Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

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Journal of Sound and Vibration

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

Stability analysis and backward whirl investigation of cracked

rotors with time-varying stiffness
Mohammad A. AL-Shudeifat n
Aerospace Engineering, Khalifa University of Science, Technology & Research (KUSTAR), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Article history: The dynamic stability of dynamical systems with time-periodic stiffness is addressed here.
Received 8 July 2014 Cracked rotor systems with time-periodic stiffness are well-known examples of such
Received in revised form systems. Time-varying area moments of inertia at the cracked element cross-section of a
1 February 2015
cracked rotor have been used to formulate the time-periodic finite element stiffness
Accepted 7 March 2015
matrix. The semi-infinite coefficient matrix obtained by applying the harmonic balance
Handling Editor: H. Ouyang
Available online 23 March 2015 (HB) solution to the finite element (FE) equations of motion is employed here to study the
dynamic stability of the system. Consequently, the sign of the determinant of a scaled
version of a sub-matrix of this semi-infinite coefficient matrix at a finite number of
harmonics in the HB solution is found to be sufficient for identifying the major unstable
zones of the system in the parameter plane. Specifically, it is found that the negative
determinant always corresponds to unstable zones in all of the systems considered. This
approach is applied to a parametrically excited Mathieus equation, a two degree-of-
freedom linear time-periodic dynamical system, a cracked Jeffcott rotor and a finite
element model of the cracked rotor system. Compared to the corresponding results
obtained by Floquets theory, the sign of the determinant of the scaled sub-matrix is found
to be an efficient tool for identifying the major unstable zones of the linear time-periodic
parametrically excited systems, especially large-scale FE systems. Moreover, it is found
that the unstable zones for a FE cracked rotor with an open transverse crack model only
appear at the backward whirl. The theoretical and experimental results have been found
to agree well for verifying that the open crack model excites the backward whirl
amplitudes at the critical backward whirling rotational speeds.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Rotordynamic systems have wide applications in many heavy duty industrial machineries. They are extensively used in
power generation fields, aircraft engines, turbines, compressors, pumps and in many other industrial applications. The
breathing and open transverse cracks in rotor systems are considered to be some of the major damages in rotordynamic
systems. The presence of these cracks in such systems yields parametrically excited dynamical systems of time-periodic
stiffness. The common technique for formulating the finite element time-periodic stiffness matrix of a cracked rotor is the
flexibility matrix method [19]. Furthermore, the stiffness matrix of a rod in space in [10] has been utilized in formulating

n
Tel.: 971 2 5018564; fax: 971 2 4472442.
E-mail address: mohd.shudeifat@kustar.ac.ae

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2015.03.007
0022-460X/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
366 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

the time-varying stiffness matrix of a cracked rotor with a breathing crack model in [1115]. As a result, the time-varying
stiffness matrix of a cracked rotor was formulated based on the use of the classical periodic breathing function proposed in
[16]. The dynamic behavior of cracked rotor systems with time-periodic stiffness resulting from breathing crack models was
also studied in [1725].
The effect of a crack on the dynamic stability of cracked rotor systems has been extensively studied in the literature.
Systems with breathing or open cracks are considered to be parametrically excited systems. The dynamic stability of some
parametrically excited systems has been investigated using Floquets theory in [2629]. Stability conditions can be obtained
via the eigen-solution of the monodromy matrix, which is the state transition matrix (STM) evaluated at the end of the
principal period of the system in state space representation. The eigenvalues obtained by the eigen-solution of the STM
matrix are called Floquets multipliers. The STM was obtained at the end of one period by expanding the state vector and the
periodic matrix of the system in terms of Chebyshevs polynomials in [26] and the shifted Chebyshevs polynomials in [27].
This procedure reduces the system to a set of linear algebraic equations that yield the solution over a period where the STM
can be easily obtained. In [28,29] LyapunovFloquets transformation was used to transform the time-periodic system to a
dynamically equivalent time-invariant system. The stability conditions of the original system can be obtained via stability
analysis of the equivalent time-invariant system.
Floquets theory has also been applied for the stability analysis of linear time-periodic cracked rotor systems in [3033].
The STM matrix was identified in [30] via the numerical simulation of the state space of the homogenous periodic equations
of motion of a cracked Laval rotor system with a breathing crack model. The instability regions were found at the first critical
rotational speed, twice the critical rotational speed, and their corresponding subcritical rotational speeds. Similarly, in [31],
the STM of a cracked rotor with active magnetic bearings and a transverse breathing crack was obtained via the numerical
simulation of the system in a state space form. In addition, Floquets multipliers were used for determining the stability
conditions of a cracked rotor with different types of journal bearings in [32]. It was found that the type of the journal
bearing has no effect on the unstable regions. The Hills reduced order determinant has also been used for stability analysis
in the linear time-periodic cracked rotor system in [33]. Good agreement was noticed between the stability results of Hills
reduced order determinant and Floquets multipliers.
In the present study, a finite element model of the cracked rotor system with the time-periodic stiffness in [34] is
investigated for stability analysis in cracked rotors and in other examples of parametrically excited systems. The unstable
regions that appear due to the presence of the crack are determined via an alternative approach proposed here and are
verified with Floquets theory. This approach depends on the coefficient matrix, which has been obtained from the
application of the HB solution to the cracked rotor system in [34]. It is found that the negative determinant of the scaled sub-
matrix of this semi-infinite coefficient matrix always corresponds to unstable zones for all of the examples considered. The
proposed approach is applied first to two illustrative time-periodic systems before being applied it to the cracked rotor
systems. This approach requires considerably less computational time than Floquets theory.
Moreover, the unstable zones of the FE cracked rotor have been found to only appear at the backward whirl. In addition,
the experimental results are found to agree well with the theoretical findings in which the experimental critical whirl
amplitudes were found to only appear at the backward whirling critical rotational speeds of the considered cracked rotor-
bearing-disk systems.

