Optimization of Interblade Friction Damper Design

The vibration amplitudes of bladed disk assemblies can be reduced significantly by means of friction damping devices such as shrouds, damping wires and interblade friction dampers. In practice, interblade friction dampers are applied in rotating arrangements with various geometries showing curved or flat surfaces like so-called wedge-shaped dampers. This paper is focusing on a computation method to predict the dynamical behaviour of turbine blades with friction dampers including both, curved and wedge-shaped dampers with Hertzian and non-Hertzian contact conditions, respectively. The presented computation method uses a 3D contact model to calculate the contact forces, including normal and tangential stiffnesses, roughness and microslip effects. The relative displacements in the contact area can be expressed by means of 6 DOF of the blade platforms and 6 rigid body DOF of the damper including translational and rotational displacements. The relative displacement of the friction damper with respect to the adjacent blades can be derived from the contact kinematics of the blade-damper-blade system and the equations of motion of the friction damper. Thus, the model can be applied to investigate spatial motions of the bladed disk assembly including bending and torsional vibrations. A comparison of different friction damper designs with respect to an optimal damper geometry and damper mass is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of each design will be discussed. Experimental results are shown to validate the developed computation method.