Modeling and Free Vibration Analysis of a Complex Cable-Stayed Bridge

A complex cable-stayed bridge that consists of a simply-supported four-cable-stayed deck beam and two rigid towers is studied. The nonlinear and linear partial differential equations that govern the motions of the cables and segments of the deck beam, respectively, are derived, along with their boundary and matching conditions. The undamped natural frequencies and mode shapes of the linearized model of the cable-stayed bridge, which includes both the transverse and longitudinal vibrations of the cables, are determined. Numerical analysis of the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the cable-stayed bridge is conducted for a symmetrical case with regards to the sizes of the components of the bridge and the initial sags of the cables. The results show that there are very close natural frequencies and localized mode shapes.

Effect of Waviness on Vibration and Acoustic Features of Rolling Element Bearing

Waviness of rolling element bearings, as one of the most concerned factors, would greatly influence the dynamic and acoustic performances of machines. In this paper, a new algorithm of vibro-acoustic coupling, which is based on the displacement mapping method by applying the displacement history obtained from a 6-DOF bearing dynamic model to be as the boundary condition of the finite element model of the bearing housing, is developed to predict the effect of waviness on the vibration and acoustic features of the bearing. The displacement excitation of the circumferential surface of bearing housing can be obtained by vector synthesis of bearing rigid displacement from the 6-DOF bearing dynamic model. This new method enables not only the reduction in computational cost, but also simulation of the bearing waviness under different sizes. A 6308 deep groove ball bearing model with outer race waviness is taken as an example case to examine the effectiveness of the new algorithm. The simulation results show that the new algorithm is able to predict the vibration and acoustic features of the bearing with waviness.

Investigation on the Dynamics of an On-Board Rotor-Bearing System

In ship and aircraft turbine rotors, the rotating mass unbalance and the different movements of the rotor base are among the main causes of vibrations in bending. The goal of this paper is to investigate the dynamic behavior of an on-board rotor under rigid base excitations. The modeling takes into consideration six types of base deterministic motions (rotations and translations) when the kinetic and strain energies in addition to the virtual work of the rotating flexible rotor components are computed. The finite element method is used in the rotor modeling by employing the Timoshenko beam theory. The proposed on-board rotor model takes into account the rotary inertia, the gyroscopic inertia, the shear deformation of shaft as well as the geometric asymmetry of shaft and/or rigid disk. The Lagrange’s equations are applied to establish the differential equations of the rotor in bending with respect to the rigid base which represents a noninertial reference frame. The linear equations of motion display periodic parametric coefficients due to the asymmetry of the rotor and time-varying parametric coefficients due to the base rotational motions. In the proposed applications, the rotor mounted on rigid/elastic bearings is excited by a rotating mass unbalance associated with sinusoidal vibrations of the rigid base. The dynamic behavior of the rotor is analyzed by means of orbits of the rotor as well as fast Fourier transforms (FFTs).

Efficient Damping Prediction of Bolted Structures Using Harmonic Balance Method

In this paper damping induced by extensive friction occurring in the interface between bolted structures is considered by simulations and experiments. A friction damper is attached to a beam-like flexible structure by screws such that the normal force in the interface can be varied by the clamping force of the screws. Contact and friction force parameters are identified by the comparison of simulated and experimentally determined FRFs for a particular normal force. Afterward a prediction of damping for different configurations is established. For simulations a finite element model is used where suitable contact and friction models are implemented. A time simulation of the system is expensive due to the large number of DoFs of the discretized substructures and the required small step size due to the high contact stiffness. Therefore model reduction methods are used. A further reduction of the computation time can be achieved by using the Harmonic Balance Method (HBM) for a direct frequency domain computation of FRFs. This enables an efficient procedure to approximate the reachable damping as well as to search the optimal damper position and the optimal normal force. The dependency of the friction to the vibration amplitude is therefore taken into account. A more detailed investigation of the nonlinear effects, e.g. higher harmonic response, is then accomplished by transient simulations for the optimal configured system in the time domain and the results are compared to experimental results.

Fractal Boundary Explorations for a Nonlinear Two Degree-of-Freedom System

This paper explores a two degree-of-freedom nonlinearly coupled system with two distinct potential wells. The system consists of a pair of linear mass-spring-dampers with a non-linear, mechanical coupling between them. This nonlinearity creates fractal boundaries for basins of attraction and forced well-escape response. The inherent uncertainty of these fractal boundaries is quantified for errors in the initial conditions and parameter space. This uncertainty relationship provides a measure of the final state and transient sensitivity of the system.

Amplitude Modulation and Symmetry Breaking Bifurcation in Micro Devices

Designs of many micro devices take advantage of the symmetry for better performance, immunity to noise, and for simpler analysis. When a symmetric structure is subjected to symmetric forcing, the symmetric response can become unstable leading to asymmetric responses. The occurrence of symmetry breaking bifurcation leads to complicated dynamic responses which often result in less desirable performances. In this paper, we obtain analytical criteria for the onset of symmetry breaking bifurcations. We also conduct numerical simulations to demonstrate different types of asymmetric dynamic responses resulting from the symmetry breaking bifurcation. In particular, we show the occurrence of amplitude modulated motions in such systems.