2. Finite element model of the cracked rotor system.

The finite element method was employed for formulating the equations of motion of the rotor system with the open
transverse crack model in [3437]. This open transverse crack is modeled as shown in Fig. 1, in which the dashed segment
represents the cracked segment. The cracked segment is initially at angle with respect to the fixed negative Y-axis at time
t 0, as shown in Fig. 1a. As the shaft rotates, the crack angle with respect to the negative Y-axis changes with time to
t, as shown in Fig. 1b, where is the rotational speed of the rotor.
In the following analysis, the angle is set to zero, and the crack is assumed to be at the element j of the FE model. The
time-varying cracked element stiffness matrix with respect to the fixed X and Y coordinates has been formulated in [34] as

kF k1 k2 cos 2t k3 sin 2t
j j j j
(1)
j j j
The stiffness matrices k1 ,k2 and k3 are given as
2 3
12 0 0 6l  12l 0 0 6l
6 0 12 6l 0 0 12  6l 0 7
6 7
6 2 2 7
6 0  6l 4l 0 0 6l 2l 0 7
6 7
EI 1 6 2l 7
2 2
j 6 6l 0 0 4l  6l 0 0 7
k1 3 6 7 (2a)
l 6 6
12l 0 0  6l 12 0 0  6l 7
7
6 0  12 6l 0 0 12 6l 0 7
6 7
6 7
4 0  6l
2
2l 0 0 6l 4l
2
0 5
2 2
6l 0 0 2l  6l 0 0 4l
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 367

Fig. 1. Schematic diagrams of the cracked element cross-section (a) before rotation, and (b) the shaft rotation [34].

2 3
12 0 0 6l  12l 0 0 6l
6 0 12 6l 0 0  12  6l 0 7
6 7
6 2 2 7
6 0 6l 4l 0 0 6l 2l 0 7
6 7
EI 2 6
2 2 7
j 6 6l 0 0 4l 6l 0 0 2l 7
k2 3 6 7 (2b)
l 6 6
 12l 0 0  6l 12 0 0 6l 7
7
6 0 12 6l 0 0 12 6l 0 7
6 7
6 7
4 0 6l 2l
2
0 0 6l 4l
2
0 5
2 2
6l 0 0 2l 6l 0 0 4l

2 3
0 12 6l 0 0 12 6l 0
6  12 0 0  6l 12 0 0  6l 7
6 7
6 2 2 7
6 6l 0 0 4l  6l 0 0 2l 7
6 7
6 6l
2 2
0 7
j EI 26 0 4l 0 0 6l 2l 7
k3 3 6 7 (2c)
l 66
0 12 6l 0 0 12  6l 0 7
7
6 12 0 0 6l  12 0 0 6l 7
6 7
6 2 7
4 6l 0 0 2l
2
 6l 0 0 4l 5
2 2
0 6l 2l 0 0 6l 4l 0
     
where I 1 1=2 I x I y , I 2 1=2 I x I y , I x and I y are the area moments of inertia about the rotating x and y axes, which
are constant during the rotation of the cracked shaft, that is, I x I x  Ace e2 , I y I y . The quantities I x and I y are the area
moments of inertia of the cracked element cross-section about the rotating x and y axes, respectively, Ace is the area of the
cracked element cross-section and e is its centroid location on the rotating y-axis. These quantities were given in [3437] as

R4 R4     
Ix 1  22 4 1 sin  1 1  (3a)
4 4

R4 R4     1 

Iy  1  22 4  3 3 sin (3b)
4 12

 
   q
 
Ace R2  cos  1 1  1  2 (3c)

2R3   3
e 2 2 (3d)
3Ace

where q h=R is the non-dimensional crack depth of values 0 r r1, h is the crack depth in the radial direction of the shaft

 
and 2  .
368 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

The FE equations of motion of the rotor-bearing-system of N elements with the open crack model located at element j
were derived in [34] as
M q t C^ q_ t K1 K2 cos 2t K3 sin 2t qt F1 cos t F2 sin t Fg (4)
where M is 4N 1  4N 1 global mass matrix formulated based on [38,39]; K1 is the 4N 1  4N 1 global stiffness
j
matrix of which the entries of the cracked element stiffness matrix k1 are merged instead of the uncracked element entries
of element j in the finite element global stiffness matrix of the intact shaft found in [38,39]; K2 and K3 are 4N 1  4N 1
j j
stiffness matrices of zero entries, except at the cracked element where the entries are equal to k2 in K2 and k3 in K3 , F1 and
F2 are the vectors of the unbalance force amplitudes; and C^ G C is the combination of the damping and gyroscopic
matrices as in [15,3437]. The gyroscopic matrix G is dependent on the rotational speed of the system [15,38,39]. The
solution of the system in Eq. (4) has been expressed as a finite Fourier series as
X
n
qt A0 Ak cos kt Bk sin kt (5)
k1

