Experimental detection of an early developed crack in rotor-bearing systems using an AMB
International Journal of Structural Integrity
ISSN: 1757-9864
Article publication date: 13 April 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a method for early crack detection in rotating shafts. A rotor-bearing system, consisting of an elastic rotor mounted on fluid film bearings, is used to detect the presence of the crack at a depth of around 5 percent of shaft radius. The fluid film bearings, the shaft and the crack introduce coupled bending vibrations both in the horizontal and vertical plane. Experimental time series of the rotor composite response under normal steady-state operation are uncoupled, to develop a signal processing procedure able to reveal the presence of the crack.
Design/methodology/approach
The variation of the coupling property that a crack (breathing or not) or a cut (always open) introduces into the system and the localization of the coupling in the time domain is a concept proposed as a means to detect transverse surface cracks in rotating shafts. This consideration is combined with the concept of external excitation for the development of an additional crack-sensitive response during system normal operation. Using an external excitation of an active magnetic bearing of specific duration, frequency and amplitude, the method uses this coupling variation during rotation.
Findings
The method is simple, quick and effective for early crack detection, being able to detect cracks as shallow as 5 percent of the shaft radius while the system is under normal operation, and can even be applied real-time. Experimental verification uses a simple elastic rotor with a cut mounted on fluid film bearings, with the cut producing similar coupling phenomena as an opened crack. Experimental results are encouraging.
Originality/value
The method used is simple, quick and effective for early crack detection, being able to detect cracks as shallow as 5 percent of the shaft radius while the system is under normal operation, and can even be applied real-time.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The contribution of Ioannis Chatzisavvas, MSc (PhD student in FB Strukturdynamik, TU Darmstadt) in the signal processing procedure and the progress of this work is highly appreciated. Dr Athanasios Chasalevris would like to thank the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a postdoctoral research scholarship and the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie BMWi) for the further funding of his research activity. The same author would also like to thank the director of the institute for dynamics of structures (FB Strukturdynamik, TU Darmstadt) Professor Dr-Ing. Richard Markert and the Feinmechaniker-meister Mr Jochen Ott for their significant contribution in this work.
Citation
Chasalevris, A.C. and Papadopoulos, C.A. (2015), "Experimental detection of an early developed crack in rotor-bearing systems using an AMB", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 194-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSI-01-2014-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited