Identification Of Rotor Dynamic Machinery – A

A rig to validate a single step procedure for the balancing of a flexible rotor and an approach to enhanced Condition Monitoring, is discussed in this paper. The method was first published a few years ago is based on a numerical model of the rotor and a determination of other parameters using system identification. Whilst some experimental results have been presented at an earlier conference, some phase errors became apparent. In this paper it is shown that this difficulty (arising from the bearing model used) can be avoided by measuring the rotor position at, or close to each bearing. Whilst this represents some increase in normal instrumentation, the potential time savings are enormous. Some general conclusions on the applicability of the approach will be summarised. The results presented were obtained on a recently commissioned four bearing rig at Swansea. The development and features of this rig will be described and the future work programme will be outlined