Development of Flexible Rotor Balancing Procedure Using Response Matching Technique

Abstract Purpose The two main methods under use for balancing of flexible rotor know as Influence Coefficient Method (ICM) and Modal Balancing Method (MBM). It needs few trials to arrive at predicting the unbalance mass. In presence of initial bow along with unbalance these methods will fail to give accurate predictions. It becomes further complex when rotors are mounted on flexible supports. To overcome the limitations of these two methods, a new method called response matching method is disused here for flexible rotor balancing. Method The objective of present work is to develop a balancing procedure for flexible rotor balancing, wherein unbalance response of Finite element model (FEM) is matched with experimental response using iterative technique. Unbalance masses, moments and shaft stiffness of FEM model was iterated to match experimental unbalance responses at three distinct speeds below its first flexural critical speed. Further, unbalances mass was estimated iteratively to cross the bending critical speed with lower residual amplitudes at critical speeds. Results Experimental test setup was developed to validate the proposed method. Results show that present method predicts the unbalance masses and moments to compensate the bow more accurately. Conclusion Results shows that with single run, rotor unbalance masses and movements are predicted accurately. Corrected masses are used in experimental test setup to check the rotor amplitudes during its bending critical speeds. It shows rotor passes first bending critical speed without excessive amplitudes.