Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

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Mechanism and Machine Theory

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechmachtheory

Research paper

Multiple-objective design optimization of squirrel cage for

squeeze film damper by using cell mapping method and
experimental validation
Wei Zhang a,b, Bingbing Han b, Xiang Li c, Jianqiao Sun d, Qian Ding b,∗
a
School of Aerospace Engineering, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
b
Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
c
College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
d
School of Engineering, University of California Merced, Merced, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Squirrel cage is commonly used in aero-engine compressors serving as a centering spring.
Received 11 April 2018 The cage is supposed to be optimally designed in order to provide reliable service under
Revised 25 September 2018
harsh working conditions. In this paper, a flexible rotor system supported on squeeze film
Accepted 10 October 2018
dampers (SFDs) is considered, and a novel multi-objective optimal design method for the
squirrel cage is proposed, considering the reliability of squirrel cage, stability of rotor sys-
Keywords: tem, dynamical response of rotor and damping effect of SFDs. Theoretically, the optimal
Squirrel cage values of design parameters, known as the Pareto set, are obtained using the cell mapping
Cell mapping method for different rotor imbalances. Experiments are carried out to validate the pro-
Squeeze film damper posed method, and the results show that the optimally designed squirrel cage achieves sat-
Rotor system isfactory performance under different machine operating conditions. The proposed multi-
Experimental validation
objective optimization method offers a novel and promising tool for squirrel cage design
in real industries.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Squeeze film dampers (SFDs) are used in aero-engines to attenuate the vibration when traversing the critical speeds [1-
3]. Cookson and Kossa [4,5] assessed the performance of SFDs using different system parameters, and the results show that
an accurately designed SFD is effective to suppress the amplitude of rotor motion and the force transmitted to supporting
structure. However, the amplitudes of vibration and force can be even larger than those without SFDs if the SFD is not
designed well. As presented in Fig. 1, a SFD consists of journal, housing and oil chamber. In many industrial scenarios, the
SFDs are assembled with squirrel cages served as a centering spring to offload SFD. In some applications, they have different
configurations, where the journal rests on the housing.
Zeidan and Vance [6] summarized the drawbacks of SFDs without centering springs. One of them is the bilinear behav-
ior due to the damper journal bottoming up. The other one lies in that the cross-coupled damping is highly nonlinear at
large eccentricities. Both of them produce negative influence to rotor system. Inayat [7,8] et al. investigated the stability
and chaotic response of a rigid rotor system without centering spring. The system may lose stability via saddle-node and

∗
Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 30 0 072, China
E-mail address: qding@tju.edu.cn (Q. Ding).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2018.10.010
0094-114X/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 67

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of an open ends SFD with and without squirrel cage.

period-doubling bifurcations at certain system values, and turn into chaotic motion. Flexible rotor system without centering
spring exhibits period doubling and quasi-periodic bifurcations during speeding up, according to Inayat’s further work [9].
Bonello and Holmes [10] studied the nonlinear dynamics of a flexible rotor system, their results also show that the advan-
tages of using an uncentralized SFD in a flexible rotor system are ambiguous. So aircraft engines widely employ at least one
or more squirrel cages forming the centering spring to enhance the stability of rotor system [6,11].
Feng and Allaire [12-14] et al. investigated rotor system with multiple masses under parametric change using both fi-
nite element and harmonic balance methods. Both the cases with and without the consideration of gravity are analyzed.
The stiffness of centering spring produces significant influence to the dynamical response of rotor system with squeeze film
damper. The system with soft centering spring is well-damped. However, the damper operates at larger eccentricity ratio,
which excites the super harmonics. Zhou and Luo [15] assessed the effect of supporting stiffness on non-synchronous re-
sponse, and pointed out that the non-synchronous response range widens, as the supporting stiffness increases. Therefore,
the cage requires to be carefully designed when applied to rotor system.
Early in 1975, Cunningham and Gunter [16] designed an oil squeeze film damper for a flexible rotor system with multi-
mass for American National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They calculated the mass ratio, centering spring stiffness
and geometric parameters step by step. Ahn and Yong [17] optimized SFD design parameters by combining enhanced ge-
netic algorithm with simulated annealing algorithm. Heidari and Safarpour [18] proposed a novel optimization method to
suppress the jump phenomenon, non-synchronous response and transmitted forces. Tang and Guo [19] improved the ac-
curacy of design for squirrel cage by a multi-stage optimization method based on parametric modeling and finite element
optimization. However, the existing design methods in the literature only take into account the stiffness and fatigue stress
of the cage, and the dynamic performance of rotor system [20] is mostly not considered, which is of great importance for a
highly nonlinear system.
The main purposes of the employment of SFDs are to suppress the vibration and improve the stability of rotor systems.
However, these objectives are generally conflicting with each other in many cases. For instance, SFDs produce damping due
to the eccentricity of journal. Larger eccentricity leads to higher level of damping, and more vibration can be suppressed.
Meanwhile the nonlinearity of rotor system becomes stronger, which would drive the system to be chaotic or unstable
[21,22]. Multi-objective optimization is promising to be used to satisfy different design objectives simultaneously. Comparing
with commonly used signal-objective optimization methods, multi-objective optimization offers a series of solutions in the
Pareto set rather than a single result, and a more flexible range of optimal designs are thus provided. In the literature,
multi-objective optimization can be implemented by both stochastic methods, such as genetic algorithm [23], particle swarm
optimization [24] etc., and deterministic methods, including cell mapping method [25], subdivision techniques [26,27] and
so on.
This paper focuses on the design of centering spring, which includes the length, width, thickness and amount of squirrel
cage bar by using cell mapping method, considering not only the reliability and stiffness, but also the rotor system stability,
dynamical response and SFD damping effect. Noticeably, cell mapping method is an emerging multi-objective design algo-
rithm [28,29], which is able to provide reliable and effective design solutions especially for nonlinear systems. In addition,
experiments are conducted to validate the design results.

