http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/125678Vapor production in cavitation extracts the latent heat of evaporation from the surrounding liquid, which decreases the local temperature, and hence the local vapor pressure in the vicinity of cavity. This is called thermodynamic/thermal effect of cavitation and leads to the good suction performance of cryogenic turbopumps. We have already established the simple analysis of partially cavitating flow with the thermodynamic effect, where the latent heat extraction and the heat transfer between the cavity and the ambient fluid are taken into account. In the present study, we carry out the analysis for cavitating inducer and compare it with the experimental data available from literatures using Freon R-114 and liquid nitrogen. It is found that the present analysis can simulate fairly well the thermodynamic effect of cavitation and some modification of the analysis considering the real fluid properties, that is, saturation characteristic, is favorable for more qualitative agreement.S. Watanabe, A. Furukawa, and Y. Yoshida© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/536850It has been shown that the sudden decrease of pump head in an axial flow pump caused by stall can be overcome by means of casing treatment. Flat axial grooves in front of the impeller break the swirl of the near-casing backflow. The disadvantage of this method is strong cavitation at the inlet of the grooves for flow rates below the stall point. In this paper another improved method to stabilize the performance curve will be presented, using a double-inlet-nozzle. At the onset of stall the initial near-casing backflow with its high swirl is lead off into the gap between both nozzles. At design conditions this double-inlet-nozzle is working as an injector, supporting the near-casing-inflow. The function of the double-inlet-nozzle is demonstrated by PIV-measurements.P. Pérez Flores, G. Kosyna, and D. Wulff© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/312753The objective of this investigation was to develop a dimensionless model for predicting the onset of cavitation in torque converters applicable to general converter designs. Dimensional analysis was applied to test results from a matrix of torque converters that ranged from populations comprised of strict geometric similitude to those with more relaxed similarities onto inclusion of all the torque converters tested. Stator torque thresholds at the onset of cavitation for the stall operating condition were experimentally determined with a dynamometer test cell using nearfield acoustical measurements. Cavitation torques, design parameters, and operating conditions were resolved into a set of dimensionless quantities for use in the development of dimensionless empirical models. A systematic relaxation of the fundamental principle of dimensional analysis, geometric similitude, was undertaken to present empirical models applicable to torque converter designs of increasingly diverse design parameters. A stepwise linear regression technique coupled with response surface methodology was utilized to produce an empirical model capable of predicting stator torque at the onset of cavitation with less than 7% error for general automotive torque converter designs.D. L. Robinette, J. M. Schweitzer, D. G. Maddock, C. L. Anderson, J. R. Blough, and M. A. Johnson© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/803940Dimensional analysis has been applied to automotive torque converters to understand the response of performance to changes in torque, size, working fluid, or operating temperature. The objective of this investigation was to develop a suitable dimensional analysis for estimating the effect of exact geometric scaling of a particular torque converter design on the onset of cavitation. Torque converter operating thresholds for cavitation were determined experimentally with a dynamometer test cell at the stall operating condition using nearfield acoustical measurements. Dimensionless quantities based upon either speed or torque at the onset of cavitation and flow properties (e.g., pressures and temperature dependent fluid properties) were developed and compared. The proposed dimensionless stator torque quantity was found to be the most appropriate scaling law for extrapolating cavitation thresholds to multiple diameters. A power product model was fit on dimensionless stator torque data to create a model capable of predicting cavitation thresholds. Comparison of the model to test data taken over a range of operating points showed an error of 3.7%. This is the first paper of a two-part paper. In Part II, application of dimensional analysis will be expanded from torque converters with exact geometric similitude to those of more general design.D. L. Robinette, J. M. Schweitzer, D. G. Maddock, C. L. Anderson, J. R. Blough, and M. A. Johnson© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/406809This paper investigates thermal-fluid transport phenomena in laminar flow between twin rotating parallel disks from whose center a circular jet is impinged on the heated horizontal bottom disk surface. Emphasis is placed on the effects of the Reynolds number, rotation speed, and disk spacing on both the formations of velocity and thermal fields and the heat transfer rate along the heated wall surface. The governing equations are discretized by means of a finite-difference technique and are numerically