Effect of Thermal Response and Vibration on the Multicracked Rotor Immersed in a Fluid Medium Using Finite Element Method

Abstract

A rotor shaft under high rotating speeds and heavy loading may establish fatigue damage in terms of cracks due to the long duration of the operation. Analysis of the size and location of the crack in the rotor shaft becomes very difficult, especially while the rotor shaft revolves in a viscous fluid medium. This research is an attempt to measure the vibration signature of a multicracked cantilever rotor shaft with additional mass at the free end in a different fluid medium at a finite region. The dynamic response of a cracked cantilever rotor shaft, with additional mass at the free end, partly immersed in air and diverse viscous mediums are measured experimentally. The existence of open cracks in the rotor shaft in both transverse directions, along the crack and perpendicular to the crack, was considered. The experimental analysis is performed to examine the variation in vibration response with varying the size of the rotor shaft, crack depth, and fluid properties. The finite element analysis technique is employed by using ANSYS to authenticate the vibration response of the same multicracked cantilever rotor shaft in air and different viscous mediums.