Vibration of a Rotating Asymmetric Shaft Supported in Asymmetric Bearings

Abstract

The parametrically excited vibrations of this system with assumed small asymmetry of the shaft cross-section are discussed in terms of the motion of a symmetric shaft having the mean cross-sectional flexibility, and the equations of motion are solved by the approximate perturbation-variation method of Hsu. Both features yield a more lucid appreciation of the motions expected than previous treatments: in particular, simpler explicit expressions for unstable bounds are given and forced vibrations due to mass unbalance are discussed with greater facility. The practically important case of nearly coincident natural frequencies is examined. The theoretical results are compared with analogue computation: good agreement with the approximate theory is found even for quite large shaft asymmetry.