2. Theoretical models

2.1. Equation of motion

Fig. 2 shows a flexible rotor system with a single-disk. The disk is mounted midway on a shaft. Each end of the shaft is
supported on a squeeze film damper, which is composed by the rolling bearing, housing and squirrel cage. Considering the
68 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of a flexible rotor system.

Fig. 3. Schematic view of squirrel cage.

Table 1
Parameters of rotor system.

Parameter Value

Mass of disk m1 7.314 kg

Equivalent mass of bearing and squirrel cage m2 1 kg
Shaft stiffness k1 8.74 × 105 N/m
Structure damping c’ 50.2 N•s/m

lateral displacements of the disk and journal, the equations of motion of rotor system are deduced as:

m1 ẍ1 + 2k1 (x1 − x2 ) + c (x˙ 1 − x˙ 2 ) = δω2 cos ωt

m1 ÿ1 + 2k1 (y1 − y2 ) + c (y˙ 1 − y˙ 2 ) = δω2 sin ωt − m1 g
m2 ẍ2 + k2 x2 − k1 (x1 − x2 ) − 0.5 ∗ c (x˙ 1 − x˙ 2 ) = −Fx
m2 ÿ2 + k2 x2 − k1 (x1 − x2 ) − 0.5 ∗ c (y˙ 1 − y˙ 2 ) = −Fy − m2 g (1)

where m1 is the mass of disk, m2 is the equivalent mass of bearing and squirrel cage, k1 is the stiffness of shaft, k2 rep-
resents the stiffness of squirrel cage, δ the static imbalance of disk, c is the structure damping, ω denotes the rotating
angular speed, Fx and Fy are the equivalent oil film forces in x and y directions of the squeeze film damper. Some rotor
system parameters are listed in Table 1.

2.2. Squirrel cage stiffness

The squirrel cage structure is illustrated in Fig. 3. In areo-engine rotor system, one end of the squirrel cage is fixed with
the bearing block, the other end is cantilevered, and both are assembled with bearing sets [19].
Assuming that the installed end of squirrel cage is stationary, and the other end can only move radially. The stiffness and
the maximum stress of squirrel are estimated by [19]:

NEbh(h2 + b2 )
k2 = (2)
2L3
√
3Eu h2 + b2
σ= (3)
L2
where E is the elastic modulus, and u is the deformation of squirrel cage. The width b, the thickness h and the length L of
each bar, and the amount N of bars of squirrel cage will be optimized in the following.
 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 69

Table 2
SFD Parameters.