solved to determine the distributions of velocity vector and fluid temperature under the appropriate boundary conditions. It is found from the study that (i) the recirculation zone which appears on the bottom disk moves along the outward direction with an increase in the Reynolds number, (ii) when the Reynolds number is increased, heat transfer performance is intensified over the whole disk surface and the minimum value of the heat transfer rate moves in the downstream direction, and (iii) the heat transfer rate is induced due to the disk rotation, whose effect becomes larger due to the upper disk rotation.Shuichi Torii and Wen-Jei Yang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/752062This paper is concerned with the dynamic behavior of the rotating composite shaft on rigid bearings. A p-version, hierarchical finite element is employed to define the model. A theoretical study allows the establishment of the kinetic energy and the strain energy of the shaft, necessary to the result of the equations of motion. In this model the transverse shear deformation, rotary inertia and gyroscopic effects, as well as the coupling effect due to the lamination of composite layers have been incorporated. A hierarchical beam finite element with six degrees of freedom per node is developed and used to find the natural frequencies of a rotating composite shaft. A program is elaborate for the calculation of the eigenfrequencies and critical speeds of a rotating composite shaft. To verify the present model, the critical speeds of composite shaft systems are compared with those available in the literature. The efficiency and accuracy of the methods employed are discussed.A. Boukhalfa, A. Hadjoui, and S. M. Hamza Cherif© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/147653A two-complex-degrees-of-freedom model is developed and compared to experimental data for various amounts of rotor bow and its orientation to mass imbalance of the rotor. The equation of motion is developed by adding constant forces that rotate with the rotor to a Bently-Muszynska two-mode isotropic rotor model with a plane journal bearing. Diagnostic information discernable from probes at the bearing is explored and compared to midspan response, where previous research has concentrated. The model presented also extends earlier work by representing the effect of a nonrigid bearing. Good agreement between the analytical model and experiment demonstrates that the analysis presented can be useful to diagnose and balance residual shaft bow from probes located at the bearings, where vibration data are typically more available than midspan probes.Jim Meagher, Xi Wu, and Chris Lencioni© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/321308Meshing force of misaligned spline coupling is derived, dynamic equation of rotor-spline coupling system is established based on finite element analysis, the influence of meshing force on rotor-spline coupling system is simulated by numerical integral method. According to the theoretical analysis, meshing force of spline coupling is related to coupling parameters, misalignment, transmitting torque, static misalignment, dynamic vibration displacement, and so on. The meshing force increases nonlinearly with increasing the spline thickness and static misalignment or decreasing alignment meshing distance (AMD). Stiffness of coupling relates to dynamic vibration displacement, and static misalignment is not a constant. Dynamic behaviors of rotor-spline coupling system reveal the following: 1X-rotating speed is the main response frequency of system when there is no misalignment; while 2X-rotating speed appears when misalignment is present. Moreover, when misalignment increases, vibration of the system gets intricate; shaft orbit departs from origin, and magnitudes of all frequencies increase. Research results can provide important criterions on both optimization design of spline coupling and trouble shooting of rotor systems.Guang Zhao, Zhansheng Liu, and Feng Chen© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/387828Two new reduced-order models are developed to accurately and rapidly predict geometry deviation effects on airfoil forced response. Both models have significant application to improved mistuning analysis. The first developed model integrates a principal component analysis approach to reduce the number of defining geometric parameters, semianalytic eigensensitivity analysis, and first-order Taylor series approximation to allow rapid as-measured airfoil response analysis. A second developed model extends this approach and quantifies both random and bias errors between the reduced and full models. Adjusting for the bias significantly improves reduced-order model accuracy. The error model is developed from a regression analysis of the relationship between airfoil geometry parameters and reduced-order model error, leading to physics-based error quantification. Both models are demonstrated on an advanced fan airfoil's frequency, modal force, and forced response.Jeffrey M. Brown and Ramana V. Grandhi© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/692748Cooling in an end-winding region of a high-powered, large-sized generator still remains a challenge today because of a number of factors: a larger number of parts/components with irregular geometries, complexity in cooling flow paths, flow splitting and mixing, and interactions between rotor-induced rotating flows and nonrotating