Free vibration analysis of rotating tapered blades using Fourier-p superelement

A numerically efficient superelement is proposed as a low degree of freedom model for dynamic analysis of rotating tapered beams. The element uses a combination of polynomials and trigonometric functions as shape functions in what is also called the Fourier-p approach. Only a single element is needed to obtain good modal frequency prediction with the analysis and assembly time being considerably less than for conventional elements. The superelement also allows an easy incorporation of polynomial variations of mass and stiffness properties typically used to model helicopter and wind turbine blades. Comparable results are obtained using one superelement with only 14 degrees of freedom compared to 50 conventional finite elements with cubic shape functions with a total of 100 degrees of freedom for a rotating cantilever beam. Excellent agreement is also shown with results from the published literature for uniform and tapered beams with cantilever and hinged boundary conditions. The element developed in this work can be used to model rotating beam substructures as a part of complete finite element model of helicopters and wind turbines.