Parameter Value

Journal Radius R 39.5 × 10– 3 m

SFD length L 15 × 10– 3 m
Clearance c 0.25 × 10– 3 m
Lubricant viscosity μL 6.76 × 10– 3 N•s/m2

2.3. Squeeze film damper model

The equivalent oil film forces are formulated as [30,31]:

x2 y2
Fx = Fr − Ft
r r
y2 x2
Fy = Fr − Ft
r
r  
μωRL3 2
˙ + Re Mrrad r̈ + Mrnon r˙ + Mr tan r ψ̈ + Mrcor 2r ψ˙ − Mrcen r ψ˙ 2
Fr = C rr ˙
r + Crt r ψ
c2 r
  
μωRL3 r˙ 2
Ft = Ctr r˙ + Ctt r ψ˙ + Re Mtrad r̈ + Mrnon + Mt tan r ψ̈ + Mtcor 2r ψ˙ − Mtcen r ψ˙ 2 (4)
c2 r
where c is the oil film clearance of SFD, L the length, R the radius, μ the viscosity, r the eccentricity of SFD journal, 
the angular displacement, respectively. Re is the squeeze film Reynolds number, which governs fluid inertia effect. Larger
Reynolds number leads to stronger fluid inertia effect [32].
Other relative coefficients in Fr and Ft are as follows:
Crr = I302 , Crt = I311 , Mrrad = K1 I102 , Mrnon = −K2 I203 r, Mr tan = K1 I111 , Mrcor = K1 I111 − K2 I212 r
Mrcen = K1 I102 − K2 I221 rCtr = I311 , Ctt = I320 , Mtrad = K1 I111 , Mtnon = −K2 I212 r, Mt tan = K1 I120
θ
Mtcor = K1 I120 − K2 I221 r, Mtcen = −K1 I111 − K2 I230 r, Iki j = θ12 sin θ cos θ k dθ , Re = ρωμc
i j 2

(1+r cos θ )
where K1 and K2 are numerical constants for inertia terms [33]. SFD geometric parameters and lubricant property are listed
in Table 2.

2.4. Dimensionless equations

Dimensionless variables are introduced as:

x1 y1 x2 y2 ω
τ = ωc t, q1 = , q2 = , q3 = , q4 = ,
=
c c c c ωc

where ωc =
2k1
m1 . The equations of motion (1) can be rewritten in the following dimensionless form:

q̈1 + q1 − q3 + α q1 − α q3 = U cos
τ
q̈2 + q2 − q4 + α q2 − α q4 = U sin
τ − D
q2 q2
q̈3 − ηq1 + (β + η )q3 − γ q˙ 1 + γ q˙ 3 = F1  − F2 
q21 + q22 q21 + q22
q2 q1
q̈4 − ηq2 + (β + η )q4 − γ q˙ 2 + γ q˙ 4 = F1  + F2  (5)
q21 + y22 q21 + q22

U = δm·
c , D =
2
where α = β= η= γ=
c k2 k1 c g Fr Ft
m1 ωc , , , 2m2 ωc , , F1 = , and F2 = .
m1 ωc2 m2 ωc2 1 cωc2 m2 cωc2 m2 cωc2

3. Multi-Objective optimal design

3.1. System performance metrics

To reduce the vibration of rotor system, one would minimize the amplitude of disk and journal response, while maxi-
mizing the SFD damping effect. To stabilize the rotor system, one requires a large damping ratio. And four typical system
performances in rotor response are considered as the design objectives for squirrel cage.

1. Amplitude of rotor response at the critical speed


rdisk = max( q21 (t ) + q22 (t )) (6)
70 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

2. Amplitude of journal response at the critical speed


rjounal = max( q23 (t ) + q24 (t )) (7)

where q1 (t) and q2 (t) are the horizontal and vertical dimensionless responses of the disk respectively, and q3 (t) and q4 (t)
denote the horizontal and vertical dimensionless responses of the journal. All the dimensionless responses are the stable
state response of rotor system, which can be obtained by solving Eq. 5 using Runge-Kutta method.

