Diagnostics of subsynchronous vibrations in rotating machinery - methodologies to identify potential instability

dc.contributorVance, John M.
dc.creatorKar, Rahul
dc.date.accessioned2005-11-01T15:46:56Z
dc.date.accessioned2017-04-07T19:50:33Z
dc.date.available2005-11-01T15:46:56Z
dc.date.available2017-04-07T19:50:33Z
dc.date.created2005-08
dc.date.issued2005-11-01
dc.description.abstractRotordynamic instability can be disastrous for the operation of high speed turbomachinery in the industry. Most ??instabilities?? are due to de-stabilizing cross coupled forces from variable fluid dynamic pressure around a rotor component, acting in the direction of the forward whirl and causing subsynchronous orbiting of the rotor. However, all subsynchronous whirling is not unstable and methods to diagnose the potentially unstable kind are critical to the health of the rotor-bearing system. The objective of this thesis is to explore means of diagnosing whether subsynchronous vibrations are benign or have the potential to become unstable. Several methods will be detailed to draw lines of demarcation between the two. Considerable focus of the research has been on subharmonic vibrations induced from non-linear bearing stiffness and the study of vibration signals typical to such cases. An analytical model of a short-rigid rotor with stiffness non-linearity is used for numerical simulations and the results are verified with actual experiments. Orbits filtered at the subsynchronous frequency are shown as a diagnostic tool to indicate benign vibrations as well as ??frequency tracking?? and agreement of the frequency with known eigenvalues. Several test rigs are utilized to practically demonstrate the above conclusions. A remarkable finding has been the possibility of diagnosing instability using the synchronous phase angle. The synchronous phase angle ?? is the angle by which the unbalance vector leads the vibration vector. Experiments have proved that ?? changes appreciably when there is a de-stabilizing cross coupled force acting on the rotor as compared to when there is none. A special technique to calculate the change in ?? with cross-coupling is outlined along with empirical results to exemplify the case. Subsequently, a correlation between the synchronous phase angle and the phase angle measured with most industrial balancing instruments is derived so that the actual measurement of the true phase angle is not a necessity for diagnosis. Requirements of advanced signal analysis techniques have led to the development of an extremely powerful rotordynamic measurement teststand ?? ??LVTRC??. The software was developed in tandem with this thesis project. It is a stand-alone application that can be used for field measurements and analysis by turbomachinery companies.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/2596
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherTexas A&M University
dc.subjectRotordynamic
dc.subjectInstability
dc.subjectLabVIEW
dc.subjectLVTRC
dc.subjectDiagnostics
dc.subjectSignal analysis
dc.subjectUnstable
dc.subjectVibration
dc.subjectRotor design
dc.subjectSubharmonic
dc.subjectFrequency demultiplication
dc.subjectnon-linear stiffness
dc.subjectSynchronous Phase angle
dc.subjectFrequency tracking
dc.subjectShort rigid rotor
dc.titleDiagnostics of subsynchronous vibrations in rotating machinery - methodologies to identify potential instability
dc.typeBook
dc.typeThesis

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