BASICS OF VIBRATION & ROTOR DYNAMICS

By
Malay Ghosh
Sr. Deputy General Manager
Machine Dynamics Laboratory
Corporate Research & Development Division
BHEL, Vikasnagar, Hyderabad - 500 093.
VBRATION CONCEPT
The effects of vibrations of any rotating machinery have a great influence on the
reliability and safe operation of the power plant. Any system, which is having mass and
elasticity will have vibration when subjected to external excitation force. Depending on
the mass and elastic distribution each system will have an infinite number of natural
frequencies. If the external force is removed, the system will vibrate in its various natural
frequencies called the free vibration. The vibration of a system under external excitation
force is called forced vibration. If the frequency of the excitation force coincides with any
of the natural frequencies of the system, a condition called resonance is created.
However, because of damping present in the system, it will limit the amplitude of
vibration at resonance. The system can be any rotating machinery like steam turbine or
compressor. And basically the bearing design should take care that the adequate damping
is present in the system.
The rotor of a machine is having continuous mass-elastic distribution and,
therefore, having an infinite number of degrees of freedom. In many cases, it is possible
to model or represent complex machinery as a simple single degree of freedom system. If
displacement, velocity and acceleration as shown in Fig. 1 are respectively multiplied by
stiffness, damping and mass of a model representing rotating machinery, the force as a
function of time can be written as
K. x(t) + C. v(t) + M. a(t) = F(t)

.(1)

The equation (1) can be re-written considering free vibration (F(t) = 0) of a single
degree freedom system in the absence of damping (C = 0) as
M. a(t) + K. x(t) = 0

.(2)

If the vibration path describes a sine wave equation (2) becomes

= K/M = n

.(3)

The term n defines the resonance or natural frequency of the system. Every
machine has a similar fundamental natural frequency or critical speed as well as higher
natural frequencies or critical speeds determined by its physical dimensions i.e., length,
diameter and mass of blades, impeller and disks. If the machine is excited by some
external device and its response is measured then the response plot can be obtained as
shown in Fig. 2. At frequencies well below the natural frequency/critical speed, the
response will be essentially independent of frequency and any variations that will take
place will depend on the excitation energy.
As the machine speed or excitation frequency approaches the natural
frequency/critical speed, it can be seen that a large increase in response or amplitude level
without any increase in the input energy level. The amplitude level reaches a maximum
value at natural frequency/critical speed and then gradually reduces as the machine speed
or excitation frequency is increased further. Finally at speeds/frequency well above the
natural frequency/critical speed the response is again practically independent of speed or
frequency.
A re-look of equation (1) shows that for a system three terms i.e., mass, damping
and stiffness are considered. It is the damping which restraints the amplitude of vibration
at natural frequency/critical speed. If the phase angle between the excitation force and the
response is measured then a 180-degree phase shift takes place as the excitation
frequency increases through resonance. The two responses are shown in Fig. 3. As the
damping is further added to the system, the peak response decreases and phase shift
spreads out. When vibration amplitude no longer increases at resonance the system is said
to be critically damped. Under such situation, the phase shift takes place over a longer
frequency range and at a slower rate.
The vibration phenomena such as critical speeds, unbalance response and stability
are greatly influenced by the dynamic characteristics of rotor, oil film coefficients of its
support bearings, bearing pedestal stiffness and its interaction with the foundation. It is
also necessary to study the effect of various forces interacting between the rotor and the
stator. For a large turbine generator set the effect of electromagnetic forces during
abnormal site conditions affect the torsional characteristics of the machine. A typical rotor
system consists of rotating parts (shaft with blades) connected by couplings (rigid or
flexible) and supported on oil lubricated journal bearings. The bearings are connected
through a supporting structure (pedestal) to the foundation of the machine. Therefore an
in-depth knowledge of the rotor bearing foundation dynamics is necessary for proper
design of the total rotor bearing system.
ROTOR DYNAMICS
The dynamic behavior of rotor system giving a flexural speed of the shaft
vibrations under various excitation forces is the main study of rotor dynamic analysis.
The multi-rotor system consisting of many rotors supported intermittently with fluid film
bearings mounted on relatively rigid pedestals that in turn bolted to the foundation

