CRITICAL SPEEDS IN ROTATING MACHINERY

Mohsen Nakhaeinejad, Suri Ganeriwala

SpectraQuest Inc., 8205 Hermitage Road, Richmond, VA 23228
Tel: (804)261-3300 www.spectraquest.com
Oct 2008

Abstract
Critical speeds of rotating machinery in presence of different couplings and bearing faults are studied. A
rotating machine including motor, coupling, rolling element bearings, shaft and disks was modeled in
XLRotor, a powerful software for rotordynamics analysis. Effects of rotor/disks configurations and
coupling stiffness on critical speeds were studied. The SpectraQuest Machinery Fault Simulator (MFS)
Magnum was used to conduct series of experiments with four types of coupling: beam, lovejoy, gear and
rigid couplings with different shaft/disk configurations. Also, bearing faults were introduced to the machine
and the change of critical speeds was observed. Observations validate the XLRotor model and show the
critical speed behavior of the MFS machine.

Keywords: Critical Speed, Resonance, Rotating Machinery, Rotor Coupling

1. INTRODUCTION
All objects exhibit at least one natural frequency. This is the frequency at which the
object will vibrate if struck once. The classic example is a bell or tuning fork.
Resonance occurs when the object is repeatedly excited at the natural frequency.
Physically, energy is confined within the boundaries of the structure and cannot escape or
dissipate quickly, creating standing wave deformations at the natural frequencies. The
standing waves displaying the actual motion at a natural frequency are known as mode
shapes. Since resonance results in large amplitudes that can be both noisy and
destructive, good machine design calls for avoiding such conditions. As a result, in
designing a machine, modeling and calculations are performed to estimate the natural
frequencies of the various parts and the entire structure. With this knowledge, the
machine design can be altered during the design stages to avoid resonant conditions.

The expression critical speed or simply critical applies to a rotating system, particularly
shaft and rotors, as opposed to stationary structures. The critical speed of a rotating
system occurs when the rotational speed matches a natural frequency. Resonance occurs
as the rotating speed passes through each natural frequency. Minimizing rotational
unbalance and unnecessary external forces are very important to reducing the overall
forces, which initiate resonance. The lowest speed at which a natural frequency is
encountered is called the first critical. As the speed increases, additional critical speeds
may be observed. For example, there might be second and third criticals. Critical speeds
significantly greater than the maximum operating speed of the machine are of less
interest and importance. There are two primary concerns when designing a rotating
machine:
Avoid operation at or closed to criticals
 Safe acceleration and deceleration through the criticals
Due to the enormous destructive energy and vibration at resonance, the machine must be
designed to avoid operation at or closed to critical speeds. Also, there must be assurance
that machine can accelerate and decelerate safely through the criticals if required to
operate above the criticals. Safely refers not only to catastrophic breakage and human
injury but also to excessive wear on the equipment.

Since the real dynamics of machines in operation is difficult to model theoretically,

calculations are based on the simplified model which resembles the various structural
components. Obtained equations from models can be solved either analytically or
numerically. Also, Finite Element Methods (FEM) is another approach for modeling and
analysis of the machine for natural frequencies. Resonance tests to confirm the precise
frequencies are often performed on the prototype machine and then the design revised as
necessary to assure that resonance does not become an issue. In addition, resonance
testing may be required when troubleshooting the machine or components that experience
unexpected failures or short lives. There are several methods of performing resonance
tests on machines, parts or components. They have been classified according to the type
of forced excitation:
Bump or hammer test
Shaker test
Transient test
The primary purpose of all tests is to identify the natural frequencies and the only
difference is type of excitations. Accordingly the observations and analysis to obtain the
natural frequencies for each test would be different.

Bump or hammer tests are generally conducted on stationary individual component or

several attached parts as an assembly to reveal the natural frequencies. The object is
excited using hammer and free response of the object is captured. The high spectral peaks
represent the natural frequencies. Accelerometers are mounted on the component in the
directions of interest. The data acquisition system (DAQ) is set to display the highest
amplitudes of disturbance within the desired frequency range. Modal analysis is used to
identify the natural frequencies, damping factors, and mode shapes using the collected
data.