flows from stationary sections. One of the key challenges is to model cooling flows passing through armature bars, which are made up of bundles of strands of insulated copper wires and are bent oppositely to cross each other. This work succeeded in modeling a complex generator end-winding region with great efforts to simplify the model by treating the armature bar region as a porous medium. The flow and pressure fields at the end-winding region were investigated numerically using an axial symmetric computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. Based on the analysis, the cooling flow rate at each flow branch (rotor-stator gap, rotor subslot, outside space block, and small ventilation holes to the heat exchanger) was determined, and the high-pressure gradient zones were identified. The CFD results have been successfully used to optimize the flow path configuration for improving the generator operation performance, and the control of the cooling flow, as well as minimizing windage losses and flow-introduced noises.Wei Tong© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/426023Counter rotating turbine offers advantages on weight, volume, efficiency, and maneuverability relative to the conventional turbine because of its special architecture. Nowadays, it has been a worldwide research emphasis and has been used widely in the aeronautic field, while its application in the astronautic field is seldom investigated. Researches of counter rotating turbine for rocket turbopump are reviewed in this paper. A primary analysis of a vaneless counter rotating-turbine configuration with rotors of different diameters and rotational speeds is presented. This unconventional configuration meets the requirements of turbopump and may benefit the performance and reliability of rocket engines.Tang Fei, Zhao Xiaolu, and Xu Jianzhong© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/583982The objective of this paper is to present recent developments in the field of machine fault signature analysis with particular regard to vibration analysis. The different types of faults that can be identified from the vibration signature analysis are, for example, gear fault, rolling contact bearing fault, journal bearing fault, flexible coupling faults, and electrical machine fault. It is not the intention of the authors to attempt to provide a detailed coverage of all the faults while detailed consideration is given to the subject of the rolling element bearing fault signature analysis.Pratesh Jayaswal, A. K. Wadhwani, and K. B. Mulchandani© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/846365A mathematical model of a cracked rotor and an asymmetric rotor with two disks representing a turbine and a generator is utilized to study the vibrations due to imbalance and side load. Nonlinearities typically related with a “breathing” crack are included using a Mayes steering function. Numerical simulations demonstrate how the variations of rotor parameters affect the vibration response and the effect of coupling between torsional and lateral modes. Bode, spectrum, and orbit plots are used to show the differences between the vibration signatures associated with cracked shafts versus asymmetric shafts. Results show how nonlinear lateral-torsional coupling shifts the resonance peaks in the torsional vibration response for cracked shafts and asymmetric rotors. The resonance peaks shift depending on the ratio of the lateral-to-torsional natural frequencies with the peak responses occurring at noninteger values of the lateral natural frequency. When the general nonlinear models used in this study are constrained to reduce to linear torsional vibration, the peak responses occur at commonly reported integer ratios. Full spectrum analyses of the X and Y vibrations reveal distinct vibration characteristics of both cracked and asymmetric rotors including reverse vibration components. Critical speeds and vibration orders predicted using the models presented herein include and extend diagnostic indicators commonly reported.Xi Wu and Jim Meagher© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/76476Wavelet neural network (WNN), which combines the capability of neural network in learning from process and that of wavelet decomposition, was used to study geometry factors on rotating stall in vaneless diffusers. A new error function called cross entropy squared (CSE) function was derived and put forward for the purpose of convergence acceleration. WNN was trained and validated with experimental data from literature. Comparison results showed the reliability. With the trained WNN, detailed investigation was carried out mainly to understand the effects of impeller blade number, blade-exit angle, impeller rotating speed, diffuser radius ratio, and width ratio on stall inception and cell speed of vaneless diffuser. Network results clearly show the existence of distinct stall mechanisms for narrow and wide diffusers, which also make different responses to variation of the above- mentioned parameters.Chuang Gao, Chuangang Gu, Tong Wang, and Bo Yang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/34901The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of design parameters on the unsteady flow in a forward-curved centrifugal fan and their impact on the aeroacoustic behavior. To do so, numerical and experimental studies have been carried out on four centrifugal impellers designed with various geometrical