Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

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Journal of Sound and Vibration

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

Investigations on bending-torsional vibrations of rotor

during rotor-stator rub using Lagrange multiplier method
Md Asjad Mokhtar, Ashish Kamalakar Darpe n, Kshitij Gupta
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India

a r t i c l e in f o abstract

Article history: The ever-increasing need of highly efficient rotating machinery causes reduction in the
Received 10 September 2016 clearance between rotating and non-rotating parts and increase in the chances of inter-
Received in revised form action between these parts. The rotor-stator contact, known as rub, has always been re-
22 March 2017
cognized as one of the potential causes of rotor system malfunctions and a source of
Accepted 26 March 2017
secondary failures. It is one of few causes that influence both lateral and torsional vi-
Available online 29 April 2017
brations. In this paper, the rotor stator interaction phenomenon is investigated in the
Keywords: finite element framework using Lagrange multiplier based contact mechanics approach.
Rotor-stator rub The stator is modelled as a beam that can respond to axial penetration and lateral friction
Torsional vibration
force during the contact with the rotor. It ensures dynamic stator contact boundary and
Lagrange multiplier method
more realistic contact conditions in contrast to most of the earlier approaches. The rotor
Contact mechanics
bending-torsional mode coupling during contact is considered and the vibration response
in bending and torsion are analysed. The effect of parameters such as clearance, friction
coefficient and stator stiffness are studied at various operating speeds and it has been
found that certain parameter values generate peculiar rub related features. Presence of
sub-harmonics in the lateral vibration frequency spectra are prominently observed when
the rotor operates near the integer multiple of its lateral critical speed. The spectrum
cascade of torsional vibration shows the presence of bending critical speed along with the
larger amplitudes of frequencies close to torsional natural frequency of the rotor. When
1
m n X frequency component of rotational frequency comes closer to the torsional natural
frequency, stronger torsional vibration amplitude is noticed in the spectrum cascade. The
combined information from the stator vibration and rotor lateral-torsional vibration
spectral features is proposed for robust rub identification.
& 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction

Among various research issues, fault diagnosis for a rotating machine is an important topic. Once the rotor bearing
system is properly designed, its continuous performance without untimely failure can be ensured by way of monitoring its
health during service. Among various faults, the rotor stator rub has always been of great significance, particularly in high
speed flexible rotors. Reducing the clearance for efficiency increases the undesired rotor stator contact possibilities. The rub
is termed as the contact between the rotor and the stator that leads to significantly changed rotordynamic behaviour. It is
one of very few causes that influence both lateral and torsional rotordynamics. The detection of torsional vibrations is also

n
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: md.asjad.mokhtar@mech.iitd.ac.in (M.A. Mokhtar), akdarpe@mech.iitd.ac.in (A. Kamalakar Darpe), kgupta@mech.iitd.ac.in (K. Gupta).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2017.03.026
0022-460X/& 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 95

Nomenclature PA, PB position vector for point A, B

q number of active nodal contact pair
aT unit vector along tangential direction r /L0, speed ratio
Ai contact area for the ith nodal pair rd radius of the disc
cg g/max(X()), clearance ratio Rr (t), Rs (t) external force vectors
Cr, Cs effective damping matrices: rotor, stator tTi scalar form of tangential surface traction
Dr damping matrix for rotor for i th contacting pair
Es elastic modulus of stator u displacement update without contact
*
f global force vector of body forces and surface uc corrective displacement vector
traction ur, u r, r displacement, velocity and acceleration
g gap or clearance between contacting bodies vectors for rotor
gN , gN normal gap function and the array of all the us, u s, s displacement, velocity and acceleration
normal gap functions vectors for stator
gT , g T time derivative of tangential gap function and X vector defining the initial gap between
the array of all the gT contacting nodal pairs
Gr gyroscopic matrix for rotor X() response as function of speed
GL local contact matrix for nodal contact pair variation of the parameter
GN, GT global contact matrix for normal and tangential N , T normal and tangential contact force
direction N , T normal and tangential contact force
GNT GN mGT, global normal-tangential contact vectors
matrix m friction coefficient
Kr, Ks stiffness matrices: rotor, stator speed of rotation
Mr, Ms mass matrices: rotor, stator L0, T 0, S0 1st natural frequency: rotor's lateral,
nT unit vector along normal direction torsional and stator's lateral direction
Nr, Ns degree of freedom: rotor, stator Potential energy
pNi normal contact pressure for ith contact pair CLM Energy due to contact contribution

important in practical rotors where unnoticed large torsional vibrations can lead to fatigue induced cracks and failure.
The rotor stator rub has been under investigations for over three decades. Childs [1,2] in his early works has shown that
the rubbing causes parametric excitation of half speed whirl at a rotor's natural frequency. He showed increase in radial
stiffness and tangential force due to rubbing. In subsequent studies, third order sub-synchronous motion is also found due
to partial rubbing. During rotor operation under rub, Beatty [3] emphasized the presence of second and third harmonics of
the synchronous frequency. He also concluded that the frictional cross-coupling term may lead to instability during full
contact rub. Choy and Padovan [4] investigated the event of rub as a nonlinear phenomenon and studied the transient
motion of the rotor due to rub. The process is divided into four stages as non-contact stage, rub initiation, rub interaction
and separation. They studied effects of casing stiffness, friction co-efficient, unbalance load and system damping. Muszynska
[5] has provided a detailed review of the literature on the theoretical and experimental works. Muszynska and Goldman [6]
in their analytical, numerical, and experimental studies, have concluded that the vibrational behaviour can be characterized
1 1
by regular periodic vibrations of synchronous (1X), and sub synchronous ( 2 X , 3
X ...) orders. Chaotic vibration patterns were
found accompanied by higher harmonics. Further, it was observed that chaotic vibration zones decrease with increase in
damping. In a study of relatively new problem of wind-milling imbalance in aero engines, Groll and Ewins [7] found very
rich frequency spectrum consisting of super-harmonics upto order of 9 and sub-harmonics of the order of 32.
Nonlinear vibrations related to rub have been studied by many researchers. Chu and Zhang [8] have used non-linear
model with piecewise linear stiffness and have shown that rub impact between rotor and stator exhibits periodic, quasi-
periodic and chaotic vibrations. In a similar study, Sun et al. [9] have shown that motion of the rotor system alternates
among the periodic, chaotic and quasi-periodic vibrations, as the rotating speed increases. It was concluded that the proper
increase of damping can make the chaotic motion return to periodic one, which is contrary to the observations made in [8].
Chu and Lu [10] have reported an experimental work to investigate nonlinear vibrations in a rub impact rotor system and
observed a very rich form of periodic and chaotic vibrations with presence of fractional harmonic components such as
1 3 5
2
X , 2 X , 2 X , etc. Most of the work on the rub is based on conventional friction model. Only a few attempts are made to
address the rub phenomenon in an alternate way such as impact energy model as reported by Cong et al. [11]. The stiffening
effect due to rub is observed and analysed by Chu and Lu [12] and Patel and Darpe [13]. Dynamic stiffness identification for
determining rub location was studied by Chu and Lu [14]. Patel and Darpe [13] have shown the possibility of detecting rub at
its initiation stage. They also investigated in detail the directional nature of rub fault along with the shift in resonance speed.
Advanced signal processing tools have been used for time-frequency-energy mapping to estimate the exact time of oc-
currence of rub and associated excitation frequencies.
Similarly, most of the rotordynamic models for rub investigations have considered lateral vibrations only. Presence of
tangential force due to contact and friction leads to torsional vibrations in the system. Edwards et al. [15] have investigated
96 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

