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The coupled vibration in a shaft‐disk‐blades system

a b
Chia‐Hao Yang & Shyh‐Chin Huang
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering , National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology , Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C.
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering , National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology , Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C. Phone: 886–2–27376443 Fax: 886–2–27376443 E-
mail:
Published online: 04 Mar 2011.

To cite this article: Chia‐Hao Yang & Shyh‐Chin Huang (2005) The coupled vibration in a shaft‐disk‐blades system, Journal
of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 28:1, 89-99, DOI: 10.1080/02533839.2005.9670975

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 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 89-99 (2005) 89

THE COUPLED VIBRATION IN A SHAFT-DISK-BLADES

SYSTEM

Chia-Hao Yang and Shyh-Chin Huang*

ABSTRACT
The coupling vibrations among support-longitudinal, shaft-torsion and blade-bending
vibrations in a shaft-disk-blades unit are investigated. The equations of the shaft-disk-
blades unit are derived from the energy approach in conjunction with the assumed
Downloaded by [Anadolu University] at 19:29 20 December 2014

modes method. The present research focuses on the influence of blade number, longi-
tudinal flexibility (K a) and stagger angle ( β) on coupling behavior. Free vibration is
then studied and the results indicate that there exist two types, longitudinal-shaft-blade
(LSB) and blade-blade (BB) coupling modes. Nevertheless, the LSB modes shift to
SB (shaft-blade) modes at β =0° and to LB (longitudinal-blade) modes at β=90°. In
between, the LSB mode is observed to evolve from the original SB mode in a previ-
ously studied no longitudinal case. Increasing the number of blades results in the in-
crease or decrease of frequencies depending on which interval the frequencies lying in
a frequencies axis divided by all the components frequencies fall into. This phenom-
enon exists as well in changing stagger angle. As to rotation effects, the frequency loci
expelling or veering depends on Ka, but the critical speed is irrelevant to β .

Key Words: shaft-disk-blades, longitudinal mode, coupling vibration, stagger angle.