parameters. The same volute casing has been used to study these impellers. The effects on the unsteady flow behavior related to irregular blade spacing, blade count and radial distance between the impeller periphery and the volute tongue have been studied. The numerical simulations of the unsteady flow have been carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools based on the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) approach. The study is focused on the unsteadiness induced by the aerodynamic interaction between the volute and the rotating impeller blades. In order to predict the acoustic pressure at far field, the unsteady flow variables provided by the CFD calculations have been used as inputs in the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equations (FW-H). The experimental part of this work concerns measurement of aerodynamic performance of the fans using a test bench built according to ISO 5801 (1997) standard. In addition to this, pressure microphones have been flush mounted on the volute tongue surface in order to measure the wall pressure fluctuations. The sound pressure level (SPL) measurements have been carried out in an anechoic room in order to remove undesired noise reflections. Finally, the numerical results have been compared with the experimental measurements and a correlation between the wall pressure fluctuations and the far field noise signals has been found.M. Younsi, F. Bakir, S. Kouidri, and R. Rey© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/48683 It is a known fact that machined impellers result in improved compressor performance compared to cast impellers of the same design. The performance improvements can be attributed to better surface finish, more accurate geometric definition (tighter dimensional tolerances), well-defined edges, and the lack of blade tip fillet on shrouded impellers. In addition, it has been observed through experimental investigations that the construction method of the impellers has an impact on performance. This paper presents computational fluid dynamic investigations of two types of impellers, with blade surfaces generated using straight-line elements (SLEs) and CAD arbitrary definitions. Because there are many different mathematical definitions that CAD tools employ for curves, the resulting arbitrary blade surface is not unique. The numerical results will help understand the causes of the performance differences as well as the effects of SLE blades on the flow through the impeller. Input conditions for computational dynamic simulations are based on experimental results. All references to experimental data in the present paper are for cast impellers. Therefore, the differences in performance are attributed to blade definition (SLE versus other) and not to differences resulting from manufacturing methods.Florin Iancu, John Trevino, and Steven Sommer© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/51598This paper presents the effect of blade profile and rotor solidity on the performance of Wells turbine operating under unidirectional unsteady flow conditions. In the study, four kinds of blade profile were selected, that is, NACA0020, NACA0015, CA9, and HSIM 15-262123-1576. The experiments have been carried out for two solidities, σ = 0.48 and σ = 0.64, under sinusoidal and irregular unsteady flow conditions based on Irish waves (site2). As a result, it was found that the preferable rotor geometry is the one with blade profile of CA9 with solidity σ = 0.64. In addition, the effect of blade profile and rotor solidity on hysteretic characteristics of the turbine has been clarified experimentally and it was found to be in good agreement qualitatively when compared to numerical results (Setoguchi et al. (2003)).A. Thakker and R. Abdulhadi© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/72697This study is concerned with the two-dimensional simulation for an air-water bubbly flow around a hydrofoil. The vortex method, proposed by the authors for gas-liquid two-phase free turbulent flow in a prior paper, is applied for the simulation. The liquid vorticity field is discrerized by vortex elements, and the behavior of vortex element and the bubble motion are simultaneously computed by the Lagrangian approach. The effect of bubble motion on the liquid flow is taken into account through the change in the strength of vortex element. The bubbly flow around a hydrofoil of NACA4412 with a chord length 100 mm is simulated. The Reynolds number is 2.5×105, the bubble diameter is 1 mm, and the volumetric flow ratio of bubble to whole fluid is 0.048. It is confirmed that the simulated distributions of air volume fraction and pressure agree well with the trend of the measurement and that the effect of angle of attack on the flow is favorably analyzed. These demonstrate that the vortex method is applicable to the bubbly flow analysis around a hydrofoil.Tomomi Uchiyama and Tomohiro Degawa© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/85275This paper presents an experimental study of the optimization of blade skew in low pressure axial fan. Using back propagation (BP) neural network and genetic algorithm (GA), the optimization was performed for a radial blade. An optimized blade is obtained through blade forward skew. Measurement of the two blades was carried out in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance. Compared to the radial blade, the optimized blade demonstrated improvements in