Rotor resonance avoidance by continuous adjustment of support stiffness

This paper presents a method to reduce lateral vibration amplitudes in large rotating machines. The method is based on avoiding resonances by altering the natural frequencies of the rotor system at each rotating speed during operation. While many research papers have considered altering support stiffness during crossing critical speeds, continuous adjustment methods have received less attention. Continuous on-line adjustment of the natural frequencies of a rotor system is possible to a large range by adjusting the support stiffness of the bearing housings. The optimal foundation stiffness tuning policy can be defined utilizing a rotordynamic model or experimental measurements, effectively creating a resonance-free operating speed region, where vibrations are drastically reduced. It is shown through full-scale experimental laboratory tests, that the subcritical and supercritical response of the rotor system is significantly decreased during run-up and run-down with the optimal foundation stiffness tuning strategy. The developed method can be applied to reduce vibrations in any rotating machinery, where a variable foundation stiffness control can be installed. Moreover, this on-line foundation stiffness tuning strategy could also be applied in combination with resonance crossing methods involving stiffness manipulation. [Display omitted] •A new vibration control strategy is proposed for large flexible rotors.•Natural frequencies are optimized during operation through stiffness adjustment.•A rotordynamic model is used to analyze the control strategy.•Resonance amplitudes are greatly decreased in experiments on a full-scale rotor.