Fans and flywheels used in the transportation industry as well as wind turbines are examples of rotor systems for which a linear static analysis of the spinning rotor undergoing a constant rate of precession can often provide reasonable estimates of the precession induced moment at the rotor support hub as well as the rotor’s displacement envelope and critical stresses.

Geometric nonlinear analyses can be used to refine the initial linear solution estimates.   The attached document describes the basic forces that act upon the rotor, the pertinent Abaqus solution procedures and an idealized flexible disk rotor example.