I. INTRODUCTION and the blade’s stagger angle. The support longitu-

Shaft-disk-blades units, as shown in Fig. 1, are
widespread in engineering applications. For exam-
ples, in turbine generator systems, turbine engines,
and rotor compressors, etc. Due to demanding preci-
sion, vibration analysis has become an important sub-
ject in the field of mechanical engineering design. Also,
due to today’s high speeds and high performance re-
quirements, the investigation of coupling character-
istics on the shaft-disk-blades system, which had not
been seriously considered previously, becomes more
important than ever. Coulped vibration analysis of a
shaft-disk-blades system provides an effective approach
in preventing structural damage or failures and war-
rants a safer and more reliable operation. The cou-
pling behavior between shaft-disk and blade could
change drastically due to the support’s axial stiffness
*Corresponding author. (Tel: 886-2-27376443; Fax: 886-2-
27376460; Email: schuang@mail.ntust.edu.tw)
The authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engineer-
ing, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C.
dinal, shaft torsional and blade bending vibrations are
believed to be coupled to a certain extent, but unfor-
tunately can not be discussed in depth here. The present
research focuses on the realization of coupling modes
and that to what extent the coupling relies on sup-
port’s stiffness and blade’s stagger angle.
The vibration characteristics of blades at a con-
stant rotating speed have been studied by many in-
vestigators, e.g., Lintins et al. (1973), Bauer (1980),
Subrahmanyam et al. (1982), Sisto et al. (1983),
Subrahmanyam and Kaza (1986), Ansari (1986),
Bauer and Eidel (1988), Kammer and Schlack (1987a;
1987b), Yigit et al. (1988), Huang and Lin (1990)
and Chiou and Yeh (1991). The blades were assumed
as a rotating beam, uniform or pretwisted. And there
are two analytic methods, the variational methods for
simple geometries, and the finite difference or finite
element methods for more complicated geometries.
Some researches have been published on shaft-disk
and disk-blade units, e.g., Eshleman and Eubanks
(1967), Laurenson (1967), Ozguven (1984), Ewins
(1973), Kushner (1980) and Omprakash and
Ramamurti (1988a). Though the flexibility of disks
 90 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2005)
Blade
Ka /2
Shaft Disk
Ka /2
Fig. 1 A typical shaft-disk-blade model
Downloaded by [Anadolu University] at 19:29 20 December 2014
was included, all the mentioned studies did not con-
sider any coupling effects among components. Some
research discussed coupled effects on rotor systems.
Chivens and Nelson (1975) investigated the system’s
natural frequencies of shaft and disk coupled vibra-
tions, and the critical speeds of a flexible shaft-disk
system use Laplace transform method. The critical
speeds were not significantly affected by disk flex-
ibility, but natural frequencies were in a reverse way.
Shahab and Thomas (1987) discussed the coupling
effects of shaft and disk flexibility on a shaft-multi-
ple disks system by using the finite element method.
Their investigation showed that the disk’s rigidity
imposed less effect than that of shaft torsion on sys-
tem modes. Shen and Ku (1997) used the assumed
modes method to study the natural frequencies and
mode shapes of a shaft-multiple disks system. Wu
and Flower (1992) investigated the coupling effects
of shaft and disk using the transfer matrix method.
Omprakash and Ramamurti (1988b) analyzed the
natural frequencies of a rotating disk-blade system
by a combined cycle symmetry and Rayleigh-Ritz
method. Omprakash and Ramamurti (1990) discussed
the influence of stagger and pretwist angle on the
coupling vibration characteristics of a disk-blade sys-
tem by the finite element method. They investigated
the influence of disk flexibility and found that disk-
blades coupling frequencies approached the blade’s
frequencies as the number of disk’s nodal diameters
increased. When the stagger angle was zero, the disk
and blades were completely uncoupled. As to the dy-
namic characteristics of a shaft-disk-blades unit, there
are some investigations in the literature. Khader and
Loewy (1990) discussed the forced response of a ro-
tating shaft-disk-blades system by modal analysis
method and addressed on the influence of Coriolis
force and coupling effects on flexible disk-rigid shaft
and rigid disk-flexible shaft. The frequencies of
flexibile blade-disk modes were bifurcated due to
Coriolis force. Sakata et al. (1989) investigated the
influence of gyroscopic moment of the shaft-disk-
blades system by the finite element method. Chun
and Lee (1996) used the assumed mode method to
investigate the influence of the forces and torques
resulted from the change of the stagger and pretwist
angles of blades on the dynamic coupling of a flex-
ible shaft-disk-blades unit. This investigation arrived
at some conclusions: the pretwist angle has far less
influence on the system dynamics than the stagger
angle and the torque and coupling effects on the shaft
became the largest when the stagger angle was zero,
but on the disk these effects were reversed. All the
above research addressed the bending vibration of
shaft, not the torsional and longitudinal vibrations.
Jia et al. (1997) used the assumed mode method to
investigate the longitudinal coupled vibration of a
flexible shaft with multiple flexible disks. Lee and
Chun (1998) investigated the effects of multiple flex-
ible disks on the vibration modes of a flexible shaft-
disk system via using the assumed modes method.
The frequency bifurcations of shaft and disk coupling
modes occurred due to disk flexibility. Huang and
Ho (1996) were the first who employed the receptance
method to explore the coupling modes between shaft
torsion and blade bending in a shaft-disk-blades unit.
But the support was assumed rigid because of zero
stagger angle. The present research looks into the
influence of support’s axial stiffness and blades’ stag-
ger angle on the coupling phenomena.
The shaft-disk-blades system considered herein
has N b-flexible blades clamped into a rigid disk with
a stagger angle ( β ) and undergoes shaft’s longitudi-
nal and torsion vibrations around a constant rotating
axis. In this paper the authors employed the energy
approach and the assumed modes method for analyti-
cal studies. Cases of five and six blades are illus-
trated as examples. Frequency diagrams and mode
shapes are given to help illustrate coupling phenom-
ena and interpretations are given as well.
II. ANALYTICAL MODEL
Figure 1 shows a typical shaft-disk-blades sys-
tem. The path of motion transmission can be from
the blades through the disk to the shaft’s torsion and
longitude or the reverse. In either case, the compo-
nents are coupled together and the vibration can be
very complicated. In the following theoretical analy-
sis the authors intend to derive the equations for cou-
pled vibration and to look into the parameters effects
on coupling frequencies. The analyses begin with the
energy derivation for all subsystems then the as-
sumed-modes method follows to discretize equations.
The total energy of the shaft-disk-blades system
 C. H. Yang and S. C. Huang: The Coupled Vibration in a Shaft-Disk-Blades System 91

is decomposed into that of shaft-disk and that of blades. Y

sβ
The energies associated with shaft-disk are the shaft- co
vb

^
disk’s longitudinal and torsional vibrations and the y
blades’ bending energies. Note that in contrast to the x
osβ
shaft’s torsional rigidity, the shaft’s longitudinal ri- v bc
gidity is large enough to be assumed rigid. Instead,
the whole set moves together but restricted by a pair
of discrete springs at ends presumably provided by φ
bearing supports. r s and r d denote the inner and outer

