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Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic
couplings

Article  in  ARCHIVE Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part C Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science 1989-1996 (vols 203-210) · September 2010
DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES1853

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 1815

Stress distribution and contact status analysis

of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings
S-X Yuan1∗ , Y-Y Zhang1 , Y-C Zhang1,2 , and X-J Jiang1
1
Theory of Lubrication and Bearing Institute, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China
2
The 213th Research Institute of China Ordnance Industry, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

The manuscript was received on 17 July 2009 and was accepted after revision for publication on 25 November 2009.
DOI: 10.1243/09544062JMES1853

Abstract: The aim of this article is to provide some basis for the design and assembly of a bolted
rotor with curvic couplings. It is well known that the key difference between a bolted rotor with
curvic couplings and an integrated one is the contact interface. According to the characteristics
of curvic couplings and spindle bolts, the model of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings of the
turbine end of a heavy duty gas turbine was built. A method of accurately applying the preload
force has been studied in this article. The three-dimensional finite-element contact method was
used, non-linear behaviours such as friction and contact were also taken into account, and the
dynamic contact between the spindle bolts and the sidewall of turbine wheels was included.
The tendency of stress, which involved the rotor, curvic couplings, and the spindle bolts, was
determined and the radial slippage trend of curvic teeth was also determined, by investigating
the stress distribution and contact behaviour of the bolted rotor with curvic couplings during
the course of preload, warm-up, speed-up, and running. It can be seen from the results that the
contact stress of curvic couplings is dominant during the course of preload, and the bent stress
is dominant when the rotating speed increased to 3000 r/min; the stress inequality on two sides
of a tooth is caused by torque, so the stress proportion induced by torque should be restricted to
an appropriate level to avoid anisotropy of the rotor.

Keywords: curvic couplings, spindle bolts, heavy duty gas turbine, finite-element contact
method, stress distribution

1 INTRODUCTION The teeth shape of curvic couplings is complex and

Curvic couplings are widely used in the aero-engine
industry and heavy duty gas turbines. Owing to
the special shape of the curvic teeth, curvic couplings
have some advantages such as reliable positioning,
precise centring, excellent structural stability, strong
load bearing ability, meeting the requirements of
strength, vibration, and fatigue life. Meanwhile, the
centring ability can be improved by repeated preload
and running-in. In addition, the bolted rotor with cur-
vic couplings is light and has high cooling efficiency;
also it can be assembled easily. Therefore, it is being
used more and more widely.
∗ Corresponding author: Theory of Lubrication and Bearing Insti-
tute, Xi’an Jiaotong University, 28 Xianning West Road, Xi’an,
Shaanxi 710049, People’s Republic of China.
email: flowingcloud269@163.com; shx.yuan@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
includes many parameters, so stress distributions of
curvic couplings are difficult to be studied in theory;
only a few research works have been studied them.
Pisani and Rencis [1] studied the single tooth non-
contact model of curvic couplings by using the finite-
element method (FEM) and the boundary element
method (BEM) and obtained the stress concentration
factor. Richardson et al. [2, 3] validated the feasibility
of computing the contact stress of curvic couplings
using contact FEM, by comparing the result of con-
tact FEM with that of a photoelastic experiment. In
addition, they also studied the stress status of spindle
bolts of an aero-engine under blade crack condition;
however, the emphasis of their work was on spindle
bolts and not curvic couplings. Bolted rotors with cur-
vic couplings of an aero-engine were studied by Yin
et al. [4] and Hu et al. [5], but their work was on centre
bolts without taking friction into account, although
friction exists in nature. Therefore, it is necessary to

JMES1853 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science

1816 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang
introduce non-linear behaviours such as friction and
contact into the study of curvic couplings.
In most heavy duty gas turbines, curvic couplings
are assembled by spindle bolts (several tie-bolts
arranged circumferentially on a pitch circle through
the disc webs). The difference between spindle bolts
and centre bolts lies in the dynamic contact between
spindle bolts and the side wall of the wheels during the
course of running, which can make the spindle bolts
bend and change the stress distribution. The asym-
metry prestress of spindle bolts will lead to dynamic
singularity of the rotor, which never happens on the
centre bolt. Therefore, previous research results for
the centre bolt cannot be applied indiscriminately
to spindle bolts. In this article, a three-dimensional
(3D) FEM contact model was built to simulate spindle
bolts and curvic couplings of heavy duty gas tur-
bines; also the interface friction was considered. The
contact behaviour and stress distribution of curvic
couplings were analysed, and the stress distribution
of curvic couplings influenced by preload force, cen-
trifugal force, torsion, and temperature field has been
evaluated.
2 INTRODUCTION OF CURVIC COUPLINGS
A pair of mating curvic couplings comprises con-
vex and concave teeth machined by the internal and
external surfaces of the grinding wheel; the inter-
nal face of the grinding wheel machines the convex
teeth, whereas the external face machines the concave
teeth. The pitch line section of the curvic couplings is
illustrated in Fig. 1.
As the geometry of curvic couplings is very complex,
many parameters are needed to depict them, includ-
ing external diameter Do , internal diameter Di , teeth
number Z , addendum height ha , dedendum height
hb , tooth pressure angle θ, addendum gap c, angle
of inclination of the chamfer λc, addendum chamfer
height hc, dedendum fillet radius R0, gable height hg ,
gable angle λg , tooth thickness t, tooth width w, and
grinding wheel diameter Dgw (shown in Figs 1 and 2).
Fig. 1 Manufacture principle of curvic couplings
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
The geometry structure characteristics of convex and
concave teeth can be defined once the parameters of
curvic couplings are designed.
Wheels with convex and concave teeth are cou-
pled together and connected by spindle bolts, and
thus a rotor is formed. Torque is transmitted between
the contact surface angled 40◦ from the axes; this
angle is called the pressure angle, so load bearing
abilities of the curvic couplings rely on the pressure
angle and preload level. Compared with the integrated
rotor, phenomena such as contact, disengagement,
and slippage may take place at the contact inter-
face of curvic couplings under external load and may
even lead to vibration. So preload, warm-up, speed-up,
and torque conditions of the bolted rotor with curvic
couplings were studied to provide some basis for the
design and assembly of curvic couplings. Modelling is
very important to analyse curvic couplings due to its
complex 3D geometry surface. In this article, curvic
couplings were modelled by Pro/E software by simu-
lating its machine process according to the parameters
mentioned above.
3 MODELLING OF CURVIC COUPLING
The key difference between the bolted rotor with
curvic couplings and an integrated one is the con-
tact interface. The finite-element contact method was
adopted to study the contact behaviour and stress
distribution trend of curvic couplings under preload,
warm-up, speed-up, and operation conditions. Ansys
software was used here, which can import the Pro/E
model without transition, and this improves model
precision particularly for models with a complex
geometry surface such as curvic couplings.
3.1 Modelling and meshing
Taking a certain heavy duty gas turbine as an exam-
ple, the bolted rotor with curvic couplings was studied.
There are four stages of the turbine wheels at the tur-
bine end of the heavy duty gas turbine, and the teeth
JMES1853
 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings 1817

