Coupled bending torsional vibrations of non-ideal energy source rotors under non-stationary operating conditions

In the automotive industry, high-speed elecrical engines will be used in a very large range of speeds, leading to non-stationary operating conditions. Thus more critical speeds may be crossed a very large number of times during the whole life-time of the engine. Therefore, estimating accurately the non-stationary loads and deformations during these transient regimes is of first importance for a correct design. In this paper, we propose a novel dynamic model for unbalanced high-speed rotors with less restrictive assumptions. The finite element model accounts for flexion, torsion and traction-compression leading to six degrees of freedom on each node. The non-ideal energy source is considered and the rotor is running under non-stationary operating conditions and crossing supercritical speeds. The angular displacement is defined in such a way that it combines simultaneously the intrinsic nominal rotation and the torsional deformation. The comparison of the proposed model with other models under different assumptions on the energy source and on the bending-torsion coupling shows that our model offers more accurate prediction for both lateral and torsional vibrations when crossing critical speeds. The ability of the proposed model to account for the mutual influence between lateral and torsional behavior is highlighted and is exhibited through time-frequency analyses.