Inserting this solution into Eq. (4) yields

2 3
K1 O O C2 C3 O O O O O O 2 3 2 3
6 O 1
C C2 1
C1 C3 O O C2 C3 O O O O 7 A0 Fg
6 76
6 76 A 1 7
7
6 7
6 F 7
6 O 1 1
O 7 7 6 17
6  C1 C3 C C2 O O  C3 C2 O O O 766 B1 7 6 F2 7
6 7 6 7 6 7
6 2C2 C2 C12 C3 O 7
6 O O O O C2 O 76 7 6 7
6 766
A2 7 6 0 7
7 6 7
6 2C3  2 2
 76
6 O O C 1 C O O C 3 C 2 76 B2 7 6 7
7 607
6 7
6 O
6 C2  C3 O O C 3
C13
O O O 7 6
O 76 A 3 7 67
607
7
6 766
76 7 (6)
6 O  C13 3
O C3 7 7 6
B3 7 6 0 7
6 C3 C2 O O C O C2 76 7
6 76 7 6 7
6 A4 7 6 0 7
6 O
6 O O C2 C3 O O C4 C14  C3 C2 7 76 7 6 7
6 6
7 B4 7 6 7
7 607
6 O O O C3 C2 O O  C14 C4 O O 76
6 6
76 7 6 7
7 6 7
6 O 7
6 O 76 7 6 7
6 76 7 6 7
4 An 5 4 0 5
6 O
4 O O O O C2  C3 O O Cn C1n 7
5 B
n 0
O O O O O C3 C2 O O  C1n Cn
   
where C2 1=2 K2 , C3 1=2 K3 , Ck K1  k M and C1k kC^ for k 1; 2; ; n and n is the number of harmonics
2
 
used. In addition, the coefficient matrix of the HB solution in Eq. (6) is represented by H ; . Solving Eq. (6) yields the
harmonic balance solution coefficients A0 , Ak and Bk for (k 1; 2; ; n).
 
3. Stability analysis using Floquets theory and the H ; matrix.

Floquets theory, which was used in [2633,40],

  is applied here to verify the stability results obtained via the sign of the
determinant of a scaled sub-matrix of H ; for the stability of the cracked rotors and two examples of parametrically
excited systems. The application of Floquets theory to the homogenous parametrically excited system requires the
transformation of the time-periodic equations of motion into state space representation as
_ Atu
ut (7)
where At is periodic with the principal period T. The state transition matrix t is computed at the end of the principal
period by integrating the system in Eq. (7) for the initial condition matrix U0 I of dimension 2n  2n, which yields the
monodromy matrix T . For every initial condition corresponding to a column vector in U0, integration of the system in
Eq. (7) yields a corresponding
column vector in T . The eigenvalues of T  I j 0 are the Floquets multipliers k for
k 1; 2; ; 2n. If k j k 1; 2; ; 2n for at least one of these multipliers is greater than one, the system is unstable;
otherwise the system is stable.
Alternatively, the harmonic balance method was applied to a rigid rotor supported by two ball bearings in [41] for
stability analysis. The effect of the waviness of these ball bearings yielded a parametrically excited system where the
stability was determined by solving Hills infinite determinant obtained by applying the harmonic balance method. Here, the
approach is modified for stability analysis of the linear time-periodic systems by using the sign of the determinant  ofa sub-
matrix formulated at finite number of harmonics in the HB solution out of the semi-infinite coefficient matrix H ; . For a
 
sufficient number of harmonics n in the HBsolution  required for convergence, this obtained version of the H ; matrix
should first be properly scaled to avoid det H ; - 7 1 as
   
He ; 10  c  H ; (8)

  oncewith a few iterations at some intermediate valuesof  and

The value of c can be specified  in the parameter plane to
e ; . The values of  and that
obtain a finite value of det: H  correspond to 7det: H e ; -0 determine the stability
 
boundaries. However, it is found here that for det: H e ; o 0, the values of and always correspond to unstable
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 369

regions. For this purpose, two illustrative examples of parametrically excited time-periodic systems are presented to verify
this observation while the third and the fourth examples will be the linear parametrically excited cracked rotor systems.

Example 1. In this example, the well-known undamped parametrically excited Mathieus equation is considered, which is
given as [40]
 
t cos 2t ut 0
u (9)
This equation is analogous to Eq. (4) where M 1, G ^ 0, K1 , K2 , K3 0 and 2rad where the scaled HB

coefficient matrix can be rewritten as H e ; . The transition curves and the stable/unstable regions in Fig. 2a are obtained
using Floquets theory with the numerical simulation of Mathieus   equation
 in state space form. In Fig. 2b, the corresponding
stable/unstable  regions  are determined by the sign of det: H e ; , where the unstable regions correspond to the negative
 
values of det: H e ; . Like Hills infinite-determinant approach in [4042], the transition curves (stable/unstable zones
  
boundaries) are also accurately determined here at 7 det: H e ; -0. However, the sign change in Hills infinite
determinant was not clearly studied in the literature. Consequently, utilizing the sign change of the determinant of the
 
sub-matrix obtained out of the global semi-infinite matrix H ; at a sufficient number of harmonics  is investigated here to
determine the stable/unstable regions. In Fig. 2, it is found that n 6 in the scaled sub-matrix H e ; is sufficient for the
convergence of the stability boundaries, which gives comparable results with Floquets theory. Furthermore, this proposed
approach for stability analysis is computationally much faster than Floquets theory, as shown in Table A1 in Appendix A.