Fig. 2 Teeth profile and parameters in the radial direction

number Z is 180. The rotor is assembled by 12 spindle
bolts and preloaded in three steps (i.e. the compressor,
the transition rotor, and the turbine). As the structure
of the compressor end does not have couplings, only
the turbine end was analysed here. Turbine wheels
and the screw thread of the spindle bolts and nuts
were simplified in modelling, which cannot change
the preload force and does not influence the stress
status of curvic couplings, since stress singularity only
influences the local range around the simplified posi-
tion according to the Saint-Venant principle. Curvic
couplings are a key point of the research and are
not simplified. Owing to the cycle symmetry structure
of the rotor (the teeth number is 180 and the spin-
dle bolt number is 12), a one-twelfth cycle symmetry
FEM model was built and studied. The FEM model is
illustrated in Fig. 3. This model involves three kinds
of interfaces, namely the contact interfaces between
mating curvic couplings, nuts of spindle bolts and
wheels, and spindle bolts and sidewall.
The principle of meshing is not only considering the
computing capacity of the computer but also the com-
puting precision. The region concerned such as curvic
teeth should be meshed fine to guarantee computing
precision and most continuous bumps such as tur-
bine wheels need not be meshed so fine to achieve
the optimal computing speed. Based on the principles
mentioned above, the rotor was meshed and is shown
in Fig. 3. The upper left corner of Fig. 3 is a sectional
enlargement meshing figure of curvic couplings and
the upper right corner of Fig. 3 reflects the contact
condition of curvic couplings.
Richardson et al. [2] compared computing results
from FEM with experimental results, and they found
that numerical computing results are consistent with
experimental results well when the mesh size level of
curvic teeth is equal to or finer than that in Fig. 4. As
the teeth pressure angle of Fig. 3 is not equal to that
of Fig. 4, the sweep method was adopted to mesh the
teeth that made the mesh more uniform, and the mesh