efficiency, total pressure ratio, stable operating range, and aerodynamic noise. Detailed flow measurement was performed in outlet flow field for investigating the responsible flow mechanisms. The optimized blade can cause a spanwise redistribution of flow toward the blade midspan and reduce tip loading. This results in reduced significantly total pressure loss near hub and shroud endwall region, despite the slight increase of total pressure loss at midspan. In addition, the measured spectrums show that the broadband noise of the impeller is dominant.Li Yang, Ouyang Hua, and Du Zhao-Hui© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/68684Heat transfer coefficients in the cooling cavities of turbine airfoils are greatly enhanced by the presence of discrete ribs on the cavity walls. These ribs introduce two heat transfer enhancing features: a significant increase in heat transfer coefficient by promoting turbulence and mixing, and an increase in heat transfer area. Considerable amount of data are reported in open literature for the heat transfer coefficients both on the rib surface and on the floor area between the ribs. Many airfoil cooling design software tools, however, require an overall average heat transfer coefficient on a rib-roughened wall. Dealing with a complex flow circuit in conjunction with 180∘ bends, numerous film holes, trailing-edge slots, tip bleeds, crossover impingement, and a conjugate heat transfer problem; these tools are not often able to handle the geometric details of the rib-roughened surfaces or local variations in heat transfer coefficient on a rib-roughened wall. On the other hand, assigning an overall area-weighted average heat transfer coefficient based on the rib and floor area and their corresponding heat transfer coefficients will have the inherent error of assuming a 100% fin efficiency for the ribs, that is, assuming that rib surface temperature is the same as the rib base temperature. Depending on the rib geometry, this error could produce an overestimation of up to 10% in the evaluated rib-roughened wall heat transfer coefficient. In this paper, a correction factor is developed that can be applied to the overall area-weighted average heat transfer coefficient that, when applied to the projected rib-roughened cooling cavity walls, the net heat removal from the airfoil is the same as that of the rib-roughened wall. To develop this correction factor, the experimental results of heat transfer coefficients on the rib and on the surface area between the ribs are combined with about 400 numerical conduction models to determine an overall equivalent heat transfer coefficient that can be used in airfoil cooling design software. A well-known group method of data handling (GMDH) scheme was then utilized to develop a correlation that encompasses most pertinent parameters including the rib geometry, rib fin efficiency, and the rib and floor heat transfer coefficients.M. E. Taslim and V. Nezym© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/56808An analytical and experimental investigation of the effectiveness of full-span distributed jet actuation for active suppression of long length-scale rotating stall inception is carried out. Detailed modeling and experimental verification highlight the important effects of mass addition, discrete injectors, and feedback dynamics, which may be overlooked in preliminary theoretical studies of active control with jet injection. A model of the compression system incorporating nonideal injection and feedback dynamics is verified with forced response measurements to predict the right trends in the movement of the critical pole associated with the stall precursor. Active control experiments with proportional feedback control show that the predicted stall precursors are suppressed to give a 5.5% range extension in compressor flow coefficient. In addition, results suggest that the proposed model could be used to design a more sophisticated controller to further improve performance while reducing actuator bandwidth requirements.Huu Duc Vo© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/83641The current investigation is aimed to simulate the complex internal flow in a centrifugal pump impeller with six twisted blades by using a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code with a standard k-ε two-equation turbulence model. Different flow rates were specified at inlet boundary to predict the characteristics of the pump. A detailed analysis of the results at design load, Qdesign, and off-design conditions, Q = 0.43 Qdesign and Q = 1.45 Qdesign, is presented. From the numerical simulation, it shows that the impeller passage flow at design point is quite smooth and follows the curvature of the blade. However, flow separation is observed at the leading edge due to nontangential inflow condition. The flow pattern changed significantly inside the volute as well, with double vortical flow structures formed at cutwater and slowly evolved into a single vortical structure at the volute diffuser. For the pressure distribution, the pressure increases gradually along streamwise direction in the impeller passages. When the centrifugal pump is operating under off-design flow rate condition, unsteady flow developed in the impeller passage and the volute casing.K. W. Cheah, T. S. Lee, S. H. Winoto, and Z. M. Zhao© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/29270This paper demonstrates the investigations on the