Observation and Prediction of Instability due to RD Fluid Force in Rotating Machinery by Operational Modal Analysis

In recent years, as rotating machinery has become smaller and more efficient, various types of shaft vibration problems have arisen. Failure of rotating machinery may lead to major accidents and infrastructure shutdowns. Therefore, to prevent failures of rotating machinery, there is a growing need for the vibration analysis technology at the design stage and condition monitoring during operation stage. One of causes of the shaft vibration problems in rotating machinery is the rotordynamic (RD) fluid force acting on fluid elements such as journal bearings, seals, turbine blades, and so on. RD fluid force has a significant effect on the stability of rotating machinery and can destabilize the system. In recent years, operational modal analysis (OMA) methods, which identify modal parameters based on the measured data of a machine's operational condition, have been investigated in the condition monitoring. In this paper, the estimation of the modal parameters of rotating machinery using OMA from only the time history response of displacement data and, in particular, the prediction of the destabilization of rotating machinery caused by RD fluid force are investigated. As a result, the modal parameters are well estimated and, in particular, the destabilization of one mode due to RD fluid force is predicted and explained. The results are in good agreement with the results of the eigenvalue analysis of the original system, and the method is validated. Furthermore, the proposed method is applied to experimental data of the system destabilized by fluid force. The change in stability with rotational speed is observed, and the characteristics of the mode toward destabilization are confirmed. The results show the validity of OMA's predictions of destabilization in the experiments.