In shaker test the part or assembly is excited using a shaker while capturing the forced
vibration response. Shaker is a precisely controlled vibrator driven by mechanical,
piezoelectric, electrodynamic, electrohydraulic or pneumatic actuators. In most cases the
part under examination is not in operation. The vibration pattern may adhere to various
waveforms although a sine wave is probably the most common. The amplitude and
pattern of exciting disturbance can be adjusted to meet the requirements. To locate the
natural frequencies, the driving frequency is varied and the predominant amplitude peaks
recorded as resonance occurs. Here again, the modal analysis is used to identify the
natural frequencies, damping factors, and mode shapes.

Transient or startup/coastdown test which is used in this study is an excellent way to

quickly scan the whole machine for natural. The machine starts up and accelerates to a
maximum speed and coast down to the rest with constant acceleration and deceleration
rates. The machine is excited by itself as the dynamic forces come into play. Vibration
signals are collected and the high spectral peaks represent the natural frequencies.

The objective of this technical note is to study the critical speeds in rotating machinery.
To achieve this goal, a rotating system including motor, shaft, disks, coupling and rolling
element bearings is considered and the XLRotor is used for modeling and analysis. The
stiffness and damping associated with the rolling element bearings are calculated in
software and the whole rotating system is solved for damped critical speeds. Experiments
were conducted on a SpectraQuests Machinery Fault Simulator (MFS) Magnum to
validate the XLRotor data. Also, changes of critical speeds due to locations of disks on
the shaft, type of coupling and faulted bearings were studied by experiments.

2. CRITICAL SPEED ANALYSIS USING XLROTOR

XLRotor is a powerful software which can be used for rotordynamics analysis of critical
speeds, stability, mode shapes, imbalance, and transient response. In this study the
SpectraQuests Machinery Fault Simulator (MFS) Magnum was modeled and critical
speeds are obtained for different rotor/disk configurations. In the first set of
configurations, one light disk mounted at the center of the shaft and two heavy disks
mounted on the sides. In the second set of configurations, one heavy disk mounted at the
center and light disks on the sides. The whole sets of configurations with related critical
speeds are shown in table 1.

Table 1 Different disk/rotor configurations used in XLRotor model

Light disk center Heavy disk center

Heavy disks sides Light disks sides
st nd st nd
A B C D 1 damped 2 damped 1 damped 2 damped
[in] [in] [in] [in] CS [RPM] CS [RPM] CS [RPM] CS [RPM]
2 11 11 2 2278 7785 1515 10100
3 10 10 3 2107 6111 1503 8800
4 9 9 4 2050 5897 1490 7969
5 8 8 5 1853 5501 1477 7500
6 7 7 6 1707 5311 1464 7200
7 6 6 7 1892 5448 1454 7150
8 5 5 8 1502 5457 1445 7200
9 4 4 9 1434 5815 1441 7428
10 3 3 10 1386 6473 1440 7515
11 2 2 11 1356 7624 1445 8631

Table 2 shows the parameters and specifications of the MFS rotor which was modeled in
XLRotor. Figure 1 shows the changes of 1st and 2nd critical speeds as the rotor/disks
configuration changes.
 Table 2 Specifications of the MFS Magnum machine modeled in XLRotor
Motor: Marathon Four In One CAT No - D 391
beam coupling stiffness obtained by experiment 180 (psi)
shaft diameter 0.625 (inch)
shaft length 36.25 (inch)
shaft overhung from outboard bearing 3.5 (inch)
bearings span 28.5 (inch)
light disk diameter (aluminum): 6 (inch)
light disk thickness 0.625 (inch)
heavy disk diameter (steel) 5 (inch)
heavy disk thickness 0.875 (inch)
No. of balls in rolling element bearings 8
ball diameter of the bearings 0.3125 (inch)
pitch diameter of the bearings 1.319 (inch)

12000
heavy disk center

10000 light disk center

Critical Speed [RPM]

8000 2nd mode

6000

4000

2000 1st mode

0
Disks locations on the shaft

Fig. 1 Changes of damped critical speeds as disks locations change. Motor, shaft, disks and bearings are
modeled in XLRotor and critical speeds are obtained.

