Abstract
This study is an experimental investigation of the influence of disk flexibility and rubbing on rotordynamics. The rotor rigs used in the experiments were designed to have included disk flexibility and a rubbing mechanism. The governing equations of motion are similar to those studied in analytical investigations. The system responses to imbalance were recorded and orbit trajectories were plotted at a set of different rotating speeds. The results show the rubbing response development from light forward bouncing, mixed forward bouncing, to high amplitude backward whirling heavy rubbing. The results also show that the flexible-disk rotor has the tendency of having a high frequency component at the upper rotor speed range of mixed bouncing. These agree very well with the results from an earlier analytical study.
