Transient Vibration of High-Speed, Lightweight Rotors Due to Sudden Imbalance

In the field of rotor dynamics, increased attention is being given to the transient response analysis of the rotor, since the effects of impact loading and vibrations of the rotor arising from blade loss can be studied by a time transient solution of the rotor system. As recent trends in rotating machinery have been directed towards lightweight, high-speed flexible rotors, the effect of flexibility on transient response analysis is becoming of increasing importance. In the present paper, a transient vibration analysis is carried out on a flexible-disk/flexible-shaft system or rigid-disk flexible-shaft system subjected to a sudden imbalance that is assumed to represent the effect of blade loss. To solve the basic equation governing a rotating flexible disk the Galerkin’s method is used, and the equation of motion of the rotor system is numerically solved by employing the Runge-Kutta-Gill’s method. Experiments were conducted on a model rotor having a blade loss simulator; the shaft vibrations were also measured. The validity of the anaytical results was demonstrated by comparison with the experimental results.