Balancing of rotor-bearing systems without trial runs using the Numerical Assembly Technique - An experimental investigation

The balancing of flexible rotor-bearing systems is one of the most important challenges in the use of high-speed machinery. Since traditional balancing methods require multiple test runs, which are costly and time-consuming, the focus of modern balancing methods is to replace these with simulations. For this reason, two flexible rotor balancing methods based on the Numerical Assembly Technique (NAT) have been proposed by the present authors in recent years. The advantages of NAT are that it leads to quasi-analytical solutions and is very computationally efficient. In this paper, the methods are applied on a testbed consisting of an axial symmetric rotor running on anisotropic supports. The mode shapes, eigenvalues and unbalance responses are measured and compared to values calculated with NAT. The system is balanced and the reduction of vibration is determined. The results show that the procedure can be applied effectively.