the torsional vibration response due to rubbing and showed that the system is more stable with torsional effect considered.
Later, Sun et al. [16] have found that the periodic and chaotic responses are comparable with and without the bending-
torsion coupling. Al-Bedoor [17,18] had carried out a transient analysis with torsional degree of freedom and found irregular
rubbing orbits and split in response at resonance. He observed super-harmonics of order 3, with possible instability, in case
of torsional vibrations. Mohiuddin and Khulief [19] proposed an FE formulation using Lagrangian approach for coupled
bending-torsional model which provides an efficient tool for dynamic analysis of a complex rotor system. Patel and Darpe
[20] proposed a model for the coupled torsional and lateral vibrations of unbalanced rotors that accounts for the rotor-stator
rub along with the crack. A nonlinear dynamic study is done by Khanlo et al. [21] showing disappearance of quasi periodic
or chaotic behaviour beyond certain speed ratio when bending-torsional coupling is included in the system.
Lately, contact mechanics based approach dealing with two or more bodies in contact is considered for rotor stator
interaction. This approach has an advantage of modelling the stator as a part of the rotor bearing system and thus includes
its dynamic effect on the rotor response. Roques et al. [22] have used this approach for constraint enforcement and did a
transient analysis for the rotor stator interaction caused by accidental blade-off imbalance in a turbo-generator. Sensitivity
analysis done in this work proves the significance of friction coefficient and the stator flexibility. Behzad et al. [23] in-
vestigated a Jeffcott rotor system under partial rub condition using contact mechanics formulation. The formulation tech-
niques used in [22,23] are based on Lagrange multiplier method. Ma et al. [24] used an FE model of two disc rotor bearing
system and considered augmented Lagrangian method for contact formulation. They presented a qualitative comparison of
the response with respect to speed, gap and contact stiffness. Subsequently, Ma et al. [25,26] carried out similar studies with
two different loading conditions and varied stator configuration. A comparative study of various constraint enforcement
techniques on rotor stator rub simulation is done by Mokhtar et al. [27]. A literature review highlighting the phenomenology
involved during the blade-casing contact and the rotor-stator contact is presented by Jacquet-Richardet et al. [28]. Various
modelling approaches, the major experimental facilities and the results are summarised. They have delved on the com-
plexity of the problem and identification of major influencing parameters on the dynamics.
The recent works [2327] with contact mechanics based approaches have considered only lateral motions of the rotor
system. The torsional vibration is not given its due when it comes to investigations on rotor-stator rub phenomenon and
related diagnostic feature extraction. It seems worthwhile to investigate the torsional vibrations of such contacting rotor
with flexible stator including the stator dynamics that, to the best of author's knowledge, was neglected in the past. The
paper also establishes the correlation between lateral and torsional vibration response in terms of frequency contents of the
vibratory signal. The present work uses an FE model of a single disc rotor system and the Lagrange multiplier method as
constraint enforcement technique. A node to node contact strategy is used as it accounts for the interaction in case of local
deformation at the contact location. The dynamic motion of the stator is considered by modelling it as a flexible beam that
can respond to both axial and lateral forces during contact. Most of the previous work considered only axially deformable
stators. In addition, the conventional approach of modelling the stator as stationary spring element has a limitation that the
dynamics of stator element is not considered. In fact, the contact between the rotor and stator depends not only on the rotor
excursion but also on the instantaneous stator vibratory response. Thus, the dynamic stator response affects the rotor stator
interaction and must be included in the mathematical model of rotor-stator contact system. Further, an approach of using
the stator vibratory response for rub diagnosis is explored in the present work, instead of only relying on the rotor lateral
and torsional vibration signature. The next section gives details of the formulation of governing equations along with the
contact model and gap function definition, while the results are discussed in Section 3. Section 4 highlights conclusions of
the work.

2. Formulation of governing equations

The mathematical formulation of the rotor bearing system along with the stator is briefed in this section. The in-
corporation of constraint imposed by stator on the rotor while formulating the governing equations is also discussed.

2.1. Rotor stator model

The problem taken up for the rub simulation consists of simple rotor bearing system with a disc centrally located and the
bearings at the two ends of the shaft as shown in Fig. 1. The rotor shaft is discretized into 14 finite beam elements with each
node consisting of three translational and three rotational degrees of freedom. The finite element includes effect of rotary
inertia, gyroscopic moment and transverse shear effect for the shaft. A proportional damping is considered in the system

Stator
y Gap
Disc y
x z
Rotor shaft
B1 B2

Fig. 1. Rotor bearing stator system.

 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 97

and the model assumes material linearity. The two bearings that support the rotating shaft are modelled using orthogonal
spring elements and are included in the global stiffness matrix at its appropriate location. The equations of motion for the
rotor system are written as

M r { u r } + C r { u r } + K r{ u r } = { R r(t )}



where C r = Dr + Gr (1)

where Mr, Dr, Gr and Kr are mass, damping, gyroscopic and stiffness matrices for rotor. Rr and ur are generalized force and
displacement vectors. The matrix Kr includes the support stiffness of the bearing and Cr is the effective damping matrix for
rotor.
Similarly, the stator is modelled as discretised beam with its inertial and elastic properties and placed vertically with a
specified clearance with the disc. The equations of motion for the stator are written as
Ms{ u s } + Cs{ u s } + K s{ us } = { R s(t )}, (2)

where subscript s stands for stator.

2.2. Contact model

For modelling the interaction of rotor and stator parts, Lagrange multiplier method is used for constraint enforcement.
The method ensures perfect enforcement of constraint at the rotor stator contact. During the contact, the Lagrange mul-
tiplier is introduced and the governing equation of motion is added with an additional term that ensures to satisfy the
constraints in the system. Modelling of the contact dynamics requires combining the rotor and stator equations of motion.
The combined rotor stator system will act as a coupled system during the interaction and uncoupled otherwise.
An appropriate gap function is defined that gives the instantaneous gap between the two contacting bodies. The gap
function defined in normal direction leads to the contact condition that is the constraint for the system to ensure non-
penetration. Equations of motion are derived using variational mechanics, principle of virtual work, and Lagrange multiplier
method [29]. The governing equations are then solved through a numerical integration technique.

