Steady state stress analysis of centrifugal fan impellers

Cyclic symmetric structures such as centrifugal fan impellers are considered in this paper. One of the identical sectors is chosen for the finite element analysis. A triangular plate element is employed. The stiffness and load matrices are obtained in cylindrical coordinates. The displacements are obtained using a modified submatrices elimination scheme. The efficiency of this scheme is discussed. Impeller stresses are calculated and checked with the results obtained using a strain gauge technique.