Hydraulic Instability Onset Detection in Kaplan Turbines by Monitoring Shaft Vibrations

Design of hydraulic turbines has often to deal with hydraulic instability. It is well-known that Francis and Kaplan types present hydraulic instability in their design power range. Even if modern CFD tools may help to define these dangerous operating conditions and optimize runner design, hydraulic instabilities may fortuitously arise during the turbine life and should be timely detected in order to assure a long-lasting operating life. In a previous paper, the authors have considered the phenomenon of helical vortex rope, which happens at low flow rates when a swirling flow, in the draft tube conical inlet, occupies a large portion of the inlet. In this condition, a strong helical vortex rope appears. The vortex rope causes mechanical effects on the runner, on the whole turbine and on the draft tube, which may eventually produce severe damages on the turbine unit and whose most evident symptoms are vibrations. The authors have already shown that vibration analysis is suitable for detecting vortex rope onset, thanks to an experimental test campaign performed during the commissioning of a 23 MW Kaplan hydraulic turbine unit. In this paper, the authors propose a sophisticated data driven approach to detect vortex rope onset at different power load, based on the analysis of the vibration signals in the order domain and introducing the so-called “residual order spectrogram”, i.e. an order-rotation representation of the vibration signal. Some experimental test runs are presented and the possibility to detect instability onset, especially in real-time, is discussed.

Stochastic Modal Models of Slender Uncertain Curved Beams Preloaded Through Clamping

This paper addresses the stochastic modeling of the stiffness matrix of slender uncertain curved beams that are forced fit into a clamped-clamped fixture designed for straight beams. Because of the misfit with the clamps, the final shape of the clamped-clamped beams is not straight and they are subjected to an axial preload. Both of these features are uncertain given the uncertainty on the initial, undeformed shape of the beams and affect significantly the stiffness matrix associated with small motions around the clamped-clamped configuration. A modal model using linear modes of the straight clamped-clamped beam with a randomized stiffness matrix is employed to characterize the linear dynamic behavior of the uncertain beams. This stiffness matrix is modeled using a mixed nonparametric-parametric stochastic model in which the nonparametric (maximum entropy) component is used to model the uncertainty in final shape while the preload is explicitly, parametrically included in the stiffness matrix representation. Finally, a maximum likelihood framework is proposed for the identification of the parameters associated with the uncertainty level and the mean model, or part thereof, using either natural frequencies only or natural frequencies and mode shape information of the beams around their final clamped-clamped state. To validate these concepts, a simulated, computational experiment was conducted within Nastran to produce a population of natural frequencies and mode shapes of uncertain slender curved beams after clamping. The application of the above concepts to this simulated data led to a very good to excellent matching of the probability density functions of the natural frequencies and the modal components, even though this information was not used in the identification process. These results strongly suggest the applicability of the proposed stochastic model.

Unstable Vibrations of a Wind Turbine Tower With Two Blades

Unstable vibrations of a two-blade wind turbine tower are theoretically investigated. The theoretical model is a five-degree-of-freedom (5DOF) system, however, the equations of motion are derived separately for 3DOF subsystem (I) and 2DOF subsystem (II). Parametric excitation due to the asymmetry of the moments of inertia of the blade rotor is included only in subsystem (I). Frequency equations are derived and natural frequency diagrams are calculated to clearly demonstrate both the rotational speeds where unstable regions appear and which type of unstable vibrations may occur. It is found that at most, five unstable regions may appear depending on the values of the system parameters in subsystem (I). Two types of unstable vibrations may occur; single mode including a single frequency and dual mode including two frequencies. The influences of the asymmetry of moments of inertia, tower rigidity, and installation position of the blade rotor on the response of the system are also theoretically investigated. Van der Pol’s method is applied to determine the expressions for the response curves. The influences of the blade rotor unbalances on the translational, inclinational and torsional vibrations of the tower are shown. It is found that the amplitudes of the response curves corresponding to single and dual mode are infinite and finite at their boundaries, respectively. The validity of the theoretical analysis is confirmed by numerical simulations.

Online Real-Time Monitoring System Through Using Adaptive Angular-Velocity VKF Order Tracking

When rotary machines are running, acousto-mechanical signals acquired from the machines are able to reveal their operation status and machine conditions. Mechanical systems under periodic loading due to rotary operation usually respond in measurements with a superposition of sinusoids whose frequencies are integer (or fractional integer) multiples of the reference shaft speed. In this study we built an online real-time machine condition monitoring system based on the adaptive angular-velocity Vold-Kalman filtering order tracking (AV2KF_OT) algorithm, which was implemented through a DSP chip module and a user interface coded by the LabVIEW®. This paper briefly introduces the theoretical derivation and numerical implementation of computation scheme. Experimental works justify the effectiveness of applying the developed online real-time condition monitoring system. They are the detection of startup on the fluid-induced instability, whirl, performed by using a journal-bearing rotor test rig.