Modal balancing experiments are performed with a flexible rotor-bearing system by using a single wireless, computer controlled precision balancing head. The balancing head is activated by the command signals generated from a personal computer, so that the estimated modal unbalance is cancelled and rotor vibrations are kept relatively small as the rotor system passes through critical speeds. During operation of the rotor-bearing system, the vibrations measured by proximity probes are sampled into the computer and analysed to determine the modal unbalance of the rotor. The active control procedures which counterbalance the modal unbalance using the balancing head are described in this paper along with the theoretical background of the control system for the isotropic rotor-bearing system. Laboratory experiments show that the balancing head and computer control system designed is effective in modal balancing and reliable well over the first and second critical speeds.
Stellar Data and Computing Facilities at the Pulkovo Observatory