Couplings connect the rotor of the motor to the rotating shaft. Changing the coupling can
change the stiffness of the beam as well as the boundary conditions. This effect can
increase or decrease the critical speeds.
 A=6 [in] B=7 [in] C=7 [in] D=6 [in] 7000
coupling st nd
1 damped 2 damped 6000
stiffness CS [RPM] CS [RPM]
[psi]

Critical Speed [RPM]

5000
3.0E+01 1691 5441 2nd Critical Speed
1.0E+02 1699 5304 4000 1st Critical Speed
3.0E+02 1720 5121
1.0E+03 3000
1781 5374
3.0E+03 1907 5488 2000
1.0E+04 2008 5675
3.0E+04 2120 6020 1000
3.0E+05 2283 5980 0
3.0E+06 2312 6016 1.0E+00 1.0E+02 1.0E+04 1.0E+06 1.0E+08
3.0E+07 2305 6021 Coupling Stiffness E [psi]

Fig. 2 Changes of damped critical speeds as coupling stiffness changes. Motor, shaft, disks, coupling and
bearings are modeled in XLRotor and critical speeds are obtained.

3. EXPERIMENT SETUP
The tests were conducted on a SpectraQuests Machinery Fault Simulator (MFS)
Magnum which is illustrated in Figure 3. In the simulator, the rotor shaft is supported by
two rolling element bearings and connected to the motor shaft through the coupling. The
length of the rotor shaft between the two bearings is 28.5 inches and the shaft diameter is
0.625 inches. Three disks are mounted on the shaft at different locations and the
unbalance can be introduced to the middle disk to excite the rotor for the critical speeds.

Fig. 3 SpectraQuests Machinery Fault Simulator (MFS) Magnum used

for the critical speed test

Two tri-axial accelerometers were mounted on the inboard and outboard bearing
housings and one accelerometer is mounted on the motor to record the vertical vibration
of the motor. The tachometer records the shaft speed. Multi-channel SpectraPad data
acquisition device was used in the experiment and the signal processing and analysis
were carried out in VQPro software.
 4. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
Two sets of experiments were carried out to achieve the objectives.
(a) Critical speed test with different couplings and different configurations
(b) Critical speed test with good and healthy bearings

For the set (a), four different couplings: beam, lovejoy, gear and rigid couplings were
installed on the machine. For each coupling three rotors mounted on the shaft with five
different disks configurations. For the set (b), the inboard bearing was replaced by faulty
bearing and for each case three different disks configurations were introduced. Also, a
bearing loader mounted close to the inboard bearing to apply vertical load on the bearing.
This configuration is illustrated in Fig. 3. For both sets (a) and (b), the motor acceleration
and deceleration was set to 80 [Hz/min] and, the maximum speed was set to 5000 RPM,
the 5/8 shaft was used as the rotor and a 16 g-inch imbalance was introduced at center
disk.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

All experimental data have been collected and analyzed using SpectraQuests VibraQuest
software package. Transient, Waterfall and Analysis tools of this software package were
mainly used in this study.

5.1. Changes of critical speeds due to disks locations and couplings

For each coupling, the first critical speeds for five different configurations are obtained as
shown in Table 3

Table 3 Experiment design to study effect of disks positions [inch] and shaft/motor couplings on the 1st
critical speed. Critical speeds are shown in the table in RPM.

Beam Lovejoy Gear Rigid

Coupling Coupling Coupling Coupling
A B C D
2 11 11 2 2628 3150 2520 3150
4 9 9 4 2280 2550 2250 2928
6 7 7 6 1800 2028 1728 2472
8 5 5 8 1650 1728 1572 2172
10 3 3 10 1500 1650 1410 1728

The case of beam coupling was used to validate the XLRotor results. In Fig. 4 the critical
speeds obtained form the XLRotor are compared with the results collected from the
experiment. Since the beam coupling is not a simple beam and has a helical structure, its
material properties were obtained by experiment and these values were used in the
analysis in the XLRotor. The difference between the real stiffness of the beam coupling
and the value that calculated and estimated from the experiment can cause the error for
the critical speeds obtained form the analysis and experiment. Also, in the modeling of
the rotating shaft, simplifications and assumptions in the geometry of the rotor, motor,
bearings and boundary conditions can make slight error which is appeared in Fig. 4
 The effect of the beam couplings on the critical speeds are shown in Fig. 5 Different
coupling with different material property can change the critical speeds. Also, changing
the couplings can change the boundary conditions of the rotor.
2800 3500

2600
Rigid Coupling
3000
First Critical Speed [RPM]

First Critical Speed [RPM]

2400 EXperiment Lovejoy Coupling
XLRotor Beam Coupling
2200 Gear Coupling
2500

2000

1800 2000

1600
1500
1400

1200 1000
Disks locations on the shaft Disks locations on the shaft

.
Fig. 4 The 1st critical speeds from XLRotor are Fig. 5 Effect of different motor/shaft couplings on 1st
compared with the real data collected from the critical speeds.
machine

The critical speeds in start-up and coast-down tests can be identified in time waveform
and waterfall plot of the acceleration signals. Figure 7 shows the time waveform of the
signal and Fig. 6 shows the water fall plots for four beam coupling, lovejoy coupling,
gear coupling and rigid couplings.

