Abstract
The vibration of a flywheel rotor with rotor/stopper rubbing is investigated by experimental methods. In the experiments, the large amplitude of the rotor vibration is excited by the electromagnetic harmonic excitation force and thus causes the rubbing between the rotor and the stopper. The stable rubbing rotor vibration shows that the stopper can limit the amplitude of low frequency precession effectively. The rotor to stopper collision and rub appears occasionally. The rubbing has little effect on the rotating speed of the rotor. The forced vibration becomes complex and nonlinear in the time and frequency domain when the collision and rubbing occurs. The observed high order harmonics are sub-synchronous but not subharmonic response. The second modal forward whirl of the rotor-bearing system is excited by the impact force and decays quickly.