while allowing for small amounts of misalignment that may otherwise lead to equipment failure. The torsional coupling lumped characteristics, such as torsional- and flexural stiffness, as well as natural frequencies of vibration are important for design of the entire power system and, therefore, must be calculated or computed with a high degree of accuracy. In this paper, we compare theoretical-, computational-, and experimental methods of characterizing torsional stiffness of a family of metallic disk type flexible couplings. We demonstrate the sensitivity of torsional stiffness to various design parameters and characterization assumptions, including boundary conditions, level of model detail, and material properties of the coupling's components. We also develop a full 3D parametric finite element model of the coupling and report on its experimental validation.