Ωt
radii of disk, respectively. r b is the location of blade’s X
Ω
outer end. w s is designated as the longitudinal dis-
placement of the shaft-disk as a whole. The torsional
displacement with respect to the constantly rotating
frame is denoted φ (Z, t). Fig. 2 shows a typical rotat-
ing blade cantilevered off a rigid disk with a stagger wb y
angle β . The (X, Y, Z) coordinate system is the iner-
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Y
tia frame; (x, y, z) frame rotates at a constant speed Ω vb
v^b
and orients an angle β relative to (X, Y, Z) frame. The z
vb and wb are the transverse displacements of the blade
in y and z directions respectively.
β
The kinetic and strain energies associated with

zd
xφ
the shaft-disk and a single blade are derived to be
Z
O
Ls I
Ts = 1 I s(φ + Ω ) 2dZ + d (φ + Ω ) 2 Z = Zd
2 0 2

+ 1 (m s + m d )ws2 (1)
2 ws

Ls ∂φ 2
Us = 1 G sJ s( ) dZ + 1 K aws2 (2) Fig. 2 Blade’s coordinate systems and its deformation configu-
2 0 ∂Z 2 ration

rb
Tb = 1 ρ b A b{vb2 + wb2 + (vbcosβ + wbsinβ) 2Ω 2 vb (x, t). The kinematic relations between these
2 rd
displacements are
+ x 2Ω 2 + 2x(vbcosβ + wbsinβ)Ω }dx vb k(xk, t) = vb k + xk φ Z d cosβ – wssinβ (5)
rb ∂v
+1 I b(Ω cosβ + b ) 2dx wb k(xk, t) = xk φ Z d sinβ + wscosβ
2 ∂x (3) (6)
rd

rb E b I A ∂ 2vb
rb
Ω 2ρ b A b 2 2 where the subscript k denotes the k th blade.
Ub = ( )dx + (r b – x ) Applying Hamilton’s principle yields the equa-
rd 2 ∂x 2 rd
4
tions of motion in a continuous fashion from the above
∂vb 2 ∂wb 2 energies. To search for direct solutions to the con-
⋅ [( ) + ) ]dx (4)
∂x ∂x tinuous equations, if not impossible, is ineffective and
inefficient. The discretization process via the as-
where L s, I s, and G sJ s denote the shaft’s length, polar sumed-modes method hence applies. The mode
rotatary inertia, and torsional stiffness, respectively. shapes of corresponding non-rotating components are
I d is the disk’s polar rotatary inertia. m s and m d de- adopted as trial functions, i.e.,
note the mass of shaft and disk. The upper dot de-
notes time derivatives and subscripts s and b are des- w s(t)=W ζ (t) (7)
ignated for shaft and blade, respectively. I A is the ns
blade’s area moment of inertia about z axis, and I b is φ(Z, t) = Σ Φi(Z)η i(t) = Φ (Z)η(t)
i=1
(8)
it’s polar moment of inertia.
The total displacements of a blade, v b(x, t) and nb
w b(x, t) consist of the shaft-disk’s torsional displace- vb k(xk, t) = Σ V ki(xk)ξ ki(t) = Vk(xk)ξ k(t) (9)
ment φ (Z d, t), the shaft-disk’s longitudinal displace-
i=1

ment w s , and the blade’s bending displacement where W is the rigid mode shape of a shaft
 92 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2005)

longitudianal, Φ i and V ki are the mode shapes of a Table 1 Geometric and material properties of the
shaft torsional and a blade, respectively. ξ , η i and illustrated examples
ξ ki are the participation factors. n’s with the sub- Density: ρ s 7850 kg/m 3
scripts for designated subsystems, are the numbers
of modes deemed necessary for required accuracy. Shear modulus: G s 75 GPa
Substituting the above equations into all the Shaft Shaft length: L s 0.6 m
energy expressions and employing the Lagrange equa- Radius: r s 0.04 m
tions to yield the discretizated equations of motion Mass: m s 23.675 kg
in matrix notation as Density: ρ d 7850 kg/m 3
Young’s modulus: E d 200 GPa
Mq + (K e – Ω 2 K Ω)q = {0} (10)
Disk Location: z d 0.3 m
where matrices M, K and K are e Ω Radius: r d 0.2 m
Mass: m d 28.41 kg