T
Example 2. The two degree-of-freedom time-periodic systems in Fig. 3 are considered here, where u x1 x2 ,
k1 t k cos 2t , k 1 and m 1, with the appropriate units. The equations of motion in matrix form are given as
 
Mu _ t K1 K2 cos 2t ut 0
t Gu (10)
where
  " #
1 0 2 1 
M ; K1 ; K2
0 1 1 2 
^ 0, K1 K1 , K2 K2 and
The system in Eq. (10) is also analogous to the cracked rotor system in Eq. (4), where M M, G
 
K3 0. Hence, the matrix H ; in Eq. (6) is used here and scaled once for a selected set of and to give a finite

 
Fig. 2. The unstable regions (gray color) of Mathieus equation obtained in (a) using Floquets theory and in (b) using the sign of det: He ; approach for
n 6.

Fig. 3. The two degree-of-freedom spring-mass system with time-periodic stiffness.

370 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

Fig. 4. The unstable regions (gray color) of the 2-dof linear time-periodic system obtained in (a) using Floquets theory and in (b) using the negative sign of
detHe ; for n 48.

Fig. 5. The unstable regions (gray color) of the 2-dof linear time-periodic system obtained in (a) using Floquets theory and in (b) using the negative sign of
detHe ; for n 24.

 
determinant of H e ; . For 0 o o 2, Fig. 4a shows the unstable regions obtained using Floquets theory, while in Fig. 4b
these regions are obtained using the sign of det:H e ; approach for n 48. The transition curves obtained by Floquets
theory are mostly similar to those obtained by the det:He ; -0 approach, which are the loci of the critical eigenvalues of
the system. In Fig. 5 the values for are now selected as 2 o o9, where less harmonics (i.e., n 24) are needed for the
convergence of the stability boundaries. Excellent agreement between the results of Floquets theory in Fig. 5a and the sign
 
e ; approach in Fig. 5b is still observed. The computational time comparisons in Table A1 in Appendix A show
of det:H  
e ; approach is still much faster than Floquets theory in locating the stable/unstable zones for this
that the sign of det:H
system.

Example 3. A two-degree-of-freedom Jeffcott rotor with a transverse open crack model, as shown in Fig. 6, is considered
where the homogenous equations of motion with respect to the fixed X and Y axes are given in matrix form as
 
Mq t Gq_ t K1 K2 cos 2t K3 sin 2t qt 0 (11)

where
  " # " # " #
m 0 0 0 I1 0 I2 0 0 I2
M ; G ; K1 ;K2 ;K3
0 m 0 0 0 I1 0 I 2 I2 0
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 371

m is the concentrated mass at the center of the massless shaft, which for a given shaft of length L, density and cross-
     
sectional area A, is calculated as m AL; and I 1 1=2 I x I y , I 2 1=2 I x  I y , which have been given previously. The
physical parameters of this cracked Jeffcott rotor are given in Table 1. The values of are chosen as 0 o o 1. Inserting the
  ^
 (11) yields the same H ; as in Eq. (6), where M M, G G, K1 K1 , K2 K2
Fourier series solution in Eq. (5) into Eq.
and K3 K3 . Hence, the matrix H ; is now obtained and scaled once for the selected values of and to obtain a finite
 
determinant of H e ; for a wide range of intensity parameters. Fig. 7a shows the unstable region obtained using Floquets
 
theory, while in Fig. 7b, the unstable region is obtained using the sign of det:H e ; approach where n 2 was found to
be sufficient for the convergence
 of the critical boundaries, as shown in Fig. 1A in Appendix A. In addition, the computational
time using the sign of det:He ; approach is found to be much less than that for the Floquets theory, as shown in Table
A1 in Appendix A. For the cracked Jeffcott rotor with the open crack model we have only one unstable zone in the parameter
plane that starts at 3225 rpm, which is the critical rotational speed of this system.

Example 4. Here, the finite element model for the cracked rotor-bearing-disk system with a transverse open crack is
considered. The rotor-bearing-disk system is divided into 6 elements, as shown in Fig. 8, where the crack is located in
element 2 for Shaft-I, as illustrated in the figure. In addition, the same configuration in Fig. 8 is used for Shaft-II except for
the crack location, which is located in element 3. In addition, two identical disks are attached to nodes 2 and 6 for both

Fig. 6. The Jeffcott rotor with the open crack model.

Table 1
Physical parameters of the Jeffcott rotor.