blade vibration of a radial inflow micro gas turbine wheel. Firstly, the dependence of Young's modulus on temperature was measured since it is a major concern in structure analysis. It is demonstrated that Young's modulus depends on temperature greatly and the dependence should be considered in vibration analysis, but the temperature gradient from the leading edge to the trailing edge of a blade can be ignored by applying the mean temperature. Secondly, turbine blades suffer many excitations during operation, such as pressure fluctuations (unsteady aerodynamic forces), torque fluctuations, and so forth. Meanwhile, they have many kinds of vibration modes, typical ones being blade-hub (disk) coupled modes and blade-shaft (torsional, longitudinal) coupled modes. Model experiments and FEM analysis were conducted to study the coupled vibrations and to identify the modes which are more likely to be excited. The results show that torque fluctuations and uniform pressure fluctuations are more likely to excite resonance of blade-shaft (torsional, longitudinal) coupled modes. Impact excitations and propagating pressure fluctuations are more likely to excite blade-hub (disk) coupled modes.Shijie Guo© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/75762This paper deals with an experimental study of a dual rotor test rig. This machine, which was developed and built at the Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, will be first presented. It is composed of two coaxial shafts that are connected by an intershaft bearing and rotate independently, each one driven by its own motor. Their lateral vibrations and whirling motion are coupled by the intershaft bearing. The experimental tests consisting in run-ups and the associated measured unbalance response of the dual rotor will be investigated. The influence of the rotation of each rotor on the critical speeds and the associated amplitudes will be discussed. Moreover, this paper presents a numerical model of the dual rotor. Correlations between the experimental and numerical tests will be investigated. The objective is to be able to predict phenomena observed in experiments, starting from a rather fine numerical model.M. Guskov, J.-J. Sinou, F. Thouverez, and O. S. Naraikin© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/91276This paper deals with rotor systems that suffer harmonic base excitation when supported on magnetic bearings. Magnetic bearings using conventional control techniques perform poorly in such situations mainly due to their highly nonlinear characteristics. The compensation method presented here is a novel optimal control procedure with a combination of conventional, proportional, and differential feedback control. A four-degree-of-freedom model is used for the rotor system, and the bearings are modeled by nonlinear expressions. Each disturbance frequency is expected to produce a multiharmonic system response, a characteristic of nonlinear systems. We apply optimal control choosing to minimize a performance index, which leads to the optimization of the trigonometric coefficients in the correction current function. Results show that the control technique suppresses rotor vibration to amplitudes that were significantly smaller than the disturbance amplitudes for the entire range of disturbance frequencies applied. The control technique explored in this paper is a promising step towards the successful application of magnetic bearings to systems mounted on moving platforms.Steven Marx and C. Nataraj© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/27247Blade tip timing is a technique for the measurement of vibrations in rotating bladed assemblies. Although the fundamentals of the technique are simple, the analysis of data obtained in the presence of simultaneously occurring synchronous resonances is problematic. A class of autoregressive-based methods for the analysis of blade tip timing data from assemblies undergoing two simultaneous resonances has been developed. It includes approaches that assume both sinusoidal and general blade tip responses. The methods can handle both synchronous and asynchronous resonances. An exhaustive evaluation of the approaches was performed on simulated data in order to determine their accuracy and sensitivity. One of the techniques was found to perform best on asynchronous resonances and one on synchronous resonances. Both methods yielded very accurate vibration frequency estimates under all conditions of interest.J. Gallego-Garrido, G. Dimitriadis, and J. R. Wright© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/73624Blade tip timing is a technique for the measurement of vibrations in rotating bladed assemblies. In Part I of this work a class of methods for the analysis of blade tip timing data from bladed assemblies undergoing two simultaneous synchronous resonances was developed. The approaches were demonstrated using data from a mathematical simulation of tip timing data. In Part II the methods are validated on an experimental test rig. First, the construction and characteristics of the rig will be discussed. Then, the performance of the analysis techniques when applied to data from the rig will be compared and analysed. It is shown that accurate frequency estimates are obtained by all the methods for both single and double resonances. Furthermore, the recovered frequencies are used to calculate the amplitudes of the blade tip responses. The presence of mistuning in the