Lecture 1

Rotordynamics Background
14.5 Release

Introduction to ANSYS
Rotordynamics
1 © 2013 ANSYS, Inc. Release 14.5
 Topics Covered
– Industry and Rotating machinery
– Why Rotordynamics
– What is Rotordynamics
– Features unique to Rotordyanmics
– Analysis of Rotating Components
– Theory – Rotordynamics
– Reference Frames
– Applicable Elements
– Applicable Eigensolvers
– Bearing Elements
– Analysis Process in ANSYS

2 © 2013 ANSYS, Inc. Release 14.5

 Industry and Rotating Machinery

• Rotor dynamics is the study of rotating machines and has a very important
part to play throughout the modern industrial world
• Rotating machinery is used in many applications such as:
– Turbomachines
– Power Stations
– Machine tools
– Automobiles
– Household machines
– Aerospace applications
– Marine propulsion
– Medical equipment
– Computer equipment

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 Why Rotordynamics ?

• Need for lighter, more powerful and

more efficient machines
• A more efficient use of high strength
material, for example, results in
machines which are more compliant
and more prone to vibrate, while the
tendency to increase the operating
speed of many machines increases
the productivity and contains costs,
but aggravates rotordynamics
problems

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 … Why Rotordynamics ?

• Failure of machinery in applications such as

aeroengines, turbomachines, space
vehicles, etc. creates enormous repair costs
and more importantly may put human life
in danger.
• Governments and industries put a great
deal of resources into the study of rotor
dynamics to calculate the ‘safe’ operating
ranges before the machine goes into service
and also methods of detecting imminent
failure.
• Very small rotor-stator clearances
• Flexible bearing supports – rotor instability

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 What is Rotordynamics ?

• Finding critical speeds

• Rotor whirl and system stability
predictions
• Unbalance response calculation
• Transient start-up and stop

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 Features Unique to Rotordyanmics

• When a rotor spins, lateral forces and moments are generated.

– These are unbalance forces and moments which are always present
due to limitations in machining and assembly accuracy
– These forces and moments give rise to vibration at same frequency
as rotational speed
• Gyroscopic moments also act on the spinning rotor and cause its
natural frequency to change with rotational speed

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 … Features Unique to Rotordyanmics

• The stiffness and damping properties of some types of bearings vary with
rotor speed: these changes also influence the natural frequencies
• Not all rotors are perfectly symmetric
– When a asymmetric rotor spins, its stiffness changes periodically at the
rotational speed in a stationary frame and can cause instability
• Damping in rotating machines can be significantly high as compared to
fixed structures and can cause instability

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 Analysis of Rotating Components
• Rotordynamics is a collective term for Typical rotor-bearing model
rotating machines and can be split into the
sub-groups that make it up: y
– rotating shafts
– bearings, seals, couplings z bearing
x
– disks representing impellers

• Analysis of rotating components has been

traditionally done using beam models rotor
which are very simple approximations of shaft
3D CAD models
 bearing

• It is better/easy to work directly on CAD

models of components, sub-assemblies,
assemblies for meshing and analysis of
complete systems

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 … Analysis of Rotating Components
• Auto-meshing features makes meshing accurate
and accomplished in very little time compared to
procedures in beam modeling

• Disadvantages of beam models are automatically

taken care of in solid rotor dynamics
Overhung solid element FEA model

• However, CPU time, RAM and hard disk

requirements go up considerably

• With recent advances in computers, these

limitations are gradually diminishing, thus
making solid rotor dynamics more attractive

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 Theory - Rotordynamics
The general rotordynamics equation can be written as (in a stationary
reference frame):

Mu C  Gu  K  Bu f 

where
[M], [C] and [K] are the standard mass, damping and stiffness matrices
{f} is the external force vector
Terms unique to rotordynamics analysis are:
[G] is the skew symmetric gyroscopic matrix which depends on the
rotational velocity, captures the gyroscopic effect which couples
rotational degrees of freedom perpendicular to spinning axis
[B] is the rotating damping matrix which also depends on rotational
velocity, modifies apparent stiffness of the structure and can produce
unstable motion
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 Reference Frames

• Rotordynamics simulation can be performed in two different reference

frames:

– Stationary reference frame:

• Applies to a rotating structure (rotor) along with a stationary support structure
• Rotating part of the structure to be modeled must be axisymmetric
– A non-axisymmetric part can be transformed into equivalent axisymmetric mass

– Rotating reference frame:

• The structure has no stationary parts and the entire structure is rotating
• Consider only the Coriolis force