2.2.1. Gap function definition

For the two bodies coming into contact, the normal and tangential gap function between them needs to be defined.
Consider points A and B as one nodal contacting pair (Fig. 2). PA and PB are position vectors of nodal points on the two
contacting bodies. The corresponding normal gap function can be written as [23]

gN = nT ( PBPA) = nT AB ( ) (3)

where gN is the normal gap function, nT is the unit vector along AB. The matrix form for the gap function is
xA xA

y A
y A
gN = nx ny nx ny = GL
B 14 B
x x
y B y B
(4)
A B A B
GL is the local contact matrix for a pair of contacting nodes. x , x , y , y are the components of position vectors PA and PB.

a n g
A
PA
PB
x
Fig. 2. Gap function definition.
98 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

Depending upon the other possible locations of interaction in the model, one can generate corresponding local contact
matrices and then it can be assembled into a global contact matrix which has the information of all the nodal pairs in
contact. With Nr and Ns as number of the degrees of freedom for rotor and stator respectively and q as the no. of active nodal
contact pairs, the gap function can be generalized as [23]

gN(u) = GN X 0 + u ( ) (5)

where
T
GN T T T
= G1L G2L ... G q
q 2( Nr + Ns) L

X0 is the vector defining the initial gap between contacting nodal pairs at t0, u the displacement vector and the sum,
0
X u is spatial coordinate vector. Similarly, for relative tangential velocity, the time derivative of tangential gap function
will be

gT = aT ( u B u A), hence g T = G T u (6)

where a is the unit vector in tangential direction, gT is the time derivative of tangential gap function ( gT ) and g T is the array
of tangential gap functions. GT is global tangential contact matrix and u corresponds to velocity vector.
In classical contact mechanics, it is assumed that the reaction force between the contacting bodies is always compressive
in nature making it either negative or zero. Similarly, the gap between contacting bodies are either positive or zero. It can be
expressed mathematically as Hertz-Signorini-Moreau conditions [29]
gi 0
N
i
p 0 for i = 1, 2.....q
N
i i
pN gN = 0 (7)

where pN is the normal contact pressure.

The average rotor angular velocity remains constant as the energy dissipated due to friction is assumed to be com-
pensated by the driving torque. Thus the rotor boundary steadily slides over the stator boundary. The Coulomb's law is used
to consider the frictional effects into the constrained equations of motion. Thus, tangential surface traction (tT) is directly
proportional to the normal reaction and the scalar form can be written as

tTi = pNi (8)

If the contact area for ith nodal contact pair is Ai

Ni = pNi Ai
for i = 1, 2.....q
i i i
T = tT A (9)

where N and T are the normal and tangential contact force respectively. Eqs. (7) and (8) can be rewritten in terms of
contact forces as
gi 0


N
Ni 0 and Ti = Ni , for i = 1, 2....q

i i
N g N = 0 (10)

2.2.2. Constrained equation of motion

The Lagrange multiplier is used to add constraints to a weak form of the equilibrium equation during interaction. The
energy contributions related to interaction between rotor and casing is [29]

CLM = ( pN gN + tT gT )dA
c (11)

Variation of this contact contribution will be

CLM = ( pN gN + tT gT )dA + ( pN gN + tT gT )dA

c c (12)

In the Eq. (12), the first integral is associated with the virtual work of the Lagrange multipliers along the variation of the
gap functions in normal and tangential directions. The second integral describes the enforcement of the constraints [29]. gN
is the variation of the normal gap function. The terms tT.gT and tT.gT are associated with tangential stick. In the case of
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 99

sliding, a tangential stress vector tT is determined from the constitutive law for frictional slip. Therefore, the normal contact
pressure, pN acts as the sole Lagrange multiplier. The term related to variation of tangential surface traction may disappear;
as it is not required to be zero in case of slip motion.
Using node to node contact strategy in FE discretization, Eq. (12) is simplified for the q activated nodal contact pairs and
can be written in matrix form as [23]

CLM = ( pN gN + tT gT )dA + pN gN dA = gNT N + gTT T + ( N )T gN (13)

c c

where N = [N1 , N2......, Nq ]T , T = [T1, T2......, Tq]T and gN = [gN1 , gN2 ......, gNq ]T

In terms of virtual displacements (u),

T
CLM = uT GTNN + uT G TT T + ( N ) gN = uT GT + TN gN (14)

where T = [TN TT ] and GT = [GTN G TT ]

By applying FE discretization procedure to the linear elastic bodies of the rotor and stator, the total potential energy due
to static deformation is given by
(total) = (system) + C (contact ) (15)

Taking variation of Eq. (15) with respect to displacements gives the weak form of the equilibrium equation.

LM = 0 i. e . + CLM = 0 , leads to
T T T T
u Ku u f + u G + TN gN =0 (16)

where u is the vector of nodal displacements, K is the stiffness matrix of rotor-stator combined system and f is the vector of
body forces and surface tractions. These variables contain information of both the rotor and stator in which deformations of
rotor and stator are not coupled.
Eq. (16) must hold for any arbitrary value of u and the unilateral contact constraints (Eq. (10)) can be expressed as
complementarity condition such that the contact force vector is used in expressing the governing equations of motion as
[30]
T
Ku + G = f


gN 0 ; N 0 ; Ni gNi = 0 for i = 1, .....q (17)

The governing equation of motion is second order in time with constraints holding on the displacement only. Due to
unilateral constraint, the velocity can be discontinuous, and there is in general no strong solution to this problem [31].
Hence for the solution to be unique, the complementarity conditions should be supplemented with an impact law governing
the dynamics during impact [30]. Thus, an additional condition, specifying the velocity after impact is required that is
defined as u -e  u - where e is the coefficient of restitution (e [0 1]) [31]. In a continuous framework problem, where
the contact boundary is reduced to a point, uniqueness of a solution do exist without the impact law [[31] and Refs. [11, 28]
therein].
The present case looks for a weak solution where displacement u is continuous in time and velocity u , acceleration and
contact force is evaluated (containing impulses). The problem formulated here is to evaluate displacement u and contact
force . With a node-to-node contact strategy and the matrix K being positive definite, the Eq. (17) can have a unique
solution.
Now, considering inertia forces and damping forces to study the contact dynamics between rotor and stator, Eq. (17) can
be written as

Mu + Cu + Ku + GT = f

( 0
)
GN u + X rd 0 ; N 0 ; Ni gNi = 0 for i = 1, .....q
(18)

where u and u are vectors of nodal acceleration and velocity respectively and rd is radius of the disc. This is the constrained
equation of motion for the rotor and stator to be solved by explicit numerical integration scheme. The matrix M, C and K are
mass, damping and stiffness matrices of the combined rotor-stator system.
Using the expression Ti = Ni , Eq. (18) can be expressed as
Mu + Cu + Ku + GT = f
NT N


G N u(+ X 0
rd 0 ; ) N 0 ; Ni gNi = 0 for i = 1, .....q
(19)

where GNT is the normal-tangential-contact matrix, GNT = GN + G T

100 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

2.3. Numerical simulations

A good contact treatment depends strongly on the integration method being used for solving the equations of motion.
The implicit solutions are good for static and slow transient problems; however it behaves badly when inertial forces are
relatively large [32]. Implicit methods with automatic control of time step size may also be used. Conditionally stable
explicit methods appear to be more relevant to non-differentiable functions such as contact [22]. The solution procedure
adopted here is based on forward increment Lagrange multiplier method with central difference integration scheme. It has
been established that the Lagrange-explicit results are accurate enough and could further improve with mesh refinements
[32].
The discretization in the present work is based on the wave speed in rotor's lateral and stator's longitudinal direction and
the frequency of interest. Further, the convergence study over a no. of element size and time step is carried out and the time
step of 0.5 ms is used for the present study.

