MEN 351 Critical speed for rotating shafts

1. Objective

The objective is to determine the critical speed of rotation of a vibrating shaft.

2. Introduction

The human ear detects sounds by sensing the vibrations of the air waves and string

instruments produce music when the musician expertly plucks the strings. Hence various

human activities involve vibrations. Another simple example is the bobbing head of a

"Jack-in-the-box". When you open the box the spring-loaded head leaps out, wildly

oscillates, and eventually settles down. Various machine elements and structures also

experience vibrations. For example, you may have experienced the gentle swaying of

suspension bridges due to the traffic and cross winds. These vibrations cause cyclic

stresses in the structures, which leads to fatigue damage. If the frequency of the winds

has a certain critical value, then the amplitude of the swaying of the bridge will linearly

increase with time causing the bridge to break. The wind driven break up of the

suspension bridge in Tacoma, Washington State is a famous example of this. In rotating

machine elements such as gears, etc. and prime movers such as engines, turbines, etc.

slight imbalances can lead to significant vibration related stresses. Hence, engineers study

vibrations in machine elements and structures in order to understand their causes. This

understanding is then used to control and minimize vibrations.

I will introduce you to the issues involved in vibrations by considering the simple

example of a mass hanging by a spring (see Figure 1; left). Due to the weight of the mass

the spring extends and reaches an equilibrium extension δeq = m/k where m is the mass

and k is the spring stiffness. Now suppose that the mass is perturbed slightly from this

equilibrium position. In other words, say that we pull it a little and let it go (Figure 1;

middle). Intuitively, you expect that the mass will oscillate about the equilibrium position
and because of some damping forces, such as air drag and friction, the mass will

eventually settle down to the equilibrium position.

We will now develop a mathematical model describing this free-oscillation situation. Let

the distance the mass is displaced be x; so x is measured from the equilibrium position.

The total forces acting on the mass are the weight (–mg) j and the spring force k(δeq+x) j

where j is a unit vector pointing up. Thus the resultant force is (kx) j. Newton's second

law of motion states that this force should be equal to mass times the acceleration, i.e.

−m𝑥̈ = 𝑘𝑥

where acceleration 𝑥̈ is positive in the - j direction and the dot denotes derivative with

respect to time. Thus the equation governing the vibration of a mass is given by

𝑚𝑥̈ + 𝑘𝑥 = 0 (1)

Figure 1. A mass spring system.

Note that we have ignored any damping forces in equation (1). Damping forces are

proportional to velocity and can be modeled by inserting a term 𝑓0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 in Equation (1),

however, for the purposes of this lab we will ignore this. Such vibrations where the only

external force on the spring-mass system is gravity are called free vibrations. In addition

if there is an external force exciting the mass, then the situation is called forced vibration.
Equation (1) is a second order ordinary differential equation and its solution is given by

[1]:

𝑥̇
𝑥(𝑡) = 𝑥0 cos(𝑛 𝑡) + 0 sin⁡(𝑡) (2)
𝑛

where 𝑥0 is the position and 𝑥̇ 0 is the velocity of the mass at time t = 0 and the natural

frequency 𝑛 is given by:

𝑘
𝑛 = √𝑚 (3)

In the simplest case when you displace the mass a distance 𝑥0 hold it and then let go, the

mass is going to perform a harmonic motion given by 𝑥0 cos⁡(𝑛 𝑡). Since there is no

damping in this mathematical model the motion will go on indefinitely? Now suppose

that instead of these free oscillations we apply a cyclic exciting force 𝑓0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 (Figure 1

right). Then the equation governing the vibrations of the mass is given by [1]:

𝑚𝑥̈ + 𝑘𝑥 = 𝑓0 cos⁡(𝑡) (4)

and the solution to this equation is:

x0 f 0 cos(t )  cos(n t )

x(t )  x0 cos(n t )  sin( n t ) 
  
2
k
1   
n

 n 

(5)

Notice that in the limit as ω goes to 𝑛 the coefficient of the last term goes to infinity.

This condition is called resonance. Thus the mass will experience large oscillations when

the frequency of the exciting force approaches the natural frequency of the spring mass

system.

To better understand the situation, let us use L'Hospitals's rule to evaluate the limit of this

term as,
 cos(𝑡) − cos⁡(𝑛 𝑡) 𝑛 𝑡
lim  = sin⁡(𝑛 𝑡)
→𝑛 1 − ( )2 2
𝑛

Then the solution to the forced oscillation of the mass is given by

𝑥̇ 𝑓0 𝑛 𝑡
𝑥(𝑡) = 𝑥0 cos(𝑛 𝑡) + 0 sin(𝑛 𝑡) + sin⁡(𝑛 𝑡) (6)
𝑛 𝑘 2

This shows that at resonance the oscillations x(t) are no longer cyclic and because of the

third term increase linearly with time. Machine elements and structures are designed so

that resonance conditions are never satisfied during normal operating conditions. Notice

that in order to do this we need to know the natural frequency ωn. Suppose we have a

source of excitation where we can change the frequency of the exciting force. Then we

can continuously start to increase the frequency from zero and monitor the oscillations.

The frequency at which the oscillations become unusually large is the natural frequency.

This simple principle will be used to find the natural frequency of a rotating shaft

carrying a mass in this experiment.