M ww 0 M wb 1 M wbN Density: ρ b 7850 kg/m 3

b
Young’s modulus: E b 200 GPa
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0 M ss M sb 1 M sbN Blade outer end: r b 0.4 m

b
T T
M= M wb 1 M sb 1 M b 1b 1 0 0 (11) Cross-section: A b 1.2×10 -4 m 2
Blade
Area moment of inertia: I A 1.92×10 -9 m 4
0 0
Mass moment of inertia: I b 1.51×10 -5 m 4
T T
M wbN M sbN 0 0 Mb N b Mass: m b 0.188 kg
b Nb
Stagger angle: β
b b
30°

e
Longitudinal stiffness: K a 2×10 7 N/m
Kww 0 0
Dimensionless rotational speed: Ω * 0~12
0 Ksse 0
e
Ke = 0 Kb 1b 1 0 (12)
0 0
e
first and second modes participating in coupling vi-
0 0 Kb N b N brations, are demonstrated in the following illustra-
b b
tions. Table 1 gives the geometric and material prop-
erties for the illustrated examples. Note that, the sizes
0 0 0 0 0 of shaft, disk and blades shown in the examples are
Ω Ω exaggerated in order to clearly magnify the coupling
0 KssΩ Ksb 1 KsbN effects among components. Also, to illustrate how
b
Ω Ω
KΩ = 0 (Ksb 1) T Kb 1b 1 (13) the components’ flexibility affects coupling vibration,
the natural frequencies of individual components with
0 the others temporarily removed or assumed rigid are
Ω e
0 (Ksb N )T 0 Kb N b N calculated and listed in Table 2. To avoid dimen-
b b b
sional dependence, the shown results are normalized
with respect to the cantilevered blade’s first natural
Note that K e yields from the elastic deflection pre- frequency ( ω1b=81.538 Hz), i.e., ω *= ω / ω1b and Ω *=
dominate at low rotational speed. –Ω 2K Ω results from Ω / ω1b. The cases of five and six blades are demon-
rotation and it softens the rotor at high rotational strated as numerical examples and in the illustrations
speed. The elements of matrices are given in the the authors denoted the SB, LB, BB and LSB for the
Appendix. q is a generalized vector, i.e., shaft-blades, longitudinal-blades, blade-blade and
q = {ζ \ η\ ξ } T longitudinal-shaft(torsional)-blade coupling modes,
(14)
respectively. Huang and Ho (1996) once investigated
The natural frequencies and mode shapes are now the coupling modes of shaft-disk-blades units with
solved for and the coupled behavior can be studied no straggle angle ( β =0°) and longitudinal motion and
accordingly. discovered that the coupling modes could be grouped
into two categories, the shaft-blades (SB) coupling
III. NUMERICAL RESULTS AND and the inter blades (BB) coupling. The present in-
DISCUSSION vestigation will show that the entering of support lon-
gitudinal flexibility results in the transfer of SB modes
The system’s mode shapes, showing the blade’s into LSB modes except at the extreme case β =0°. At
 C. H. Yang and S. C. Huang: The Coupled Vibration in a Shaft-Disk-Blades System 93

Table 2 Natural frequencies (Hz) of shaft-disk(longitudinal) & shaft-disk (torsional) and clamped blade
Component’s N.F. ω1 ω2 ω3
Shaft-disk (longitudinal) 139.474 − −
Shaft-disk (torsional) 207.418 2645.69 5267.204
Blade(bending) 81.538 510.99 1430.788

the opposite extreme, the SB modes transfer into LB

Longitudinal displacement (ws)

modes at β =90°. The BB modes, remain in either
case. The present investigation explores the influ-
ence of blade numbers, β and longitudinal stiffness
K a on coupling vibrations and their frequencies as
well.
Figure 3 shows the mode shapes of a five-blade
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system. The x-y plots denote the longitudinal dis-