Description Value

Length of the rotor, L 65 cm

Radius of the rotor, R 1:59 cm
Density of rotor, 7800 kg=m3
Modulus of elasticity, E 2:1  1011 N=m2

Fig. 7. The unstable regions (gray color) of the Jeffcott rotor with the open transverse crack model obtained in (a) using Floquets theory and in (b) using
e ; for n 2.
the negative sign of detH

Fig. 8. Finite element model of the cracked rotor-bearing-disk system.

372 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

cracked shafts. The mass unbalance me is attached to the right disk at an angle relative to the positive X-axis and at
distance d from the shaft centerline. The values of the physical parameters of the system are given in Table 2.

To obtain the critical forward and backward whirl speeds of the uncracked rotor system shown in Fig. 8, we consider the
finite element equations of motion of the intact rotor-bearing-disk system in matrix form as
M q t G q_ t Kqt F1 cos t F2 sin t Fg (12)
where M, K and G are the global mass, stiffness, and gyroscopic matrices of the system, respectively, [15,3439]. The
gyroscopic effect is clear in Eq. (12), where the gyroscopic matrix G is dependent on the rotational speed of the
system. This gyroscopic matrix includes the gyroscopic effect of the FE model of the intact shaft and the two disks where it is
formulated as in [15,38,39]. The critical forward and backward whirl speeds are now obtained from the eigensolution of the
state space matrix obtained for the system in Eq. (12) at F1 0, F2 0 and Fg 0, which is given as
" #
O I
S (13)
M K M G
1 1

The obtained pairs of the critical forward and backward whirl speeds from the eigensolution of Eq. (13) of the system in
Fig. 8 are plotted in the Campbell diagram in Fig. 9a for the intact shaft with isotropic bearings. The forward whirl speeds of
this intact rotor-bearing-disk system that can be excited by the unbalance force are shown in Fig. 9b. Hence, their
corresponding critical backward whirl speeds are now determined as shown in Fig. 9a. This set of the first three critical
forward whirl speeds of the intact shaft (f 1 , f 2 , and f 3 ) is identified at the peaks of the vibration amplitudes appearing
due to the unbalance force excitation as shown in Fig. 9b for 0 and n 6 in the HB solution. Based on these results, the
corresponding three critical backward whirl speeds (b1 ,b2 , and b3 ) are now distinguished from the forward whirl
speeds, as shown in the Campbell diagram in Fig. 9a. In addition, these results are tabulated in Table 3. Alternatively, to
distinguish between the critical forward and backward whirl speeds, anisotropic bearings are used for the intact rotor-
bearing-disk system with kxx 5  107 N=m and kyy 7  107 N=m. The anisotropic bearings are only used here for the
results in Fig. 10, while isotropic bearings are used for all of the following cases. When anisotropic bearings are used, a new
peak appears at, 3718 rpm as shown in Fig. 10, which is actually the backward whirl speed obtained previously in the
Campbell diagram in Fig. 9a. This critical backward whirl speed is excited by using anisotropic bearings in the unbalanced

Table 2
Physical parameters of the FE model of the cracked rotor-disk-bearing system.

Description Value Description Value

Length of the rotor, L 65 cm Disk outer radius, Ro 7:62 cm

Radius of the rotor, R 1:59 cm Disk inner radius,Ri 1:59 cm
Density of rotor, 7800 kg=m3 Density of disk, 2700 kg=m3
Modulus of elasticity, E 2:1  1011 N=m2 Mass of the disk, md 0:571 kg
Bearing stiffness, (kxx , kyy ) 7  107 N=m Mass unbalance, me d 6:3  10  4 kg m
Bearing damping, (cxx , cyy ) 2
5  10 N s=m Mass unbalance angle, =2 rad

Fig. 9. First three pairs of critical forward and backward whirl speeds vs. rotational speed in (a) and vibration amplitudes of node 6 at the forward critical
whirl speeds for 0 in (b) excited by the unbalance force.
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 373

Table 3
Forward and backward critical whirling frequencies.

Shaft Frequency index f 1 b1 f 2 b2 f 3 b3

Intact (no crack) Value (rpm) 3465 3718 10585 11091 24889 26317
Value (Hz) 57.8 62 176.4 184.9 414.8 438.6

Shaft-I (cracked) Value (rpm) 3340 3591 9996 10558 24601 25619
Value (Hz) 55.7 59.9 166.6 176 410 427

Shaft-II (cracked) Value (rpm) 3294 3535 10466 10979 24354 25515
Value (Hz) 54.9 58.9 174.4 183 406 425.3

Fig. 10. The vibration amplitudes of node 6 at the critical forward whirl speed for the intact shaft with isotropic bearings and the vibration amplitudes at
both critical forward and backward whirl speeds for the intact shaft with anisotropic bearings.