2.3.1. Solution procedure

The central difference scheme is a well-known solution procedure for numerical integration. The steps involved during
the solution are as follows. The incremental solution of equations proceeds by first calculating the usual explicit dis-
placement update u n + 1 for all degrees of freedom, including surface contactor nodes, assuming no contact i.e. N 0 [23,32]
*
un+ 1 = M 1f n
*
where
2 1 1 n 1
= 1M+ 1 C ,
M and
n
f = f n K 2 Mun 2 M Cu
h2 2h h h 2h (20)
0 n+1
Following it, the spatial co-ordinates (X + u ) are processed by a search algorithm to identify all surface contactor
*
nodes that have penetrated the target surfaces. Based on this search information a constraint matrix is assembled and the
Lagrange multiplier vector N can be determined and included into the computations to ensure non-penetration. For actual
displacement that ensures non penetration, the explicit displacement has to be corrected using

un + 1 = u n + 1 + u c (21)
*
where uc represents the required correction. Adding X and multiplying 0
GnN+ 1 to Eq. (21), then subtracting rd from both sides
gives

( ) ( )
GnN+ 1 X 0 + un + 1 rd = GnN+ 1 u n + 1 + X 0 rd + GnN+ 1u c
*
(
= gN u
* )
n+ 1
+ GnN+ 1u c (22)

For the non-penetrability, the Eq. (22) must be equal to zero. Referring to Eq. (19) and Eq. (20), the corrective dis-
placement vector can be evaluated by
T
n + 1 = f n= Gn + 1 n
Mu ( )
c c NT N (23)

Substituting Eq. (23) into Eq. (22) and the condition of instantaneous gap function to be zero at time tn 1, the Lagrange
multiplier and the corrective displacement vector can be calculated by following equations [23]

1
1 Gn + 1 g u n + 1
T
nN = GnN+ 1M ( ) ( )

NT
N *
T
1 Gn + 1 n
uc = M ( )
NT N (24)

The explicit displacement calculated in the first place can now be updated with corrective displacement (Eq. (21)) and
the other parameters are evaluated at time tn 1 before moving to next time step.

3. Results and discussion

In this section, three aspects of the present work are discussed. Including the lateral motion of stator in addition to the
axial one is one aspect. The other related aspect of this improvement of stator model is to explore the torsional vibration
feature of the rotor when the problem formulation is based on contact theory. Finally, effect of parameters such as rotational
speed, rotor-stator clearance, friction coefficient and the stator flexibility are investigated on the rotor response. In practical
cases of rotor stator rub, the stator get excited as a general perturbation from the contacting spinning rotor and may vibrate
in all its modes in particular axial and bending. In the past [2326], most stator models are considered as an axial bar,
disregarding any lateral degree of freedom. Such models thus assume only compressive movement of the stator under the
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 101

Fig. 3. Orbit plots for speed ratio, (a) r 0.75 (b) r 1.5 (c) r 3.

contact forces. However, the contact force between the rotor and stator does provide significant excitation tangentially due
to contact friction. Inclusion of the lateral degree of freedom of stator makes it more realistic and an appropriately modelled
stator is expected to correctly and comprehensively represent the dynamics of rotor-stator motion during the interaction.
The torsional vibration waveform is discussed along with lateral vibration of the rotor during the interaction.

3.1. Stator model with lateral degree of freedom

The contact formulation discussed in the previous sections allows inclusion of the FE model of the stator as a part of the
global system. For the validation purpose, the configuration of rotor bearing system used by Behzad et al. [23] is considered
and investigated for the vibration response with and without the lateral DOF of the stator. The orbit plots for three speed
ratios are shown in Fig. 3. The dashed line corresponds to the one simulated without considering the lateral (bending)
degree of freedom for the stator as used in their work [23]. The horizontal lines crossing the orbits represent the initial
position of the stator node. While there is an overall agreement in the orbit shape, a variation in the orientation of orbit is
noticed between the two models. The difference depends on the speed of rotation; the orbit plot at r 1.5 shows significant
deviation. The orbits have tilted from vertical for the model with the inclusion of lateral degree of freedom of stator.
For the validation of present rotor-stator contact formulation with Lagrange multiplier approach with torsional degree of
freedom, unbalance vibration response is computed for the rotor model of Patel et al. [20]. The contact model used in [20] is
a conventional friction contact. Torsional oscillations and vertical vibration waveforms are compared for assessing the re-
sponse using the two different contact formulation techniques (Fig. 4). In terms of amplitudes of vibration response, the
vertical responses are in close agreement with each other whereas the torsional vibration amplitudes show some difference.
In the conventional model the vertical response waveform (Fig. 4a) has slight variation of the amplitude in successive cycles.
The torsional vibration amplitudes are relatively less with the present contact formulation as compared with the conven-
tional model as observed in Fig. 4d. Some difference in consecutive rotor-stator interaction (observed in lateral vibration
response shown encircled regions in Fig. 4a) is noticed in the conventional model. It may be mentioned that in the con-
ventional stator model, the stator boundary is assumed to be fixed, while in the present model involving contact for-
mulation, it is dynamic. With the current model and for the given rotor system configuration and parameters such cycle to
cycle variation of amplitudes at the interactions is not observed (as noticed in the encircled interaction regions in Fig. 4b). In
addition, the response (torsional and vertical) appears to be periodic with rotational frequency, whereas in the case of
conventional model, it is periodic with twice the period of a rotation for the given operating parameters and rotor bearing
stator system configuration.

3.2. Simulation of rotor-stator interaction

Having compared the rotor lateral and torsional vibration response, using the rotor bearing system configurations of
respective past work, the investigations are now focussed on the rotor bearing stator system described in Section 2.1. The
material and geometric properties of the rotor stator system along with FE information are given in Table 1. The external
force vector Rr (Eq. (1)) mainly constitutes an unbalance excitation applied at the disc location. The resulting rotor de-
flection once exceeds the specified clearance, induces rub that is studied over a wide range of rotational speed. The lateral
rotor vibrations have been investigated extensively in the past, but the torsional vibrations are relatively less explored. Using
Lagrange multiplier based contact formulation technique, the torsional vibration features in addition to the rotor lateral
vibration for a rotor-stator system is now investigated. The rotor and stator vibration responses obtained are analysed using
vibration waveforms of rotor and stator, orbit plots of shaft centre, time frequency plot, contact reaction force and corre-
sponding frequency spectrum.
Simulations are carried out over the speed range of r 0.75 to 6 and the orbit plots are observed. As the operating speed
changes, the shape and size of the orbit is found to change as shown in Fig. 5. It has been shown in the past that the critical
speed with large amplitude occurs well beyond the theoretical resonance speed without stator contact. This is due to the
102 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

Fig. 4. Vertical and torsional response (a, c) conventional friction model [20] (b, d) present contact model.

Table 1
Geometrical and material properties of the rotor stator system.

