Rotor dynamic force coefficients of gas seals strongly depend on the machine operational conditions. These force coefficients influence the overall dynamical response and modal properties of machines, consequently defining the machine vibration levels. Accurate estimations of the rotor dynamic coefficients are required for designing machines with low vibration amplifications and well-defined stability margins throughout the operational range. Experimental methods applied to test benches are used to validate such force coefficients and they normally rely on (i) the quality of the measurements and (ii) the assumption that the mathematical model is able to capture the whole system dynamics. If relevant dynamical contributions in a system are neglected by the mathematical model, the contribution will erroneously be concluded to originate from the seal being tested. The theoretical and experimental investigation in this paper focuses on quantifying and qualifying the effect of neglected system dynamics modelling on the estimation of seals force coefficients and stability margins. The in-situ identification of seal forces shows that the direct stiffness, cross-coupling stiffness, and direct damping coefficient estimations for a gas seal with high preswirl are statistically significantly affected by the baseline model. Nevertheless, the baseline model leads to small deviations of the seal force coefficient estimations. The prediction accuracy of stability margins is found to be more influenced by the baseline model describing the system dynamics than by the deviations between the seal force coefficient estimations.
Recent times have seen a great interest on environmental issues and efficient, sustainable systems. This interest has required the employment of advanced composites for a myriad of industrial machines and innovative equipments. Among these applications, Flywheel Energy Storage Systems – FESS – represent a group of machines that are being re-invented through this process. Modeling composite flywheels has proven to be a complex task, which current Finite Element models fail to fulfill in a number of design contexts. This demand to model complex composite geometries and systems induced the proposition of new methods, aiming to capture the various physical effects existing in the problem. In the present contribution, the authors consider that it is viable to model the dynamic behavior of a Flywheel Energy Storage System via an adapted Carrera Unified Formulation, both in terms of accuracy and computational cost, for practical applications. The present work presents and explores a Carrera Unified Formulation model with extended capabilities dedicated to rotordynamics applications. The differences from standard Finite Elements models are presented, evidencing advantages and drawbacks of the proposed methodology over more traditional approaches. A case study is then presented, modeled, and the results are compared with those stemming from established formulations.