Rotordynamic systems are central to many aerospace and industrial applications. Aircraft engines and rotating parts, helicopter rotor systems, and UAV rotor systems are some examples of applications of various kinds of rotating systems in the aerospace industry. Such mission-critical applications of rotating systems dictate, as first priority, the development of early fault detection methodologies to avoid failures, some of which can lead to loss of human lives and huge economic losses. In this context, early detection of propagation of fatigue damages represents a major challenge. Recent findings by the PI regarding the occurrence of a new kind of post-resonance backward whirl in cracked rotor systems with anisotropic bearings poses the need to understand this revealed complex phenomenon. This phenomenon is found to be associated with different damage forms and it needs to be studied from the perspective of nonlinear dynamical analysis, numerical simulation, and experimental validations.
This proposal aims to develop methods and tools for detection of fatigue damage in accelerating rotor systems that exhibits recurrent passage through their resonance rotational speeds during run up and coast down operations. In such rotor systems, passing through at least one of the critical rotational speeds during startup and coast down operations is usually recurrent in real-life applications such as in helicopter rotor systems, jet engines, and UAV rotors where developing a vibration-based health monitoring technique becomes highly demanding.
This project will be executed in collaboration with worldwide leading academic collaborators from Swansea University (UK) and Villanova University (USA) who have extensive long-term experience in the rotordynamics field. The outcomes of this project are expected to become a very important advancement in the rotordynamic engineering community, which will help put Khalifa University, the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE at the forefront of global research and development efforts. Therefore, significant impact on nondestructive health monitoring technologies in local and global aerospace industries and the related civil and military applications is anticipated to be achieved.