Shaft Length 80 cm Bearing linear 1e6 N-m-1

translational stiffness
Diameter 2 cm Friction coefficient, m 0.3
Elastic modulus 210 GPa *Clearance ratio, cg 0.70 & 0.85
Shear modulus 79.6 GPa Speed ratio, r /L0 0.75, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0
Density 7800kg-m  3
Disc Diameter/thickness 12 cm/3 cm Natural frequency Rotor 31.56 Hz (L0, Lateral)
Density 7800kg-m  3 128 Hz (T0, Torsional)
Disc mass 2.64 kg Stator 803 Hz (S0, Lateral)
Stator Elastic modulus 3 GPa (Es) No. of elements Rotor 14
Length 4 cm Stator 6
Area of c/s 25 mm2
Unbalance Mass 0.008 kg Nodal location Disc 8
Radius 4.5 cm Bearings 1, 15 (B1 and B2)

n
Clearance ratio is defined as cg g/max(X()), where g is the radial gap between rotor and stator at stationary condition. X() represents response of
the rotor (for given rotor configuration) as a function of speed in absence of rotor-stator contact. The value of cg thus represents the fraction of allowable
rotor motion without contacting the stator. For the rotor stator interaction to happen, the value of cg must be less than 1 which means that the initial gap g
specified should be less than the possible rotor deflection without any constraint.

fact that the rotor gets supported by the compliant stator at the disc location and hence has higher effective bending natural
frequency. The resonance at operating speed close to this modified higher natural frequency is referred to as pseudo critical
speed. At speed ratio r 1.7 the orbit shape is observed to attain maximum size and have a single loop which corresponds to
1
the vibration synchronous to its pseudo critical speed. In addition, at higher spin speed of r 3.5, the 2 X component due to
1
rotor stator rub, generates resonance in the rotor stator system. Similarly, at speed r 5.3, the 3 X component generates
resonance which is evident from the change of orbital response of the rotor across this speed. Comparison of these orbital
response with the experimental results reported by Muszynska (Fig. 5.6.8 in [5]) and theoretical results reported by Ehrich
(Fig. 10(b) in [33]), shows that the present results are in good agreement.
Fig. 6 shows the vibration response for speed ratio of r 0.75 and the rotor-stator clearance of cg 0.85. Recall that the cg
represents the fraction of allowable rotor motion without contacting the stator. The vertical response as shown in Fig. 6a
repeats itself after every two cycles. A close look at the vertical vibration response reveals significant deviation in the period
1 3
between successive peaks. This leads to the presence of 2 X and 2 X combined with fundamental period of 2 T (where T is
time for a cycle of rotation). The orbit plot (Fig. 6h) shows two different lobes for successive cycles and repeats itself
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 103

Fig. 5. Orbit plots for speed ratio near (a) r 1.7 (b) r 3.5 (c) r 5.3.

afterwards. This kind of orbit is generally found in low speed rotor operation with rub. A similar feature is observed in
horizontal response as shown in Fig. 6c where the repetition of two successive cycles is present. The corresponding fre-
1 3 3
quency spectra shown in Figs. 6b and 6d depicts 2 X , 2 X and 2X in vertical and 2 X component in horizontal response in
addition to synchronous frequency component. Frequency domain parameters are evaluated with large number of cycles for
better resolution. It has been ensured that the initial transient part of the simulation response is ignored and the steady
state response is used to find the spectral content.
The torsional vibration time domain waveform and its frequency spectrum are shown in Figs. 6e and 6f. The frictional
contact between rotor and stator induces the torsional excitation to the rotor, which can be observed in the time domain
torsional vibration response. The torsional vibration signal decays over time until another contact of the rotor with stator
generates next excitation through a transient short duration contact. It is important to note that there is cycle to cycle
variation in the level of contact reaction force generated between stator and rotor (as noticed later in Fig. 7a). This variation
in turn generates cycle to cycle variation in the torsional excitation and corresponding torsional vibration response. For
example, the engagement of rotor with stator at t 7.855 s results in higher contact reaction force (Fig. 7a) than that
generated during next engagement cycle at t7.901 s. This results in proportional frictional torque on the rotor and cor-
responding different level of torsional vibration amplitude immediately after the end of respective contacts (peak amplitude
of 7.31e-5 rad after t7.855 s as against peak amplitude of 6.101e-5 rad after t 7.901 s as noticed in Fig. 6e). This cyclic
1
modulation in amplitude reflects in the presence of 2 X component in the frequency spectrum of torsional vibration (Fig. 6f).

Fig. 6. Time response and frequency spectrum plots for r 0.75, Es 3e9, m 0.3, cg 0.85 (g 100 mm); (a, b) Vertical, (c, d) Horizontal, (e, f) Torsional,
(g) Torsional acceleration (h) Orbit.
104 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

Fig. 7. Time response plots for r 0.75, Es 3e9, m 0.3, cg 0.85; (a) Contact reaction force, (b) Stator lateral deflection and (c) Closeup view of (b) for
t 7.9857.995.

The dominant frequency in the torsional vibration spectrum is 130.2 Hz which is 11th harmonic of half the rotational
11
frequency ( 2 X ) and closest to the torsional natural frequency of the rotor (128 Hz).
As the rotor contacts the stator, it is expected that there would be sudden change in the torsional response at the moment
when contact is established and when it is lost. The torsional acceleration response (Fig. 6g) shows substantial change in the
slope of the waveform indicating the instant of contact that is not clearly visible in torsional displacement plot (Fig. 6e). A close-
up view of time domain plot itself shows the start and end of engagement. The frequency spectrum of torsional acceleration is
found to have similar frequency content as observed for torsional displacement (not shown in Fig. 6).
The duration of rotor stator contact for this case is 3 ms, which can also be observed by the duration of non-zero contact
reaction force shown in Fig. 7a. The duration of the contact varies with different set of system parameters and configura-
tions, as will be shown through various simulations later in Section 3.3.
The stator deforms in axial and lateral directions due to contact between the rotor and stator. The axial deflection pattern
of the stator is proportional to the reaction force that is shown in Fig. 7a. The plot shows the increase and decrease of the
contact force during the interaction and remains zero otherwise. The amplitude of contact reaction force gives an idea about
the extent of interaction or the intensity of impact. Fig. 7b shows the lateral vibration response of the stator beam where the
amplitude of lateral deflection is initially high due to impact. The response amplitude quickly decays as free vibration
response, after disengaging from the rotor until the next impact occurs. The frequency of vibration is observed to be the
natural frequency of the stator in lateral mode, which is 803 Hz (s0). A closeup view of one interaction span is shown for
the stator lateral response in Fig. 7c. The instant of start and end of engagement is also pointed out. The frequency spectrum
of stator response shows harmonics of rotational frequency as the impulsive contact is repeated every cycle.
The torsional vibrations are repeated transient perturbations due to impulsive excitations from rotor stator contact. Once
the contact is lost, the ensuing torsional vibration response is a free vibration response at torsional natural frequency. Due to
contact conditions and engagement of rotor with stator, there is a localised deviation in harmonic motion of the torsional
vibration that results in generation of spurious frequencies in the torsional vibration spectra and the torsional natural
frequency does not appear in the spectrum. Due to transients during the contact, the signal becomes non-stationary and in
such cases, the time-frequency domain analysis is a very useful way in revealing temporal variation in frequency compo-
sition. The time-frequency domain analysis using Hilbert Huang transform (HHT) is carried out [34]. The instantaneous
frequency is obtained by differentiating the analytical signal from Hilbert transform using first order difference method
(forward differencing). Using the start and end instances of contact duration of the rotor motion, the torsional response data
has been windowed using Hanning window for the non-engaged duration. The engaged duration in the response has not
been included for windowing. The windowing helps in isolating the effect of localised deviations in time domain data
during the engagement period. The processed time domain torsional vibration response is shown in Fig. 8a, which has been
used to find the HHT. The Hilbert spectrum corresponding to the first IMF is plotted as it is expected to capture the higher
frequencies present in the response. The darker spots in the map represents signal with high energy level. The energy
distribution corresponding to the first IMF shown in Fig. 8b indicates the consistent presence of torsional natural frequency
(T0 128 Hz) during its non-engaged condition. Hilbert transform is also applied to the stator lateral response and the
corresponding HHT spectrum for first IMF is shown in Fig. 8c. The 12 and 45 portion of plot is the contact duration
which has higher energy distribution across wider range of frequencies. The spans 24 and 57 represent the non-
engaged condition of rotor and stator. The frequency-time-energy distribution shows distinct presence of stator lateral
natural frequency (803 Hz) for the non-engaged duration of the stator in lateral direction (as shown in spans 23 and 56
in Fig. 8c), once it is excited at the end of engagement of the rotor and stator (at 2 and 5).
The torsional vibration response is found for three different cases of rotational speed such that one of the harmonics (6th
in these cases) is close to the torsional natural frequency, T0 128 Hz. (a) 20 Hz, where 6X120 Hz (6Xo T0) (b)
21.34 Hz, where 6X 128 Hz ( T0) and (c) 22 Hz, where 6X132 Hz (4 T0). For the three rotational speed cases
considered, the peak amplitude in frequency spectra of torsional vibration response appears at 120 Hz, 128 Hz and 132 Hz as
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 105

