An Active Elastic Support/Dry Friction Damper: New Modeling and Analysis for Vibration Control of Rotor Systems

This article introduces a new type of active damper—elastic support/dry friction damper (ESDFD) for vibration control of rotor systems and its performances. The basic operation principle of ESDFD in rotor system was introduced. In particular, a two-dimensional friction model-ball/plate model was proposed, by which a dynamic model of rotor systems with ESDFD was established and verified. The damping performance of the ESDFD has been studied numerically. The simulation results show that the damping performance of ESDFD is closely related to the characteristics of the rotor’s mode. For obtaining the damper’s best performance, the damper should be located at the elastic support in which the vibration energy is concentrated. And the damper not only provides external damping to the rotor system, but also increases extra stiffness into the rotor system. The stiffness of the stationary disk and the tangential contact stiffness of the contact interface are connected in series between the moving disk and the mounting base of the stationary disk. The larger of this combined stiffness, the better of the damper’s damping performance. The application of ESDFD to the vibration suppression of a rotor system is investigated experimentally. A switch control scheme for the damper is introduced; the effectiveness and control characteristics with control scheme for attenuating the vibration of rotor systems are experimentally investigated.