A computational investigation on the reducing lateral vibration of rotors with rolling-element bearings passing through critical speeds by means of tuning the stiffness of the system supports

Since there are manufacturing and assembling inaccuracies rotors are always slightly imbalanced. Their rapid angular acceleration leads to an increase in the magnitude of the tangential component of the imbalance forces. The slow acceleration enables the development of an almost steady state vibration. In both cases the amplitude of their oscillation is high. The frequency tuning achieved by changing the stiffness of the rotor supports represents one approach to its attenuation. Stiffness decreases shortly before reaching the critical speed, and after crossover, the stiffness increases again. As almost all publications and computer procedures from the field of rotor dynamics deal only with the case when the rotor turns at a constant angular speed, derivation of the equations of motion of the rotor rotating at variable velocities and investigation of the operating conditions and individual parameters of the supports on the vibration of the rotor passing critical speeds represent the fully new contribution of this paper. The critical revolutions are determined from the Campbell diagram. To solve the equations of motion the Newmark method has been proposed and tested. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.