(a) x 10
5
(b)
torsional response

5 Contact duration
300

frequency (Hz)
Instantaneous
Windowed

Non engaged duration

200 Contact duration

0 128Hz(T0)

100
128Hz(T0)
5
0
7.8 7.85 7.9 7.95 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Time (s) Time (s)
(c)
1,000
803 Hz (S0)

803
frequency (Hz)
Instantaneous

500
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Time (s)
Fig. 8. (a) Windowed signal of torsional vibration, (b) HHT of windowed signal and (c) HHT for stator lateral response.

shown in Fig. 9. It is noted that the frequency component of the largest amplitude is closest to the torsional natural
frequency T0. The peak to peak amplitude of torsional oscillations in three cases are found to be 181.7 mil, 513.7 mil and
423.9 mil respectively for (a), (b) and (c). It is clear that when one of the harmonics of rotational speed matches with the
torsional natural frequency (i.e. when the repetition rate of torsional excitation or its harmonic is closer to the natural
frequency in torsion) the torsional vibration amplitude is maximum. A detailed spectrum cascade of torsional vibration is
discussed later in Section 3.4.

3.3. Influence of system parameters on the rotor response

In this section, influence of system parameters on the dynamics of rotor vibration is discussed. Apart from the rotor
speed, variation in parameters such as friction coefficient m between the contacting bodies, clearance ratio cg, and the stator
flexibility (indicated by Es) are studied for their influence on the dynamic response.

3.3.1. Friction coefficient

The influence of friction coefficient on the overall response of the rotor system is analysed. Figs. 10a and b show the
torsional vibration response of the rotor and lateral vibration response of the stator respectively with friction coefficient
value varied as 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5. It is clear that the amplitude of vibration changes significantly with change in friction
coefficient. The amplitude of torsional response and stator lateral response increases with increase in friction coefficient due
to greater tangential force. The response character in terms of its frequency content, however, is unchanged.
In case of higher speed ratio such as r 3, the torsional response amplitude increases with coefficient of friction value as
shown in Fig. 11a. The orbit shape (Fig. 11b) has not changed significantly, although slight change in the orientation of the
orbit with higher m is observed. Increase in tangential force due to higher friction coefficient allows the locus of rotor centre
to have larger amplitude in horizontal direction. A considerable increase in the amplitudes of torsional and horizontal
vibration is observed with increase in friction coefficient from 0.1 to 0.5.

(a) (b) (c)

0.1 0.2 128Hz 0.15
132Hz
Amplitude (mm)

Amplitude (mm)

Amplitude (mm)

120Hz 0.1
0.05 0.1
0.05

0 0 0
0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300 0 100 200 300
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 9. FFT of torsional response for rotational speed (a) 20 Hz, (b) 21.34 Hz and (c) 22 Hz.
106 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

Fig. 10. Response waveform for r 0.75, Es 3e9, cg 0.85 (a) Torsional and (b) Stator lateral.

1
Frequency spectrum obtained from horizontal response is shown in Fig. 12a that depicts the strong presence of 2 X com-
ponent. As explained earlier in Section 3.2 (Fig. 5), the pseudo critical speed in case of rub occurs at r1.7 for the present rotor
1
configuration. The rotational speed now is at r3 which is close to the twice the pseudo lateral critical speed. The 2 X frequency
component generates resonance and exhibits a double looped orbit (Fig. 11b). The Hilbert spectrum is obtained for the torsional
vibration response and the plot is shown in Fig. 12b. Although the energy content is low, the consistent appearance of torsional
natural frequency 128 Hz (T0) in the spectrum indicates the torsional excitation of the rotor due to contact.

3.3.2. Gap or clearance between the rotor and the stator

To investigate the influence of gap between rotor and stator on the rotor response, the gap is reduced to 84 mm (cg 0.7)
from 100 mm (cg 0.85) used earlier (Fig. 6). The rotor vibration response is shown in Fig. 13. Unlike the case of larger
clearance (100 mm), the vertical vibration response here shows periodicity of rotational cycle time (Fig. 13a). In case of larger
gap (100 mm), the extent of interaction, in terms of the stator axial deflection or the reaction force, observed during contact
is less as compared to the case of smaller gap (84 mm). The stator axial deflection and the reaction force increases roughly by
35% with 15% reduction in the clearance. The smaller clearance causes larger contact reaction force and correspondingly
larger deflection in stator response. It may also be recalled that the periodicity of 2T (T period of 1 cycle rotation) in the
vertical response resulted in the appearance of sub-harmonic component ( X ) in its frequency spectrum (Fig. 6b). In case of
1
2
smaller gap, the reaction forces due to contact in successive cycles are found to be same. This results in single loop orbit and
harmonic vertical vibration response.
In the torsional vibration response shown in Fig. 13b, it can be observed that the response amplitude has decreased by
10% compared to the case of larger clearance (Fig. 6e). With reduction in clearance, the torsional vibration waveform clearly
shows the instants of engagement and disengagement. With reduced clearance this sudden change in waveform appears
more prominent and the start and end of rotor stator contact interaction in time domain plot can be identified from the
torsional acceleration plot (Fig. 13f). It is also noticed that the period of repetition of contact reaction force is more consistent
in the case of reduced clearance (Fig. 13d) compared to the case of larger clearance (Fig. 7a).
3
The frequency spectrum shown in Fig. 14a for vertical response shows 2X and 3X frequency components. The 2 X and
1
2
X frequency components observed for higher clearance case (Figs. 6b and 6d) disappears as the response is periodic
with rotational frequency. In torsional vibration response, the frequency spectrum (Fig. 14b) shows harmonics of ro-
tational speed and the largest amplitude is noticed for the 5th harmonic at 118.3 Hz, which is closest harmonic com-
ponent to the torsional natural frequency ( T0 128 Hz). The time-frequency domain analysis using Hilbert Huang

Fig. 11. Response waveform for r 3, Es 3e9, cg 0.7 (76 mm) (a) Torsional and (b) Orbit.
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 107

(a) 4
(b)
x 10

Instantaneous frequency (Hz)

2 350
47.25Hz (1X/2) 300
Amplitude (m)

250
200
1
94.5Hz (1X) 150
100
128Hz (T0) 128Hz 128Hz
3X/2 50
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Frequency (Hz) Time (s)
Fig. 12. (a) FFT for horizontal vibration response and (b) HHT plot for torsional vibration response; (r 3, Es 3e9, m 0.3, cg 0.7).

