The invention relates to a hollow cylindrical structural member consisting of fiber reinforced resin for high speed rotors including alternate fiber layers of circumferential windings and helical windings disposed on top of one another and reinforced by additional circumferential windings at the axial ends which provide support ring structures.
The manufacture and design of such components is described and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,356. The patent discloses a winding machine capable of winding more than one member at the same time. After winding, the wound body is cut apart in the area of the support ring structures thereby to form the separate components which can be interconnected by corrugated tubular connecting elements to form a rotor. The admissible circumferential speed of such rotors depends, among others, on the tensile strength of the fibers utilized. Carbon fibers (C-fibers) with extremely high tensile fracture strength of up to 7000 MPa are therefore used for the circumferential wingings. It has been found however that the high tensile strength of these fibers cannot be fully utilized since, with increased circumferential rotor speeds and correspondingly increased circumferential tension of the rotor, there is an increased possibility of winding separation or dislodgement. This dislodgement or separation of fiber layers usually beings with the outermost fiber layers at the axial ends of the cylindrical members.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide such structural cylindrical members in such a manner that they are not subject to layer separation so that, with the use of fibers with extremely high tensile strength, the circumferential speed of such structural members can be increased without detrimental effects.