Journal of

Engineering
for Gas Turbines
and Power

Frequency Spectrum Analysis and x = e cos ujt + r cos 2u>t

Applications to Steam Turbine y = e sin ut + r sin 2uit
Vibrations respectively. According to these equations, the movement of
arbitrary mass point P in the shaft system is not only a function
of the angular velocity u>, but also a function of 2w.
In general, the eccentricity, e, between the two shaft center-
J. Ling1 and Y. Cao 1 lines of the shaft system is much smaller than the radius, r.
Therefore, the main harmonic component in the frequency spec-
trum may indicate the existence of the first harmonic component
of the fundamental frequency. If the deflection of the shaft
system cannot be neglected, these phenomena take place only
Introduction
near the couplings. While the ends of the shaft system still
Bearing vibrations in turbogenerators are common failure rotate around their shaft centerlines, the fundamental frequency
modes. Identification of vibration failure during the operation component will be present in the frequency spectrum.
of turbogenerators and the subsequent quick failure elimination When the two shafts meet with an angle, a, there exists a
in a short shut-down period are very important to turbine engi- bending moment in the coupling. The action of the bending
neers. In this paper, a brief theoretical analysis of the character- moment tends to reduce the angle, a. The bending moment
istics of the frequency spectrum and the diagnoses of three changes its direction per revolution, and the bending deforma-
typical vibration failures of steam turbines in power stations are tion caused by the bending moment also changes its direction
presented. It is our hope that the results will be useful to turbine per revolution. Therefore, the fundamental frequency compo-
engineers who need to make correct judgments for the causes nent will be present in the frequency spectrum.
of turbine vibrations. The analyses presented above were applied to a kl 16-50/20
steam turbine, which was connected with the generator by the
rigid couplings as shown in Fig. 2. The first harmonic of the
Application of the Frequency Spectrum Theory for fundamental frequency was mainly present in the horizontal
Vibrations Caused by Misalignment of Shaft Center- and vertical direction of bearings #2 and #3 during the operation
lines of the steam turbogenerator. Based on the frequency spectrum
theory, the misalignment with parallel shaft centerlines must
For a turbogenerator with rigid couplings, if the shafts of the have occurred, because the radius, r, was always much larger
turbine and generator have the misalignment with the parallel than the eccentricity in practice. During the shut-down period,
shaft centerline shown in Fig. 1 (a), the two shafts must rotate it was found that the eccentricity, e, between two shaft center-
synchronously because of the couplings. Therefore, the shaft lines was 0.212 mm, and the angle, a, was zero. Therefore,
system rotates around the same center, O, with the angular the diagnosis concerning the misalignment with parallel shaft
velocity, u, and within radius of eccentricity e between the centerlines was proven.
shafts of the turbine and generator. It also whirls around the
center, O' of the shaft with the same rotating angular velocity,
(j, as shown in Fig. 1(b). Application of the Frequency Spectrum Theory for
Suppose that the deflection of the shaft system is negligible, Impinging Vibration of High-Pressure Oil in the Main
and point P is an arbitrary mass point on the shaft. Point P
whirls in the radius, r, and around the shaft center, O'. At the Oil Pump
same time, point P also makes extra rotating movements around The main oil pump in the steam turbine is connected with
the center, O. At an arbitrary time, t, if the coordinate of point the shaft of the steam turbine directly and installed in the front-
P is P(x, y) and the whirling angle of the point P is uit, the bearing housing. Therefore, the periodic impingement and vi-
extra rotating angle of point P is also u>t. The axial projection bration in the main oil pump will take place if the high-pressure
of the rotating movement of point P is shown in Fig. 1(b). At oil from the outlet of the main oil pump cannot flow into the
time t, the displacements of point P in the x and y directions guide vane and the shell of the main oil pump smoothly (Hor-
are: lock, 1973). The vibration will be transmitted to the front bear-
ing housing, because that is where the main oil pump is in-
stalled.
' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Florida International University, Mi- If the vibration of the front-bearing housing is measured, the
ami, FL 33199.
Contributed by the Power Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL
high-pressure oil from every flow path of the main oil pump
ENGINEERS . Manuscript received at ASME Headquarters January 1997. Associate will impinge once in the direction of the measuring point when
Technical Editor: D. Lou. the pump rotates a turn. Thus, the vibration frequency of the

734 / Vol. 119, JULY 1997 Transactions of the ASME

Copyright © 1997 by ASME

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 214 x 347. 65Hz

160. S

* 107

53.5

0 A. I J-L •A^s &*. AtiA*

p(x.y) 500 1000

f(Hx)
Fig. 3 Frequency spectrum of the vibration on the front bearing housing

the working frequencies were eliminated, and the vibration of

the front-bearing housing was greatly reduced.

