Turbine Vibration and Critical Speed

Author’s Name A NATH

Introduction: Starting of steam turbine of both hot and cold start-up is a critical task for a
medium range of power plant. Many steam turbine facing problem of high vibration when
turbine was being rolled from hot and cold start-up and machine was seized and loss of
production for a long time. This article will help engineers who working at this field. I hope this
article may help them a lot.

Main Section:

Each turbine have a critical speed range or exclusion range. At any point of time no machine
should be halted in this range. As per design maximum steam turbine machine having critical
speed range fall between 2000–4400 rpm that is why the turbine rolling procedure says to roll the
turbine straight from 1800 rpm to 4600 rpm, taking another safety margin of 200 rpm on both
side. This range is called exclusion range which means, that at no point of time machine should
be halted in this range. Especially 3000 – 4000 rpm is most critical as the main prime mover i.e.
turbine critical speed falls in this range. So, this should be passed on a bit more quickly. Turbine
engineers must be vigilant while rolling in this range and at any point of time, if they feel that
acceleration rate is going down than the desired rolling rate despite that auxiliary speed changer
is being moved continuously the turbine should be hand tripped immediately before acceleration
rate comes to zero.

What is critical speed?

Every matter on this earth has its own natural frequency of vibration, even the human being also.
This depends on the mass and stiffness of the matter, when even stand still. Turbine rotor, casing
and foundation also have their natural frequency. During design stage care is taken in designing
the rotor and casing fairly above or below the normal operating range of the machine. Since rotor
is rotating, it has different natural frequency at the different speed and it is called fundamental
frequency. When rotor is accelerating its fundamental is also changing and the speed at which
this fundamental frequency matches with the any of the stationary part e.g. casing, stator and
foundation etc is called critical speed. In TG train we have five critical speeds that of casing, gear
box, generator, foundation and combined critical speed.

What is resonance?
When the fundamental frequency of the rotor matches with natural frequency of the stator or
casing causes the resonance. If this resonance is allowed to persist the amplitude of vibration
goes on multiplying in every cycle and within very short time it can grow to such an extent that it
can breakdown the machine completely.

In the history, even bridge have broken down due to synchronized marching of army troops
while crossing the bridge because resonance between the synchronized marching frequency and
the natural frequency of the bridge. That is why synchronized marching on the bridge is
prohibited all over the world and every turbine is provided with speed exclusion range where
turbine speed should not be halted.

In spite of all the care taken in the construction and balancing of the turbine shaft and disc due to
some reason or other the mass centre of the rotor does not coincide with the geometric axis of the
shaft and the distance between the two is known as eccentrically. During the shaft rotation even a
small eccentricity gives rise to a transverse force that increase with shaft rpm and tends to deflect
the shaft.

The rpm which numerically coincide with the natural frequency of the shaft is known as critical
speed. Theoretically, at the critical speed the deflection of the shaft tends to infinity. Thus,
operation of the turbines at the critical speed is to be avoided. For safe working of turbine the
critical speed should differ from the normal speed by 30%.

Turbine shaft having critical speeds less than normal operating speed are known as flexible shaft
and those with critical speed higher than normal operating speed are known as rigid shaft.

All rotating shaft even in the absence of external load with deflect during rotation, the
unbalanced mass of rotating object cause deflection that will create resonance vibration at certain
speeds known as critical speed. The magnitude of deflection depends upon the followings,

i) Stiffness of the shaft and its support.

ii) Total mass of the shaft and its supports.
iii) Unbalanced of the mass w.r.t. axis of rotation.
iv) The amount of damping in the system.

The rpm which numerically coincides with the natural frequency of transverse vibrations of the
shaft is known as critical speed. Theoretically, at the critical speed the deflection of the shaft
tends to infinity.

Calculation of bending of shaft:

If the shaft is the horizontal supports (Fig. 1) even under static condition there will be some
amount of the deflection ∆ caused by the weight of the shaft and the discs mounted on it. Thus,
the shaft will always be slightly bent. Consequently, while in rotation there will be an additional
amount of deflection y and the shaft begins to vibrate relative to static geometric axis.

Let us consider a slightly

out balance shaft with an
eccentricity . The mass of
the shaft is at a distance

from the
geometrical axis of the shaft. We shall consider the shaft to be supported in the vertical direction
to avoid the shaft deflection due to its own weight.

The centrifugal force due to rotation is given by Fc = mω2 (y+ )......... (1)

Where, y = deflection of rotor, mm;

m= mass of rotor, kg; and

ω= angular velocity, rad/s

If f is the stiffness of shaft, i.e. the force that cause the shaft to deflection by I mm, then by force
balance,

Fc = Fy --------- (2)

Fy = mω2(y+ ) or

Y= / f/ (mω2)-1 …….. (3)

From Eq (3) it follows that each value of w conforms to a definite deflection y. e.g., at F/mω2 =1,
y = ∞ . The angular velocity of the shaft at mω2 = F , when y = ∞, is known as the critical
velocity.

wct= [ F/m]1/2 ………. (4)

wct = 2πNct/60 = [ F/m ]1/2

Ncr= 9.55 [ F/m ]1/2 ………….. (5)

The static deflection is given from

F .∆ = m= weight of the rotor or shaft.

Where F is stiffness of the shaft (Kg/mm deflection)

∆ = m/F……… (6)

For simply supporting shaft loaded at the centre, the deflection will be

∆ = ml3 /48 EI ……. (7)

And for the shaft with fixed ends and loaded at the centre

∆ = ml3 /192 EI ……. (8)

Where,Ɩ = length of the shaft

E = modulus of elasticity of the material of the shaft

I = moment of inertia of the shaft, ∏d4/64

We may rewrite the equation for shaft deflection as

∆ = C ml3 / EI ……. (9)

Where C is a coefficient depending upon the type of support and the point at which the load is
applied (in the cases referred above, C = 1/48 and 1/192)

Having determined the deflection ∆ the critical speed can be easily determined from equation (5)
and (8).

Ncr= 9.55/(∆)1/2 ………….. (10)

Conclusion:

Furthermore, uneven shaft warming caused by rubbing between rotating and stationary parts can
cause further bending of the shaft in the same direction of the existing bow and cause additional
contact with stationary parts, increasing temperatures and therefore causing more bending. The
effect cascades if allowed to continue. If the bending is allowed to continue, it is possible that the
yield strength of the metal could be exceeded, causing a permanent deformation of the shaft. The
allowed bending in 3,000-rpm turbines is up to 0.02–0.03 mm in each section. When on turning
gearing, the limit is 0.05 mm.
References:

1. Steam Turbine Manual of Skoda

2. Power Plant Engineering by P.K Nag