placement, and the shaft’s torsional displacement.
From the first two x-y plots one notices that at modes 1 2 3 4 5 6
#2 and #5 the longitude and torsion do not partici- Mode
pate, at mode #3 longitudinal motion dominates, and
at mode #4 torsional motion dominates. Modes #2
and #5 are the so-called BB modes and the others are Angular displacement (φ)
LSB modes. BB modes occur at exactly the frequen-
cies of a cantilever blade (Huang and Ho, 1996) and
the blades balance by themselves such that they yield
no net force or torque to the shaft. Huang and Ho
(1996) discovered that the inter blade modes occurs
always at repeated frequencies of multiplicity N b-1,
where N b is the number of blades. The first mode
(LSB) occurs at 80.848 Hz, which is slightly lower 1 2 3 4 5 6
than the first natural frequency of a single cantilever Mode
blade (81.538 Hz, Table 2). At this mode, the blade’s
first mode predominates, as seen, but the shaft’s tor-
80.848 Hz LSB 81.538 Hz BB
sional and longitudinal directions have both deformed
and lowered the frequency slightly. Note that the lon-
gitudinal mode is relatively higher (stiffer) than the
blade’s first mode. Therefore, the resulting natural
frequency just slightly deviates from the case of rigid
support as shown in Table 3. The mode #3 occurs at #1 #2
138.484 Hz, in which the logitudinal mode (139.474
Hz) predominates, but, the blade’s first mode plays a 138.484 Hz LSB 202.854 Hz LSB

role as a serial spring to the shaft and pulls the fre-

quency down. Mode #4 is similar to mode #3 except
that the shaft’s first torsional mode predominates.
Mode #6 is similar to mode #1 except that the blade’s
second mode predominates. #3 #4
Compared to the no longitudinal motion case,
two phenomena are observed. First, due to longitu- 510.99 Hz BB 514.969 Hz LSB
dinal flexibility, the SB modes shift to LSB modes
with slightly smaller natural frequencies. The sec-
ond phenomenon is an additional mode #3 which is
generated due to longitudinal flexibility. Mode #3,
if contrasted to adjacent modes, #1 and #4, shows blade #5 #6
deformation very similar, except that the longitudi-
nal mode predominates herein. Fig. 4 shows the modes Fig. 3 The first six mode shapes of a five-blade system for β =30°
 94 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2005)

Table 3 Natural frequencies (Hz) associated with blade’s first mode and its multiplicity (n) for up to
seven blades systems
Single cantilever blade 81.538
N.F.
ω1 ω2 ω3 ω4
System
Flexible shaft 81.284 81.538 205.509
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
2 Rigid shaft 81.515 81.538 139.087
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
Flexible shaft 81.261 81.538 139.082 205.518
Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB
Flexible shaft 81.157 81.538(double) 204.586
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
3 Rigid shaft 81.503 81.538(double) 138.895
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
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Flexible shaft 81.123 81.538(double) 138.884 204.606

Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB
Flexible shaft 81.030 81.538(triple) 203.683
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
4 Rigid shaft 81.491 81.538(triple) 138.704
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
Flexible shaft 80.985 81.538(triple) 138.684 203.719
Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB
Flexible shaft 80.903 81.538(four) 202.799
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
5 Rigid shaft 81.479 81.538(four) 138.514
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
Flexible shaft 80.848 81.538(four) 138.484 202.854
Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB
Flexible shaft 80.777 81.538(five) 201.935
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
6 Rigid shaft 81.467 81.538(five) 138.325
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
Flexible shaft 80.711 81.538(five) 138.281 202.013
Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB
Flexible shaft 80.651 81.538(six) 201.088
—
Rigid support SB BB SB
7 Rigid shaft 81.455 81.538(six) 138.136
—
Blades Flexible support LB BB LB
Flexible shaft 80.575 81.538(six) 138.078 201.193
Flexible support LSB BB LSB LSB

