Vibration Control of Rotor Bearing Systems Using Electro and Magneto Rheological Elastomers

Electro and magneto rheological elastomers exhibit dynamic stiffness and damping characteristics varying with the applied fields, loading frequencies and strain amplitudes. This paper proposes the use of a smart elastomer ring between the outer shell of the rolling bearing and the bearing housing so that the damping and the stiffness of the bearing can be modified by varying the electric or magnetic field intensity. A semi active control strategy is thus used to set the electric field intensity so that lower steady state vibration responses of the rotor bearing system are obtained. To illustrate the feasibility of the proposed vibration control strategy, a dynamic finite element model is derived for a rotor bearing system by taking into account the gyroscopic effect of the rotor and the internal damping of the shaft. The smart elastomer ring is dynamically modeled based on shear stress strain testing data. The effect of the electric field intensity on the steady state vibration responses due to unbalance excitations is investigated. It has been shown that a reduction of vibration responses can be achieved by varying the intensity of the applied electric field for different rotating speed ranges.