Condition Monitoring of Rotor Using Active Magnetic Actuator

It has been widely recognized that the changes in the dynamic response of a rotor could be utilized for general fault detection and monitoring. Current methods rely on the monitoring of synchronous response of the machine during its transient or normal operation. Very little progress has been made in developing robust techniques to detect subtle changes in machine condition caused by rotor cracks. It has been demonstrated that the crack-induced changes in the rotor dynamic behavior produce unique vibration signatures. When the harmonic excitation force is applied to the cracked rotor system, nonlinear resonances occur due to the nonlinear parametric excitation characteristics of the crack. These resonances are the result of the coexistence of a parametric excitation term and different frequencies present in the system, namely critical speed, the synchronous frequency, and excitation frequency from the externally applied perturbation signals. This paper presents the application of this approach on an experimental test rig. The simulation and experimental study for the given rig configuration, along with the application of active magnetic bearings as a force actuator, are presented.