Light, medium and heavy partial rubs during speed transients of rotating machines: Numerical simulation and experimental observation

This paper deals with some experimental results where rub-impact of rotor systems are reproduced. A dedicated experimental set-up was installed. In particular partial light, medium and severe rubs are considered. Then a model, suitable to be employed for real rotating machinery, is presented and the corresponding theoretical predictions are compared with the experimental results. It was found that the model is able to reproduce the behaviour of the test rig.

► A dedicated rig was installed to reproduce tests with rubbing. ► We use a special unbalance procedure to reproduce light-to-heavy rubbing configurations. ► For all rubbing configurations, the theoretical predictions reproduce quite well the experimental results. ► For heavy rubbings, slight differences in orbits are observed because of the great flexibility of the casing. ► The simulation tool can be considered as reliable to simulate also the behaviour of real machines.