Looseness fault of rotating parts, which is one of the common failures in the rotor system, has a serious influence on the normal operation of the rotor system, and leads to the reduction of mechanical power, or even machine malfunction. Generally, mechanical looseness includes pedestal looseness, base looseness and so on. For a double-disc single-span rotor system with pedestal looseness fault, Ma et al. [
1] used three dimensional spectrums and shaft center trajectory to analyze the influence of no loose bolt stiffness, looseness gap, and rotational speed on the dynamic characteristics of the rotor system. Sun et al. [
2] proposed a finite element model which can characterize complex structures, and verified the effectiveness of the proposed model by comparing critical speed and vibration mode. Zhang et al. [
3] proposed a rotor model with nonlinear oil film force, and solved this mode by the numerical method of Runge-Kutta, and obtained frequency characteristics of the rotor system. Lu et al. [
4] proposed a coupling model of the rotor system with looseness and rub-impact faults, and discussed the influence of the looseness stiffness and the clearance between rotor and stator on the dynamic characteristics of the rotor system based on the nonlinear finite element method and the contact theory. Based on nonlinearity measure, Mian et al. [
5] proposed an evaluation method of the pedestal looseness in bearing-rotor system with piecewise-linear stiffness, damping and nonlinear elastic force under constant rotational speed at constant speed. In Ref. [
6‐
9], the corresponding model was proposed, and the dynamic characteristics of the proposed model were analyzed. Liu [
10] proposed a dynamic model of looseness-rubbing coupling fault in the rotor-bearing system with dual-disk and three-support. Wang [
11] proposed a model of rotor-support-casing in the rotor system with support looseness fault. Yu [
12] proposed a dynamic model of rotor-bearing system with loose support. Chen [
13] proposed a dynamics model in a rotor-ball bearing-stator coupling system with rotor unbalance-loose coupling fault. For the complex movement of a single loose bearing pedestal rotor-bearing system, Zhang [
14] proposed a nonlinear non-steady oil-film force model with short bearings. Cao et al. [
15] proposed a nonlinear dynamic equation of rotor-bearing system with looseness fault between the pedestal and the casing. Xu et al. [
16] proposed a dynamics model of dual rotor system with loose bearing pedestal based on the dual rotor structure of experiment rig. Yang et al. [
17] analyzed the vibration features of the rotor system with respect to the effects of geometrical nonlinearity, rotor-stator rub and pedestal looseness, and revealed the change rules of resonant characteristic and rub region under different loose stiffness. Cao et al. [
18] proposed a vibration differential equation with piecewise-linear stiffness by considering the system with one-side support looseness and the rotor with unbalanced extraneous exciting force. Cao et al. [
19] proposed a dynamic model of rotor-bearing-pedestal system to investigate the vibration characteristics and stability due to fit clearance.
However, the above researches ignore the looseness fault in the disc-shaft system. Because the working environment of the disc in the rotor system is complex, and the working time is also long, the looseness of the disc-shaft easily occurs. When the interference between the disc and shaft is insufficient, the relative sliding of disc-shaft will be easily caused. This relative sliding has an influence on the dynamic characteristics of the rotor system with a loose disc. At present, some progress has been made in the looseness of rotating parts of rotor system [
20‐
25]. Behzad [
20,
21] proposed the model of the looseness of disc-shaft system with large clearance based on the hypothesis that the rotating speed of the disc is constant, and the disc and the shaft are always in contact. However this model ignored the collision and friction of disc-shaft, and assumed that the disc and the shaft rotated at the same speed. Obviously, the engineering practice does not meet these requirements. In practice, the disc-shaft looseness in the rotor system generally also occurs when the clearance is small, even no clearance [
22]. In our works [
23,
24], a dynamic model of rotor system with the clearance between the shaft and the disc is proposed in Ref. [
23],and a rotor system model with disc-shaft looseness with non-steady-state oil film force is proposed in Ref. [
24]. Wei [
25,
26] studied the disc-shaft looseness fault in rotor system caused by the excessive speed of the shaft. However these research results in disc-shaft system do not consider the influence of the disc-shaft looseness fault on the motion state of the rotor system with the insufficient interference force.
Therefore, the motion differential equations of the rotor system with loose disc caused by the insufficient interference force is proposed based on the contact model of the disc-shaft system with the microscopic surface morphology, and the numerical simulation and experiment test have been completed. The influence factors of the motion state of the disc, the vibration characteristics of the disc, the variation of the displacement difference of disc-shaft, and the trajectory of the disc. These obtained outcomes provide theoretical support for the fault diagnosis of the disc-shaft system with slight loose disc in engineering practice.