Mistuning of Bladed Disk Assemblies to Mitigate Resonance

J. S. Rao Director, Advanced Engineering, Altair Engineering Bangalore 560 078, India js.rao@altair.com
First Published in 2006

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Abstract
Bladed disks are mistuned in general. Their forced vibration response at resonance can be much higher than the tuned blade response. The magnification of forced response over the tuned case can be understood by frequency split that takes place and modal distortion. In this paper, modal distortion technique is adopted to minimize the mistuning effects and control resonant response.
Keywords: Bladed-disk, Mistuning, Modal distortion, Resonant response

1.0

Introduction

Small imperfections are inevitable in the manufacturing process of turbine and compressor blades and therefore some mistuning is always present in bladed disk assemblies. For a perfectly tuned system, Armstrong, Christie and Hague[1] are amongst the earliest workers to use receptance coupling technique to couple the disk and blade motions in a perfectly tuned system. Ewins[2] considered the effect of mistuning the blades on the natural frequencies of bladed disk assemblies. Rao et al.[3] modeled Orpheous aircraft engine bladed disk assemblies as tuned systems and determined the natural frequencies and compared with experimental results which showed good agreement between them. When the blades are mistuned, it is usually found that excessively large vibrations occur when compared to perfectly tuned systems. Whitehead[4] first addressed this problem by developing algebraic expressions for the maximum response based on the number of blades in a bladeddisk. Subsequently Whitehead[5] considered example cases in which his proposed maximum would occur. The theoretical limit for maximum magnification has been shown to be where NB is the number of blades. Several attempts have been made to determine the maximum response in a bladed disk design. Dye and Henry[6] used Monte-Carlo simulations with a simple numerical model based on the measured system parameters to statistically estimate the maximum response in a bladed-disk. Several methods[710] are proposed to determine the statistical distribution of mistuned forced response amplitudes from which the maximum response can be obtained. Kenyon and Griffin[11] identified two primary physical mechanisms associated with increases in forced response amplitudes due to mistuning in a single family of bladed-disk modes, frequency splitting and mode distortion. Frequency splitting describes the separation of the repeated natural frequencies that occur in tuned bladed disks into two distinct natural frequencies. Mode distortion refers to harmonic content in the mode shape of a mistuned system in addition to the fundamental wave form of the normally tuned mode. Kenyon et al.[12] recently developed a theory for predicting the maximum forced response in a bladed disk from mode distortion in a single structural mode. The maximum response derived there was robust, i.e., if a bladed-disk is intentionally mistuned to exhibit that maximum response, then small, unintentional random mistuning will not significantly alter the response amplitude of the bladed disk. As mistuning is inevitable, several authors have worked out the maximum level response increase in forced vibration of bladed disk assemblies, the lowest reported value is 21% [6] and

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the highest reported value is 110%[13]. The problem of searching for the worst and best mistuning patterns has been formulated as an optimization problem by Petrov[14], where the blades of a mistuned bladed disk are modeled by pre-twisted beams with many degrees of freedom connected by shrouds. Kenyon and Griffin[15] demonstrated experimentally the maximum mistuned bladed disk forced response. The theoretical result for maximum amplitude magnification predicted using Kenyon et al.[12] formulation is 1.918 and the experimental result was close to this prediction. The general practice of measuring mistuning of bladed-disks is to determine each blades natural frequency; the difference of each blades natural frequency from the mean value is taken as a measure of mistuning. When it comes to integral bladed-disks or blisks, this approach fails. Feiner and Griffin[16] have recently proposed a method of mistuning identification of bladed disks using a fundamental mistuning model. For general information on bladed disks reference may be made to text books by Rao [17], Rzadkowsky[18] and a review paper by Srinivasan[19]. In this paper, mode distortion is used as a primary mechanism to study the forced response of bladed-disks. A case study is presented.

2.0

Mistuning Patterns

Though the blades are all designed to have same dimensions and of same material, each blade once machined has its own natural frequency on the test bench. We cannot design and manufacture a bladed disk which gives an exactly specified mistuning in the system. All we can do is to organize the manufactured blades to form a pattern. Every assembled bladed disk is unique in its mistuning condition. If a bladed-disk is intentionally mistuned it can be only to follow a desired pattern, then small, unintentional random mistuning is assumed to not significantly alter the response amplitude of the bladed disk. If no specific mistuning is performed during the assembly, it will be entirely random from assembly to assembly. Kenyon and Griffin[15] , in their experimental work, adopted an 18 bladed disk and used a 3ND first bending mode to obtain maximum response from a third order excitation. Mass mistuning was calculated and adopted in the experiment that will give maximum response under third order excitation. This mistuning pattern is shown in Fig. 1.

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The distribution of mass around the disk on 18 blades is such that the frequencies of individual blades alternate above and below the mean value six times. The maximum variation in an individual blade frequency from the mean was approximately 40%, the highest difference between two successive blades being 48.5%. The rest of the blades are within a variation of 3.5%. Thus, the system can be expected to make it conducive for 3 per rev excitation producing maximum response in 3ND mode. While most of the studies in bladed-disk assembly forced vibration have concentrated on finding the maximum value of response, there is very little reported on a possible design practice of intentional mistuning to produce minimum response. Several aircraft engine manufacturers have been practicing intentional mistuning of fan blades to fight resonances, though they are not reported in literature. As mentioned earlier, the important parameters available for intentional mistuning studies are frequency splitting and mode distortion. It is proposed here that mode distortion from the tuned cyclic symmetry mode in a given ND can be best used as a guideline to minimize the response. To provide the desired mode distortion we can consider the mistuning frequency pattern of blades around the disk to be nonconducive to produce maximum response. One such pattern chosen here to minimize the response in 3ND mode is given in Fig. 2.

