Forced Response Sensitivity of a Mistuned Rotor From an Embedded Compressor Stage

The frequency mistuning that occurs due to manufacturing variations and wear and tear of the blades can have a significant effect on the flutter and forced response behavior of a blade row. Similarly, asymmetries in the aerodynamic or excitation forces can tremendously affect the blade responses. When conducting CFD simulations, all blades are assumed to be tuned (i.e. to have the same natural frequency) and the aerodynamic forces are assumed to be the same on each blade except for a shift in interblade phase angle. The blades are thus predicted to vibrate at the same amplitude. However, when the system is mistuned or when asymmetries are present, some blades can vibrate with a much higher amplitude than the tuned, symmetric system. In this research, we first conduct a deterministic forced response analysis of a mistuned rotor and compare the results to experimental data from a compressor rig. It is shown that tuned CFD results cannot be compared directly with experimental data because of the impact of frequency mistuning on forced response predictions. Moreover, the individual impact of frequency, aerodynamic, and forcing function perturbations on the predictions is assessed, leading to the conclusion that a mistuned system has to be studied probabilistically. Finally, all perturbations are combined and Monte-Carlo simulations are conducted to obtain the range of blade response amplitudes that a designer could expect.