Tip-timing measurements of transient vibrations in mistuned bladed disks

Bladed disks are usually characterized by a rich dynamic response during service due to the occurrence of several mode shapes that vibrate at resonance within the operative range. In particular, during start-ups and shutdowns, the variable speed causes a temporary crossing of resonance that cannot be neglected to determine stress envelope and safety margins of the system during its whole mission. In fact, fluid flow induces fluctuating loads with variable frequencies (non-stationary regime) on the blades being responsible of a dynamic response which does not follow the so-called steady-state (stationary) response. This paper proposes a novel post-processing method for Blade Tip-Timing (BTT) measurements for the identification of the resonance parameters of mistuned bladed disks working in non-stationary operative conditions. The method is based on a two degrees of freedom model (2DOF) and focuses on transient resonances in which two mistuned modes with close resonance frequencies are involved in the dynamic response. In such circumstances, the identification method based on the single degree of freedom (1DOF) model usually fails.To verify the effectiveness of the method, numerical and experimental investigations have been performed. First, a mathematical simulator based on a lumped parameter model of a bladed disk system is used to generate the BTT simulated data. Experimental signals are measured using a commercial BTT system through a set of optical probes mounted circumferentially around a rotating dummy blisk. It is shown that the method produces accurate predictions for the numerical simulation, even in the presence of considerable noise levels. Moreover, experimental results confirm a successful implementation of the method on the actual BTT measurements.