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It may be noted that the range of frequencies in Fig. 2 is quite small, the maximum difference in the individual blade is only 2% of the mean, unlike 48.5% as obtained by Kenyon and Griffin[15] for their worst mistuning case. Such a large deviation can never occur in practice, particularly for aircraft engine blades which use very high precision manufacturing processes.

3.0

Free Vibration of Tuned and Mistuned Bladed-Disks

In this paper, a commercially available code is used for performing the analysis. It may be noted that there are several major codes available in the market, any one of them can be adopted for this type of analysis. The CAD model of the bladed-disk can be seen in Fig. 3. No numerical data of the model is given here. 8-Noded solid elements, 2, 49,760 are used with 3, 36,280 nodes. There are 40 sectors. Modal analysis of the pre-stressed structure at the operating speed is performed. For the first bending of the blade, 20 pairs of roots are obtained for perfectly tuned system, one pair each for different orders of nodal diameters. 3ND mode (around 760 Hz) is found to be close to 3 per rev excitation near the operating speed. The mistuning is applied by changing, say the density, from blade to blade to obtain the frequency pattern as given in Fig. 2. Full system modal analysis gives 40 split roots because of mistuning. The first four (0 to 3) nodal diameter mode shapes of the tuned and mistuned cases are shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen from Figs. 3a to 3d, all the modes are distorted. In the case of 0ND mode, the basic umbrella mode exists with mistuning (see Fig. 3a). The 1ND mode is a little more distorted than the 0ND mode, however, the nodal diameter is clearly visible.

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The 2ND mode is fairly well distorted, a bit difficult to see clear two nodal lines (see Fig. 3c). For the 3ND mode, however, the shape is completely destroyed, if at all only two nodal lines can be somehow seen there, see Fig. 3d. It may be noted here that in all the cases, the natural frequencies of mistuned bladed disk are in the same range of the tuned system; only the mode shapes are distorted. Therefore, resonance takes place when an excitation is applied at the resonance frequency, only the effectiveness will gradually decrease as the mode shape gets distorted and becomes a minimum when the mode shape is fully distorted as in 3ND mode.

4.0

Forced Vibration Under Nozzle Excitation on Blades

To study the magnification of forced vibration amplitude at resonance, two kinds of excitations are possible, one where the force acts on the blades arising out of flow path interference and the other coming from the shaft (therefore on the mounted disk) disturbances due to misalignment or other sources. We will consider the case of 3 per rev excitation from flow path acting on the blades. It may be noted here that the excitation from nozzles is a multiple of running speed times the number of nozzles, therefore 3 per rev excitation is unlikely in practical case on the blades. For this purpose, harmonic excitation is made on the blades at the desired frequency and phase angle between successive blades. The excitation applied in axial direction is taken in the form of a harmonic with unit force and frequency corresponding to the natural frequency. A phase angle 0.47124 radians is used from blade to blade consecutively so that the 40th blade has 6 radians phase from the first one. 1% damping is used. The maximum amplitude in the mistuned case is found to be 44% more than the tuned case. The lowest value reported in the literature is 21% by Dye and Henry[6]. The worst magnification according to Whitehead[5] is

The response in the axial direction of tuned and mistuned cases is given in Figs. 4a and 4b. The mistuned response is magnified by 0.0157/0.0131 = 1.19. The magnification is therefore 19% over the tuned case.

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The response in the hoop direction is shown in Figs. 5a and 5b. The mistuned response is magnified by 0.0152/0.0133 = 1.14. The magnification is therefore 14% over the tuned case. Net bending deflection is magnified by around 17.5%, which is lower than 21% value reported by Dye and Henry[6].

5.0

Forced Vibration Under Per Rev Excitation on Bladed-Disk

In practice 3x excitation from flow path in axial flow aircraft engine compressors is less likely in comparison to the 3x excitation arising out of rotor misalignment and other causes. Therefore we will consider a 3x excitation on the disk rather than on the blades to study the influence of the mistuning considered in Fig. 2. For this purpose, transient excitation is made on the disk at the desired frequency and phase angle between the disk sectors (see Fig. 6). 1% damping is used. The maximum von Mises stresses at the respective timings observed are shown in Figs. 7 and 8 for tuned and mistuned cases respectively.

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Maximum von Mises stress obtained for unit load in the tuned case is found to be 10.21 N/mm2. Maximum von Mises stress obtained for unit load in the mistuned case is 0.84 N/mm2. Thus, the stress value in the mistuned case is 12 times lesser than the stress value in the tuned case. Thus proper designed mistuning giving modal distortion can help in decreasing the stresses.

6.0

Conclusions

Inevitable mistuning in bladed-disks is generally known to magnify the response at resonance. The design practice has been to determine the worst case of mistuning and determine the amplification factors. In this paper, modal distortion principle is used to minimize the amplification of response. For nozzle type excitation on the blades at 3x, the maximum amplification is shown to be around 17.5% and in the case of per rev excitation on the disk, maximum advantage is derived in stress values and they can be as low as 12 times lesser.

7.0

Acknowledgements

The author is thankful to several of his young engineering team colleagues who have carried out several runs on bladed-disks.

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8.0
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