Application of the Frequency Spectrum Theory for

High-Frequency Bearing Vibrations
In general, after the turbogenerator operates for a long period
of time, the dynamic stiffness of the bearings will be weakened
in some directions, the connection between the bearing founda-
tion and foundation bolts will be loosened, and the compressive
stress in the bearing housing will be reduced. Thus, the damping
of the bearings will be changed (Goodwin, 1989; Ragulskis,
1989). Because of these reasons, the intrinsic vibration fre-
(b)
quency of bearings in some directions may be possibly close
Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the misalignment with parallel shaft to the integral times of the fundamental frequency of the turbo-
centerlines: (a) schematic of two shafts with parallel shaft centerlines; generator. Therefore, high-frequency vibration of the bearings
(b) axial projection of rotating movement of point P will be induced during the operation.
The vibration frequency spectrum on bearing #4 of the Kl 16-
50/20 steam turbine is shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that there
measuring point must be equal to the rotating frequency of the is a high harmonic component at ten times the fundamental
pump times the number of the flow paths. frequency, in addition to the first harmonic of the fundamental
The frequency spectrum analysis was also applied to a Kl 16- frequency caused by the misalignment with parallel shaft center-
50/20 steam turbine. The front-bearing housing was installed lines in the vertical direction. Because there is no vibration at
in the front of the steam inlet of the steam turbine, as shown ten times the fundamental frequency of the other bearings, the
in Fig. 2. The rated revolution of the steam turbine was 3000 possibility that the rotor exhibits an exciting force with ten
rpm. There were seven flow paths in the main oil pump. The times the fundamental frequency can be excluded. In addition,
vibration in the front bearing housing was measured during the after analyzing the shape in the frequency spectrum, it was
steam turbine operation. The frequency spectrum is shown in found that the shape of the frequency spectrum was similar to
Fig. 3. It is apparent that the highest harmonic component at that of the resonance on the bearing. Therefore, it was certain
seven times the fundamental frequency was caused by the im- that the high-frequency resonance in the vertical direction of
pingement of the high-pressure oil. The harmonic components bearing #4 had happened when the turbogenerator rotated in
on both sides of the highest component were caused by the the fundamental frequency.
modulation of the fundamental frequency (Marole, 1987). During the inspection of bearings after the steam turbine was
Thus, the main cause for the vibration of the front-bearing hous- shut down, it was found that there were six pads under the base
ing was believed to be the impinging vibration from the high- of bearing #4. Because there were too many pads, it was be-
pressure oil at the outlet of main oil pump.
After the problem related to the main oil pump was solved
during a shut-down period, the measurement was made again
at the same point of the front-bearing housing during the opera- 99. 6Hz , 4U6. 8<JHz
tion. All harmonic components at six, seven, and eight times

Bearing ti I Bearing #2 Bearing #3 Bearing #4

b l<

_uA
500 1000
Front Bearing Housing Rigid Coupling f(Hz>

Fig. 2 Schematic of steam turbogenerator Fig. 4 Frequency spectrum of the vertical vibration on bearing #4

Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power JULY 1997, Vol. 1 1 9 / 7 3 5