structure. The vibrations occurring in the machine are flexural, axial, or torsional,
however, most commonly monitored being the flexural vibrations.
Journal bearings are used in almost all the rotating machines play a significant
role in the system performance. The concept of stiffness and damping coefficients for
journal bearings is very important for rotor dynamics calculations for critical speeds,
unbalance response and stability. The load acting downwards on the journal bearing
results in displacement along the load direction (direct term) and displacement orthogonal
to the load direction in the direction of rotation (cross term). This cross coupling term
gives rise to self-excited vibrations and instabilities in machines for improperly selected
bearing clearances
While evaluating critical speeds of a multi rotor system, it is customary to initially
consider the supporting structure as rigid and take the stiffness of bearing pedestal along
with the oil film stiffness. In practice the foundation has a finite stiffness in all the
coordinate directions and it is essential to include the corresponding stiffness in the
calculations of rotor dynamics to consider the interaction effectively. Although such a
simple approach can be followed in case of well - supported structure without any loss of
accuracy, any deficiencies in the casting of foundation result in non-compact structure,
leading to erroneous conclusions. In particular, if there are any eccentrically placed
beams supporting the pedestals, the stiffness of the combined system of pedestal and
foundation together can be much different from the normal estimations, requiring a
thorough analysis of the integrated system. Such geometrically unsymmetrical supporting
beams introduce flexibility into the otherwise rigid pedestal configuration.
The rotor instability in any rotating machinery can take place when the operating
speed of the machine is more than twice the rated speed of the machine. This
phenomenon is usually caused due to (a) journal bearing (b) aerodynamic excitation and
(c) increase of rotor internal frictional damping. The various reasons for frictional
damping are (a) rotor deflects or bows in a direction opposite to unbalance (b) excessive
interference fit (c) improper coupling lubrication (d) sliding of coils in generator (e)
excessive friction in gear type coupling and (f) seal rub. However, in case of a
compressor the excitations provided due to aerodynamic effect is one of the main causes
for rotor instability. The solution to all such problem lies in providing adequate damping
in the bearing i.e., by keeping adequate logarithmic decrement value at the design stage
itself.
If the natural frequency of the combined system is nearer to the operating speed,
machine experiences high vibration due to resonance. However, the situation may not be
alarming if adequate damping is provided by the supporting structure. The supporting
structure comprising the pedestals of the bearings, casings of the machine and the
foundation to which machine is bolted has its own dynamical behavior. The most
common trouble due to high vibrations on a well - balanced rotor can be caused if there is
a resonance of the supporting structure near the operating speed.

ANALYSIS SOFTWARE
There are many rotor dynamic software now commercially available and one such
is available in R&D. The advanced rotating machinery dynamic software package can be
used to determine damped and undamped rotor/bearing lateral vibration characteristics of
rotating machinery. The software consists of pre and post processors integrated to provide
complete rotor dynamic analysis in one operating environment. The solution modules,
which use state-of-the-art numerical methods, bring the analysis results quickly and
efficiently without compromising the accuracy.
The following briefly describes some of the features incorporated in the program,
method of solution, input and output parameters:
Rotors of various configurations: solid, hollow, tapered and stepped. Bearings of
all types: cylindrical, tilting pad, rolling element. Shaft material damping. Gyroscopic
effects (discs with angular degrees of freedom). Bearing support systems, such as casing
and foundations, couplings, impellers, sleeves, etc.
Input:
Shaft geometry.
Disc locations and inertia properties.
Bearing locations and dynamic properties.
Casing geometry and foundation dynamic properties.
Material properties.
Rotor speeds.
Bearing elevation.
Output:
Natural frequencies (damped and undamped).
Stability parameter and damping ratio.
Mode shapes of vibration (rigid and flexible).
Bearing Reaction Forces.
Shaft Weight, Deflection, and Centerline Slope.
RIGID AND FLEXIBLE ROTOR
A rigid rotor is one that does not bend by an amount enough to cause a significant
change in the center of mass eccentricity from the axis of rotation during operation of the
machine. It is, however, acceptable for the rotor mass to become eccentric from the axis
of rotation as a consequence of deflection of the bearings and their foundation. In practice
this means that rigid rotor machines are those which operate well below their pin-pin
critical speed (the critical speed corresponding to the rotor mounted in bearings which
behave as pinned supports). Rigid rotor machine can be balanced by adding balancing
weights to the machine at any two (or more) balance planes. More precisely a rotor can
be regarded as rigid if, once it has reached a stable condition and the same is maintained
at various speeds and for different bearing conditions. A rotor is said to be flexible, if its

running condition changes as a function of speed, or often neglected - as a function of

