The Effects of Gravity on the Response of Centrifugal Pendulum Vibration Absorbers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-61
Author(s):  
Darryl Tchokogoue ◽  
Ming Mu ◽  
Brian F. Feeny ◽  
Bruce K. Geist ◽  
Steven W. Shaw

Abstract This paper describes the effects of gravity on the response of systems of identical, cyclically arranged, centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers (CPVAs). CPVAs are passive devices composed of movable masses suspended on a rotor, suspended such that they reduce torsional vibrations at a given engine order. These absorbers are becoming prevalent in automotive powertrain components in order to expand fuel-efficient engine operating conditions. Gravitational effects acting on the absorbers can be important for a horizontal rotor/CPVA system spinning at relatively low rotation speeds, for example, during engine idle conditions. The main goal of this investigation is to predict the response of a CPVA/rotor system in the presence of gravity. A linearized model which includes the effects of gravity and an order n torque acting on the rotor is analyzed by exploiting the cyclic symmetry of the system. The results show that the N absorbers respond in one or more groups, where the absorbers in each group respond with identical waveforms but shifted phases. The number of groups depends on the engine order n and the ratio Nn. It is shown that there are special resonant effects if the engine order is n = 1 or n = 2, the latter of which is particularly important in applications. In addition, it is shown that for N > 1 the rotor response is not affected by gravity, due to the symmetry of the gravity effects. The analytical predictions are verified by direct simulations of the equations of motion.

Author(s):  
Brendan J. Vidmar ◽  
Steven W. Shaw ◽  
Brian F. Feeny ◽  
Bruce K. Geist

We consider nonlinear interactions in systems of order-tuned torsional vibration absorbers. These absorbers, which consist of centrifugally driven pendulums fitted to a rotor, are used to reduce engine-order torsional vibrations in rotating machines, including automotive engines, helicopter rotors, and light aircraft engines. In all current applications, absorber systems are designed to reduce torsional vibrations at a single order. However, when two or more excitation orders are present and absorbers are introduced to address different orders, undesirable nonlinear interactions become possible under certain resonance conditions. Under these conditions, a common example of which occurs for orders n and 2n, crosstalk between the absorbers, acting through the rotor inertia, can result in instabilities that are detrimental to system response. In order to design absorber systems that avoid these interactions, we develop predictive models that allow one to select proper tuning and sizing of the absorbers. These models are based on perturbation methods applied to the system equations of motion, and they yield system response features, including absorber and rotor response amplitudes and stability, as a function of parameters of interest. The model-based analytical results are compared against numerical simulations of the complete nonlinear equations of motion, and are shown to be in good agreement. These results are useful for the selection of absorber parameters for desired performance. For example, they allow for approximate closed form expressions for the ratio of absorber masses at the two orders that yield optimal performance.


Author(s):  
Brian J. Olson ◽  
Steve W. Shaw ◽  
Christophe Pierre

This paper investigates the use of order-tuned absorbers to attenuate vibrations of flexible blades in a bladed disk assembly subjected to engine order excitation. The blades are modeled by a cyclic chain of N oscillators, and a single vibration absorber is fitted to each blade. These absorbers exploit the centrifugal field arising from rotation so that they are tuned to a given order of rotation, rather than to a fixed frequency. A standard change of coordinates based on the cyclic symmetry of the system essentially decouples the governing equations of motion, yielding a closed form solution for the steady-state response of the overall system. These results show that optimal reduction of blade vibrations is achieved by tuning the absorbers to the excitation order n, but that the resulting system is highly sensitive to small perturbations. Intentional detuning (meaning that the absorbers are slightly over- or under-tuned relative to n) can be implemented to improve the robustness of the design. It is shown that by slightly undertuning the absorbers there are no system resonances near the excitation order of interest and that the resulting system is robust to mistuning (i.e., small random uncertainties in the system parameters) of the absorbers and/or blades. These results offer a basic understanding of the dynamics of a bladed disk assembly fitted with order-tuned vibration absorbers, and serve as a first step to the investigation of more realistic models, where, for example, imperfections and nonlinear effects are considered, and multi-DOF and general-path absorbers are employed.