of a six-blade case. The same as the five-blade case,
modes #1, #3, #4 and #6 are longitudinal and torsional
coupled vibrations and modes #2 and #5 are the BB
modes as discovered in a rigid support system. Ta-
ble 3 intends to illustrate the torsional and longitudi-
nal effects for up to seven blades. It is concluded
from the table that both torsion and longitudinal flex-
ibility pull the first coupled mode down and each flex-
ibility creates an extra coupled mode (ω 3 or ω 4).
The effects of blade number on frequencies are
summarized in Fig. 5 for up to seven blades. BB
frequencies do not change with blade number as ex-
pected. The first three LSB frequencies, in which
the blades bend at their first modes, decrease with
blade number. The LSB modes, associated with
blades’ second or higher modes, increase with blade
number. This phenomenon can be explained as fol-
lows. The first two dimensionless frequencies of the
 C. H. Yang and S. C. Huang: The Coupled Vibration in a Shaft-Disk-Blades System
Longitudinal displacement (ws)
1 2
Angular displacement (φ)
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1 2
80.711 Hz
#1
138.281 Hz
#3
510.99 Hz
#5
Fig. 4 The first six mode shapes of a six-blade system for β =30°
shaft-disk’s torsional modes are 2.544 and 32.45. The
first blade mode ( ω *=1) associated modes are rela-
tively softer than the torsional mode. Further addi-
tion of blades results in pulling the frequencies down.
The second blade’s mode ( ω *=6.267) related modes
are relatively stiffer than the shaft’s first mode and
more blades cause higher frequency. From the theory
95
LSB BB LSB LSB BB LSB BB LSB
7
Number of blade
5
3 4 5 6 3
Mode
2
1 1.711 2.544 6.267 17.547
Natural frequencies ω*
Fig. 5 Frequency loci due to blade’s number
first blade’s mode predominates
longitudinal mode predominates
torsional mode predominates
second blade’s mode predominates
third blade’s mode predominates
3 4 5 6
Mode
of structural combination, the LSB modes located in
[0, 2.544] will decrease and those located in [2.544,
BB
32.45] will increase with the increase of blade
LSB 81.538 Hz
number. This increasing/decreasing phenomenon
happens alternatively depending on which interval the
frequency is located in. This phenomenon is illus-
trated by Huang and Ho (1996).
In order to realize how the modes evolved with
#2 the stagger angle, Fig. 6 shows the frequencies loci
of modes for a five-blade case. In this figure, the
LSB 202.013 Hz LSB
solid curves denote the present case and the dashed
curves denote the rigid support case. At β =0, the vi-
bration characteristics of the system are completely
uncoupled from the longitudinal vibration. That
means the system’s natural frequencies are related
#4 only to the shaft’s torsion and the blade’s bending
and are irrelevant to the support longitudinal mode.
515.722 Hz
BB LSB
This phenomenon is understandable since at β =0°
there is no force exerted on the shaft in the longitudi-
nal direction. This explains why Huang and Ho
(1996) did not consider the support longitudinal flex-
ibility in their case ( β =0°). At the other extreme, β =
#6 π /2, the longitudinal support and blades are coupled
but they exert no net torque or forces in the shaft’s
torsional direction. As with β in between, the three
components are usually coupled (LSB modes). Fig.
6 clearly shows the shift of modes. For instance, the
first SB mode locus at β =0° is predominated by the
blade’s first mode and with the increase of β the SB
mode transfers into the LSB mode and then to the LB
mode at β =90°. The natural frequency locus bends
to the right (becomes larger) with increasing β . It is
due to the fact that the support longitudinal mode is
more rigid than the shaft’s first torsional mode and
 96 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2005)

LB BB LB S BB LB BB BB
90 Kt=∞
Ka=∞
Blade’s stagger angle β (degree)

Kt=GsJs SB
75 SB BB BB BB
Ka=∞
Kt=GsJs

Stiffness Ka & Kt (N/m)

60 LSB LSB LSB LSB
Ka=2e8 L
LSB BB LSB LSB BB LSB Kt=GsJs
45
Ka=1e8
L
SB SB SB Kt=GsJs
30 Ka=4e7
L
Kt=GsJs
15 Ka=2e7
L
Kt=GsJs
0 Ka=1e7
SB BB L SB BB SB L
Kt=GsJs
1 1.711 2.544 6.267 Ka=4e6 L
Natural frequencies ω* 1 2.544 6.267
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Fig. 6 Frequency loci due to blade’s stagger angle

first blade’s mode predominates Fig. 7 Frequencies changes due to K a for β =30°
longitudinal mode predominates first blade’s mode predominates
torsional mode predominates longitudinal mode predominates
second blade’s mode predominates torsional mode predominates
rigid support second blade’s mode predominates
flexible support natural frequency of torsional mode for Kt=GsJs
natural frequency of longitudina mode for Ka