1. Damping ratio of rotor ξ op , which is calculated using the method in Ref. [34]. The damping ratio has been a classic
and popular metric to evaluate the rotor system properties, and it is supposed to be maximized in order to stabilize
the system.
2. SFD damping effect

dSF D,op = (rdisk_without _SF D − rdisk )/rdisk_without _SF D (8)


q1 (t ) + q2 (t )) is the amplitude of disk response when SFD is not added to rotor system.
2 2
where rdisk_without _SF D = max(
q12 (t ) and q22 (t ) represent the horizontal and vertical dimensionless response of the disk in stable state. The damping effect
represents SFD power, and strong SFD power indicates much undesired vibration is suppressed.
The design of the intersection can be formulated as,
 
min rdisk , rjournal (9)
K∈Q

 
max ξop , dSF D,op (10)
K∈Q

For convenience, all the metrics are minimized in this study. Let ξ = −ξop and dSF D = −dSF D,op , and the cage design
formulation becomes,

min{fob j (K )}
K∈Q

where fobj is defined as the vector of the objectives, i.e.

fob j : R4 → R4 , fob j (K ) = rdisk , rjounal , ξ , dSF D (11)

K = [b, h, l, N] (12)

K represents the vector of design parameters and Q is the bounded design space. The optimization problem is subjected to
the following constraints.

(1) For the convenience of manufacturing and assembling, the sum of the widths of squirrel cage bar is preferred to be
less than half the perimeter [19].

bN ≤ π R (13)

(2) During the operation process, the deformation and stress of the bar of squirrel cage is the largest on the equipment,
due to the low rigidity of the bar. The maximum stress must not exceed the allowable stress [19].

σmax < [σ ] (14)

(3) For rotor system, the stability must be satisfied. The linear approximation system for Eq. 5 is:

q˙ = Aq (15)

The real parts of the characteristic roots of matrix A must be negative [35].

(4) SFD journal and housing contact when the amplitude of motion exceeds oil film clearance, which is not allowed, and
the motion orbit of journal should satisfy,

r journal = max( x22 (t ) + y22 (t )) < c (16)

(5) Contact between the rotor and stator must not happen. So the response of disk should satisfy:

rdisk = max( x21 (t ) + y21 (t )) < c0 (17)

where c0 is the clearance between rotor and stator.

 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 71

3.2. Cell mapping method

The simple cell mapping (SCM) method, proposed by Hsu [36] and further developed by Sun and his group [37] is used
to solve the MOP in this paper. The cell mapping method is appropriate to search for the optimal solutions of the MOP [38].
The SCM method divides the continuous design parameter space Q into several finite size cells. Each cell has integer
coordinates. The number of cells in a finite domain Q is finite as well. Therefore, all the cells in Q can be sequentially
indexed with one integer. A cell can be represented by its central point in the search for the Pareto set. There are two
methods to construct the cell-to-cell mapping for MOP application with gradient-based and gradient-free search algorithms.

3.2.1. Gradient-based method

Gradient-based method generates point mappings, which can be converted to cell mappings. The searching direction and
step length in a single objective optimization problem (SOP) can be defined as,

g(u ) = max [J (Kn )u]i (17)

i=1,...,k

1
u = arg{min[g(u ) + u2 ]} (18)
2

where J(Kn ) denotes the Jacobian matrix of P(K) at Kn . In the SCM method, Kn is taken as the center of a cell denoted as zn
under consideration in the design space Q. This SOP defines the searching direction u such that,
u
Kn+1 = Kn + r (19)
u 
where represents a step length for the search in Q. The following dominance condition must be met when selecting ,

P(Kn+1 ) < P(Kn ) (20)

If the dominance condition is not satisfied, the pre-selected step length will be iteratively cut by half. There are two
outcomes after a few iterations:

(1) The dominance condition is satisfied for a Kn +1 which lies in a cell denoted as zn + 1. In this case, a cell mapping can
be constructed and denoted as zn + 1 = C[zn ].
(2) ɤ is so small that Kn +1 lies in the same cell as Kn . In this case, the cell Kn is considered to be in the Pareto set and
the cell mapping is set to be zn = C[zn ].

The convergence of the gradient-based search is strictly proven in Fliege and Svaiter [39].

3.2.2. Gradient-free method

Recall that in SCM, each cell is represented by its center. The objective functions at the center of all the cells are evaluated
in order to form cell mappings as part of the database of SCM. The gradient-free search selects an image cell of the current
cell zn by comparing the objective function values among all its adjacent cells. Let Zn represent the set of all adjacent cells
of zn . If there exists at least one cell zi in Zn with all the objective function values lower than those at zn , namely, P(Ki ) < p
P(Kn ), where Ki is the center of cell zi and Kn the center of cell zn , the cell with maximum function difference is picked
up and regarded as the image cell of zn . If no adjacent cells dominate cell zn, it is considered to be Pareto optimal and
zn = C[zn ]. Note that for constrained optimization problem where the constraints are included in Q, the cells located in the
taboo region specified by the constraints are designated as sink cells.
A sink cell always maps to itself. This method is able to find a covering set of Pareto sets. The true Pareto set can then
be extracted from the covering set by a combined effort of sub-division and gradient-based search.

