Strength investigation of a structural element of a laboratory centrifuge

Abstract

The rotor is a major element of high-speed mechanisms that are widely used in various industries, such as laboratory centrifuges for separating mixtures of different fractions, gas turbines, industrial compressors, engines, and others. The main requirement for such mechanisms is reliability and safety during operation. To ensure the above requirements, it is necessary to determine the stress-strain state of the most loaded structural elements of the system. This paper presents an analysis of the stress-strain state of the rotor system shaft using the example of a Pico21 laboratory centrifuge. ANSYS and KISSsoft software packages were used for 3D modeling of the finite element model. The rotor system consists of a flexible shaft with a rotor, the mass of which was changed during the simulation, and supports, the role of which is played by bearings. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the obtained results of the stress-strain state depending on the mass of the rotors, which further makes it possible to perform appropriate calculations taking into account design features to determine the durability and service life of high-speed mechanisms. The paper presents the results of determining the safety factors depending on the mass of the rotors used in a laboratory centrifuge. The analysis of the safety factors determined with the software packages Ansys, KISSsoft, and analytical methods was carried out.