A Contact Model for Nonlinear Forced Response Prediction of Turbine Blades: Calculation Techniques and Experimental Comparison

Author(s):  
Christian M. Firrone ◽  
Marco Allara ◽  
Muzio M. Gola

Dry friction damping produced by sliding surfaces is commonly used to reduce vibration amplitude of blade arrays in turbo-machinery. The dynamic behavior of turbine components is significantly affected by the forces acting at their contact interfaces. In order to perform accurate dynamic analysis of these components, contact models must be included in the numerical solvers. This paper presents a novel approach to compute the contact stiffness of cylindrical contacts, analytical and based on the continuous contact mechanics. This is done in order to overcome the known difficulties in simultaneously adjusting the values of both tangential and normal contact stiffness experimentally. Monotonic loading curves and hysteresis cycles of contact forces vs. relative displacement are evaluated as a function of the main contact parameters (i.e. the contact geometry, the material properties and the contact normal load). The new contact model is compared with other contact models already presented in literature in order to show advantages and limitations. The contact model is integrated in a numerical solver, based on the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM), for the calculation of the forced response of turbine components with friction contacts, in particular underplatform dampers. Results from the nonlinear numerical simulations are compared with those from validation experiments.

Author(s):  
Walter Sextro

Shrouds with a frictional interface are used to reduce the dynamic stresses in turbine blades. Due to dry friction energy is dissipated, which can be used to decrease vibration amplitudes and, hence, to increase the life time of turbine blades. The spatial motion of the blades results in a spatial motion of the contact planes. Due to the non-linearity of the problem, the contact planes are discretized. For each contact area, the developed contact model is used to calculate the corresponding tangential and normal contact forces. This contact model includes the roughness of the contact surfaces, the normal pressure distribution due to roughness, the stiffnesses in normal and tangential direction and dry friction. Due to the roughness of the contact planes the normal contact forces and the contact stiffnesses in normal and tangential direction are nonlinear dependent on the relative displacements in the normal direction. This effect is verified by experiments. An experiment with one shrouded blade and two non-Hertzian contacts is used to verify the developed contact model and the calculation method. The comparison between measured and calculated frequency response functions for bending and torsional vibrations of the blade show a very good agreement. A bladed disk assembly with shrouds is investigated and optimized with respect to the vibration amplitudes and alternating stresses. Varying the normal contact force best damping effects are obtained. Separation of the contacts leads to an increase of the alternating stresses and, thus, has to be avoided.


Author(s):  
Been-Der Yang ◽  
Chia-Hsiang Menq

Designers of aircraft engines frequently employ shrouds in turbine design. In this paper, a variable normal load friction force model is proposed to investigate the influence of shroud-like contact kinematics on the forced response of frictionally constrained turbine blades. Analytical criteria are formulated to predict the transitions between slick, slip, and separation of the interface so as to assess the induced friction forces. When considering cyclic loading, the induced friction forces are combined with the variable normal load so as to determine the effective stiffness and damping of the friction joint over a cycle of motion. The harmonic balance method is then used to impose the effective stiffness and damping of the friction joint on the linear structure. The solution procedure for the nonlinear response nf a two-degree-of-freedom oscillator is demonstrated. As an application, this procedure is used to study the coupling effect of two constrained forces, friction force and variable normal load, on the optimization of the shroud contact design.


Author(s):  
Stefano Zucca ◽  
Juan Borrajo ◽  
Muzio M. Gola

In this paper a methodology for forced response calculation of bladed disks with underplatform dampers is described. The FE disk model, supposed to be cyclically symmetric, is reduced by means of Component Mode Synthesis and then DOFs lying at interfaces are further reduced by means of interface modes. Underplatform dampers are modeled as rigid bodies translating both in the radial and in the tangential direction of the engine. Contacts between blade platforms and damper are simulated by means of contact elements characterized by both tangential and normal contact stiffness, allowing partial separation of contact surfaces. Differential equilibrium equations are turned in non-linear algebraic equations by means of the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM). The methodology is implemented in a numerical code for forced response calculation of frictionally damped bladed disks. Numerical calculations are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of both the reduced order model and the underplatform model in simulating the dynamic behavior of bladed disks in presence of underplatform dampers.


