Abstract
The first part of this thesis is concerned with the vibration characteristics of rotating unifom, rectangular cross-section cantilever beams with pre-twist and stagger angles. A finite element method of solution of the differential equation of motion of a beam of unifom cross-section is presented. The equation of motions are rearranged for the Finite Element Method, and suitable deflection functions are assumed, to obtain an eigenvalue problem. The natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes are obtained by solving this eigenvalue problem. The results are compared with those obtained by other investigators and are shown to have very close agreement. In the second part the vibration characteristics of unifom shrouded blade packet is investigated. Results are presented for the packets with two, three and six blades with different cross-sections and pitch angles. The theoretical results obtained by the Finite Element Method for the frequencies and some mode shapes are presented with and without rotation. Experimental results obtained showed very good agreement with the theoretical results.