The bulk-flow theory for the rotordynamic (RD) fluid force has been investigated for many years. These conventional bulk-flow analyses were performed under the assumption and restriction that the whirl amplitude was very small compared to the seal clearance while actual turbomachinery often causes the large amplitude vibration, and these conventional analyses may not estimate its RD fluid force accurately. In this paper, the perturbation analysis of the bulk-flow theory is extended to investigate the RD fluid force in the case of concentric circular whirl with relatively large amplitude. A set of perturbation solutions through third-order perturbations are derived explicitly. It relaxes the restriction of conventional bulk flow analysis, and it enables to investigate the RD fluid force for the whirl amplitude up to about a half of the clearance. Using derived equations, the nonlinear analytical solutions of the flow rates and pressure are deduced, and the characteristics of the RD fluid force are investigated in both radial and tangential directions. The influence of the whirl amplitude on the RD fluid force is explained and validated by comparing with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. These results are useful for the analysis and prediction of frequency response of the vibration of the rotating shaft system considering the RD fluid forces.

Rotor-dynamic fluid force (RD fluid force) of turbomachinery is one of the causes of the shaft vibration problem. Bulk flow theory is the method for analyzing this RD fluid force, and it has been widely used in the design stage of machine. The conventional bulk flow theory has been carried out under the assumption of concentric circular shaft's orbit with a small amplitude. However, actual rotating machinery's operating condition often does not hold this assumption, for example, existence of static load on the machinery causes static eccentricity. In particular, when such a static eccentricity is significant, the nonlinearity of RD fluid force may increase and become non-negligible. Therefore, conventional bulk flow theory is not applicable for the analysis of the RD fluid force in such a situation. In this paper, the RD fluid force of the annular plain seal in the case of circular whirling orbit with static eccentricity is investigated. The case with both the significant static eccentricity and the moderate whirling amplitude is considered, and the perturbation analysis of the bulk-flow theory is extended to investigate the RD fluid force in such cases. In this analysis, the assumption of the perturbation solution is extended to both static terms and whirling terms up to the third order. Then, the additional terms are caused by the coupling of these terms through nonlinearity, and these three kinds of terms are considered in the extended perturbation analysis of the bulk flow theory. As a result, a set of nonlinear analytical equations of the extended perturbation analysis of the bulk flow theory, for the case with both the significant static eccentricity and the moderate whirling amplitude, is deduced. The RD fluid force for such cases is analyzed, and the occurrence of constant component, backward synchronous component, and super-harmonic components in the RD fluid force is observed in addition to the forward synchronous component. The representation of RD fluid force coefficients (RD coefficients) are modified for the case with significant static eccentricity, and the variation of RD fluid force coefficients for the magnitude of static eccentricity is analyzed. These analytical results of RD fluid force and its RD coefficients are compared with the numerical results using finite difference analysis and experimental results. As a result, the validity of the extended perturbation analysis of the bulk-flow theory for the case with both the significant static eccentricity and the moderate whirling amplitude is confirmed.

In recent years, along with demands for higher rotational speed and higher efficiency in the rotating machinery, shaft vibration has been a serious problem. One of the causes of this shaft vibration problem is the rotor-dynamic fluid force (RD fluid force) generated by working fluid at turbo machinery parts. It is important in the design stage of rotating machines to estimate the RD fluid force and predict the stability of the rotor system accurately. Therefore, many researches have been conducted to clarify the characteristics of RD fluid force. One of the traditional methods for analyzing the RD fluid force is the bulk flow theory. However, in conventional bulk flow analysis, it is assumed that the amplitude of the shaft displacement is sufficiently smaller than the clearance. Therefore, influence of nonlinearity in the large amplitude whirl may not be included in this analysis. Accordingly, this paper focuses on constructing a coupled analysis of the fluid force and the shaft vibration that describes each behavior of fluid and shaft at the same time. By using this coupled analysis, the interaction between fluid and shaft systems can be taken into consideration more accurately. Regarding the fluid region, finite difference method is used for bulk flow continuity and momentum transport equations. Incompressible fluid is assumed, and the pressure field is calculated by solving the Poisson equation of pressure. In solving the Poisson equation of pressure, a specific problem for this coupled analysis relating unknown shaft acceleration arises. In this paper, this problem is solved by obtaining the approximated acceleration based on Newmark-beta technique. This coupled analysis is conducted for a simple flexible rotor system with annular plain seal, and the frequency response is obtained. First, the case with isotropic support stiffness and with no gravitational force is considered. Then, the case with the constant load and the case with anisotropic support stiffness are analyzed. These analytical results show that both the constant load and structural anisotropy may affect the stability of the rotor system. As a result, the usefulness of the proposed coupled analysis procedure of the fluid force and the shaft vibration is validated.

Rotordynamic (RD) fluid forces of various kinds of seals has been investigated and reported by Childs [1], Iwatsusbo [2][3] and so on, because it has significant influence on the stability of rotating machinery. Those studies were carried out at lower speeds than the actual machines because of various restrictions such as the limitations of the experimental unit. Then, extrapolation approximations using the obtained results were used to predict the RD fluid force of the actual machines. However, when the rotor vibration is analyzed for the high speed rotating shaft such as a rocket turbopump, a more accurate evaluation of the rotational speed dependence of the derived RD fluid force is desired. In this study, the rotational speed dependence of RD fluid forces in the case of the concentric circular whirl in the annular plain seal is investigated. As a result, the characteristics of these fluid forces vary with the rotational speed significantly. In addition, the strong dependencies of RD fluid force coefficients calculated from these fluid forces on the rotational speed are observed. It is revealed that the changes of the RD fluid force coefficients to rotational speed were modeled by using the quadratic function.

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