3.2.3. Hybrid method

In this paper, the hybrid algorithm is used to solve the MOP, including gradient-free and gradient-based searches as
well as sub-division of the cell space. The algorithm starts with a relatively coarse cell partition of Q and implements the
gradient-free method to construct SCMs over the entire design space Q. A covering set of the Pareto set can be obtained.
The covering set is programmatically made larger than the collection of all periodic cells by including their immediate
neighboring cells. This is a strategy to avoid the missing segments of the Pareto set. Next, the cells in the covering set are
sub-divided and the gradient-based method is applied to construct SCMs just for the smaller cells in the covering set. A
refined covering set of the Pareto set is obtained. The second step can be repeated until the size of cells or the change of
the volume of the covering set is below a threshold. As a final step, the dominance of the cells in the Pareto set is checked
to remove the extra cells.
72 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

Fig. 4. Pareto fronts obtained with imbalance 3 × 10–6 kg•m. The color represents the third metric. Red indicates the lowest level while blue indicates the
highest level.

Fig. 5. Pareto set obtained with imbalance 3 × 10–6 kg•m. The meaning of the color is the same with that in Fig. 4.

3.3. Cage design and experimental results

In this section, the multi-objective optimal design of squirrel cage is carried out in different situations with 3 × 10–6 ,
90 × 10–6 and 150 × 10–6 kg•m imbalances respectively.
As stated above, the design parameter vector is K = [b, h, l, N], and the unit of b, h and l is meter. The simple cell
mapping hybrid algorithm [23] is then implemented in the design space with lower and upper bounds as [8 × 10–3 , 8 × 10–3 ,
20 × 10–3 , 5] and [15 × 10–3 , 15 × 10–3 , 40 × 10–3 , 15], respectively. For convenience, millimeter is used as the unit of b, h
and l. Therefore,
 
Q = K ∈ R4 |[8, 8, 20, 5] ≤ K ≤ [15, 15, 40, 15] (21)

The coarse partition computation of the cell space is by 8 × 8 × 8 × 8 and the refinement is by 3 × 3 × 3 × 3. Notably, N
should be an integer in this study. When the parameter N is discretized, the closest integer of the float numerical value is
used. In the refinement, if any cell only includes one value of N, the refinement for this dimension is not implemented.
Fig. 4 shows the Pareto fronts obtained in the situation with 3 × 10–6 kg•m imbalance, and the corresponding Pareto set
is presented in Fig. 5. In general, the conflicting nature of the multi-objective optimal design problem is clearly observed.
For instance, larger ξ generally leads to larger rjournal , which indicates that the damping ratio and journal responses are
conflicting. In this case study, the damping ratio increases as the stiffness of the squirrel cage decreases, and a soft centering
spring leads to large amplitude of motion. It is difficult to guarantee large damping ration and small amplitude of motion
simultaneously.
Similar pattern can be observed between rdisk and dSFD . Smaller rotor vibration generally makes the vibration suppression
improvements by SFD smaller.
 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 73

Table 3
System performances using different optimal designs.

Optimal Design rdisk rjournal ξ dSFD

Ke1 0.108 0.345 −0.067 −0.029

Ke2 0.219 0.003 −0401 −0.257
Ke3 0.146 0.13 −0.074 0.25
Ke4 0.15 0.03 −0.049 −0.47
Kr1 0.1683 0.0089 −0.4549 −0.47
Kr2 0.2322 0.0226 −0.01817 −0.4993

Table 4
Average computing time.