When a mass is placed on a simply supported cylindrical beam (shaft), the shaft deflects

due to the weight of the mass. The elastic deflections are small, but nevertheless, the

shaft is no longer straight and the center of gravity of the mass is displaced from the

original axis (see Figure 2). If we now subject the shaft to rotations about its axis, then

the rotating center of gravity of the mass applies a centrifugal force. This centrifugal

force excites the mass and hence the rotating shaft carrying a mass is experiencing forced

oscillations. In particular, both the vertical and horizontal displacements are subjected to

harmonic excitations like in Equation (5).

 Figure 2: A simply supported shaft carrying a disk of mass m.

Remember that the resonance frequency is the natural frequency of the system.

Theoretically this can be obtained by simply analyzing the free vibration case. For the

situation shown in Figure 2, the vertical deflection of the mass δ is given by：

𝑚𝑔𝐿3 𝛼2 𝛽 2
𝛿= (7)
3𝐸𝐼

where L is the length of the shaft between the supports, the mass m is placed at a distance

a from the left end of the beam, the length b = L - a, E is the Young's modulus of the

material and I is the moment of inertia of the shaft. The fractional lengths α=a/L and

β=b/L. For shafts of diameter d, the moment of inertia is given by I = πd4/64. By viewing

the shaft as a spring we can write the stiffness of the shaft as the ratio of the force (weight

of the mass) to the deflection, i.e.

𝑚𝑔 3𝐸𝐼
𝑘= = 𝐿3 𝛼 2 𝛽 2 (8)
𝛿

Using Equation (3) we can obtain the natural frequency of the shaft as:

𝑘 𝑔 3𝐸𝐼
𝑛 = √𝑚 = √𝛿 = √𝑚𝐿3 𝛼2 𝛽2 (9)

In the rest of this lab manual you will learn how to measure the resonance frequency.

You can then compare the theoretical values with the experimental measurements.

3. Methods
The idea is to vary the speed of a rotating shaft and measure the critical speed by

observing the large oscillations corresponding to resonance. A shaft made from a steel

alloy with Young's modulus of E = 207 GPa as well as a disk and attachment with a total

mass of 1kg will be used. The position of the mass can be changed to obtain different

values of fractional lengths α and β. A simple fixture for a simply-supported shaft and a

motor with variable speed controller from Terco educational supplies will be used.

The critical speed will be measured as follows:

1. Start the motor and increase the speed to about 200 rpm. The oscillations will be

clearly visible. Increase the speed, slowly but continuously. It is important that you

continue to increase the speed since you do not want to dawdle at the critical speed.

2. As you approach the critical speed, the oscillations will grow uncontrollably. Do not

stop, instead continue to increase the speed and go past the resonance condition by about

300 rpm.

3. Then slowly decrease the speed continuously below the critical speed and finally stop

the motor. One student can control the motor, while another is reading the tachometer or

the hand-held tachometer. The critical speed is the reading corresponding to the large

oscillations.

The experimental procedure is as follows.

1) First measure the diameter of the shaft using a micrometer. Since the moment of

inertia depends’ on d4, take several measurements to estimate the mean and standard

deviation (s.d.).

2) Next you will measure the critical speed. First fix L (mm).

3) Fix the mass at the fractional length α of approximately 0.3. Note down the exact value

of the fractional lengths. Now measure the critical speed for increasing speeds, ’ and for
decreasing speeds, ’’ as the experimental estimates of n . Repeat the measurement.

Use the average value of the four measurements as the critical speed.

4) Measure the critical speed for the fractional lengths listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Fractional length values (The values can be slightly different.).

Test series No. α Β Test series No. α β

1 0.3 0.7 6 0.55 0.45
2 0.35 0.65 7 0.6 0.4
3 0.4 0.6 8 0.65 0.35
4 0.45 0.55 9 0.7 0.3
5 0.5 0.5

How can you estimate the amount of viscous drag on the system? If you can think of

some simple way, borrow a stopwatch from the TA and try to estimate it.

4. Data analysis

Calculate the theoretical value of the critical speed ωtn corresponding to each of the

measurements. Note that Equation (9) provides the resonance frequency which is in

radians per second. The theoretical critical speed is obtained by converting to revolutions

per minute (1 rad/s = 30/π rpm). A spreadsheet will greatly simplify these calculations. In

order to compare the theoretical and experimental values calculate the factor

 = 𝑡𝑛 (10)
𝑒𝑛

Ideally, η = 1 and there is perfect agreement between theory and experiment. You will

have at least eighteen values of η, using which you can find the mean and 95%

confidence interval for η. If you suppose that there is perfect agreement between theory

and experiment, then you can use Equation (9) to find the Young's modulus of the shaft

according to

𝑚(𝑒𝑛 )2 𝛼2 𝛽 2
𝐸= (11)
3𝐼𝐿
Of course, you won't get η= 1, but assuming that the theory is applicable for the case, find

the mean and 95% confidence interval for the Young's modulus.

You need to use the spreadsheet as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of data.

No. α β L I tn ’ ’’ en  E
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Where en=(’+’’)/2.

5. Issues for discussion

Discuss the various factors that can influence the measurements. Compare the theoretical

and experimental values in an effort to evaluate the validity of the theory. Discuss the

various factors that can affect the comparison. Do you see any similarity between the

shaft with a weight and mechanical machinery? What is the relevance of this experiment

to designing machine elements.

REFERENCES

1. Rao, S.S., Mechanical Vibrations, A