Fig. 11. The first three pairs of the critical forward and backward whirl speeds of the cracked shafts for 0:46 of Shaft I in (a) and Shaft II in (b).

intact rotor system. Moreover, as the crack starts to appear for the asymmetric shaft with a transverse open crack and
isotropic bearings of kxx kyy 7  107 N=m, the critical backward speed also starts to appear at b1 3718 rpm when
-0[34]. With these different approaches, we have been able to distinguish between the forward and backward whirl
speeds. On the contrary to several theoretical results in the literature about whirling in a multi-disk rotor system, the
appearance of the critical forward whirl speeds is found here to be at values less than their corresponding critical backward
whirl speeds. The justification for these observations about the critical forward and backward whirl speeds is provided in
Appendix B where the experimental verification is provided in Section 4.
For both analytical and the later experimental investigations, a crack of a non-dimensional crack depth 0:46 is
induced into element 2 for Shaft-I and element 3 for Shaft-II. As before, the first three pairs of the critical forward and
backward whirl speeds are shown in Campbell diagrams in Fig. 11 for these cracked rotor-bearing-disk systems (Shaft-I and
Shaft-II), which are also tabulated in Table 3. These pairs of critical whirl speeds are also obtained from the eigensolution of
the state space matrix of the cracked shaft at F1 0, F2 0 and Fg 0 in Eq. (12) after replacing the global stiffness matrix K
of the intact shaft by the previously given global stiffness matrix of the cracked shaft K1 .
The stabilities of the cracked shafts with the physical parameters in Table 2 are investigated using Floquets theory and
 
the sign of det:He ; approach. Because Floquets theory is computationally expensive, we only investigate the stability
 
e ; method. Both Floquets theory and
zones at 0:46 of Shaft-I and Shaft-II to verify the adequacy of the sign of det:H
 
e
the sign of det:H ; approach have excellent agreement in identifying these unstable regions as shown in Fig. 12 for
374 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

e ; approach for n 2 and in (d-f) using

Fig. 12. The unstable regions (gray color) of cracked Shaft-I obtained in (a-c) using the negative sign of detH
Floquets theory for 0:46.

e ; approach for n 2 and in (d-f)

Fig. 13. The unstable regions (gray color) of the cracked Shaft-II obtained in (a  c) using the negative sign of detH
using Floquets theory for 0:46.

Shaft-I and Fig. 13 for Shaft-II. It is found that these stability regions start to appear only at the critical backward whirl
speeds when -0 and expand as is increased as shown in these figures. It is interesting to find that no instability regions
appear at the forward whirl speeds. This significant finding is supported here by the results obtained by using both Floquets
 
theory and the sign of det:He ; .
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 375

 
In all previous examples it has been verified that the application of the sign of det:He ; approach to identify the
major unstable regions of the parametrically excited time-periodic systems considered in this paper is robust, and
considerable computational time can be saved, as shown in Table A1 in Appendix A. Moreover, it has been found for all
examples considered
 in this paper that the converged stability boundaries obtained at sufficient n harmonics using the sign
of det:He ; are also converging to the corresponding stability boundaries obtained by the Floquets theory.
Furthermore, the number of n harmonics necessary for convergence   depends on the problem itself where the variations
of this number in both Floquets theory and sign of det:H e ; have been clear through all previously considered
examples. Consequently, a generalized tool for linking the sufficient number of harmonics for convergence in the proposed
approach to the converged results obtained by the Floquets theory is found not to be a straight forward task which is also
might not be easily obtained.

4. Experimental validation to the theoretical results

It was found in [34] and in Figs. 911 that the appearance of the transverse open crack in the rotor system excites the
 
backward whirl speeds. In addition, stability analysis, which has been performed through the sign of det:H e ; approach
and verified by Floquets theory in Figs. 12 and 13, has also shown that the unstable zones have only been initiated at the
backward whirl speeds of the intact shaft and expand as the crack depth is increased. Here, these observations are
experimentally verified using the MFS-RDS rotordynamic simulator shown in Fig. 14, which was previously used in [34]. The
physical parameters of this simulator were previously given in Table 2. The horizontal and vertical vibration amplitudes data
have been collected through two perpendicular proximity probes installed on the right side of the shaft near the bearing
q
(close to node 6), as shown in Fig. 14. The whirl amplitude is calculated as u^ v^ , where u^ is the reading of the
2 2

horizontal probe and v^ is the reading of the vertical probe. The readings of the proximity probes were collected at a
sampling frequency of 10 kHz.
The experimental whirl amplitudes of the cracked shafts in the neighborhood of the first pair of the critical whirl speeds
(f 1 and b1 ) are investigated here. The two cracked shafts (Shaft-I and Shaft-II) have been considered for this experimental
investigation. In Shaft-I, the crack of a non-dimensional crack depth 0:46 is located at 14:1 cm measured from the left
bearing, while in Shaft-II, the crack was located at 22:1 cm measured from the left bearing. The experimental whirl

Fig. 14. The MFS-RDS Spectra-Quest rotordynamic simulator used for experimental analysis.

Fig. 15. Experimental results for the critical whirl amplitudes of the intact shaft and the cracked shafts, Shaft I in (a) and Shaft II in (b).
376 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

Table 4
Theoretical and experimental forward and backward critical whirling frequencies.

