Numerical investigation on the nonlinear dynamics of a breathing cracked rotor supported by flexible bearings

The steady-state response and breathing mechanism of a cracked rotor supported by flexible bearings are investigated in this paper. The generalized and efficient method proposed in this paper can be used to study the dynamics of complicated cracked structures without much modification. First, a three-dimensional finite element model of the cracked rotor-bearing system is established in the rotating frame and a general contact model for modeling the breathing crack is proposed. A component mode synthesis is used to form a reduced-order model. Then, a procedure combining multi-harmonic balance method with arc-length method is used to search the response solution. To accelerate the calculation, the analytical formulations for calculating the tangent stiffness matrix are used. Finally, the gravity induced response and breathing mechanism of a cracked rotor-bearing system are obtained. Interesting result is that the rotational speed and the crack depth will influence the breathing mechanism even if the load remains unchanged.