Showing papers by "Thomas K. Caughey published in 1985"

Forces on Centrifugal Pump Impellers

Abstract: Forces are exerted on a centrifugal pump impeller, due to the asymmetry of the flow caused by the volute of diffuser, and to the motion of the center of the impeller whenever the shaft whirls. Recent work in the measurement of these forces as a function of the whirl speed to shaft speed ratio, and the influence of the volute, is reviewed. These forces may be decomposed into a steady force, a static stiffness matrix, a damping matrix and an inertia matrix. It is shown that for centrifugal pumps of the moderate specific speed typical of boiler feed stages, there is a region of potential shaft vibration excitation from the hydrodynamic forces if the operating speed is well above the first flexural critical speed.

Experimental measurements of hydrodynamic radial forces and stiffness matrices for a centrifugal pump-impeller

Abstract: The present work is an experimental investigation of the possible forces of fluid dynamic origin that can act on a turbomachine rotor particularly when it is situated off its normal center position. An experimental facility, the Rotor Force Test Facility, has been designed and contructed in order to measure these kinds of forces acting on a centrifugal pump impeller when the latter is made to whirl in a slightly eccentric circular orbit. The scope of the present experimental work consists of measuring quasi-steady forces on the impeller as it whirls slowly about the axis of the pump rotation. These forces are due to interaction between the impeller and volute; they are decomposed into force components relative to the geometric center of the volute and to those proportional to displacent from this center. These latter are interpreted as stiffness matrices. Such matrices were obtained for two different volutes and both were found to be the sum of a diagonal and a skewsymmetric matrix. It can be shown that a stiffness matrix of this type can lead to dynamic instability of impeller shaft system in certain circumstances. This new experimental finding may explain some operational problems of "high-speed" hydraulic machinery. Comparison is made with various existing theoretical and experimental results.

Sub-Optimal Control of Nonlinear Flexible Space Structures

Abstract: A simple yet effective method is presented for the on-line vibration control of nonlinear distributed parameter systems, with constant or time-varying properties, responding to a wide class of dynamic environments. The control procedure uses pulse generators located at selected positions throughout a given system. The degree of system oscillation near each controller determines the controller's activation time and pulse amplitude. The direct method of Liapunov is used to establish that the response of the controlled nonlinear system is Lagrange stable. Analytical and experimental studies of a wing-like plate demonstrate the feasibility, reliability, and robustness of the proposed vibration-suppression method.