Method for Selecting Master Degrees of Freedom for Rotating Substructure

A method of selecting master degrees of freedom (DOFs) for rotating substructure is presented in this paper to obtain reduced 3D rotor models. Fixed modes of the substructure below thrice the operating frequency are analyzed. According to each mode shape, the DOFs at where main kinetic energy locates are selected as master DOFs to decrease missing of dynamic coupling. Additional DOFs may be selected based on traditional substructure method. In the stationary reference frame, frequency-dependent gyroscopic effects can be included as damping matrices changing with spin speed. Besides, by selecting appropriate substructure, localized damping and key parts of the rotor for analysis can be kept the same as the original model. A reduced model of a high pressure rotor amply demonstrated the capability of the method in reducing the model size and increasing the computational efficiency with less than two percent error.