Fig. 3 Modelling and meshing of the turbine end of the heavy duty gas turbine

JMES1853 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science

1818 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang
Fig. 4 Mesh of curvic coupling in reference [2]
of Fig. 3 is almost equal to that of Fig. 4. So the mesh
shown in Fig. 3 can meet the precision of FEM.
3.2 Boundary conditions
As a one-twelfth cycle symmetry model was used in
the analysis, the cycle symmetry boundary condi-
tion was applied on the two sides. The corresponding
displacement was constrained under the load con-
dition. The centrifugal force was applied as inertial
load, the torque force was implemented by apply-
ing a tangential force on the corresponding node, the
magnitude of the tangential force needs to be com-
puted based on the torque and radial dimension of
that wheel. Regarding temperature load, thermal anal-
ysis was done first to analyse the temperature field,
and then the computing results of the temperature
field were applied as body load. The most important
point of the boundary condition is to apply the preload
force of spindle bolts (i.e. bolt load), which affects the
stress distribution of curvic couplings directly. There
are three methods to apply a preload force in Ansys
software. The first is to simulate bolt load by adopt-
ing the preload element PRETS179, but PRETS179 is
not supported in cyclic symmetry analysis and cannot
be used here. The second is by the temperature stress
method (apply a temperature load to the bolts and
create contact elements between the wheels and the
bolts); for most materials, a temperature decrease will
produce contract deformation, and temperature stress
occurs when the deformation is constrained by the
contact pairs, which is equivalent to applying a preload
force on spindle bolts, but the stress may be confused if
there is another temperature condition; as the Young’s
modulus and linear expansion coefficient vary with
temperature, the method is unsuitable. The third is
to shorten the distance between the two nuts upon
modelling and create contact elements between the
nut and the preload surface; then iterating compute,
when the computing converged, spindle bolts will be
stretched under the pulling force, the turbine wheel
will be compressed, which can simulate the preload
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
force of the spindle bolts; this method is more suit-
able for this problem when compared with the former
methods.
Determination of the shortened distance between
nuts is relatively complex, and this shortened distance
equals the sum of the spindle bolts’ elongation and the
turbine wheels’ compression. The elongation of spin-
dle bolts (lb ) and the compression of wheels (lm )
can be expressed as lb = P/(n × kb ), lm = P/km ,
respectively, where P is the preload, n is the number
of spindle bolts, and kb and km are the stiffnesses of
the spindle bolt and wheels. For this gas turbine, lb
is 5.6 mm in design, and the stiffness of the spindle
bolt is easily confirmed for the force of the spindle
bolt is basically a unilateral stress condition [6], that
is, kb = EA/l (the bolt is a stepped rod, and kb is a
geometric mean value, that is, kb = 1/ m i=1 li /(EAi )),
where E is the Young’s modulus, A is the section area
of the spindle bolt, and l is the length of the spindle
bolt; thus preload P can be obtained. The preload rela-
tionship between spindle bolts and wheels is action
and reaction, so if the stiffness of wheels can be
obtained, then lm can also be obtained. But it is
difficult to confirm the stiffness of wheels for there
are not only the complex geometry of mating cur-
vic couplings but also thin curvic coupling rims and
large-diameter solid wheels. Some approximate meth-
ods to confirm the stiffness of plates (or wheels) were
mentioned in reference [7], but they were only aimed
at some kinds of simple geometry plates, which may
lead to inaccurate results if applied to the complex
gas turbine rotor in this article. The FEM was used
to confirm the stiffness of wheels through tentative
calculation. By approximate computing, the value of
the spindle bolt length was obtained, and the whole
structure was modelled and computed by compar-
ing the length of the spindle bolt obtained through
computing with the predefined one, revising the dis-
tance between the two nuts and computing again
until the length of the spindle bolt obtained is con-
sistent with the predefined one; then lm is obtained.
By substituting the lm obtained from the FEM anal-
ysis into the equation (lm = P/km ), the stiffness of
wheels km can be obtained. When the preload of spin-
dle bolts was changed, lm should be recomputed
according to P and km ; this process is illustrated in
Fig. 5.
3.3 Material properties
The operation conditions of heavy duty gas turbines
are high temperature and heavy load. The material
spindle bolts and turbine wheels are made of is high-
temperature alloy; the properties of them are listed
in Table 1. There is some plastic deformation appear-
ing on the root of the spindle bolts’ nut according
to the computing results, so part of the stress–strain
JMES1853
 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings
Fig. 5 Schematic diagram of determination of preload
curve of the spindle bolt material is listed in Table 2.
The stress–strain curve of the turbine wheels’ material
is not listed for there is no plastic deformation on the
turbine wheels.
4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
For a bolted rotor with curvic couplings, assembly is
important. During the course of assembly, preload is
applied. After the preload process is over, the rotor
JMES1853
1819
bears the centrifugal force, torsional moment and
temperature load, etc. during running. Therefore, the
applying load process of numerical simulation is the
same as the process of assembly and running. First,
the preload process was studied, and the effects of
the preload force on the contact status and stress
distribution of curvic couplings were also studied;
second, the effects of the centrifugal force on the
stress distribution and contact behaviour during the
speed-up process were studied; third, further effects of
transmission torque during operation were analysed;
finally, thermal analysis was done and temperature
field distribution was obtained; then the results of
the temperature field analysis were applied to the
stress analysis as temperature load, and the analysis
in high-temperature condition was carried out.
4.1 Effect of preload force on the curvic
couplings stress
The global von Mises stress (i.e. the Forth strength
theory equivalent stress) of the rotor after preloaded
is illustrated in Fig. 6. The different stiffness of indi-
vidual parts leads to the different stress distribution
among the parts of the rotor, and only the stress of
spindle bolts and curvic couplings is relatively high.
The peak stress occurring at the root of the spindle
bolts’ nut (sectional enlargement figure of the top right
corner) is up to 1110 MPa, which is above the σ0.2 value
(1030 MPa) of the material, but the region is quite
small. Apparently, this value is obtained by ignoring
details of the screw and fillet of the spindle bolt and
nut. It was mentioned above that stress singularity only
affects a certain range around the simplified position
and cannot affect the stress status of curvic couplings
for enough distance from the simplified region accord-
ing to the Saint-Venant principle. Except for the root of
the nut, the rotor stress is less than 700 MPa. Accord-
ing to Table 1, the σ0.2 value of the spindle bolts’
material and the turbine wheels’ material is 1030 and
950 MPa, respectively, so the stress of the rotor meets
the requirement of strength after preload.
The spindle bolt is a stepped rod, and steps are set at
every stage of the turbine wheel positions for conve-
nient machining and assembly. Owing to the different
sectional area, the stress in stepped parts is lower than
that in non-stepped parts (see details in Fig. 6). The
contact between the spindle bolt and the wheel’s side-
wall is not distinct and can be thought of as not to
have happened, so the hoop stress of the spindle bolt
is uniform. However, the steps will contact the sidewall
of the wheel during the course of running, which leads
to uneven hoop stress of the spindle bolt.
The stress distribution of every pair of curvic cou-
plings is almost equal and is only slightly different
owing to different stiffnesses produced by different
sizes of the turbine wheel. The stress of concave teeth
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
1820 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang

Table 1 Material properties of the gas turbine rotor∗

Property Materials 0 ◦C 100 ◦ C 200 ◦ C 300 ◦ C 400 ◦ C 500 ◦ C 600 ◦ C 700 ◦ C

Young’s modulus, E (GPa) No. 1 198 193 186 181 173 165 157 150
No. 2 204 198 189 181 176 160 150 143
Poisson’s ratio, ν No. 1 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.375 0.375
No. 2 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.31 0.32 0.32 0.33
Coefficients of thermal No. 1 1.537 1.609 1.631 1.684 1.758 1.806 1.874
expansion, α0 (×10−5 /K) No. 2 1.18 1.3 1.35 1.41 1.44 1.48 1.54
Thermal conductivity, λ No. 1 12.9 14.2 15.9 17.2 18.8 20.5 22.2 23.9
(W/m ◦ C) No. 2 13.4 14.7 15.9 17.8 18.3 19.6 21.2 22.8
σ0.2 (MPa) No. 1 950 (20 ◦ C) 890 830
No. 2 1030 (20 ◦ C) 930 860 (650 ◦ C)
σb (MPa) No. 1 1030 (20 ◦ C) 930 860
No. 2 1280 (20 ◦ C) 1130 1000 (650 ◦ C)
Density, ρ (kg/m3 ) No. 1 7930
No. 2 8240
∗ For materials, No. 1 is the material of turbine wheels, and No. 2 is the material of spindle bolts.

Table 2 Stress–strain curve of spindle bolt material (unit of stress: MPa)

20 ◦ C 300 ◦ C 400 ◦ C 500 ◦ C 600 ◦ C

Stress Strain Stress Strain Stress Strain Stress Strain Stress Strain

1030 0.0058 990 0.0058 960 0.0058 930 0.0058 860 0.0058
1090 0.0060 1050 0.0060 1020 0.0060 1020 0.0060 1000 0.0060
1110 0.0062 1060 0.0062 1030 0.0062 1030 0.0062 1020 0.0062

Fig. 6 Global von Mises stress distribution of the computing model after preload (MPa)

is slightly larger than that of convex teeth, and the rea-
son can be explained as follows: according to Fig. 1,
the machine surface and the cutting path are the
same during machining of concave and convex teeth,
but the direction of the sweep out material is oppo-
site; thus the material being cut from concave teeth
is more than that of convex teeth (the diameter of the
grind wheel is bigger and the difference is smaller),
which makes the stress to differ slightly. Take the con-
cave teeth of contact pair 2 in Fig. 3 as an example to
explain the stress distribution of curvic couplings. The
stress distribution of these teeth is illustrated in Fig. 7;
it can be seen that the stress is almost equal at every
tooth and is not affected by the preload of 12 dispersed
spindle bolts.
Stress variation of curvic couplings was also stud-
ied in different preload force conditions, and the cases
of the spindle bolt stretched by 0.8, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2, 4.0,
4.8, and 5.6 mm were studied, respectively. The upper
right side of Fig. 7 illustrates the stress distribution of
the curvic coupling tooth (which is encircled by an
ellipse in Fig. 7) under different preload conditions;
node locations are shown in the upper left side of Fig. 7.
It can be seen that the stress of the tooth increases
with an increase in preload, but the extent to which
stress increases is higher at the contact surface, so
the dominant stress of curvic couplings is the contact
stress under preload conditions. The maximal stress
occurred at the contact surface edge, that is, point P1 ,
P2 (as shown in Fig. 3), which is consistent with contact

Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science JMES1853

 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings 1821

Fig. 7 Stress distribution of concave tooth of contact pair 2 after preload

theory, for a non-Hertzian normal contact of elastic

bodies, the tension or compression stress is infinite at
the edge of the contact area [8]. For a concave tooth,
point P1 is located near the root of the tooth and is dis-
torted a little, and point P2 is located near the top of the
tooth and is distorted to a greater extent, so the stress
of point P1 is larger than that of point P2 . It can be seen
from the computing result that the stress of every point
(Fig. 7) presents a linear relationship with preload and
increases with an increase in preload, but the extent
of stress increase is more obvious at the contact zone
compared with the non-contact zone because of the
rapid increase in the contact stress during the process
of preload.
The stress distribution of curvic coupling is differ-
ent not only in the hoop direction but also in the Fig. 8 Radial stress variation of the contact edge after
radial direction. To examine this distinction, consider preload
the stress variation at the contact surface edge (i.e.
points A–I in Fig. 3). The stress variation curve from
point A to I is illustrated in Fig. 8. From the result that at the inside diameter, which ensures that the
presented, it can be concluded that contact stress disengagement phenomena cannot happen.
increases gradually in the radial direction. Accord- After preload, a contact stress of curvic couplings
ing to Fig. 3, the thickness of the rim is smaller than is up to hundreds of megapascals presented in the
the thickness of the curvic couplings flange (i.e. the computing results, so the axial direction of curvic
inner diameter of the rim is bigger than that of cur- couplings contacts tightly after preload, and radial
vic couplings), which can decrease the restriction and slippage appeared only on contact pair 1 (the contact
the stress of the inside diameter. Therefore, the peak pair is defined in Fig. 3); the slippage is illustrated in
stress of points A–I occurred at the outside diameter of Fig. 9; there was no radial slippage on other contact
curvic coupling. A further investigation showed that pairs. This is because the stiffnesses of the two sides of
the peak stress would occur at the inside diameter contact pair 1 differed too much. The longer rim of the
of curvic coupling if the thickness of the rim equals left side leads to small stiffness; therefore its radial dis-
the thickness of the curvic couplings flange, which tortion is larger than the radial distortion of the right
may lead to disengagement phenomena at the out- side.
side diameter. This design of the curvic coupling flange According to the computed result, the slippage
makes the stress at the outside diameter bigger than of curvic couplings is about 0.036 mm; the biggest

