Many processes involving rotating machinery could benefit from the continuous feedback of force applied to the bearings that support the machinery. Such a system could be used to provide diagnostics for process monitoring in a manufacturing application or to provide information for machine health monitoring. Active Magnetic Bearings (AMBs) have the capability to act concurrently as a shaft force sensor and support bearing. This capability stems from the AMB's control system, which is designed to maintain a specific rotor position, regardless of forces acting on the rotor. Researchers have demonstrated the force sensing ability of AMBs; current state of the art methods typically rely on a direct measurement of magnetic flux density as provided by a Hall probe inserted in the magnetic field. In this work, a system identification approach to force measurement is proposed; the proposed approach is applicable to all active magnetic bearings and does not require Hall probes. Recent developments in system identification of bearing forces (Kasarda et al., 2000) indicate that a different approach is feasible. In the work of Marshall (Marshall et al., 2001), a variety of perturbations are applied to an AMB while the AMB controller signals are interrogated, no outside instrumentation such as force transducers or Hall probes are required. The work of Kasarda and Marshall is the starting point for the work presented here. The initial work was expanded to include a general characterization of air gap for any rotor position. Although this characterization relies on static testing to identify system parameters, the identified parameters can then be used in the measurement of dynamic forces. The identification procedure provides a measurement of effective air gap length. Effective gap length is used to infer the effective position of the rotor with respect to the stator. This measurement is made for several specific rotor locations. The relationship between the effective rotor positions provided by the identification and the rotor positions reported by the AMB system sensors establishes a coordinate transformation. The procedure is also applied at different shaft rotation angles. In this way rotor runout can be identified. / Ph. D.

Unlike most instabilities, which are non-synchronous in nature, the Morton Effect is a synchronous phenomenon. This thermal instability occurs primarily in overhung rotors that are supported by fluid film bearings and is caused by differential viscous shearing within the bearing lubricant. The Morton Effect has also gained much attention within the last decade. Prior studies of the Morton Effect have used complex analysis in the frequency domain to model this instability. However, such an approach makes it difficult to develop a user-friendly design tool for engineers. The current research employs a steady-state analysis to predict the onset of the Morton Effect, and it uses an instability criterion which is based on a threshold unbalance caused by a force equal to 15% of the weight of the rotor. It is hoped that this method will provide a more easily adaptable platform for design and analytical purposes. The current model has demonstrated good agreement with other theoretical models and experimental data. This agreement applies to rotors that are supported by either plain or tilting pad journal bearings and it was found that a worse case scenario for the Morton Effect would involve centered, circular and large-amplitude bearing orbits. A test rotor was also designed and built. Initial experimental data revealed an unusual instability that might have been caused by the Morton Effect. / Ph. D.

"Two most important events in the history of lubrication theory are attributed to Reynolds and Sommerfeld. Reynolds derived the governing equations for lubricating films in simplifying the Navier-Stokes equations considering thin-film effects. Sommerfeld obtained a closed form analytical solution to the Reynolds equation for the long bearing (one-dimensional case) with fixed constant eccentricity which results in a point symmetric pressure profile compared to an arbitrary (ambient) level. In attempting to reconcile with experimental evidence, Gumbel advanced the argument that sub-ambient pressure in a fluid film is not possible. On the basis that the fluid film would rupture, he put forth that the sub-ambient portion of the Sommerfeld solution should be discarded, a proposition that is commonly recognized as the half-Sommerfeld solution (of Gumbel). Ever since Gumbel suggested this improvement, much interest remains regarding the physical process of rupture in bearing lubricating films. In lubrication literature, cavitation is used interchangeably with rupture to indicate a condition in which an abundance of a gas phase, essentially ambient air, is present in a portion of the bearing clearance. A cogent two-phase morphology for addressing cavitation in long bearings is postulated in order to predict time-dependent fluid behavior from an initial state that is a generalization of Gumbel’s half-Sommerfeld solution. The ultimate steady-state is presumed to satisfy the hypothesis of Swift and Stieber that an ambient condition is reached by the rupture point at an unspecified location simultaneously with a vanishing pressure gradient. A trans-rupture continuity equation, as proposed by Olsson, determines a formula for the speed of a moving rupture point requiring a specific model of the two-phase flow in the rupture region. Employing an adhered film model, sequential application of Olsson’s equation to the rupture points of the intermediate states between the half-Sommerfeld and Swift-Stieber states renders an interpretation of a time-dependent progression towards a steady-state solution. Closed form analytical formulas, which readily combine to provide an exact solution to the Reynolds equation are derived with the start (formation point) of the full-film other than the customary bearing maximum gap and with the rupture point at any assigned intermediate location. Each valid solution for an intermediate state yields an invariant flux that must satisfy a window of constraints to exclude the possibility of sub-ambient pressures. A complete set of such valid solutions exists for each fixed eccentricity and can be depicted as a contour plot of the invariant flux with formation and rupture points as coordinates. The method can readily be extended to two-dimensions, offering a promising alternative to the Elrod cavitation algorithm, which is commonly used in more comprehensive bearing analyses."

