Periodic Solutions in Rotor Dynamic Systems With Nonlinear Supports: A General Approach

A new quantitative method of estimating steady state periodic behavior in nonlinear systems, based on the trigonometric collocation method, is outlined. A procedure is developed to analyze large rotor dynamic systems with nonlinear supports by the use of the above method in conjunction with Component Mode Synthesis. The algorithm discussed is seen to reduce the original problem to solving nonlinear algebraic equations in terms of only the coordinates associated with the nonlinear supports and is a big improvement over commonly used integration methods. The feasibility and advantages of the procedure so developed are illustrated with the help of an example of a typical rotor dynamic system with an uncentered squeeze film damper. Future work on the investigation of the stability of the periodic response so obtained is outlined.