Sommerfeld effect in a gyroscopic overhung rotor-disk system

Deflection of a rotor-disk at the free end of a flexible overhung rotor-shaft causes rotation about diametral axis and consequently leads to a strong gyroscopic coupling in a spinning overhung rotor system. When the rotor is spun up about its axis, the unbalance in the rotor-disk causes transverse and rotational vibrations to increase as the spin speed approaches the critical speed of the rotor. These transverse and rotational vibrations dissipate a lot of energy, and if the rotor is driven through a non-ideal drive, i.e., a motor which can supply a limited amount of power, then the entire motor power may be spent to account for the energy dissipation. As a result, the rotor speed may get stuck in resonance at the critical speed or jump through the critical speed to a much higher speed with lower transverse and rotational vibration levels. These symptoms, normally referred to as the Sommerfeld effect, occur due to the intrinsic energetic coupling between the drive and the driven systems and are important design considerations for development of various rotating machinery with flexible rotor-shafts or supports (bearings). Sommerfeld effect in a strongly gyroscopic rotor dynamic system is studied in this article. The dynamics of an overhung rotor system near the regimes of Sommerfeld effect is studied by using a discrete and a continuous shaft-rotor model coupled with the model of the non-ideal motor drive. The models are developed using multi-energy domain modeling approach in bond graph model form. A steady-state analysis of power transfer mechanism is used to postulate the ideal characteristics of Sommerfeld effect in the neighborhood of the critical speed, and thereafter, full transient analysis is performed with aid of the bond graph model-generated coupled equations of motion to validate the postulated characteristics of the Sommerfeld effect.