To suppress the excessive transcritical vibration of a supercritical rotor, dry friction damper is a popular choice especially in rotorcraft and aero-engine design. In the current work, we focus on the nonlinear dynamics of asymmetrically supported supercritical rotor equipped with a dry friction damper and the influence of support asymmetry on damper’s performance. Governing equations of the rotor/damper system, which fully consider the nonlinear rub-impact and side dry friction effects, are derived. Typical results of symmetrically supported rotor/damper systems are firstly demonstrated and quantitatively compared with experimental counterparts to confirm the predicting capability of the nonlinear dry friction damper model. Afterward, influences of asymmetric direct stiffness and skew-symmetric cross-coupling stiffness are discussed. It is found that direct stiffness asymmetry deteriorates the transcritical vibration attenuation capability of the damper but reduces the width of transcritical region. For system with a severer direct stiffness asymmetry, a larger pre-tightening force is suggested to be imposed. Besides, unstable self-excited vibration induced by skew-symmetric cross-coupling stiffness is found to be well-limited by the dry friction damper within entire interested rotational speed range. Moreover, during critical speed transition, the self-excited frequency component is completely suppressed.

PurposeThe supercritical design of tail rotor drive shaft has attracted more attention in helicopter design due to its high power–weight ratio and low maintenance cost. However, there exists excessive vibration when the shaft passes through the critical frequency. Dry friction damper is the equipment applied to the drive shaft to suppress the excessive vibration. In order to figure out the damping mechanism of the dry friction damper and improve the damping efficiency, the dynamic model of the shaft/damper system is established based on the Jeffcott rotor model.Design/methodology/approachThe typical frequency response of the system is studied through bifurcation diagrams, amplitude-frequency characteristic curves and waterfall frequency response spectrum. The typical transient responses under frequency sweeps are also obtained.FindingsThe results show that the response of the system changes from periodic no-rub motion to quasi-periodic rub-impact motion, and then to synchronous full annular rub-impact, and finally, back to periodic no-rub motion. The slip of the rub-impact ring improves the stability of the system. Besides, the effects of the system parameters including critical dry friction force, rub-impact friction coefficient, initial clearance on the stability and the vibration damping capacity are studied. It is observed that the stability changes significantly varying the three parameters respectively. The vibration damping capacity is mainly affected by the critical dry friction force and the initial clearance.Originality/valuePresented results provide guidance for the design of the dry friction damper.

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