different bearing conditions. Balancing of flexible rotors requires unbalance correction in
3, 4 or more planes, depending on which of its flexural modes become effective at its
service speed.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR VIBRATIONS OF ROTATING MACHINE
A good standard must represent a consensus of opinion of among users to
understand and contain no ambiguities or loopholes. Any standard must contain vital
information that leads to common measurement procedures and valuation of data that are
compared with agreed-upon criteria. Evaluation of the vibrations of the fully assembled
machine is of great concern to the end user and in recognition of this there has been a
major emphasis on the development of appropriate machinery vibration standards, which
has resulted in a series of standards, namely:
ISO 10816 - dealing with vibration measured on bearings and other stationery
components of machines.
ISO 7919 - dealing with shaft vibration.
One of the most useful features of machinery vibration standards is the provision
of evaluation criteria and it was therefore a prime objective to make these clear and
unambiguous while providing the flexibility to account for specific machine features
which would permit/require a more relaxed /stringent evaluation.
Evaluation zones are defined as follows:
Zone A: The vibration of newly commissioned machines would normally fall
within this zone.
Zone B: Machines with vibrations within this zone are normally considered
acceptable for unrestricted long-term operation.
Zone C: Machines with vibrations within this zone are normally considered
unsatisfactory for long continuous operation. Generally, the machine may be operated for
a limited period in this condition until a suitable opportunity arises for remedial action.
Zone D: Vibration levels within this zone are normally considered to be of
sufficient severity to cause damage to the machine.
The zone boundary definitions are common to each other of the relevant parts of
both standards but the vibration values assigned to the zone boundaries are different for
each part. An example of the zone boundary values for large steam turbine generator sets
is given below. It may be noted that these values are for steady state operation of the
machine only and for the recommended measurement locations. These vibration levels

are applicable to radial direction measurement on all bearings and to axial vibration on
thrust bearings.
Pedestal vibration r.m.s
mm/sec
ISO 10816/2
Rated
speed
(rpm)
Zone A/B
Zone B/C
Zone C/D

Shaft vibration peak to peak

microns
ISO 7919/2

1500

1800

3000

3600

1500

1800

3000

3600

2.8
5.3
8.5

2.8
5.3
8.5

3.8
7.5
11.8

3.8
7.5
11.8

100
200
320

90
185
290

80
165
260

75
150
240

Further improvements in acceptable standards are still necessary in the following

areas.
(a) extension of the broad band vibration criteria to consider discrete frequency
components,
(b) vector analysis in terms of the amplitude and phase of individual frequency
components to evaluate the true effect of any vibration changes,
(c) alternative limits for transient operation, for example the passage through
critical speeds during run-up/down,
(d) diagnostics and condition monitoring.
VIBRATION CONTROL
The various sources of vibration in an industrial environment vary over an
extremely wide range. Undesirable vibration may originate from a number of sources
such as impact processes like blasting, pile-driving, hammer and press operations,
unbalance and reciprocating motion in a rotating machinery such as turbines,
compressors, pumps etc. These vibration sources create problem not only in the system
itself but are also likely to create problem elsewhere. The only way to reduce undesirable
vibration effects is to isolate the equipment to which the vibration may cause serious
damage or to reduce the vibration in the source itself.
There are three controlling factors in a basic isolation system. Their effects can be
summarized as follows:

Stiffness

The springs provide the isolation, the stiffer the springs; the less effective will be the
vibration isolation.

Mass

The mass keeps the suspended system stationery; the heavier the mass, the smaller is
the movement for a given disturbing force.

Damping

Damping has basically three effects

a) It reduces the effect of resonance.
b) It reduces the amplitude of motion of the suspended system at higher frequencies.
c) On the negative side it tends to increase the transmitted force by effectively
increasing the effective spring stiffness by providing an additional connection
short-circuiting the spring.
Vibration control may involve one or a combination of the following techniques:
1. Source alteration:
This is accomplished by making the source more rigid from a structural
standpoint, changing certain parts, balancing or improving dimensional
tolerances. The system mass and stiffness may be adjusted in such a way so
that resonant frequencies of the system do not coincide with the forcing
frequency.
2. Isolation
There are three types:
Metal springs: The use of the metal springs varies from light, delicate
instruments to very heavy industrial machinery. The damping ratio of spring
steel is 0.005. Application is good for low frequency isolation.
Elastomeric mounts: They primarily consist of natural rubber and synthetic
rubber materials such as neoprene, butyl etc. They are used up to static
deflection of 13 mm and with moderate surface pressure. The average
damping ratio is 0.05.
Resilient materials: These are used in situations where low surface pressures
are present and when the required static deflections are in the range of 0.25 to
2.0 mm. Used where high frequency vibration isolation is required. A typical
damping ratio varies from 0.05 to 0.06.
3. Damping

Damping is the conversion of mechanical energy into thermal energy. When

properly employed it performs a number of important functions as already
stated. Some of the materials and mechanism of damping are:
a. Internal damping: Certain materials exhibit high internal damping
properties such as ferromagnetic materials. Certain alloys of magnesium
and cobalt also exhibit same properties but are not very strong and costly.
b. Free visco-elastic layer: It is also called extensional damping. This method
involves the addition of a free (i.e., uncovered) visco-elastic layer to a
structure.
c. Constrained visco-elastic layer: It is also called shear damping. Such type
of application involves the addition of a covered (or constrained) viscoelastic layer to a structure.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper gives a very brief introduction to the vibration concepts, rotor
dynamics and types of rotors. Some description on international standards on vibration
levels of static and rotating parts are presented. Finally different types of vibration control
techniques are discussed.

FIGURE. 1
FIGURE 1

FIGURE. 2

FIGURE. 3