larger β means more participation of support than the

shaft. As β increases, the L mode transfers into the Figs. 8(a-d) show the frequency loci for different β
LSB mode and eventually transfers into the LB mode. values with R a=4×10 7 N/m. In these figures, the BB
As to the modes where the blade’s second mode domi- frequencies increase with rotation due to increasing
nates, the blade’s participation decreases with β and centrifugal forces. The first shaft related modes show
therefore the system’s natural frequency decreases a very important phenomenon, the loci intersect the
with β . For BB modes, the stagger angle has no ef- abscissa at approximately Ω *=8.5 no matter the β
fect on their frequencies. value. These intersections refer to the so-called criti-
Figure 7 shows the frequency loci with the lon- cal speeds. Eq. (10) proved that this could happen if
gitudinal stiffness for a five-blade case and β =30°. – Ω 2K Ω were large enough. Further examination re-
In this figure, the mark ‘×’ denotes the natural fre- vealed that this critical speed is attributed to Eq. (A9),
quencies of shaft-disk’s first torsional mode for K t= and it is irrelevant to β . As β is increasing, LSB and
G sJ s and the marks ‘+‘ denote the natural frequencies BB loci are getting closer to each other. It is because
of shaft-disk longitudinal mode for different K a val- of the torsional effect being less significant with β .
ues. In the first row (K t=∞ and K a=∞) is the system’s At β =0°, the longitudinal mode is independent of ro-
natural frequency as the shaft torsional and support tation speed. Similarly, in the extreme case of β =
longitudinal are rigid. There exist exactly the fre- π/2, the shaft-disk’s torsional mode has no effect. The
quencies of cantilever blades, denoted BB. The sec- values of K a are compared in Figs. 9(a-b). In these
ond row denotes the release of torsion rigidity figures, one important phenomenon is shown. If K a
(K t=G s J s and K a=∞). As we have discovered, the is raised high enough, herein the longitudinal fre-
original BB modes split into SB and BB modes, the quency exceeds 2.544, then the LSB loci create ex-
torsion flexibility creates coupled modes. In addi- pelling and veering phenomena.
tion, an extra torsion predominating SB mode appears.
If the support longitudinal flexibility is further re- IV. SUMMARY
leased, as shown in the third row (K t=G sJ s and K a=
2×10 8 N/m), the original SB modes all shift to LSB The authors investigated the coupling vibrations
modes and an extra longitudinal predominating mode among support-longitudinal, shaft-torsion and blade-
generates. The following rows represent a decreas- bending in a shaft-disk-blades unit via the energy
ing trend of K a, and the results show that the natural approach in conjunction with the assumed modes
frequencies of LSB modes decrease as expected. method. From numerical results the authors have ar-
Last, the authors study the effects of the shaft’s rived at the following conclusions.
rotational speed on the system’s natural frequencies. The entering of support longitudinal flexibility
 C. H. Yang and S. C. Huang: The Coupled Vibration in a Shaft-Disk-Blades System 97
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Fig. 8 Variation of natural frequencies with rotation speed of five blades and K a=4×10 7 N/m for (a) β =0° (b) β =30° (c) β =60° (d) β =90°

Fig. 9 Variation of natural frequencies with rotation speed of five blades and β =30° for (a)K a =4×10 6 N/m (b)K a =4×10 8 N/m

causes the following changes: (1) The original SB nal-predominating mode is generated. (3) The number
modes transfer into LSB modes, but the BB modes of blades may increase or decrease individual modes
retain the same multiplicity. (2) An extra longitudi- depending on which component predominates at that
 98 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2005)
mode.
The effects of stagger angle β ; at β =0° longitu-
dinal flexibility did not couple and at β =90°, shaft’s
torsion did not contribute. As β changes from one
extreme (0°) to the other (90°), the authors observed
from frequency loci the following phenomena: (1) The
LSB modes loci where the frequencies are lower than
the longitudinal frequency bend to the right (become
larger). (2) The L mode locus increases with β and
eventually transfers into LB modes.
As to the effects of Ω * and K a, some conclusions
can be drawn: (1) The critical speed associated with
the first shaft mode is irrelevant to β . (2) If one in-
creases K a up to a certain value, the loci will produce
phenomena of expelling and veering.
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NOMENCLATURE
q, η, ζ , ξ vectors consisting of generalized coordi-
nates
V ki i th mode shape of the k th blade
vb k kth blade displacements with respect to the
x axis
vb, wb blade displacements with respect to the
Y and Z axes
β stagger angle
φ shaft-disk torsional displacement relative
to rotation frame
Ω rotational speed of shaft speed
Ω* dimensionless rotational speed ( Ω * =
Ω / ω1b)
ω1b the first nature frequency of single canti-
lever blade
ω natural frequency
ω* dimensionless natural frequency ( ω * =
ω / ω1b)
( )s shaft
( )b blade
( ) ki i th term of the k th blade
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Manuscript Received: Dec. 15, 2003
Revision Received: Mar. 04, 2004
and Accepted: Apr. 08, 2004
APPENDIX
The element matrices are given as
Nb rb
M ww = m s + m d + ρ b A b Σ

