For safe operation of rotating test equipment
Background
All rotating machinery produces vibrations and the amplitudes of these vibrations vary significantly with rotational speed. As the rotor speed increases and approaches its natural frequencies the amplitudes increase and the rotor starts to resonate, causing very high system vibrations, at the point where the rotor speed aligns with the natural frequency of the rotor (critical speed) the vibrations can cause excessive wear of the bearings or catastrophic rotor failure causing human injury or loss of lives. Rotor unbalance and its supporting structures can also excite the amplitudes and need to be considered during design.
What we do
Analysis and Design
SCITEK carry out rotordynamics to analyse the rotor vibrations and bearing dynamics to understand how best to avoid these critical speeds, or if they are unavoidable due to system constraints, SCITEK can design squeeze film dampers (SFD), springbars or amplitude limiters to reduce the amplitudes enough to allow the rig to pass through them safely when increasing or decreasing speeds.
There are several aspects SCITEK consider when designing rotating rigs to ensure longevity, efficiency and reliability, these include:
- Rotor and support stiffnesses
- Rotor mass, geometry and natural frequencies
- Bearing and support configuration and locations
- Rotor mass unbalance
- System damping
- Flexible couplings
- Materials
