Moment Whirl due to Leakage Flow in the Back Shroud Clearance of a Rotor

Recent studies on the moment whirl due to leakage flow in the back shroud clearance of hydro-turbine runners or centrifugal pump impellers are summarized. First, destabilizing effect of leakage flow is discussed for lateral vibrations using simplified models. Then it is extended to the case of whirling motion of an overhung rotor and the criterion for the instability is obtained. The fluid moment caused by a leakage clearance flow between a rotating disk and a stationary casing was obtained by model tests under whirling and precession motion of the disk. It is shown that the whirl moment always destabilizes the whirl motion of the overhung rotor while the precession moment destabilizes the precession only when the precession speed is less than half the rotor speed. Then vibration analyses considering both whirl and precession are made by using the hydrodynamic moments determined by the model tests. For larger overhung rotors, the whirl moment is more important and cause whirl instability at all rotor speed. On the other hand, for smaller overhung rotors, the precession moment is more important and cancels the destabilizing effect of the whirl moment.