Imbalance Time/s

3 × 10 kg•m
–6
32,435
90 × 10– 6 kg•m 24,183
150 × 10– 6 kg•m 13,832

Moreover, no obvious conflicting phenomenon is observed between rdisk and the damping ratioξ , and the journal vibra-
tion amplitude has no clear relationship with dSFD based on the optimization results. However, the presented objectives in
this paper are independent metrics, and they are selected based on their physical significance. Therefore, despite the nearly
positive correlation between objectives in some cases, the proposed multi-objective optimal design method for squirrel cage
design provides promising guidance on the engineering design and shows great potential for practical applications.
It should be noted that all the solutions in the Pareto set represent different compromises of the conflicting objectives
and are Pareto optimal. These obtained designs offer the user more flexibility in the selection of designs.
Table 3 shows the numerical system performances using different designs including two randomly selected designs, de-
noted as Kr1 and K r2 , and the four extreme designs from the obtained Pareto set which are denoted as Ke1 , Ke2 , Ke3 ,
and Ke4 , respectively. Based on the current understanding of MOP, the performances of all the Pareto solutions are usually
bounded by those of the extreme designs with one of the objectives being the global minimum. All the other solutions
represent various compromises of these extreme designs. Therefore, the Pareto solution Ke1 that has the minimum evalu-
ation value of the objective rdisk in the Pareto front is illustrated, as well as the extreme designs Ke2 , Ke3 , and Ke4 which
correspond with the best performances of rjournal , ξ and dSFD , respectively. It can be observed that, when minimizing rdisk
itself, while the smallest disk vibration amplitude is obtained, the other performances are not good for the system. For in-
stance, the vibration suppressed by SFD is merely 0.029, which implies the SFD is ineffective. Similar characteristics can be
observed with respect to Ke2 , Ke3 , and Ke4 . On the other hand, more balanced performances on the four objectives can be
achieved by the two randomly selected designs. Therefore, while the solutions in the Pareto set can be considered optimal
simultaneously, a better tradeoff has to be made for selecting one optimal design for application.
Table 4 shows the average computing time of the proposed method using different experimental settings. In this pa-
per, the numerical experimental are carried out on a PC with CPU Zhiqiang E5 and memory 48 G. It can be observed that
generally the tasks can be finished within a few hours. Considering the proposed method is an off-line approach, the com-
putational burden is acceptable for applications.
Furthermore, Figs. 6 and 7 present the optimal design results with 90 × 10–6 and 150 × 10–6 kg•m imbalances. In general,
similar display patterns of the relationships between the objectives are observed. The relationships between different oper-
ating metrics are robust with respect to the imbalances. The main difference using different imbalances lies in the vibration
amplitudes of rotor and journal, since larger imbalances naturally lead to stronger system vibrations. While the ranges of
rdisk and rjournal vary with imbalances, the inherent relationships of the design parameters do not change. The above optimal
design results indicate that the proposed method is able to provide robust and reliable design guidance for the squirrel
cage. Furthermore, it is observed that the number of the optimal designs in the Pareto set decreases with these two larger
eccentricities comparing with that of 3 × 10–6 kg•m imbalance in Fig. 4. This indicates that a certain number of solutions
are discarded by the cell mapping algorithm for not complying with the system constraints. Therefore, when designing the
rotor system with large imbalances, the system constraints should be paid more attention to avoid system failure.

4. Experimental results

4.1. Description of test rig

Fig. 8 depicts the rotor test rig, which contains a shaft (672 mm long and 24 mm in diameter) and two disks (30 mm
width each and can be in any configuration along the shaft). The shaft is driven by a 400 W DC motor, which can speed
up to 40 0 0 rpm, through a flexible coupling. Both ends of the shaft are supported on a rolling bearing with a squeeze film
damper. The oil film of SFD is generated between squirrel cage and understructure.
74 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

Fig. 6. Pareto fronts obtained with 90 × 10–6 kg•m imbalance. The meaning of the color is the same with that in Fig. 1.

Fig. 7. Pareto fronts obtained with 150 × 10–6 kg•m imbalance. The meaning of the color is the same with that in Fig. 4.

Based on the optimization results in the last section, take the MOP case with 150 × 10–6 kg•m imbalance for instance
(the corresponding Pareto front is shown in Fig. 7), we randomly select one optimal solution of Kopt = [10.18 mm, 10.18 mm,
34.58 mm, 10] in the Pareto set for squirrel cage design, and implement that configuration in the experiments for testing.
In practical engineering, we use the design parameters of [10 mm, 10 mm, 35 mm, 10] for convenience. The squirrel cage is
shown in Fig. 9. At any time of operation, the maximum normal stress will be appeared in the section of one bar.
It should be noted that all the obtained solutions in the Pareto set can be considered optimal simultaneously. Further
study can be carried out on the selection of the applied design from multiple optimal ones. The design Kopt , which is
expected to achieve good system performance with large imbalance, is used in this paper to generally verify the effectiveness
of the proposed method.
Experimental tests with three different imbalances are conducted. Firstly, the disk is balanced and the rotor is under
slight imbalanced excitation. Secondly, two bolts with weights of 1.42 g and 1.81 g are installed in the disk to introduce
imbalanced excitation to rotor system.
Two eddy current sensors are used to record the disk center’s displacement along vertical and horizontal directions
respectively. Two more eddy current sensors placed at the support section are used to pick up the vertical and horizontal
vibrations of the squirrel cage.