Beam coupling Lovejoy coupling

Gear coupling Rigid Coupling

Fig. 6 Waterfall plots of the outboard bearing vibration in vertical direction for four different motor/rotor
couplings when machine start-up and coast-down.

Fig. 7 Time waveform of the start-up and cost-down test.

During the test with lovejoy coupling, the high vibration level was observed in two
configurations as shown in Fig. 8. The left water fall plot shows the rotor could not pass
the first critical speed and the rotor appears to show unstable behavior which needs to be
investigated further. In the second case the first the first critical speed is passed but again
it shows up when the rotor speeds up.

Lovejoy coupling A-B-C-D : 2-11-11-2 Lovejoy coupling A-B-C-D : 4-9-9-4

Fig. 8 Waterfall plots of the outboard bearing vibration in vertical direction with lovejoy coupling for two
configurations with high level of vibration.

5.2. Effects of bearing faults on critical speeds

Inner race and outer race faults were introduced to the inboard bearing and critical speeds
were obtained for three different rotor-disk configurations.

Table 4 Experiment design to study effect of faulty bearings on the 1st and 2nd critical speed. Critical
speeds are shown in the table in RPM and disk positions are in inch.

Good
BPFI BPFO
Bearings
A B C D
6 7 7 6 2328 2250 2328
8 5 5 8 1872 1800 1800
10 3 3 10 1728 1680 1728
 Figure 9 shows the waterfall plots of the signals for the good bearing and bearing with
inner race fault. Both the first and the second critical speeds can be observed from the
spectrum.

Good bearings, A-B-C-D : 8-5-5-8 Inner race fault, A-B-C-D : 8-5-5-8

Fig. 9 Waterfall plots of the inboard bearing vibration in vertical direction with rigid coupling for two
cases: good and faulty bearings. The loader used to apply loads on the bearing and a small unbalance
introduced to the center disk.

The first and second critical speeds are plotted in Fig. 10. The small change in critical
speeds is observed as rolling element bearing faults are introduced. This effect can be
expressed as small increase of the both 1st and 2nd criticals.

.
2550
5100

2450
5000
2350
Second Critical Speed [RPM]
First Critical Speed [RPM]

Good Bearings 1st Mode

2250 Inner Race Fault 1st Mode
4900
Outer Race Fault 1st Mode
2150
4800
2050

1950 4700
Good Bearings 2nd Mode
1850 Inner Race Fault 2nd Mode
4600 Outer Race Fault 2nd Mode
1750

1650 4500
Disks locations on the shaft Disks locations on the shaf

Fig. 10 Effect of bearing faults on the 1st (left) and 2nd (right) critical speed. Inner race and outer race faults
are introduced on the left bearing.

6. SUMMARY
In this technical note, the vibration signature and critical speeds of the rotating machinery
with different couplings and bearing faults were studied. The SpectraQuest Machinery
Fault Simulator (MFS) Magnum was considered as the rotating machine and the model of
the machine including all rotating parts and rolling element bearings was created in
XLRotor, which is a powerful software for rotordynamics analysis. Using the model,
effects of disks/rotor configurations and coupling stiffness on critical speeds were
studied. The MFS Magnum was used to conduct series of experiments with four types of
coupling: beam, lovejoy, gear and rigid couplings. For each case different configurations
were set on the machine and vibration signals collected and analyzed when machine start-
up and coast down. Also, bearing faults were introduced to the machine and changes of
critical speeds were observed. Experiment data was used to validate the XLRotor model.

From the experiment it can be observed that the effect of rotor geometry and
configurations on critical speed and vibration of the machine is significant. The type of
couplings can change the critical speed. Lovejoy coupling can increase the vibration level
in some configurations. In addition, the observations indicate change of critical speeds
due to bearing faults is not significant.