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The supercritical design of tail rotor drive shaft has attracted more attention in helicopter design due to its high power–weight ratio and low maintenance cost. However, there exists excessive vibration when the shaft passes through the critical frequency. Dry friction damper is the equipment applied to the drive shaft to suppress the excessive vibration. In order to figure out the damping mechanism of the dry friction damper and improve the damping efficiency, the dynamic model of the shaft/damper system is established based on the Jeffcott rotor model.

The typical frequency response of the system is studied through bifurcation diagrams, amplitude-frequency characteristic curves and waterfall frequency response spectrum. The typical transient responses under frequency sweeps are also obtained.

The results show that the response of the system changes from periodic no-rub motion to quasi-periodic rub-impact motion, and then to synchronous full annular rub-impact, and finally, back to periodic no-rub motion. The slip of the rub-impact ring improves the stability of the system. Besides, the effects of the system parameters including critical dry friction force, rub-impact friction coefficient, initial clearance on the stability and the vibration damping capacity are studied. It is observed that the stability changes significantly varying the three parameters respectively. The vibration damping capacity is mainly affected by the critical dry friction force and the initial clearance.

Presented results provide guidance for the design of the dry friction damper.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the transport phenomena of smoke flow in a semi-open vertical shaft.

The large eddy simulation (LES) method was used to model the movement of fire-induced thermal flow in a full-scale vertical shaft. With this model, different fire locations and heat release rates (HRRs) were considered simultaneously.

It was determined that the burning intensity of the fire is enhanced when the fire attaches to the sidewall, resulting in a larger continuous flame region in the compartment and higher temperatures of the spill plume in the shaft compared to a center fire. In the initial stage of the fire with a small HRR, the buoyancy-driven spill plumes incline toward the side of the shaft opposite the window. Meanwhile, the thermal plumes are also directed away from the center of the shaft by the entrained airflow, but the inclination diminishes as HRR increases. This is because a greater HRR produces higher temperatures, resulting in a stronger buoyancy to drive smoke movement evenly in the shaft. In addition, a dimensionless equation was proposed to predict the rise-time of the smoke plume front in the shaft.

The results need to be verified with experiments.

The results could be applied for design and assessment of semi-open shafts.

This study shows the transport phenomena of smoke flow in a vertical shaft with one open side.

This paper aims to go deeper on the analysis of the shaft voltage of large turbogenerators. The main interest of this study is the investigation process developed.

The analysis of the shaft voltage because of several defects is based on a two-dimensional (2D) finite element modeling. This 2D finite element model is used to determine the shaft voltage because of eccentricities or rotor short-circuit.

Dynamic eccentricities and rotor short circuit do not have an inherent impact on the shaft voltage. Circulating currents in the stator winding because of defects impact the shaft voltage.

The original value of this paper is the investigation process developed. This study proposes to quantify the impact of a smooth stator and then to explore the contribution of the real stator winding on the shaft voltage.

Current lubrication analyses of misaligned journal bearings are generally performed under some given preconditions. The purpose of this paper is to calculate the lubrication characteristics of a journal bearing with journal misalignment caused by shaft deformation under load, considering the surface roughness, thermal effect and (thermal and elastic) deformation of bearing surface simultaneously.

The lubrication of bearing was analyzed by average flow model based generalized Reynolds equation. The deformation of bearing surface under pressure or heat of oil film was calculated by compliance matrix method. The compliance matrix was established by finite element analysis. The temperature distributions of oil film and bearing were calculated by energy equation and heat conduction equation.

When the thermal deformation of bearing and journal surface is considered, the radius clearance affects not only the value of the maximum oil film pressure and minimum oil film thickness, but also the distribution of oil film pressure and thickness of misaligned bearing. The effect of thermal deformation of bearing on the performance of misaligned bearing is larger than that of elastic deformation of bearing. Whether or not the surface roughness affects the performance of misaligned bearing and the affecting level depends greatly on the condition of deformation of bearing surface.

The surface roughness, thermal effect and (thermal and elastic) deformation of bearing surface were considered simultaneously in the thermoelastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis of bearing with journal misalignment caused by shaft deformation under load. The results of this paper are helpful to the design of the bearing.

A rotary shaft lip seal operates with a lubricant film separating the seal from the shaft. In this paper the authors present experimental measurements of under‐lip temperatures which show that there is an optimum shaft surface roughness, and present thermal solutions for various convective heat transfer conditions which illustrate that the shaft conductivity is the predominant factor which affects the under‐lip temperature.

The purpose of this paper is to study the behavior of smoke flow in building fires and optimize the design of smoke control systems.

A total of 435 3-D fire simulations were conducted through NIST fire dynamics simulator to analyze thermal behavior of combined buoyancy-induced and pressure-driven smoke flow in complex vertical shafts, under consideration of influence of heat release rate (HRR) and locations of heat sources. This influence was evaluated through neutral pressure plane (NPP), which is a critical plane depicting the flow velocity distributions. Hot smoke flows out of shafts beyond the NPP and cold air flows into shafts below the NPP.

Numerical simulation results show that HRR of heat source has little influence on NPP, while location of heat source can make a significant difference to NPP, particularly in cases of multi-heat source. Identifying the location of NPP helps to develop a more effective way to control the smoke with less energy consumption. Through putting an emphasis on smoke exhausting beyond the NPP and air supplying below the NPP, the smoke control systems can make the best use of energy.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may need to be tested by further experiments.

The paper includes implications for the optimization of smoke control systems design in buildings.

This paper fulfills an identified need to research the behavior of hot smoke in building fires and optimize the design of smoke control systems.

This paper investigates the load carrying capacity of the journal bearings with steel shafts with varying surface texture in varying revolutions using experimental and neural network (NN) approach.