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 … Reference Frames
Stationary reference frame
Not applicable in static analysis
Can generate Campbell plots for
computing rotor critical speeds
Structure must be axisymmetric about
spin axis (or can use point mass)
Rotating structure can be part of a
stationary structure (ex: Gas Turbine
Engine rotor-stator assembly).
Supports more than one rotating
structure spinning at different
rotational speeds about different axes
of rotation (ex: a multi-spool gas
turbine engine)
Our focus in this training
14 © 2013 ANSYS, Inc.
Rotating reference frame
Applicable in static analysis
Campbell plots are not applicable for
computing rotor critical speeds
Structure need not be axisymmetric about
spin axis
Rotating structure must be the only part of
an analysis model (ex: gas turbine engine
rotor)
Supports only a single rotating structure
(ex: a single-spool gas turbine engine)
Release 14.5
 Applicable Elements

• Elements that are part of the rotating structure must account for the gyroscopic
effect induced by the rotational angular velocity
• The CORIOLIS command (MAPDL command) activates the gyroscopic damping matrix
in the following structural elements:

Element Type Detail

Structural Mass MASS21

3D Beam BEAM188
BEAM189

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 Applicable Elements
Element Type Detail

3D Pipe PIPE288
PIPE289

Structural Shell SHELL181

SHELL281

SOLID185
3D Structural Solid SOLID186
SOLID187

General
Axisymmetric SOLID272
Solid SOLID273

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 Applicable Eigensolvers

Eigen- Input Usages Applicable Extraction

solver Matrices Technique
QR Damped MODOPT, • Symmetric or unsymmetric damped QR algorithm
K*, C*, M
(called the QRDAMP systems for reduced
(K and C can be
‘Reduced’ • Able to extract complex eigenvalues modal damping
unsymmetric)
method in resulting from damping in the system
Workbench) (ALPHAD, BETAD, etc. )
• Performance is similar to Block
Lanczos
• Good for up to, say 1 million DOFs
extracting, say less than 100 modes.

Damped MODOPT, • Symmetric or unsymmetric damped K*, C*, M* Lanczos which

(called the DAMP systems (M, C and K can internally uses
‘Full’ • Optimal performance up to about be unsymmetric) QR algorithm
200K DOFs, extracting, say 100
method in
modes
Workbench) • Doesn’t support modal superposition
transient or harmonic analysis

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 Bearing Elements

Bearing element choice depends on:

• Shape (1D, 2D, 3D)
• Cross terms
• Nonlinearities
Description Stiffness and damping Nonlinear stiffness
and Damping
COMBIN14 Uniaxial No No
spring/damper
COMBIN214 2-D spring/damper Unsymmetric Function of the
rotational velocity
Unsymmetric No
MATRIX27 General stiffness
or damping matrix

MPC184 Multipoint Symmetric for linear characteristics Function of the

constraint element None for nonlinear characteristics displacement

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 Linear Perturbation Analysis
Linear Perturbation Analysis enables a modal analysis to be run using the tangent
stiffness matrix obtained from a previous analysis
• static analysis (linear or non-linear)
• full transient analysis (linear or non-linear)

more general method for

rotordynamics prestress modal
analysis

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 Analysis Process in ANSYS - Preprocessing

• Build/Import the model Initial 3D geometry

– Import/build geometry in Design
Modeler
– In the example shown here, the
initial 3D geometry is sliced for
2D axisymmetric modeling
– Define the bearing locations

Final axisymmetric model

Bearings location

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 … Analysis Process in ANSYS - Preprocessing

• Define element types

– Separate rotating and stationary parts of the model
– Rotating parts must support gyroscopic effects
– The resulting model mesh must be axi-symmetric (basic assumption for
rotordynamic theory)
– Model stationary parts with any 3D solid, beam or shell elements
– Stationary part can also be added as a substructure
– Model the bearings as spring/damper element, bearing element, MPC constraint
element or a general stiffness/damping matrix

• Define material in Engineering Data

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 … Analysis Process in ANSYS - Preprocessing

• Mesh the model using workbench meshing tools

– Example axisymmetric elements

– Example symmetric mesh for full model divided into four quadrants

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 … Analysis Process in ANSYS - Solution

• Define Rotational Velocity

• Account for gyroscopic effect : CORIOLIS=ON command
• Solve the model:
– Following types of analysis can be performed in ANSYS
• Modal analysis:
– Performing several modal analyses allows you to review the stability and obtain critical
speeds from the Campbell diagrams
• Harmonic analysis:
– Allows you to calculate the response to synchronous (for example, unbalance) or
asynchronous excitations
• Transient analysis:
– Allows you to study the response of the structure under transient loads (for example, a
1G shock) or analyze the startup or stop effects on a rotating spool and the related
components

23 © 2013 ANSYS, Inc. Release 14.5