(a) (b)
0.1
Vertical, y (mm)

Torsion, (mil)
0.05

0 0

start
0.05 end
0.1
7.9 7.92 7.94 7.96 7.98 8 7.9 7.92 7.94 7.96 7.98 8
(c) Time (s) (d) Time (s)
reaction force (N)

1 0
response (mm)
Stator lateral

Contact

0.5 5

0
10
7.9 7.92 7.94 7.96 7.98 8 7.9 7.92 7.94 7.96 7.98 8
Time (s) Time (s)
(e) (f) 50
0.1
Vertical, y (mm)

end
accl. (rads2)

start
Torsional

0 0

0.1 50
0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 7.9 7.92 7.94 7.96 7.98 8
Horizontal, z (mm) Time (s)
Fig. 13. Time domain plots for r 0.75, Es 3e9, m 0.3 and cg 0.7 (84 mm); (a) Vertical (b) Torsional (c) Stator lateral (d) Contact reaction force (e) Orbit
and (f) Torsional acceleration.

transform is done for the torsional vibration data and the instantaneous frequency-time plots are shown in Fig. 14c. The
procedure followed to obtain the HHT of torsional response at cg 0.85 is repeated for this case (cg 0.7). The HHT for
first IMF indicates the consistent presence of torsional natural frequency ( T0 128 Hz) during its non-engaged con-
dition. It is noted that the torsional vibration energy content is high and uniform during the non-engaged conditions of
rotor and stator. The Hilbert spectrum for stator lateral response (Fig. 14d) indicates the presence of stator natural
frequency (803 Hz) for the span 23 during which more than 80% of the amplitude decays. The span 12 is contact
duration where the energy is spread over a wider band of frequency. In the span 34, the stator comes closer to
stationary condition and remains so until the next contact happens.
Fig. 15 shows a comparative time domain plots for three different values of clearance: 110 mm, 90 mm and 70 mm with
corresponding cg values equal to 0.85, 0.70 and 0.54 respectively. The vertical and torsional response amplitude decreases
with increase in gap (Figs. 15a and c). The extent of interaction increases by reducing the gap therefore the reaction force
and the stator response (lateral and axial direction) increases in amplitude. The horizontal response amplitude does not
change significantly whereas it can be observed (Fig. 15b) that the mean has shifted in the direction of tangential force
exerted on the rotor due to contact. The orbit plots (Fig. 15f) also indicates the variation of vertical and horizontal response
with respect to change in gap. The sudden discontinuity in the waveform of torsional acceleration shown in Fig. 15d is
noticed at the instant of impact as the extent of interaction has increased because the stator considered is stiffer
(Es 30 GPa). The reaction force amplitude (Fig. 15e) decreases with increase in gap.
108 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

5 5
(a) x 10 (b) x 10
8 3
Amplitude (m) 1X 118Hz (5X)

Amplitude (m)
6
2 142Hz (6X)

4
1
2 2X 1X
3X

0 0
0 50 100 150 0 100 200 300
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(c) (d)
1 2 3 4
300 1,000
frequency (Hz)

frequency (Hz)
Instantaneous

Instantaneous
803Hz
Contact duration 803
200 Non engaged duration
500
100 128Hz
128Hz

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0 0.05 0.1
Time (s) Time (s)
Fig. 14. Frequency spectra for (a) Vertical response, (b) Torsional response and Hilbert spectra for (c) Torsional response, (d) Stator lateral response;
(r 0.75, Es 3e9, m 0.3, cg 0.7).

Fig. 15. Time domain response plots for r 2, Es 30e9, m 0.3 (a) Vertical, (b) Horizontal, (c) Torsional, (d) Torsional acceleration, (e) Reaction force and
(f) Orbit. (Legends as in e and f).
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 109

3 3
(a) x 10 (b) x 10
4 4
Amplitude (rad)

Amplitude (rad)
3 126.3Hz (2X) 3
126.3Hz (2X)
2 2

1 1X 1 1X

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
(c)

300 128Hz (T0)

frequency (Hz)
Instantaneous

200

100

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09
Time (s)
Fig. 16. Frequency domain plots for torsional response at r 2 (a, b) FFT for cg 0.55 and 0.85 and (c) HHT for cg 0.55.

The frequency spectra of torsional vibration response for two extreme cases of gap 70 mm and 110 mm is shown in
Figs. 16a and b. The dominating frequency is 126.3 Hz which is harmonic of rotational speed (2X) and very close to the
torsional natural frequency, T0. The Hilbert spectrum shown in Fig. 16c is for gap 70 mm where the spectrum for first IMF
contains the torsional natural frequency, T0 (128 Hz) during non-contact conditions.

3.3.3. Stator stiffness

In order to investigate the effect of stator stiffness, the elastic modulus of the stator material is varied. The values
considered for the simulations are 3 GPa, 15 GPa and 30 GPa. The effect of increase in stator stiffness is depicted for two
speed ratio's r 0.75 and r 1.5 in Fig. 17 and Fig. 18 respectively. The time domain response for the two extreme cases
(Es 3 GPa and Es 30 GPa) for speed r 0.75 is shown in Fig. 17. The orbit plot (Fig. 17a) indicates that the amplitude
variations in horizontal and vertical vibration response are not significant; however the distortion in waveform and the
amount of penetration reduces significantly with increase in stator stiffness. The contact duration as observed from reaction
force plot (Fig. 17d) reduces from 3ms to 1.2ms. Similarly, change in orbital response with stator stiffness is observed for
higher speed ratio, r 1.5 (Fig. 18a). The orbit plot shows elongated large size orbit for flexible rotor and as the stiffness
increases, the orbit size shrinks with reduction in vertical and horizontal vibration response.
With increase in stator stiffness, the amplitude of stator axial deflection in both the cases (Fig. 17c and Fig. 18c) drops
significantly. However the drop for speed r1.5 is larger (Fig. 18c) as the operating speed is near the pseudo critical speed of
rotor. The contact reaction force is proportional to the stator axial deflection and its stiffness. For speed r0.75, the stator
stiffness dominates and increases the contact reaction force (Fig. 17d), however for r1.5 the drop in axial deflection of stator
influences the contact reaction force (Fig. 18d) that is found to change marginally. Corresponding to the generated contact
reaction force, the tangential friction force changes and it governs the torsional vibration amplitudes in respective cases (Fig. 17b
and Fig. 18b). The instants of engagement and disengagement distinctly appear in the waveform of torsional acceleration data.
The stator lateral response shown in Fig. 19 for both the speed cases (r 0.75 and r 1.5) indicates smaller response
amplitude and fast decaying curve for stiffer stator. The amplitude decays rapidly because of higher damping (proportional
to mass and stiffness) present in the system.
The foregoing parametric study shows following influence of various parameters on response features:
Effect of friction coefficient: Amplitude of torsional vibration response of rotor (Fig. 10a) and lateral vibration of stator
(Fig. 10b) increases significantly with increase in friction coefficient due to higher friction torque.
Effect of clearance: With reduced clearance between rotor and stator, the contact reaction force increases (Fig. 13d) and
hence more prominent indication of contact instances appear in the torsional vibration response data (Fig. 13b). In terms of
1
frequency content, the larger clearance case (cg 0.85) generates sub-harmonic response of order 2 ( 2 X component in
frequency plot (Fig. 6b)) which is not observed in the frequency spectra with lower clearance cg 0.7 (Fig. 14a). At a higher
operating speed (r 2), increase in clearance decreases the amplitudes for vertical and torsional vibration responses and the
contact reaction force (Fig. 15).
110 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

Fig. 17. Time response plots for r 0.75, m 0.3, cg 0.7 (g 84 mm) (a) Orbit, (b) Torsional, (c) Stator lateral vibration and (d) Contact reaction force.