JMES1853 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science

1822 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang

Fig. 9 Sketch of radial slippage of curvic couplings after preload (m)

deform at the left flange is about 0.35 mm. If the whole
rotor is preloaded at one time, the design is apparently
unreasonable, and the length of the two side rims can
be adjusted to diminish or eliminate the radial slip-
page. Because the assembly process of the gas turbine
is preloaded step by step (i.e. the compressor rotor
is assembled first, the transition rotor second, and the
turbine rotor last), after finishing the two parts preload
above, they have some inward pre-deformation at
the transition part; outward deformation during tur-
bine preload may offset this deformation, which is the
reason for the unequal length of the two side rims.
4.2 Effect of centrifugal load on the stress
distribution of curvic couplings
Stress distribution of curvic couplings was changed
a lot due to the effect of centrifugal force during the
speed-up process. The speed-up range of the rotor is 0–
3000 r/min according to design parameters; the global
von Mises stress distribution after speed-up is illus-
trated in Fig. 10, which has changed a lot compared
with that in Fig. 6. As the centrifugal force is propor-
tional to mass, the stress of the turbine wheel with large
mass increased quickly.
During the preload process, both the average axial
tensile stress and the von Mises stress of the spin-
dle bolt increased linearly. And because the spindle
bolt is basically in unilateral stress status, its axial ten-
sile stress is approximately equal to the von Mises
stress. During the process of speed-up in the range
of 0–3000 r/min, dynamic contact between the spin-
dle bolts and sidewall of turbine wheels takes place,
which makes the stress of the spindle bolt to increase.
And axial shortening of wheels produced by the tur-
bine wheel’s Poisson effect under the condition of
centrifugal force makes the stress of the spindle bolt to
decrease. The gap between the steps of the spindle bolt
and sidewall of turbine wheels is small and it dimin-
ishes the throw-off effect of spindle bolt, so the Poisson
effect is dominant. The maximal, minimal, and mean
stresses are all decreased monotonically on the step
positions. A certain bent effect occurred at non-step
positions for it did not make contact with the sidewall.
At the beginning, the bent effect of the spindle bolt
makes the maximal stress increase at non-step posi-
tions, and later the maximal stress decreased slightly
with the enhancement of the Poisson effect, whereas
the minimal and mean stresses decreased all the time
(Fig. 11).

Fig. 10 von Mises stress distribution of the computing model after speed-up to 3000 r/min (MPa)

Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science JMES1853

 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings
Fig. 11 Stress variation of the spindle bolt during the
speed-up process
As the stress of the spindle bolt decreased with an
increase in rotating speed, it can be deduced that the
contact stress of curvic couplings decreased accord-
ingly. Figure 12 shows that the von Mises stress of the
tooth (shown in Fig. 7) changed with centrifugal force.
The stress of the contact surface decreased gradually
with an increase in rotating speed, and the stress of the
addendum changed a little, whereas the stress of the
dedendum increased sharply; the peak stress changed
from point P1 , P2 to point P3 , P4 (these points are
showed in Fig. 3). It can be inferred from Fig. 12 that the
dominant stress of curvic couplings is the bent stress
at the dedendum after speed-up to 3000 r/min; this is
different from preload condition.
The radial deformation of curvic couplings is also
changed due to the effect of centrifugal force. Figure 13
Fig. 12 The relationship between the von Mises stress
and the centrifugal force of curvic couplings
JMES1853
1823
shows radial displacement of the two sides of contact
pair 1 after speed-up to 3000 r/min. It can be seen from
Figs 9 and 13 that the radial displacement of the two
sides increased under the effect of centrifugal force,
but the relative displacement (i.e. radial slippage)
remained almost unchanged. So if the length of the
two side rims of curvic coupling is designed rationally,
the radial slippage of curvic coupling can be restricted
under preload condition; then radial slippage can be
kept unchanged under rotating condition.
4.3 Effect of torsional moment on the stress
distribution of curvic couplings
The bolted rotor with curvic couplings is influenced
by torsional moment during normal operation. For the
heavy duty gas turbine, the turbine end works and gen-
erates power, which makes the compressor run and
output part of the power. The power of each stage is
different, and the analysis in this article is based on
the design value of the power at every stage of the
turbine end, the gross power of the compressor end
and the output power (the method of applying torque
load shown in Fig. 3). Figure 14 is the von Mises stress
of one tooth (this tooth is the same as that in Fig. 7)
after finishing preload, speeding up to 3000 r/min,
and applying torsional moment. The effect of centrifu-
gal force has been analysed previously; here, only the
effect of torsional moment was analysed. It can be seen
from Fig. 14 that the effect of torsional moment made
the stress of the bearing torsion side of curvic cou-
plings to increase, and the stress of the non-bearing
torsion side decreased; the maximum extent of change
was about 31 MPa and the stress of the addendum
remained almost unchanged. Although the influence
of the torque force on the stress of curvic coupling was
less than that of the centrifugal force, it should not be
ignored because the influences of the torque force on
bearing and non-bearing torsion sides are opposite,
which can lead to stress asymmetry of the two sides of
a tooth.
4.4 Analysis of the temperature field
The working condition of the gas turbine is high tem-
perature and heavy load, so the effect of temperature
on strength cannot be ignored. The turbine inlet tem-
perature of this gas turbine is up to 1400 ◦ C; it must be
cooled to ensure normal working condition. The cool-
ing gas of turbine vanes was bled from the appropriate
pressure place of the compressor (indicated in Fig. 15),
and was blended into the main airflow after the cooled
turbine vanes. The cooling air of the rotor and turbine
blades was bled from the outlet of the compressor;
after being cooled and filtrated, it entered the cool-
ing channel of the rotor and turbine blades (illustrated
in Fig. 15). Cooling methods of the turbine blade are
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
1824 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang
Fig. 13 Sketch of the radial slippage of curvic couplings after speed-up to 3000 r/min (m)
Fig. 14 von Mises stress distribution of curvic couplings
under preload, speed-up, and transfer torsion
conditions
complicated and include convection cooling, impact
cooling, gas film cooling, etc., but the cooling method
of the rotor is mainly convection cooling.
There are heat preservation layers blocking off
exhaust gas, and brush seals between wheels can iso-
late high-temperature gas; thus it can be thought that
the high-temperature gas only acts on the turbine
blade, and heat is transferred from the turbine blade
to the rotor; thus the heat is transferred by the con-
duction method inside the rotor. The rotor was cooled
through convection by the cooling air at the surface
and inside the cooling channel of the rotor. After that,
the cooling air flowed into the cooling channel of
turbine blades to cool the blades (here only the tem-
perature distribution of the rotor is studies and blades
are not taken into consideration). The cooling air of
the rotor was bled from the outlet of the compressor,
and the pressure of the cooling air can be thought to
be equal to the outlet pressure of the compressor. The
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
press ratio of this gas turbine is 17; thus the pressure of
cooling air is 17 atm, and the bled air is cooled to 200 ◦ C
for the use of the cooling rotor and turbine blade.
Among the boundary conditions, the convective
heat transfer coefficient is too complex to define, and
the theory equation cannot be deduced at present,
so it can only be confirmed by experiment. Usually it
can be determined by using the dimensional analysis
method coupled with experiment to reduce exper-
iment quantity. Through long-term research, some
empirical formula can be used for reference. For the
turbulent flow in a circular straight tube, the convec-
tive heat transfer coefficient can be confirmed through
the equation
 0.8  k
λ duρ CP μ
α = 0.023
d μ λ
where α is the convective heat transfer coefficient;
λ is the fluid thermal conductivity; λ = 39.31 ×
10−3 W/m K under the condition of 17 atm and 200 ◦ C;
d is the characteristic dimension; using the dimen-
sions of the coolant passage, d = 12.5 mm; k is a
coefficient and is equal to 0.4 for heated fluid and
0.3 for cooled fluid; here the fluid is used as cooling
medium, so k = 0.4; duρ/μ is the Reynolds number,
where u is the flow velocity, ρ the density, and μ
the dynamic viscosity; μ = 26.7 × 10−6 PaS under this
working condition; CP μ/λ is the Prandtl number and
Cp is the specific heat at constant pressure; Cp =
1.028 × 10−3 J/kg K under this working condition.
The density was computed based on the state
equation; that is, P = ρRT , T is the temperature, and
R is the gas constant; for air R = 287 J/kg K; thus the
density of the fluid is ρ = 12.69 kg/m3 .
According to design specifications, the total air flow
was 651 kg/s, and cooling air flux accounted for 17 per
cent of total flux. The cooling air flux was assigned to
every stage of the turbine vane and blade according
to design parameters, and the average was assigned to
JMES1853
 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings 1825

Fig. 15 Cooling method of the turbine blade and rotor

every coolant passage of a turbine wheel; then the flow
velocity u is computed. Using the above data, it can
be obtained that the convective heat transfer coeffi-
cient α = 40 W/m2 K. Thus the temperature boundary
condition is illustrated in Fig. 16.
The thermal conductivity values of materials of
the spindle bolts and turbine wheels are listed in
Table 1. According to boundary conditions illustrated
in Fig. 16, and taking the heat transfer effect at the
contact surface into account, the thermal analysis
was done and the temperature field distribution was
obtained (illustrated in Fig. 17). The temperature of
turbine wheels, curvic couplings and spindle bolts is
about 300 ◦ C, and the temperature of the outer diam-
eter of turbine wheels is relatively high because it
contacts with the turbine blade; the temperature of the
shaft is low because it is near the outer environment;
the temperature of spindle bolts is similar to that of
curvic couplings, and the difference in temperature
is less than 2 ◦ C. After obtaining the temperature field
distribution, the effect of temperature on the stress
distribution and contact status can be computed by
coupling the temperature field to the previous model.
4.5 Thermal–structural coupling analysis
In this article, the sequence coupling method was used
to analyse the stress distribution of the rotor. This
method includes two or more analyses arranged in
some kind of sequence; each of them was attributed
to some kind of physical analysis and was coupled
together by applying the result of one analysis to the
next analysis as the load. Thermal–structural coupling
analysis applies the node temperature obtained from
thermal analysis as the body load to the later struc-
tural analysis, which is still according to the sequence
of preload, warm-up, speed-up, and running. First,
stress distribution analysis of preloading under nor-
mal temperature condition was carried out, and this
process is the same as the previous one; next, the result
of thermal analysis was input and thermal–structural

