Analysis and Design of Multiple Order Centrifugal Pendulum Vibration Absorbers

We consider nonlinear interactions in systems of order-tuned torsional vibration absorbers. These absorbers, which consist of centrifugally driven pendulums fitted to a rotor, are used to reduce engine-order torsional vibrations in rotating machines, including automotive engines, helicopter rotors, and light aircraft engines. In all current applications, absorber systems are designed to reduce torsional vibrations at a single order. However, when two or more excitation orders are present and absorbers are introduced to address different orders, undesirable nonlinear interactions become possible under certain resonance conditions. Under these conditions, a common example of which occurs for orders n and 2n, crosstalk between the absorbers, acting through the rotor inertia, can result in instabilities that are detrimental to system response. In order to design absorber systems that avoid these interactions, we develop predictive models that allow one to select proper tuning and sizing of the absorbers. These models are based on perturbation methods applied to the system equations of motion, and they yield system response features, including absorber and rotor response amplitudes and stability, as a function of parameters of interest. The model-based analytical results are compared against numerical simulations of the complete nonlinear equations of motion, and are shown to be in good agreement. These results are useful for the selection of absorber parameters for desired performance. For example, they allow for approximate closed form expressions for the ratio of absorber masses at the two orders that yield optimal performance.