bladed assembly does not affect the performance of the new techniques.J. Gallego-Garrido, G. Dimitriadis, I. B. Carrington, and J. R. Wright© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/90631Rotor-to-stator rub is a very common topic in rotor dynamics and several models have been proposed in the literature. Anyhow these models are often able to explain only the experimental dynamical behaviour of simple test rigs, which are deliberately reproducing a Jeffcott rotor. On the contrary case, histories related to real machines are seldom presented and analysed. The aim of this paper is to present an actual case history of a large turbogenerator unit that was subjected to partial arc rubs. The experimental results are shown and discussed along with the model-based diagnostic strategy employed to identify the fault severity and the location of the shaft cross-sections where the heaviest rubs occurred. Comparisons between experimental data and simulated vibrations caused by the identified fault are shown to validate the proposed methodology.Paolo Pennacchi and Andrea Vania© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/56097The results of recent studies have shown that combustor exit temperature distortion can cause excessive heat load of high-pressure turbine (HPT) rotor blades. The heating of HPT rotor blades can lead to thermal fatigue and degrade turbine performance. In order to explore the influence of hot streak temperature ratio on the temperature distributions of HPT airfoil surface, three-dimensional multiblade row unsteady Navier-Stokes simulations have been performed in a vaneless counter-rotating turbine (VCRT). The hot streak temperature ratios from 1.0 (without hot streak) to 2.4 were used in these numerical simulations, including 1.0, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0, and 2.4 temperature ratios. The hot streak is circular in shape with a diameter equal to 25% of the span. The center of the hot streak is located at 50% of span and 0% of pitch (the leading edge of the HPT stator vane). The predicted results show that the hot streak is relatively unaffected as it migrates through the HPT stator. The hot streak mixes with the vane wake and convects towards the pressure surface (PS) of the HPT rotor when it moves over the vane surface of the HPT stator. The heat load of the HPT rotor increases with the increase of the hot streak temperature ratio. The existence of the inlet temperature distortion induces a thin layer of cooler air in the HPT rotor, which separates the PS of the HPT rotor from the hotter fluid. The numerical results also indicating the migration characteristics of the hot streak in the HPT rotor are predominated by the combined effects of secondary flow and buoyancy. The combined effects that induce the high-temperature fluid migrate towards the hub on the HPT rotor. The effect of the secondary flow on the hotter fluid increases as the hot streak temperature ratio is increased. The influence of buoyancy is directly proportional to the hot streak temperature ratio. The predicted results show that the increase of the hot streak temperature ratio trends to increase the relative Mach number at the HPT rotor outlet, and decrease the relative flow angle from 25% to 75% span at the HPT rotor outlet. In the other region of the HPT outlet, the relative flow angle increases when the hot streak temperature ratio is increased. The predicted results also indicate that the isentropic efficiency of the VCRT decreases with the increase of the hot streak temperature ratio.Zhao Qingjun, Wang Huishe, Zhao Xiaolu, and Xu Jianzhong© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/72190The present work involves experimental investigation of the effects of aspect ratio, channel orientation angle, rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e), and number of ribbed walls on friction factor in orthogonally rotating channel with detached ribs. The ribs are separated from the base wall to provide a small region of flow between the base wall and the ribs. Experiments have been conducted at Reynolds number ranging from 10000–17000 with rotation numbers varying from 0–0.38. Pitch-to-rib height ratios (P/e) of 5 and 10 at constant rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio (e/D) of 0.1 and a clearance ratio (C/e) of 0.38 are considered. The rib angle of attack with respect to mainstream flow is 90∘. The channel orientation at which the ribbed wall becomes trailing surface (pressure side on which the Coriolis force acts) is considered as the 0∘ orientation angle. For one-wall ribbed case, channel is oriented from 0∘ to 180∘ about its axis in steps of 30∘ to change the orientation angle. For two-wall ribbed case, the orientation angle is changed from 0∘ to 90∘ in steps of 30∘. Friction factors for the detached ribbed channels are compared with the corresponding attached ribbed channel. It is found that in one-wall detached ribbed channel, increase in the friction factor ratio with the orientation angle is lower for rectangular channel compared to that of square channel for both the pitch-to-rib height ratios of 5 and 10 at a given Reynolds number and rotation number. Friction factor ratios of two-wall detached ribbed rectangular channel are comparable with corresponding two-wall detached ribbed square channel both under stationary and rotating conditions.K. Arun and S. V. Prabhu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.