Author(s):  
Chengzhi Shi ◽  
Robert G. Parker ◽  
Steven W. Shaw

This note provides an analytical proof of the optimal tuning of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers (CPVAs) to reduce in-plane translational and rotational vibration for a rotor with N cyclically symmetric substructures attached to it. The reaction forces that the substructures (helicopter or wind turbine blades, for example) exert on the rotor are first analyzed. The linearized equations of motion for the vibration are then solved by a gyroscopic system modal analysis procedure. The solutions show that the rotor translational vibration at order j is reduced when one group of CPVAs is tuned to order jN − 1 and the other is tuned to order jN + 1. Derivation of this result is not available in the literature. The current derivation also yields the better known result that tuning CPVAs to order jN reduces rotational rotor vibration at order j.


Author(s):  
Ryan J. Monroe ◽  
Steven W. Shaw ◽  
Alan H. Haddow ◽  
Bruce K. Geist

Centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers are used for reducing torsional vibrations in rotating machines. The most common configuration of these devices utilizes a bifilar suspension in which the absorber mass rides on a pair of rollers, whose mass is small compared to that of the absorber. These rollers are typically solid steel cylinders that allow the CPVAs to move along a prescribed path relative to the rotor, determined by the shape of machined cutouts on the rotor and the absorber mass. Previous studies have considered how to account for the roller dynamics in selecting the linear tuning characteristics of the absorber system, but have not quantified the errors induced by the common approximations that either ignores their effects completely, or does not account for the nonlinear aspects of their dynamics. In this paper we systematically investigate these effects. Specifically, we first show that there exists an absorber path for which the absorber/roller system maintains the same frequency of free oscillation over all physically possible amplitudes. This tautochronic path has been well known for the case with zero roller inertia, and herein, for the first time, the corresponding path with rollers is shown to exist and is constructed. In addition, we carry out an analysis of the steady-state response of the rotor/absorber/roller system in order to quantify the effects of various approximations commonly used in regards to the roller dynamics. This analysis is based on the equations of motion, scaled in such a manner so that they are amenable to a perturbation analysis, which includes the effects of rollers in the perturbation terms. It is shown that if one accounts for the linear tuning aspects of the rollers, the system response is essentially insensitive to the selection of the nonlinear tuning parameter, so long as it is close to the tautochronic value. This implies that the approximation commonly used for selecting absorber paths with rollers is adequate.


Author(s):  
Ryan J. Monroe ◽  
Steven W. Shaw

This paper describes an analytical and experimental investigation of the transient dynamics of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers, which are used for reducing torsional vibrations in rotating machines. Recently these absorbers have been proposed for use in automotive engines, to aid with fuel saving technologies such as cylinder deactivation and torque converter lockup. In order for them to operate effectively with minimal mass, they must be designed to allow for large amplitude, nonlinear responses. In this paper we consider the transient dynamics of these absorbers, focusing on the response during startup. During these transient events the absorbers experience a beating type motion, resulting in overshoot of the absorber response before reaching steady state conditions. Using a perturbation analysis of the system equations of motion, an approximate analytical expression for nonlinear overshoot is derived, relating the overshoot to the system and excitation parameters. These predictive results are derived for a general class of absorbers, and are verified by simulations of the full equations of motion and by experiments using a fully instrumented spin rig. It is found that the overshoot for absorbers with softening nonlinearity, such as circular path absorbers, can be well over the 100% upper limit for a linear absorber, and can be as high as 173%. For absorbers with tautochronic paths, the overshoot remains quite close to that of the linearized system, even for large amplitudes. These results provide a useful tool for the design of absorbers to meet transient response specifications.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Monroe ◽  
Steven W. Shaw

This paper presents results from an experimental investigation of the transient response of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers, including a comparison with the analytical results derived in the companion paper, Part I. The focus of the study is the overshoot experienced by pendulum-type torsional vibration absorbers when a rotor running at a constant speed is suddenly subjected to an applied fluctuating torque. The experiments are carried out using a fully instrumented spin rig controlled by a servo motor that can provide user-specified engine order disturbances, including those that simulate automotive engine environments. The absorber overshoot depends on the absorber tuning relative to the excitation order, the absorber damping, the amplitude of the applied torque, and on the system nonlinearity, which is set by the absorber path and/or kinematic coupling between the rotor and the absorber. Two types of absorbers are used in the study, a simple circular path pendulum, for which the path nonlinearity is dominant, and a nearly tautochronic path pendulum with a bifilar support, for which the path and coupling nonlinearities are both small. It is found that the experimental results agree very well with the analytical predictions from the companion paper. In addition, it is confirmed that the general path pseudoenergy prediction (which depends on a single parameter) provides a useful, conservative upper bound for most practical absorber designs, provided the absorber damping is small.