Author(s):  
Stefano Zucca ◽  
Muzio M. Gola ◽  
Francesco Piraccini

The prediction of the aeromechanical behavior of low-pressure blades represents one of the main challenges in the Steam Turbine Industry. The evaluation of forced response and damping is critical for the reliability of new designs and usually requires expensive validation campaigns such as Wheel Box Tests (WBT). A WBT consists of one or more blade rows assembled on a rotor and spun at the desired rotating speed in a vacuum cell, with synchronous excitation provided by various sources. The WBT provides accurate information about the blade modes frequency, the alternating response level, and allows the evaluation of the mechanical damping. Given the large effort in terms of costs and time associated to the experimental activity, the possibility to rely on the output of a numerical code either during the first steps of a new design or to investigate the effect of minor changes to a current design would be extremely beneficial to the development of future products. In order to compute the non-linear forced response of shrouded blades of steam turbines, custom numerical solvers must be developed, since commercial finite element (FE) solvers do not perform this kind of analysis in the frequency domain. In this paper, the forced response of a blade with shrouds of a low pressure steam turbine is computed and numerical results are compared with the experimental Wheel Box Tests performed at GE Oil & Gas. The calculations require a three-step procedure: in the first step, a non-linear static analysis is performed in ANSYS® in order to compute the actual contact area on the shroud surface and the distribution of static normal loads, then a reduced order model of the blade is generated in ANSYS® taking into account the stiffening effect on the blade of the pre-stress due to the centrifugal force, finally the reduced model is imported in a numerical code and the non-linear forced response of the blade is computed. The numerical code solves the balance equations of the system in the frequency domain, by means of the Harmonic Balance Method, imposing cyclic symmetry boundary conditions of the system. An interpolation procedure is implemented in order to manage the non-perfectly matching meshes of the shroud contact surfaces, while the tangential and normal contact stiffness is computed with a numerical model based on the contact mechanics principles. The numerical and the experimental results around some of the critical resonances of the system are compared in order to assess the reliability and accuracy of the numerical tool for its future implementation in the mechanical design practice of the blades.


Author(s):  
Kunio Asai ◽  
Shigeo Sakurai ◽  
Takeshi Kudo ◽  
Norihiko Ozawa ◽  
Taizo Ikeda

It is necessary to increase and estimate friction damping at contact interfaces to reduce vibratory stresses in turbines. The hysteresis behavior between tangential contact force and relative displacement should be precisely estimated to improve the accuracy of fiction-damping estimates. There is a difficulty in establishing a general model of hysteresis because tangential contact stiffness depends on many parameters, such as normal contact force, contact geometry, surface roughness, and wear status. We discuss a procedure to empirically calculate friction damping in dovetail root joints using the tangential contact stiffness estimated from measured natural frequencies and the micro-slip model whose coefficients were experimentally obtained from special fretting tests. Instead of the multi-harmonic balance methods, we calculated the friction damping on the basis of the energy dissipation at contact surfaces to discuss the effects of the tangential contact stiffness on several physical values, i.e., tangential and normal contact forces, natural frequency, and micro-slip. In our model, the linear forced response analysis was conducted by taking into consideration the non-linearity between the tangential contact force and the relative displacement by defining the actual and imaginary tangential contact stiffness. We confirmed that the numerically calculated damping ratios are quantitatively in very good agreement with the measured ones under different contact angles, input gravity levels, and contact forces. This indicates that if the tangential contact stiffness is accurately estimated, friction damping with our method can be precisely estimated under different test conditions. We also showed that the estimated tangential contact stiffness for dovetail root joints are smaller than those obtained by the fretting tests at high input gravity. This is probably because the contact interface partially separates during a cyclic loading in the former case; this results in the decrease of the contact area and contact stiffness.


Author(s):  
Ender Cigeroglu ◽  
Ning An ◽  
Chia-Hsiang Menq

In this paper, a forced response prediction method for the analysis of constrained and unconstrained structures coupled through frictional contacts is presented. This type of frictional contact problem arises in vibration damping of turbine blades, in which dampers and blades constitute the unconstrained and constrained structures, respectively. The model of the unconstrained/free structure includes six rigid body modes and several elastic modes, the number of which depends on the excitation frequency. In other words, the motion of the free structure is not artificially constrained. When modeling the contact surfaces between the constrained and free structure, discrete contact points along with contact stiffnesses are distributed on the friction interfaces. At each contact point, contact stiffness is determined and employed in order to take into account the effects of higher frequency modes that are omitted in the dynamic analysis. Depending on the normal force acting on the contact interfaces, quasistatic contact analysis is initially employed to determine the contact area as well as the initial preload or gap at each contact point due to the normal load. A friction model is employed to determine the three-dimensional nonlinear contact forces, and the relationship between the contact forces and the relative motion is utilized by the harmonic balance method. As the relative motion is expressed as a modal superposition, the unknown variables, and thus the resulting nonlinear algebraic equations in the harmonic balance method, are in proportion to the number of modes employed. Therefore the number of contact points used is irrelevant. The developed method is applied to a bladed-disk system with wedge dampers where the dampers constitute the unconstrained structure, and the effects of normal load on the rigid body motion of the damper are investigated. It is shown that the effect of rotational motion is significant, particularly for the in-phase vibration modes. Moreover, the effect of partial slip in the forced response analysis and the effect of the number of harmonics employed by the harmonic balance method are examined. Finally, the prediction for a test case is compared with the test data to verify the developed method.