Shaft Frequency index Theoretical Experimental

Intact (no crack) f 1 (Hz) 57.8 56.6

b1 (Hz) 62

Shaft I (cracked) f 1 (Hz) 55.7

b1 (Hz) 59.9 60.7

Shaft II (cracked) f 1 (Hz) 54.9

b1 (Hz) 58.9 60

Fig. 16. Theoretical and experimental results for the critical whirl speeds of the crack-free Shaft III and the cracked shaft III in the neighborhood of the
critical forward and backward whirl speeds.

amplitudes of the intact shaft, the cracked Shaft-I and the cracked Shaft-II are plotted in Fig. 15. It is found that the
experimental critical whirl amplitude of the intact shaft appears at 3400 rpm(56.6 Hz), while the theoretical value was
calculated to be 57.8 Hz, as previously shown in Fig. 9 and Table 3. However, the experimental critical whirl amplitude for
Shaft-I appears at a higher rotational speed of 3640 rpm (60.7 Hz), as shown in Fig. 15a, which is very close to the
theoretical backward whirl speed b1 59:9 Hz for this cracked shaft, as previously shown in Fig. 11 and Table 3. Similar
observations are obtained for Shaft-II where the critical whirl amplitude experimentally appears at 3600 rpm (60 Hz),
as shown in Fig. 15b, which is also close to the theoretical backward whirl speed b1 58:9 Hz for this cracked shaft. These
experimental results are compared to the theoretical results in Table 4. It is clear that the critical experimental whirl
amplitudes of the cracked shafts appear in the neighborhood of the critical backward whirl speed, which agrees well with
the theoretical results shown in this table. Moreover, if these amplitudes are assumed to appear in the neighborhood of the
critical forward whirl, they should appear at lower critical whirl speeds for the cracked shaft than for the intact shaft, which
was not theoretically or experimentally observed. Hence, this is robust experimental evidence that the open crack in the
rotor-bearing-disk system is found excites the critical backward whirl amplitudes, which strongly agrees with all theoretical
findings in the previous sections.
Another shaft configuration named Shaft III has been also experimentally investigated here. For this shaft, the considered
length is 72.2 cm, the crack location is at 22.2 cm from the left bearing, the left rigid disk is at 12.1 cm from the left bearing
and the right rigid disk location stays symmetric with left rigid disk location about the mid-span of the shaft where all other
physical parameters were kept equivalent to those of Shaft I and Shaft II. The lowest critical whirl speed of this shaft was
experimentally found to be 2869 rpm (47.82 Hz) as shown in Fig. 16 which is considered according to the literature as the
critical forward whirl frequency. This experimental value is found to be very close to the theoretical value obtained by the
modified finite element model (modified by using negative gyroscopic matrices of the rigid disks) which is equal to
2885 rpm (48.1 Hz). Furthermore, as the crack starts to propagate and its depth is gradually increased the critical whirl
amplitudes start to appear at higher critical whirl speeds than that of the same crack-free system as shown in Fig. 16. These
critical whirl speeds are found to be very close to the theoretical values of the critical backward whirl speeds obtained here
as shown in the figure. Consequently, this is another robust evidence which validates the use of negative gyroscopic
matrices of the attached rigid disks to the spinning shaft.

5. Conclusions

In this study, the backward whirl of a cracked rotor with the open crack model is computationally and experimentally
studied. In addition, an approach for stability analysis is applied to the considered cracked rotor systems and two illustrative
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 377

parametrically excited systems. The harmonic balance method is used here to solve the FE model of the time-periodic
cracked rotor system. It is found that the sign change of the determinant of the scaled sub-matrix of the semi-infinite
coefficient matrix obtained by applying the HB solution identifies the majority of the unstable regions and their boundaries
and yields the same results as Floquets theory. The negative sign of this determinant was found to always identify the
unstable regions in all of the examples considered. This approach is applied first to two illustrative parametrically excited
systems, which are the well-known Mathieus equation and a two-degrees-of-freedom linear time-periodic system. For
these examples, the results of the proposed approach for stability have been found to accurately match the results of the
stability analysis obtained by Floquets theory. This proposed approach is faster and more efficient than the time costly
application of Floquets theory, especially in the large scale parametrically excited dynamical systems.
It is also found that the appearance of the open crack excites the backward whirl speeds. In addition, the unstable zones
are also found to only appear at the critical backward whirl speeds. Furthermore, the theoretical observations regarding the
cracked shafts are experimentally verified in this paper, and an excellent agreement between the theoretical and the
experimental findings is found regarding the backward whirl speeds. These robust experimental results have also validated
all theoretical results obtained by considering a negative version of the rigid disk gyroscopic matrix in the finite element
model which corrects the miss use of this matrix in the literature when rigid disks are attached to a spinning shaft.

Acknowledgement

Dr. Eric Butcher is an associate professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Arizona and is
acknowledged for his valuable support, especially for the experimental results.

Appendix A

The convergence test for the results in Fig. 12 is shown here in Fig. A1.  
The comparison between the simulation times required by the Floquets theory and the sign of detH e ; approach for
locating the stability zones in Examples 1 4 are shown in the table below. The time ratio in the table represents the ratio of
the computational time required by Floquets theory to the time required by the sign of detH e ; . Table A1

 
Fig. A1. Convergences of the critical boundaries obtained by the det He ; approach, where dots represent n 2 and circles represent n 3 in the HB
solution .

Table A1
Simulation time comparisons and the time ratio.