Fig. 18. Time response plots for r 1.5, m 0.3, cg 0.7 (g 150 mm) (a) Orbit, (b) Torsional, (c) Stator axial response and (d) Contact reaction force.

Effect of stator stiffness: Increasing the stator stiffness results in significant enhancement of contact reaction force
(Fig. 17d) thus a considerable increase in the amplitude of torsional response is observed (Fig. 17b).
The dynamic response analysis has shown the reasons and conditions for existence of sub-harmonic frequency com-
ponents in the rotor vibration response. These frequencies have been proposed as general rub indicators in the past lit-
erature; however, these are not necessarily always observed in the response, unless the operating speed is favorable for their
presence.
 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113 111

Fig. 19. Stator lateral response for (a) r 0.75 and (b) r 1.5.

3.4. Torsional vibration spectral features

For the overall assessment of torsional vibration features, the spectrum cascade shown in Fig. 20 is obtained for the
steady state torsional vibration response over the speed range from r 0.9 to r 6.1. The other simulation parameters
include m 0.3, cg 0.7 and Es 30 GPa. One of the prominent features of the spectrum is the presence of large amplitude
resonance near the torsional natural frequency (T0 128 Hz). Depending on the operating speed, larger amplitudes of
1 1
torsional vibrations are noticed when one of the sub-harmonic ( 2 X , 3
X) or super-harmonic (2X, 3X) of the rotational
frequency component gets closer to T0. For example, when rotating at r 1.9, the 2X frequency component is closer to T0
and generates large amplitude (marker #d), while at r 1.3, the 3X frequency component generates resonant amplitude
1
(marker #e). Similar behaviour is observed at speed r 5.7 where 14th harmonic of 20
X frequency component

 31.56 126 HzE T0) attains largest amplitude (marker #f). At r 4.1, 1X frequency component exhibits re-
14
(5.7  20
1
sonant amplitude in the spectrum (marker #g). In essence, when m n X frequency component of rotational frequency
comes closer to the torsional natural frequency T0, stronger amplitude is noticed in the spectrum cascade.
The other important observation in the torsional vibration spectrum is the appearance of larger vibration amplitudes at
pseudo bending natural frequency (53.5 Hz), a strong indication of coupling of lateral and torsional vibration modes. As
explained in the Section 3.2 (ref. Fig. 5), the pseudo bending vibration resonance phenomenon is observed at r 1.7. Thus, if
the operating speed is close to the pseudo bending critical speed, prominent torsional vibration amplitude is observed in the
spectrum cascade. Even when the 1/nth harmonic of rotational frequency comes closer to the pseudo bending critical speed,
1
the resonance condition in the lateral vibration prevails and it couples with the torsional mode to generate larger n
X
frequency component in the torsional vibration. These sub-harmonic frequency components are indicated by marker #a for
n 1, marker #b for n 2 and marker #c for n 3 in Fig. 20. The peaking up of amplitudes across these markers indicates
the passage through sub-harmonic resonances. There are other spectral features in the cascade such as larger amplitudes of
1
3rd and 4th harmonics of 3 X for speed near r 5.3 (marker #h and #i). These are in general due to large overall vibration

h
X/3 X/2 1X
i
(4X/3) 5.9
c g 3X/2
5.3
Rotational speed ratio, r

4.7
j
k 4.1
b 2X/3 2X
d 3.5
2.9
3X
a
2.3
1.7
e
1.1
Pseudo critical speed
Torsional natural frequency, 128Hz (T0)
(53.5 Hz)

0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225 250

Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 20. Spectrum cascade for torsional vibration response over speed range from r 0.9 to r 6.1 in step of r 0.2.
112 M.A. Mokhtar et al. / Journal of Sound and Vibration 401 (2017) 94113

1
amplitudes caused by sub-harmonic resonance with pseudo bending natural frequency. Similarly, higher harmonics of 2 X
frequency are seen prominently in the spectrum near operating speed of r 3.5 (marker #j and #k). In this case, the sub-
1
harmonic resonance (marker #b) generates larger amplitudes for multiples of 2 X frequency components. One may also note
the resonance build up across the T0, when one follows the 3 X , 1X, 2X, 3X excitation lines in the spectrum cascade. This is
2

similar to that observed across the passage through the pseudo-bending critical speed.
In practice, when the sensors are mounted on both stator and rotor supports, the vibration signals from both the sensors
in appropriate mode (stator structural vibration, rotor lateral vibration and rotor torsional vibration) can be used in con-
junction to infer about the possible rub phenomenon in a more comprehensive manner based on these vibration features.

4. Conclusions

The present work investigates the rotor stator rub phenomenon in an FE framework using Lagrange multiplier based
contact mechanics approach. The stator is modelled more realistically and the complex rotor-stator rub phenomenon is
analysed considering the stator dynamics including its axial and lateral degrees of freedom. The contact strategy based on
instantaneous and independent motion of rotor and stator ensures that the system dynamics is adequately and realistically
captured.
The lateraltorsional coupling of rotor during contact is studied and vibration response is analysed. In addition to the
rotor lateral vibration response and stator dynamic response, the present study focusses on the investigations of torsional
vibration features of the rotor which is the first attempt in light of the contact mechanics based approach. The effect of
parameters like rotor-stator clearance, stator stiffness and friction coefficient are also studied.
The orbits around pseudo bending critical speed show period-1 motion and exhibits predominantly second and third
harmonics in the frequency spectra. However sub harmonics may appear in the frequency domain at subcritical speeds with
1
lower contact intensity such as the case of larger gap (cg 0.85). Further at supercritical speeds, strong sub-harmonics of 2 X
1
and 3 X can be observed near the second and third multiple of pseudo bending critical speeds of the rotor respectively. A
strong influence of clearance on the dynamic response is noticed; lower level of clearance suppresses the presence of
subharmonic vibration frequencies.
A strong coupling between lateral and torsional natural frequency is clearly observed in the spectrum cascade of the
torsional vibration due to friction contact. The distinct presence of harmonics of rotational frequency (in absence of any explicit
torsional excitation) in frequency spectra of torsional vibration due to the strong coupling indirectly indicates the presence of
rub phenomenon. Further, Hilbert Huang spectrum indicates the intermittent appearance of torsional natural frequency,
particularly during non-contact intervals, when the rotor is free to oscillate at its torsional natural frequency. This intermittent
rub is effectively captured using HHS. Interesting resonance phenomenon related to both torsional and pseudo bending
natural frequency are noticed due to the presence of submultiples and integer multiple of rotational speed components.
The stator is excited periodically due to rotor interaction through a series of impulses and hence generates vibratory
response comprising mainly the structural resonance frequencies. It is proposed that the measured data from stator
structural vibration and rotor lateral-torsional vibration can be correlated and used for rub identification.

Acknowledgment

This research is supported by Aeronautics Research and Development Board, Defence Research and Development Or-
ganization, Government of India (Project ref. no. DARO/08/1041661/M/I). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial
support.

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