In this study, we used a shaft with smooth surface with the same material properties compare their load carrying capacities of the shafts with three different pitches and two different profiles. The experimental data, such as pressure and oil temperature, are employed as training and testing data for NN. Quick Prop algorithm is used to update the weight of the network during the training.

The designated NN has superior performance for modelling of the system. Therefore, the proposed neural predictor would be used as a predictor for possible experimental applications on modelling bearing system.

Mobil 0W‐40 lubricant was used and kept at temperature of 18°C. The surface of the shafts has been in two types: smooth, that is without and with profiles, that is trapezoidal and saw.

Owing to the parallel structure and fast learning of NN, this kind of algorithm will be utilized to model other types of bearing systems.

Instead of traditional methods, NN has fast learning and parallel processing structure. Moreover, NN can be used to process multiple‐input/multiple‐output data unlike other empirical modelling tools which can map one dependent variable at a time. Therefore, this method is able to predict the load carrying capacity with steel shafts with varying surface texture in varying revolutions satisfactorily where common techniques have failed.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study that used measurements of shaft relative rotational position, made using inexpensive Hall Effect sensors and magnets mounted at the ends of a gearbox input and output shafts, to determine gear “transmission variance.” The transmission variance signals, as a function of gear/shaft rotational position, were then used to detect and diagnose gear faults.

Two sets of spur gears (one plastic and one steel) were used to experimentally determine the relative shaft rotational position between the input and the output gearbox shafts. Fault-free and faulted (damaged tooth faces and cracked tooth bases) gears were used to collect representative dynamic signals. Signal processing was used to extract transmission variance values as a function of shaft rotational position and then used to detect and diagnose gear faults.

The results show that variations in the relative rotational position of the output shaft relative to that of the input shaft (the transmission variance) can be used to reveal gear mesh characteristics, including faults, such as cracked or missing gear teeth and flattened gear tooth faces, in both plastic gears and steel gears under appropriate (realistic) loads and speeds.

The operational mode of the non-contact rotational position sensors and the dynamic accuracy limitations are explained along with the basic signal processing required to extract transmission variance values.

The results show that shaft rotational position measurements can be made accurately and precisely using relatively inexpensive sensors and can subsequently reveal gear faults.

The inexpensive and yet trustworthy fault detection methodology developed in this work should help to improve the efficiency of maintenance actions on gearboxes and, therefore, improve the overall industrial efficiency of society.

The method described has distinct advantages over traditional analysis methods based on gearbox vibration and/or oil analysis.

High-speed rotor subjected to cyclic stress during operation may cause fatigue failure. Thus, the design of a rotor-shaft should involve the fatigue analysis for predicting safe life.

A damped rotor shaft with a centrally mounted disc, which is simulated as steam turbine rotor, is considered for fatigue analysis. The shaft is subjected to thermal load and axial torque. It is supported by two orthotropic flexible bearings at its two extreme ends. The bearings are modelled with two-element Voigt model along each orthogonal direction to consider the elastic damped behaviour. Finite element modelling is done through Rayleigh beam theory, where each element is also considered as a Voigt model. The mathematical model involves effect of external axial torque, softening and compressive action of the shaft due to thermal load by the high temperature steam.

This paper attempts to find dynamic stresses in a viscoelastic rotor-shaft subject to combined bending and torsional loading and is exposed to thermal environment during operation. The dynamic stress is then used to determine fatigue and also the life of rotors.

Internal damping plays an important role in deciding dynamic behaviour of rotor shaft systems. Because of this, the rotor shaft becomes unstable after a certain spin speed. Thus, the design of the rotor based on fatigue analysis is limited to the stable zone.

For this purpose, equations of whirl motion of a viscoelastic rotor-shaft are first obtained after discretizing the continuum with finite beam elements and then the time domain solution of rotor displacement is used to find the bending stress and shear stress at various locations of the rotor. Location for the maximum stress decides the failure point. Safe rotor dimensions have been predicted by comparing dynamic stresses with the Soderberg diagram.

Design of rotor for safe life operation and prediction of stability could serve a good reference for designers.

This paper aims to deal with the problem of vibration in an aircraft engine turbine shaft shield. The physical model of the system under study is inspired by the PZL-10W aviation jet engine shaft shield and is a structure of the profile circular arc. The main goal of the presented research is to develop a modal model of the discussed object. Another task is to determine the impact of the shaft shield damage on the change of dynamic parameters (the values of the natural frequencies and changing of the shape of the corresponding natural forms) of the discussed object. Finally, the task is connected with the calculation of the excitation speeds of the discussed shaft shield’s respective natural frequencies.

To realize the main goal finite element method simulation and experimental investigation were conducted. The quality of the achieved models is determined based on the relative error of natural frequencies and the similarity to normal modes established on the basis of the modal assurance criterion (MAC) indicator. The Campbell diagram was used to calculate the excitation speeds of the discussed shaft shield’s respective natural frequencies.

The obtained results indicate the changes in the dynamic properties of the shaft shield as a result of its cracking. On the basis of the adopted measurement (MAC indicator), the level of similarity was established between the numerical simulation results and the measurement results for the undamaged shield. Verification of the different mode shapes using the CrossMAC tool is an effective method, which allows comparing of the shape of the natural form and may be helpful in the process of adjusting modal models to the results of experimental tests.

It is important to note that as a result of using commercial software (ANSYS program) and a commercial measuring system (Bruel and Kjaer), the presented analysis can be attractive for design engineers dealing with the dynamics of aviation systems.

The paper presents the authors’ original approach to the dynamic analysis of the aviation engine turbine shaft shield, which can be useful for engineers dealing with the issue of vibration in shaft shield systems.