Author(s):  
Mustafa A. Acar ◽  
Steven W. Shaw ◽  
Brian F. Feeny

We consider the nonlinear vibration response of rotating flexible shafts fitted with centrifugally driven pendulum vibration absorbers (CPVAs) that are used to address engine-order torsional vibrations. The model used to represent the behavior of the flexible shaft consists of two lumped inertial elements with an interconnecting stiffness element, which captures the rigid body and fundamental torsional vibration modes of the rotor. The absorbers are centrifugally driven pendulums fitted to a rotor element, such that their natural frequencies scale with the rotor speed, and can thus tuned to a given order of rotation. Previous analysis of a linearized version of this coupled rotor-absorber system revealed frequency veering behavior as the rotation speed varies, and showed that one can detune the absorber to eliminate key system resonances. In this paper the behavior of the system is analyzed for large absorber amplitudes using perturbation methods and numerical simulations. It is shown that the absorbers remain effective in reducing torsional vibration when moving through large amplitudes, and that the resonance avoidance is similarly robust. This has practical implications for the tuning of absorbers in certain applications.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Monroe ◽  
Steven W. Shaw ◽  
Alan H. Haddow ◽  
Bruce K. Geist

Centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers are used for reducing engine-order torsional vibrations in rotating machines. The most common configuration of these devices utilizes a bifilar suspension in which the absorber mass is suspended by a pair of cylindrical rollers that allow it to move along a prescribed path that is determined by the shape of machined cutouts on the rotor and the absorber mass. Previous studies have considered how to account for the roller inertia in selecting the linear (small amplitude) tuning characteristics of the absorber system. Here, we describe a systematic study of the nonlinear (finite amplitude) aspects of this system and show that there exists an absorber path for which the absorber/roller system maintains the same frequency of free oscillation over all physically possible amplitudes when the rotor spins at a constant rate. This tautochronic path has been well known for the case with zero roller inertia, and herein, for the first time, the corresponding path with rollers is shown to exist, and a method for its construction is presented. In addition, we carry out a perturbation analysis of the steady-state dynamic response of the rotor/absorber/roller system in order to quantify the effects of various approximations commonly used with regard to the roller dynamics. The results show that if one accounts for the rollers in the linear absorber tuning, the nonlinear system response is essentially insensitive to the selection of the nonlinear tuning parameter, so long as it is close to the tautochronic value.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan J. Vidmar ◽  
Steven W. Shaw ◽  
Brian F. Feeny ◽  
Bruce K. Geist

We consider nonlinear interactions in systems of order-tuned torsional vibration absorbers with sets of absorbers tuned to different orders. In all current applications, absorber systems are designed to reduce torsional vibrations at a single order. However, when two or more excitation orders are present and absorbers are introduced to address different orders, nonlinear interactions become possible under certain resonance conditions. Under these conditions, a common example of which occurs for orders n and 2n, crosstalk between the absorbers, acting through the rotor inertia, can result in instabilities that are detrimental to system response. In order to design absorber systems that avoid these interactions, and to explore possible improved performance with sets of absorbers tuned to different orders, we develop predictive models that allow one to examine the effects of absorber mass distribution and tuning. These models are based on perturbation methods applied to the system equations of motion, and they yield system response features, including absorber and rotor response amplitudes and stability, as a function of parameters of interest. The model-based analytical results are compared against numerical simulations of the complete nonlinear equations of motion, and are shown to be in good agreement. These results are useful for the selection of absorber parameters to achieve desired performance. For example, they allow for approximate closed form expressions for the ratio of absorber masses at the two orders that yield optimal performance. It is also found that utilizing multiple order absorber systems can be beneficial for system stability, even when only a single excitation order is present.


Author(s):  
Chang-Po Chao ◽  
Steven W. Shaw

Abstract A pair of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers (CPVA’s) riding on half-order epicycloidal paths have recently been found to be very effective at reducing torsional vibration levels in a rotating system that is subjected to a harmonic external torque. Previous analyses of this system have assumed perfectly manufactured and exactly tuned paths for the absorber masses. The primary goal of this study is to explore the effects that manufacturing and other imperfections and intentional mistunings have on the performance of this absorber system. To this aim, the equations of motion are first derived for a simplified model. The basic system has two and a half degrees of freedom with a one-to-one internal resonance and two-to-one resonant external excitation. Utilizing the method of averaging, the steady-state solutions are obtained and used to evaluate the absorber performance via two performance indices: the rotor acceleration and the applicable range of the disturbing torque. Finally, some guidelines are provided for designers in terms of how one should choose and/or control intensional mistuning and imperfections of the absorber paths.


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