LD2668 .T4 1941 S91 / Master of Science

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Orientador: Mauro Hugo Mathias / Banca: José Elias Tomazini / Banca: Francisco Carlos Parquet Bizarria / Resumo: Na indústria moderna o monitoramento da condição de operação de máquinas rotativas é essencial para se determinar o surgimento de falhas em mancais de rolamentos. Este trabalho apresenta uma técnica de análise adotada para a identificação de falhas em mancais de rolamento em seus estágios iniciais, utilizando procedimentos de análise de sinais no domínio do tempo e da freqüência, com especial atenção para a técnica do HFRT (High Frequency Resonance Technique), também conhecida como Técnica do Envelope. Este método de análise de sinais foi escolhido em razão de ser uma ferramenta apropriada para identificar falhas em mancais de rolamentos na sua fase inicial. A teoria das técnicas foi discutida e os passos para a implementação computacional foram apresentados. As rotinas foram implementadas através da linguagem de programação MATLAB e um sinal simulado representativo de um sinal coletado de um mancal de rolamento com defeito pontual na pista externa foi desenvolvido para verificar a eficácia dos métodos implementados. Os experimentos foram desenvolvidos utilizando-se uma bancada de testes aplicada para testar mancais de rolamento com defeitos pontuais produzidos em laboratório. A aquisição dos dados foi desenvolvida com instrumentação comercial. Os resultados obtidos mostraram ser efetivos para identificar falhas em rolamentos para os dados simulados e dados experimentais. / Abstract: In the modern industries, the condition monitoring of the rotational machinery operation is important to evidence the beginning of the fails in bearings. This work presents a technique of analysis applied to identify fails in bearing during the initial phases, using techniques of signal analysis in time and frequency domain with special attention for the High Frequency Resonance Technique, also called envelope technique. This method for signal analysis was chosen because is an appropriated tool to identify fails in bearings during initial phases. The theory for the techniques was discussed and the steps for the computational implementation were showed. The routines were implemented through MATLAB programming language and it was prepared a representative signal of a bearing with a single point defect in the outer race in order to verify the capability of the method implemented in the routine. The experiments were performed using a experimental test rig applied to test bearings with single point defects performed in laboratory. The data acquisition were performed with commercial instrumentation. The results obtained shown to be effective to identify fails in bearings for both numerically simulated data and experimental data. / Mestre

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 82 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-75).

Flywheel energy storage units have become a viable alternative to electrochemical batteries in applications such as satellites, uninterrupted power supplies, and hybrid vehicles. However, this performance is contingent upon safe operation since these flywheels can release their stored energy almost instantaneously upon failure. The research presented here investigates a health monitoring technology that may give an early indication of degraded material properties in a concentric ring composite flywheel. The existence of degraded material properties is manifested as a change in mass eccentricity due to asymmetric growth of the outermost flywheel ring. A test rig concept to investigate the technology is developed in detail using a systems engineering design process. Successful detection of the change in mass eccentricity was verified analytically through dynamic modeling of the flywheel rotor and magnetic suspension system. During steady state operation detection was determined to be feasible via measurements of the magnetic bearing currents and shaft position provided by the magnetic suspension feedback sensors. A rotordynamic analysis was also conducted and predicts successful operation to the maximum operating speed of 50,000 Rpm.