Fig. 16 Thermal analysis boundary conditions of the computing model

JMES1853 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science

1826 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang

Fig. 17 Temperature field distribution of the computing model (◦ C)

Fig. 18 Global von Mises stress distribution of the computing model after warm-up (MPa)

analysis was performed; then the results of speed-

up analysis and bearing torque analysis would be
obtained. Figure 18 is a sketch of the global von Mises
stress distribution of the rotor after preload and warm-
up. The stress of the rotor had increased compared
with that in Fig. 6, especially the stress of turbine
wheels; this is because the thermal expansion of the
wheels increased with an increase in temperature. The
peak stress still occurred at the position of the spin-
dle bolt’s nut and had increased a little than that
of the normal temperature condition, because the
linear expansion coefficient of the spindle bolt mate-
rial is less than that of turbine wheels, which results
in the increase of contact pressure. In addition, the
unequal temperature of the spindle bolts and turbine
wheels also caused contact stress variation. And stress
variation appeared mainly on those parts of high tem-
perature after applying the centrifugal load and torque
Fig. 19 von Mises stress distribution of curvic couplings
load under thermal condition.
under the condition of preload, speed-up, and
Figure 19 shows the von Mises stress distribution of
torque load in the normal temperature state and
one concave tooth (the circled tooth in Fig. 7) under
the thermal state
the condition of preload, speed-up and torque load
in the normal temperature state and the thermal state.
The stress of curvic couplings increased full scale after temperature entirely equal at the two sides, when
the temperature increased. The stress of the deden- there exists a temperature difference between the two
dum and contact surface changed much and the stress sides of the contact surface, the expansion ratio of
of the addendum changed a little. The stress variation the high-temperature side is greater than that of the
of the contact surface is induced by the unequal lin- low-temperature side, which adds to the radial slip-
ear expansion coefficient of materials; and the stress page trend of the teeth, whereas the curvic coupling
variation of the dedendum is induced by the unequal of the teeth holds back this trend; thus the bent stress
temperature of mating curvic couplings, because the occurred at the dedendum position. The stress varia-
heat conduction of the contact surface cannot make tion trend under thermal and speed-up conditions is

Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science JMES1853

 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings
similar to that under normal temperature condition,
so the equation σT − σ = σTc − σc = σTt − σt can be
obtained, the subscript T of which indicates the effect
of temperature, and the subscripts c and t indicate the
effect of centrifugal force and torque load, respectively.
It can be seen that the stress under thermal and speed-
up conditions only added to the temperature stress.
The effect of torque force under thermal condition on
stress variation adds to the temperature stress too.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The contact behaviour and stress distribution of the
bolted rotor with curvic couplings have been analysed
by modelling a certain heavy duty gas turbine rotor,
including non-linear behaviours such as friction, con-
tact behaviour, etc., and simulating the condition of
preload, warm-up, speed-up, and transmitting torque.
There are some conclusions obtained as follows.
1. The stress of spindle bolts and curvic couplings
is large after the rotor is preloaded and the stress of
large bumps is very small. The peak stress occurred
at the root of the spindle bolt’s nut. As the cen-
trifugal force is proportional to the mass, the stress
of wheels with large mass increased quickly after
speed-up. As the effect of torque will lead to
inequality in stress of the two sides of a tooth, the
stress proportion of torque should be restricted to
an appropriate level.
2. The stress of the spindle bolt increased linearly with
an increase in the preload force during the preload
process. The hoop stress of the spindle bolt is uni-
form and there is no contact with the wheel’s side-
wall. However, dynamic contact happened between
the spindle bolts and sidewall of wheels affected
by the centrifugal force, which made the hoop
stress of the spindle bolt asymmetric. And the max-
imal, minimal and mean stresses on stepped parts
all decreased monotonously during the speed-
up process, whereas the maximal stress at non-
stepped parts expressed the trend of increase first
and decrease later, and the minimal and mean
stresses always decreased.
3. The stress of every tooth in the hoop direction is
almost equal after preload; 12 dispersed spindle
bolts did not lead to the stress localized phe-
nomenon in the hoop direction. The peak stress of
curvic couplings occurred at the edge of the contact
surface during the course of preload, and the stress
of every part of curvic couplings increased linearly
with an increase in the preload force, but the stress
of the contact surface increased rapidly, so it can
be seen that the dominant stress of curvic coupling
is the contact stress. During the speed-up process,
the stress of the contact surface decreased grad-
ually, and the stress at the addendum changed a
JMES1853
1827
little, whereas the stress at the dedendum increased
sharply. Research indicates that the dominant stress
of curvic coupling is the bent stress after speed-
up to 3000 r/min. The effect of torque makes the
stress of the bearing torque side of curvic couplings
to increase, whereas the trend of the non-bearing
torque side is opposite; the maximal stress variation
is about 31 MPa, and the stress at the addendum
remains almost unchanged.
4. The contact stress increased gradually in the radial
direction from inner diameter to outer diameter;
the maximal stress of the contact edge is on the
outer diameter of curvic coupling, which guaran-
teed that the disengagement phenomena at out-
side diameter cannot happen during the preload
process.
5. Radial slippage of curvic couplings only occurred at
contact pair 1; this is caused by ignoring the pre-
deformation produced by the preload process of
the compressor and the transition part. The effect
of centrifugal force also makes radial displace-
ment of curvic coupling to increase to some extent,
but the relative slippage value remains almost
unchanged. Therefore radial slippage can be kept
unchanged during the running process by design-
ing the length of two sides of curvic coupling rims
rationally and strictly controlling the radial slippage
of curvic couplings during the preload process.
6. The contact stress of curvic couplings increased
after warm-up, which is because the linear expan-
sion coefficients of the two materials are different.
The increase in dedendum stress is due to the
unequal temperature of the two sides of curvic
couplings.
7. The stress variation trend of curvic couplings under
preload, speed-up, and bearing torque conditions
in the thermal state is similar to that of the normal
state, which only added to the temperature stress.
8. Techniques about the design of the bolted rotor
with curvic couplings.
If the internal diameter of the curvic coupling flange
is less than that of the curvic coupling rim (i.e. the
tooth thickness of curvic coupling is larger than the rim
thickness; see the upper right corner of Fig. 3), the
maximal stress in the radial direction occurred at
the outside diameter of curvic coupling, which can
ensure that the disengagement phenomenon does not
happen at the outer diameter of curvic coupling during
the preload process, and this has some implications to
other similar structures as well.
The length of the thin curvic coupling rim can com-
pensate for radial slippage. It can reduce or eliminate
the radial slippage of curvic coupling by rationally
designing the length of curvic coupling rims by refer-
ring to the mass and stiffness of the two side wheels of
the contact pair.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
1828 S-X Yuan, Y-Y Zhang, Y-C Zhang, and X-J Jiang
9. Reference for the assembling process of curvic
coupling
From the conclusion that the stress of curvic cou-
pling at the contact surface increases linearly with
preload force, the stress distribution of other preload
forces (besides the preload values studied) will be
known. The centrifugal force has a strong influence
on the contact stress of curvic coupling. The stress
of the contact interface decreased by about 100 MPa
(25 per cent of the total stress) after speed-up to
3000 r/min; this would be obvious when the rotat-
ing speed is higher. Although the influence of torque
force on the contact stress of curvic coupling is less
than the centrifugal force, it should not be ignored for
the influences of torque force on bearing and non-
bearing torsion sides are opposite and is easy to induce
asymmetry of the rotor.
There are some rules in deciding the preload force
value. First, the preload force must overcome the loos-
ening force induced by centrifugal load and torque
load. Second, the stress ratio between the bearing tor-
sion side and the non-bearing torsion side should not
be too large; otherwise the stiffness and isotropy of the
rotor will be affected. Third, the preload force will be
increased as far as possible in the range of allowable
stress, which can result in better stiffness and sym-
metry performance of the rotor. But the decision on
preload force needs the material, load and working
conditions to be taken into account. For the rotor in
this article, the minimum stress on the contact sur-
face induced by the preload force is 450 MPa, which
decreased to 360 MPa because of the influence of cen-
trifugal force; the stress variation quantity induced
by the torque force is 20 MPa; the stress difference
between the two sides of the curvic coupling tooth is
up to 40 MPa under the torque force, which accounts
for 11 per cent of the average stress. But the maximum
stress on the contact surface is up to 523 MPa after
preload, and this value will be up to 570 MPa in high-
temperature condition. According to Table 1, the σ0.2
value of the turbine wheel is 950 MPa (and 890 MPa in
thermal condition); taking some non-stationary work-
ing condition into account, it is assumed here that the
safety factor is 1.5; then the allowable stress is 590 MPa;
the working stress nearly approaches the allowable
stress, so there is no room to increase the preload force,
and this is the optimal preload value.
As the unequal linear expansion coefficient of spin-
dle bolts and wheels will produce some temperature
stress, they should be designed to be equal at the
beginning. If they are not equal, the linear expan-
sion coefficient of wheels should be larger than that
of spindle bolts, otherwise it will induce looseness of
the preload force during the operation period. More-
over, the variation of stresses induced by temperature
should be considered adequately to rationally design
the value of the preload force.
Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by National Basis Research
Program ‘973 Program’ of China under grant no.
2007CB707706. The authors are grateful for this sup-
port. The authors also thank Dr Qunfeng Zeng and
Dr Zhenyuan Zhong for a critical reading of the
manuscript.
© Authors 2010
REFERENCES
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pling behavior by utilizing two- and three-dimensional
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APPENDIX
Notation
A section area of the spindle bolt
c addendum gap
CP specific heat at constant pressure
d characteristic dimension
Dgw grinding wheel diameter
Di internal diameter
Do external diameter
E Young’s modulus
ha addendum height
hb dedendum height
hc addendum chamfer height
JMES1853
 Stress distribution and contact status analysis of a bolted rotor with curvic couplings 1829

hg gable height α convective heat transfer

kb stiffness of the spindle bolt coefficient
km stiffness of wheels α0 thermal expansion
l length of the spindle bolt θ tooth pressure angle
l shortened distance between nuts λ thermal conductivity
lb elongation of spindle bolts λc angle of inclination of the
lm compression of wheels chamfer
n number of spindle bolts λg gable angle
P preload μ dynamic viscosity
R gas constant ν Poisson’s ratio
R0 dedendum fillet radius ρ density
t tooth thickness σ stress
T temperature σc stress in centrifugal force
w tooth width σt stress in torque load
Z teeth number σT stress in high temperature

JMES1853 Proc. IMechE Vol. 224 Part C: J. Mechanical Engineering Science

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