Nonlinear Dynamics of the Rod-Fastened Jeffcott Rotor

Rod-fastened rotors are composed of some disks clamped together by a central tie rod or several tie rods distributed along the circumference. Due to the nonlinear flexural stiffness of the contact interfaces in disks, especially when the contact surfaces are partially separated, the dynamics of the rod-fastened rotors are potentially different from that of the solid rotors. In this paper, the nonlinear flexural stiffness of a rod-fastened Jeffcott rotor is calculated by the finite element method (FEM). Then the harmonic balance method is adopted to analyze the dynamics of the rotor. The flexural stiffness of a rod-fastened Jeffcott rotor dramatically decreased with the increase of the dimensionless load gamma(1) from 1 to 2.5. Thus, the dynamics of the rotor were nonlinear when it was subjected to a large unbalance force. The response of the rotating rotor contains a predominantly forward 1X component or both forward 1X component and backward 1X components. However, the rotor may settle in a state depending upon both the operating parameters and its history.