Rotordynamic analysis of asymmetric turbofan rotor due to fan blade-loss event with contact-impact rub loads

Loss of a blade from a running turbofan rotor introduces not only huge imbalance into the dynamical system rather it makes the entire rotor asymmetric as well. In a nonsymmetric rotor, the various terms of mass, gyroscopic and stiffness matrices also become time-dependent. In this paper, all the dynamical equations include the effect of the rotary inertia and gyroscopic moments as a result of both shaft bending as well as staggered blades flexing in-and-out of the plane of the disk. The governing equations also account for internal material damping in the shaft and the external damping in the support bearing system. In addition to the unbalance load at the disk location, the shaft may also be subjected to a torque and axial forces. Here, the fan blades are modeled as pre-twisted thin shallow shells. They have coupled flexural–torsional motion in the lateral out-of-plane direction as well as extensional degrees-of-freedom in the longitudinal spanwise direction of the blade airfoil. The effect of blade tip rub forces being transmitted to the shaft are analyzed in terms of the dynamic stability of the rotor, especially during windmilling.