Example no. Approximate computational time ratio

Example 1 (Fig. 2) 89
Example 2 (Fig. 4) 404
Example 2 (Fig. 5) 211
Example 3 (Fig. 7) 380
Example 4 (Fig. 12) 8600

Appendix B

According to several theoretical results in the literature, the critical forward whirl speeds are usually found to be greater
than their corresponding critical backward whirl speeds for single or multi-disk rotor systems. However, theoretical results
378 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

and assumptions should be experimentally verified to be accepted and to be valid. Furthermore, the obtained experimental
results here have shown that as the crack starts to propagate in the double-disk rotor system and its depth is gradually
increased the critical whirl amplitudes have been found to appear at higher critical whirl speeds than those of the same
crack-free shaft. These robust experimental findings in Figs. 14 and 15 disagree with the theoretical results in the literature
for the cracked or crack-free double-disk rotor system. To explain why these experimental results suggest that the
appearance of the critical backward whirl speeds should also theoretically be at higher values than their corresponding
critical forward whirl speeds, the following justification is provided.
In the literature, the skew-symmetric gyroscopic matrix of the shaft element j is given as [38,39,43]

j1 j1
_ x _ y u_ j 1 v_ j 1 _ x _ y
j j
u_ j v_ j
u_ j
2 3
0 36  3l 0 0  36 0 0 v_ j
6  36 0 0 3l 36 0 0  3l 7
6 7 _j
6 2 2 2 7

 IP 66
3l 0 0 4l  3l  3l l l 7 x
7 _j
7 y
gi 6 0 3l 4l
2
0 0  3l 0 0 7 (B1)
30l 6
6 7
6 0  36 3l 0 0 36 3l 0 7 u_ j 1
6 7
6 36 3l 7 _
6 0 3l 3l  36 0 0 7 vj 1
6 2 7 j1
4 0 0 l
2
0  3l 0 0 4l 5 _
x
2 2
0 3l l 0 0  3l  4l 0 j1
_y

where the gyroscopic sub matrix at the node i which is shared between two consecutive elements (elements j and j 1) at
which an external rigid disk might be attached is given as

j1 j1
u_ j 1 v_ j 1 _ x _ y
2 3 u_ j 1

 IP 0 72 0 0
6  72 v_ j 1
g di
30l 6 0 0 0 7
7 j1
(B2)
6 27 _
4 0 0 0 8l 5 x
0 0  8l
2
0 _ j1
y

and the gyroscopic matrix of the external rigid disk attached to that node between these two consecutive elements is given
as [38,39,43]

j1 j1
u_ j 1 v_ j 1 _ x _ y
2 3 u_ j 1
0 0 0 0
Gd  6 v_
60 0 0 0 77 j1 (B3)
6 7 _ j1
5 x
60 0 0 Ip 7
4
0 0  I p 0 _
j1
y

where I P is the rigid disk polar moment of inertia. These matrices agree with the literature for positive angles of rotation x
and y about the x and y axes, respectively. Consequently, both shaft nodal disk (Fig. B1b) and the external rigid disk (Fig.
B1c) have the gyroscopic effect in the same direction as shown in Eq. (B2) and Eq. (B3). According to this modeling, the
critical backward whirl frequencies theoretically appear at lower values than their corresponding critical forward whirl
frequencies which agree with the literature.
In this paper, the experimental results have shown contrary to the theoretical results obtained in several text books and
publications regarding to the critical whirl frequencies of the multi-disk rotor system. The physical explanation for this is
that when the shaft nodal disk in Fig. B1b or Fig. B2b rotates by angle x about the x-axis as shown in the figure and another
angle y about the y-axis (not shown in the figure) due to the shaft whirling and transverse bending, the outer attached
rigid disk should physically oppose this rotation as shown in Fig. B2c by its gyroscopic forces. Consequently, the rigid disk
gyroscopic matrix in Eq. (B3) should be multiplied by  1 to provide this opposite gyroscopic effect by the external rigid disk
when it is attached to the nodal elastic shaft disk. Hence, the physically accurate gyroscopic matrix of the rigid disk when it
 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380 379

Fig. B1. Double-disk rotor system in the y-z plane.

Fig. B2. Double-disk rotor system in the y z plane .

is attached to a spinning shaft should be

j1 j1
u_ j 1 v_ j 1 _ x _ y
2 3 u_ j 1
h i 0 0 0 0
Gd  1  Gd  6 7 v_ j 1 (B4)
60 0 0 0 7
6 7 _ j1
5 x
60 0 0  I p 7
4
0 0 I p 0 _
j1
y

Using the right gyroscopic matrix in Eq. (B4) is found to correct the arrangement of the theoretically obtained results of
the critical forward and backward whirl speeds of the multi-disk rotor system without affecting their values. Consequently,
the theoretical results in this paper have been found to be in excellent agreement with the robust experimental results
380 M.A. AL-Shudeifat / Journal of Sound and Vibration 348 (2015) 365380

which validates the use of the accurate disk gyroscopic matrix given in Eq. (B4) in the FE model of the considered double-
disk rotor system as previously shown in Figs. 14 and 15.
Finally, for a single-disk-rotor system with the disk is attached at the mid-span of the shaft, the use of the right
gyroscopic matrix in Eq. (B4) for the rigid disk yields critical backward whirl speeds to be less than their corresponding
critical forward whirl speeds which agrees with the literature for this case only.

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