Reliability Management Consultant

Resonance
A condition where the natural freq. of a part matches with
exciting freq. and creates large vibrations

™Can be confirmed by changing ( increasing

or decreasing ) the rotor speed, as the
natural frequencies do not change with
speed.
™Phase shift of 90 deg. at resonance and
nearly 180 deg. after crossing it, will be
observed.
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RESONANCE
™Every machine
element has a natural
frequency(s) based on
mass and stiffness
™Resonance occurs
when a forcing
frequency coincides
with a one of these
natural frequencies

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VIBRATION DUE TO RESONANCE

™ Every object, including every element or part of a
machine, has a “natural frequency” or a frequency at
which “it likes to vibrate”
™ Determined by the machine’s mass and stiffness
™ Does not cause vibration but serves as a “mechanical
amplifier” (10x-100x)
™ Resonance is a very common cause of excessive
vibration because:
– Machines consist of many individual elements
– Stiffness of each machine component differs in all
directions, causing several natural frequencies

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Identifying Resonance
™Vibration will be Highly Directional
™Changing the Exciting Forcing Frequency
™Change the mass or stiffness of the
suspected resonant machine component
™Perform a Bump Test

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Bump Test Results

Confirm Resonance Problems

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Bump Test Results

Confirm Resonance Problems

Bump Test

1XRPM

Online Analysis

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Critical Speed
™Critical speed is a special case of Resonance in
which the vibrating forces are caused by the rotation
of the rotor.
™Critical speed testing is often more complicated than
resonance testing because the natural frequencies
encountered functions of stiffness and mass which
may be dependent on machine speed.
™Can be pinpointed by performing Run-up / Coast
Down test and Mode shape analysis.

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Critical Speed
Critical speed is the speed at which a shaft
buckles, because even minute unbalances
because large shaft deflections due to
centrifugal forces.
This differs from resonant vibrations in that
the shaft does not vibrate back and forth, but
rotates with an ever increasing bow.
Consequently, if deflections are not
controlled, the shaft would ultimately bend
rather than fail in fatigue as is the case with
resonance.
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Critical Speed
™The difference between critical speed and
resonance cannot be overemphasized, because
there are still many rotor vibration problems that
could be avoided by properly distinguishing between
the two.
™If a designer regards a critical as a resonance, the
bearings may be too small in diameter and of the
wrong design and the bearing support structure may
lack mass and rigidity. The remedy for resonance
(internal damping) is totally ineffective or very
harmful, and can cause a friction induced whirl for a
rotor with a critical speed problem.
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Critical Speed

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Critical Speed

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Critical Speed
The end result could be that critical speeds
show up at the wrong speed, that they are
excessively rough, and that other
instabilities of the rotating system may
occur. All this makes the machine difficult
to balance at operating speed, and may
require extensive redesign to correct the
resulting problems.

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Critical Speed

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Critical speed-Two Pole Flexible Rotor

• Due to the asymmetric

construction of two-pole
Generator rotor and
subsequently asymmetric
stiffness (if sufficient
difference exits) along the
two rotating co-ordinates
the presence of maximum
peaks at two different
frequencies (Potentially
unstable zone) as well as at
sub harmonic critical
speeds is most likely.

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Beat Vibration
™Beat frequency is the result of two closely
spaced frequency into and out of
synchronization with one another.
™Wide band spectrum shows one peak
pulsating up and down.
™Zoom spectrum shows two closely spaced
frequency peaks ( difference of these two
peaks is the beat frequency).

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Beat Vibration
™Beat frequency can be seen on a spectrum if
low frequency response of the analyser and
transducer is good enough to detect low
frequency in the range of 5 – 100 CPM.
™Maximum vibration results when the time
waveform of one frequency (F1) comes into
phase with other frequency (F2). Minimum
vibration occurs when these waveforms are
out of phase by 180 deg.

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Beat Vibration

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Beat Vibration

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