4.2. Primary resonance at difference imbalances

The primary resonance means the vibration amplitude of rotor increases remarkably as the excitation frequency ap-
proaches the 1st nature frequency (43.46 Hz), and then decreases after the amplitude peak is passed. The amplitude-
frequency curves of rotor at critical speed, when the SFD is lubricated with and without oil at different imbalances, are
displayed in Fig. 10.
 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 75

Fig. 8. Test rig of a squeeze film damper supported rotor system.

Fig. 9. Squirrel cage.

Table 5
Strain and Stress at critical speed.

Imbalance Strain/με Stress/Mpa

Tiny 21.21 4.24

1.42 g 28.9 5.78
1.81 g 31.4 6.28

One finds that the amplitude increases with that of the added imbalance. When the SFD is lubricated with pure oil, the
amplitude is smaller than that with no oil flowing into the SFD oil chamber. In other words, the damping effect of SFD is
clearly demonstrated. The orbits of disk motion under different imbalances are shown in Fig. 11, the ring-like orbits exhibit
that the motions are periodic.
Fig. 12 presents the trajectory of SFD journal motions at critical speed with different imbalances. For tiny and 1.42 g
imbalance cases, the eccentric ratios of SFD journal are 0.12 and 0.16 respectively. As the imbalance increases to 1.81 g, the
journal does almost circular motion, and the eccentric ratio is 0.2. The oil film force generates where there is an eccentricity,
resulting from the whirl of SFD journal, and that is how SFD works. In addition, the eccentricity of SFD journal is smaller
than the SFD oil film clearance, which indicates that the journal does not bottoming out.

4.3. Stress and strain

Strain is picked up at critical speed with different imbalances. As shown in Fig. 13, two strain gauges are placed on the
squirrel cage, one is the working gauge, and the other is the compensating gauge [40]. Stress is calculated by σ = Eε , where
E = 200 GPa is the elastic modulus of the squirrel cage made of Q235.
The maximum strain and stress are listed in Table 5. The maximum strain and stress increase with imbalance, and the
maximum stress is far below the allowable stress of Q235.
76 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

Fig. 10. Amplitude-frequency curves at tiny imbalance, (a) Tiny imbalance (b) 1.42 g imbalance (c) 1.81 g imbalance.

Fig. 11. Orbit of disk motion at critical speed, (a) Tiny imbalance (b) 1.42 g imbalance (c) 1.81 g imbalance.
 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79 77

Fig. 12. Orbit of journal motion at critical speed, (a) Tiny imbalance (b) 1.42 g imbalance (c) 1.81 g imbalance.

Fig. 13. Location of strain gauge.

5. Conclusions

In this paper, cell mapping method is used for the design of squirrel cage considering the reliability, stability, dynamical
response and SFD damping effect. The optimal design results are validated by experiments. Conclusions are summarized as
follows:
78 W. Zhang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 132 (2019) 66–79

(1) The proposed design method for squirrel cage provides effective guidance on system designs. Based on the optimiza-
tion results, the conflicting nature between different operating metrics is observed, such as the vibrations of the rotor,
and journal generally cannot be suppressed simultaneously. The improvements by SFD are in conflict with the effect
of damping ratio and so forth.
(2) From the experimental results, the amplitude of disk vibration at critical speed is suppressed by squeeze film damper,
and the response of disk in stable state is periodic. Furthermore, the SFD journal does not bottoming out. The results
indicate that the squirrel cage configured with the geometric design from the Pareto set works well with other facili-
ties of rotor system. On the other hand, the maximum stress of squirrel cage does not exceed the allowable stress in
the experiments, which shows the reliability of the squirrel cage.
(3) The method proposed in this paper is effective to design the squirrel cage, and is expected to be used to design more
parameters in rotor system.

Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Scientific Research Fund of Liaon-
ing Provincial Education Department and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities through the grants
(No. 51575378, No. 11332008, No. L201703, No. L201737, N170503012 and N170308028).

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