DETERMINING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SELF-EXCITED OSCILLATION IN ROTOR/STATOR SYSTEMS FROM THE INTERACTION OF LINEAR AND NONLINEAR NORMAL MODES

In this paper, the linear and nonlinear modes of the unforced coupled rotor/stator system from a general rotor/stator model, which accounts for both the dynamics of the rotor and the stator as well as the friction and the deformation at the contact surfaces, are derived. The bifurcations of the nonlinear normal modes are analyzed based on the constrained bifurcation theory with the linear normal modes as the constraints. Then, the existence boundaries and the backward whirl frequencies of dry friction backward whirl - a hazardous self-excited oscillation in rotor/stator systems - of this model are derived. It is found by analysis that many inherent characteristics of the dry friction backward whirl can be derived from the information of the interaction of the linear and the nonlinear normal modes of the coupled rotor/stator system, such as the number of existence regions and their position relationship, the minimal friction on the contact surfaces that may induce the self-excited oscillation, the upper limits of the backward whirl frequencies of the response, and more. This study has well demonstrated the dominant role of the interaction of the linear and the nonlinear normal modes in deciding the characteristics of some nonlinear dynamical behaviors.