Stiffness Characteristics and Analytical Model of a Flange Joint with a Spigot

Abstract

Flange joints with spigots are widely used in aero-engines. The spigot will restrict the shear slipping between flanges, which, in turn, affects the stiffness characteristics of the joint. The current model and research on flange joints without spigots may not be suitable for the dynamic characteristics of aero-engines. Moreover, the complexity of contact pairs limits the application of the flange joint finite element (FE) model in aero-engine dynamics analysis. Therefore, a simplified analytical model of a flange joint with a spigot is proposed in this paper. First, the stiffness characteristic of the flange joint with a spigot is studied using the FE method. Second, a corresponding experiment is executed to verify the result of the FE analysis. Furthermore, based on the former FE and experimental analysis, one section of a flange joint is simulated by the Jenkins friction model and a spring. Then, a simplified analytical model of the entire flange joint is built according to the different statuses of each section. Finally, a simulation analysis of the stiffness characteristic is performed. The result shows that the simplified analytical model can be utilized to describe the bending stiffness characteristic of the flange joint with a spigot.