This paper analyses the nonlinear transverse vibrations of a rotating, clamped-free, flexible disc coupled to a precompressed spring. This is representative of a large class of loadings in rotating disc systems such as air jet and electromagnetic excitation commonly used in experiments. Such a loading induces a simultaneous critical speed resonance and parametric instability. The disc is modelled as a Von Kármán plate, and the equations of motion are discretised by a Galerkin projection onto a pair of 1:1 internally resonant modes. The large amplitude wave motions and their stabilities are studied using the averaging method and via numerical continuation techniques. The analysis is carried out in a co-rotating as well as a ground-fixed frame. Numerical simulations are used to verify the above analyses. The response predicted by these analyses is substantially different from that arising from a critical speed resonance or of a parametric instability alone. As many as five equilibrium solutions can coexist at supercritical speed. Two distinct regimes of large amplitude response appear to exist depending on the relationship between the strength of the parametric excitation and the damping. The existence of these regimes underscores the subtle competition between critical speed resonance and parametric instability that is likely to be observed in experiments near critical speed in such systems.