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 the compressive stress of bearing #1 was increased to an upper-
107 i 800. 78Hz limit value based on the maintenance standard. The vibration
in the vertical direction of bearing #1 was measured again. At
80. 25 this time, the harmonic component of the high frequency was
weakened effectively and the vibration was decreased greatly.
"^ 53. 5 Therefore, it was concluded that strengthening the compact-
ing contact between the bearing foundation and base plate and
26.75 increasing the compressive stress in bearing housing are effec-
tive methods that eliminate or weaken the high-frequency vibra-
n i 1 i i i i i 1 .. 1 tion on bearings.
500 1000
Conclusions
f(Hz)
The frequency spectrum theory and its application to indus-
Fig. 5 Frequency spectrum of the vertical vibration on bearing #1 trial problems were successfully demonstrated, but improve-
ments are still needed for the realization and identification of
vibrations on the turbogenerator because of the complex nature
of the vibration phenomenon. With further development in the
lieved that the compacting contact between the bearing founda- frequency spectrum theory and the accumulation of practical
tion and base plate was destroyed. After the number of the pads experience, the frequency spectrum analyses will take a more
was reduced to three, the vibration of bearing #4 in the vertical and more important role in rotating machinery.
direction was decreased greatly, and the harmonic component
at ten times the fundamental frequency was eliminated.
References
Similarly, the frequency spectrum in the vertical direction of Goodwin, M. J., 1989, Dynamics of Rotor-Bearing Systems, Unwin Hyman,
bearing #1 is shown in Fig. 5. The frequency of the main vibra- London.
tion was 16 times the fundamental frequency of the turbogenera- Horlock, J. K., 1973, Axial Flow Turbines, Robert E. Krieger Publishing Com-
tor. Because bearing #1 was located in front of the steam inlet pany, Malabar, FL.
of the steam turbine, it was subjected to a higher temperature, Marole, S. L., 1987, Digital Spectral Analysis With Applications, Prentice-Hall,
Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
and the change of the compressive stress in the bearing housing Ragulskis, K. M., 1989, Vibration of Bearings, Hemisphere Publishing Corpo-
was larger than that of the other bearings. During maintenance, ration, New York-Washington, DC.

Receptance Method for the formulation is applied. The receptance method has been exten-
sively used for eigenfrequency calculation. The paper will show
Sensitivity Analysis of Critical that, in addition to the eigenfrequencies, the receptance matrix
Speeds to Rotor Support Stiffness exhibits inherent advantages over parameters sensitivity analy-
ses. The sensitivity analysis of rotor critical speeds to support
stiffness is illustrated as an application of the receptance
method. Although the present examples do not consider the
Chen-Kai Su 1 and Shyh-Chin Huang 2 bearing damping and support asymmetry, we can include these
effects as well. The subsequent changes will be complex recep-
tances, and finding of the roots becomes more time consuming.
A rotor system can be studied via various approaches, e.g.,
FEM, the transfer matrix method, etc. The receptance method
2 General Concept
has been one of the methods used for frequency analysis of
rotors. The authors, herein, have shown an application of the For the purpose of mathematical modeling, a rotor system
receptance matrix for sensitivity analysis. Examples of critical can be divided into two main bodies, the rotor and the supports,
speed sensitivity to support stiffness were illustrated and a com- as shown in Fig. 1. With the employment of the receptance
puting algorithm was developed. Numerical examples proved method, the natural frequencies, or critical speeds, of rotor sys-
the approach to be valuable for rotor engineers in quick evalua- tems are realized via study of the rotor and support characteris-
tion and understanding of the support effects. tics. The advantage of dividing the rotor system into compo-
nents is to simplify the analysis process, which may become
very tedious and inaccurate for a complex system when treated
1 Introduction as a whole. In the present paper, the authors prove that the
receptance matrix provides useful information, not only for fre-
The dynamics of rotor systems have been studies for several quency analysis, but also for sensitivity studies as well. A sensi-
decades. Owing to the demands of today's turbomachinery, the tivity matrix of critical speeds given as functions of support
investigation of rotor dynamics has become more pressing in stiffness is then derived as an application.
recent decades. In the present paper, the authors focus on the
sensitivity analysis of a rotor to its support stiffness. Similar 2.1 Characteristics of the Rotor. The eigenfunctions,
investigations were conducted by Rajan et al. (1986, 1987) ip (Z)'s, of a free rotor obtained from the modified transfer
n
with different methods. In the present studies, the receptance matrix (MTM) method (Chiau and Huang, 1989) are here em-
ployed as base functions of the rotating rotor in an assumed-
' Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan modes method. The displacement functions then take the form:
Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan; email: [email protected].
2
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan Institute
of Technology, 43, Keelung Rd„ Sec. 4, Taipei, Taiwan, 10772; email: huang® mz, o = I <A„(Z)/„(0 = {<l>(Z)}T{f(t)}
vib2.me.ntit.edu.tw.
Contributed by the International Gas Turbine Institute of THE AMERICAN SOCI- N (1)
ETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the International Gas v(z, o = X MZ)gM = {^(Z)}Tig(t)}
Turbine Institute April 8, 1996. Associate Technical Editor: R. E. Kielb.

736 / Vol. 119, JULY 1997 Transactions of the ASME

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