An Improved Experimental Validation of Nonlinear Forced Response Simulation of Shrouded Blades

Abstract Friction damping devices like tip shrouds are usually employed in low pressure turbine (LPT) blades to reduce their large vibration amplitudes. From an engineering point of view, experimental validation of the numerically predicted dynamic behavior of the blade is essential to demonstrate the damping performance of shrouds in LPTs. In accordance with this purpose, this study presents the comparison of experimental and numerical results for the detailed investigation of the dynamic behavior of shrouded turbine blades. A brief overview of the experimental test rig, which has been previously developed to measure both the nonlinear forced response and contact forces simultaneously, is first presented. The experimental results show the effect of different normal preloads and excitation force levels on the measured parameters. To compute the nonlinear forced response of the blade and the shroud contact forces, the test rig is modeled in a commercial finite element (FE) software, and the system matrices are extracted in a reduced order form. The harmonic balance method (HBM) is applied in a nonlinear solver developed dedicatedly with the implementation of a 3D contact model. The comparison of the experimental and numerical results is presented in particular cases where lower normal preload to excitation force ratio results in alternate stick and slip transitions. The results show that experimental dynamic behavior of shrouded blade is computationally captured in most of the cases. The nonmatching results are also highlighted for some cases in which the nonunique contact forces introduce the response variability. For these cases, response boundaries are numerically estimated by utilizing an optimization algorithm. The outcomes of this paper consequently exhibit a detailed validation procedure for the simulation tools and an understanding of the numerical concerns like convergence.