315

Review Paper

Rotordynamics standards :new developments and the

need for involvement
A G Parkinson, BSc, MSc, PhD, DIC, CEng, FIMechE, MRINA
Engineering Mechanics, The Open University, Milton Keynes

P M McGuire, BSc
Blading Design, GEC-Alsthom Turbine Generators Limited, Rugby, Warwickshire
The paper reports recent developments in international standards which are particularly pertinent to manufacturers and operators of
rotating machinery. I n particular it discusses standards relating to balancing, especially flexible shafts, and acceptable vibration levels
fir rotating machinery.
I n the area of balancing the report is very opportune because, following an unanimous international ballot at the Draft International
Standard (DIS) stage, a new standard I S 0 11342, 'Mechanical vibration-methods and criteria for the mechanical balancing offlexible
rotors', has just been published. Nevertheless, despite publication of this new standard, I S 0 11342, work is already under way on a
major revision in which the classification of rotors will be completely changed.
K e y words: international standards, rotating machinery, vibration, balancing, rotordynamics
1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 General
The last thirty years has been a very active period in the
development of international standards relating to the
vibration and balancing of rotating machines. In particular standards relating to balancing, especially of
machines incorporating flexible shafts, have paralleled
the strong, academic and industrial, research endeavours in this area. The standards work has been undertaken by two sub-committees (SC1 and SC2) and some
related working groups under the overall umbrella of
I S 0 Technical Committee (TC) 108: Mechanical Vibration and Shock of the International Standards Organization based in Geneva. The scope of the Technical
Committee is very broad, covering the whole field of
mechanical vibration and shock, including human
response, and is presently being widened further-a
matter that is touched on briefly at the end of this
paper. The subject of this presentation is only a small
part of the remit of I S 0 TC108, but it represents the
areas germane to rotordynamics.
This paper is concerned with standards produced by
I S 0 whose scope is intended to cover a wide range of
machinery, but of course other bodies also publish standards for specific types of rotating machinery. For
example, standards of the American petroleum industry
(API) dealing with special-purpose steam turbines, gas
turbines and compressors for general refinery services
(API 612, 616 and 617 respectively) include sections
related to machinery dynamics, balancing and vibration.
In the area of balancing, standards were developed
for balancing procedures, balance criteria, balancing
machines and field balancing. One pioneering standard
was IS0 1940, relating to the balancing of rotating rigid
bodies, which was published in 1973 and was subsequently updated and eventually superseded by I S 0
1940/1 in 1986. (A full list of international standards
The MS was receiued on 21 July 1994 and was accepted for publication on
22 December 1994.
CO6494 (0 IMechE 1995

relating to rotor balancing and vibration evaluation is

given in Appendices 1 and 2 which also list some standards under development.) The production of standards
for flexible rotors followed some years behind the rigid
rotor document, but I S 0 5406 on balancing flexible
rotors and I S 0 5343 on criteria for flexible rotor balancing were published in 1980 and 1983 respectively.
The foundation stone for the development of machinery vibration standards was laid in the 1930s by T.C.
Rathbone, who correlated the subjective opinions of
practising engineers with the limited quantitative measurements available at that time. He proposed guidetines in the form of an amplitude/frequency chart, which
was broadly consistent with the concept that the vibration of different machines operating in the frequency
range 10-lo00 Hz could be considered to be of equal
severity if their r.m.s. velocity was the same. This
concept was adopted in 1964 in the German standard
VDI 2056, which also defined scales of vibration with 4
dB steps, since a change of this magnitude is accepted to
correspond approximately to the limit of human perception. The early international standards, I S 0 2372
and I S 0 3945, first issued in 1974 and 1985 respectively,
retained this approach. These standards have been
applied extensively but recognition of their limitations
has led to the developments described below.
This presentation gives a concise introduction to the
above standards, outlines developments in the last ten
years and indicates ongoing reviews and revisions. It
is hoped that, as a result, a wider range of involvement
in the development of international standards will be
encouraged from academics and researchers, as well as
manufacturers and users. It is very important that international standards reflect new understanding and are of
practical relevance. For example, the major changes at
present under way in the standard for flexible rotors are
an ideal opportunity for fresh, skilled, knowledgeable
input, as are the recent developments in the area of susceptibility and sensitivity to change in unbalance. The
simplest way to make contact with this work is probably through the national standards bodies in home
Proc lnrtn Mefh Engrr Vol 209