dxk (A 1)
Free Vibration Characteristics of Rotating Tuned k=1 rd
Bladed Disk Systems,” Journal of Sound and Vi- rb
bration, Vol. 140, No. 3, pp. 413-435. M wb k = – ρ b A b WVsinβdxk (A 2)
Ozguven, H. N., 1984, “On the Critical Speed of Con- rd

tinuous Shaft-Disk Systems,” ASME, Journal of Ls

Vibration and Acoustics, Vol. 106, No. 1, pp. 59- M ss = I sΦ T Φ dZ + I d [Φ T Φ ] Z = Z d
61. 0

Sakata, M., Kimura, K., and Park, S. K., 1989, “Vi- Nb rb

bration of Bladed Flexible Rotor Due to Gyro- + ρ bA b Σ xk2[Φ T Φ ] Z = Z d dxk (A 3)
k=1 rd
scopic Moment,” Journal of Sound and Vibration,
Vol. 131, No. 3, pp. 417-430. rb
Shahab, A. A. S., and Thomas, J., 1987, “Coupling M sb k = ρ b A b xk Φ T Z = Z d Vk cosβ dxk (A 4)
rd
Effects of Disc Flexibility on the Dynamic Be-
haviour of Multi Disc-Shaft Systems,” Journal of rb
Sound and Vibration, Vol. 114, No. 3, pp. 435- M b kb k = ρ b A b VkTVkdxk (A 5)
rd
452.
Shen, I. Y., and Ku, C. -P. R., 1997, “A Nonclassical e
K ww = K aWW (A 6)
Vibration Analysis of a Multiple Rotating Disk
and Spindle Assembly,” ASME, Journal of Ap- Ls
plied Mechanics, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 165-174. Ksse = G sJ sΦ ′ T Φ ′dZ (A 7)
0
Sisto, F., Chang, A., and Sutcu, M., 1983, “The In-
fluence of Coriolis Forces on Gyroscopic Motion rb
Vk′′TVk′′dxk
e
of Spinning Blades,” ASME, Journal of Engineer- Kb kb k = E b I bA (A 8)
rd
ing for power, Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 342-347.
N rb
Subrahmanyam, K. B., and Kaza, K. R. V., 1986, “Vi-
Kss = – 1 ρ b A b Σ
Ω
b
(r b2 – 3xk2)[Φ T Φ ] Z = Z d dxk
bration and Buckling of Rotating Pretwisted, 2 k=1 rd
Preconed Beams Including Coriolis Effects,”
ASME, Journal of Vibration, Acoustics, Stress and (A 9)
Reliability in Design, Vol. 108, No. 2, pp. 140- Ω
rb
149. Ksb k = ρ b A b[ xk Φ T Z = Z d Vk cosβ dxk
rd
Subrahmanyam, K. B., Kulkarni, S. V., and Rao, J.
S., 1982, “Analysis of Laterial Vibration of Ro- rb
–1 (r b2 – xk2) Φ T ′
tating Cantilever Blades Allowing for Shear De- 2 Z = Z d Vkcosβ dxk ]
rd
flection and Rotary Inertia by Ressiner and Po-
tential Energy Methods,” Mechanism and Ma- (A 10)
chine Theory, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 235-241. Ω
rb
Wu, F., and Flowers, G. T., 1992, “A Transfer Ma- K b kb k = ρ b A b VkTVkcos 2βdxk
rd
trix Technique for Evaluating the Natural Fre-
quencies and Critical Speeds of a Rotor with rb
– 1 ρ bA b (r b2 – xk2)Vk′Τ Vk′dxk (A 11)
Multiple Flexible Disks,” ASME, Journal of 2 rd