Author(s):  
S. Zucca ◽  
C. M. Firrone ◽  
M. Facchini

In order to reduce resonant vibration of thin walled gears used for aeronautical applications, friction ring dampers may be added to the gear. In order to design the damper geometry, engineers must be able to evaluate its effect on the dynamics of the gear. In this paper a method for the calculation of the forced response of gears with friction ring dampers for aeronautical applications is proposed for the first time. The gear and the damper are modeled by means of FEM and they are coupled by means of contact elements, characterized by tangential and normal contact stiffness. The periodical response of the system is computed in the frequency domain, by means of the harmonic balance method. The harmonic excitation is calculated by means of Fourier analysis of the periodic force profile acting on the gear teeth. The methodology is applied to a case of industrial interest. The effect of the principal design parameters of the ring damper is highlighted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 168781402110549
Author(s):  
Tieneng Guo ◽  
Xu Hua ◽  
Zhijie Yan ◽  
Lingjun Meng ◽  
Liwei Peng

Based on Hertz contact theory, two parabolic cylinder normal contact models are established. The effect of contact angle on normal approach, actual contact area, and normal contact stiffness are investigated, and the effect of the distance from the focus to the directrix (focus distance) on the mechanical characteristics of the models is further analyzed. The parabolic cylinder contact model was verified by simulation analysis and comparison with cylinder contact model. The results demonstrated that the contact angle, focal distance, and load have significant effects on the mechanical properties of the model. The simulation data are basically consistent with the contact model data, and the parabolic cylinder contact model and cylinder contact model have the same change trend. The results verify the correctness of the parabolic cylinder contact model and reveal the variation of the mechanical properties of the contact model.


2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Zucca ◽  
Christian Maria Firrone ◽  
Marco Facchini

In order to reduce the resonant vibration of thin walled gears used for aeronautical applications, friction ring dampers may be added to the gear. In order to design the damper geometry, engineers must be able to evaluate its effect on the dynamics of the gear. In this paper a method for the calculation of the forced response of gears with friction ring dampers for aeronautical applications is proposed for the first time. The gear and the damper are modeled by means of the finite element method (FEM) and they are coupled by means of contact elements, characterized by tangential and normal contact stiffness. The periodical response of the system is computed in the frequency domain by means of the harmonic balance method. The harmonic excitation is calculated by means of the Fourier analysis of the periodic force profile acting on the gear teeth. The methodology is applied to a case of industrial interest. The effect of the principal design parameters of the ring damper is highlighted.


Author(s):  
Ender Cigeroglu ◽  
Ning An ◽  
Chia-Hsiang Menq

In this paper, an improved wedge damper model is presented, based on which the effects of wedge dampers on the forced response of frictionally constrained blades are investigated. In the analysis, while the blade is modeled as a constrained structure, the damper is considered as an unconstrained structure. The model of the damper includes six rigid body modes and several elastic modes, the number of which depends on the excitation frequency. In other words, the motion of the damper is not artificially constrained. When modeling the contact surfaces of the wedge damper, discrete contact points along with contact stiffness are evenly distributed on the two contact surfaces. At each contact point, contact stiffness is determined and employed in order to take into account the effects of higher frequency modes that are omitted in the dynamic analysis. Depending on the engine rpm, quasi-static contact analysis is initially employed to determine the contact area as well as the initial preload or gap at each contact point due to the centrifugal force. A friction model is employed to determine the three-dimensional nonlinear contact forces and the relationship between the contact forces and the relative motion is utilized by the Harmonic Balance method. As the relative motion is expressed as a modal superposition, the unknown variables, and thus the resulting nonlinear algebraic equations, in the Harmonic Balance method is in proportion to the number of modes employed, and therefore the number of contact points used is irrelevant. The developed method is applied to tuned bladed disk system and the effects of normal load on the rigid body motion of the damper are investigated. It is shown that, the effect of rotational motion is significant, particularly for the in-phase vibration modes.


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