Dynamic analysis of rotor–shaft systems with viscoelastically supported bearings

In this work, the dynamic analysis of a rotating disk–shaft system with linear elastic bearings at the ends mounted on viscoelastic suspensions is investigated. The flexibility of the shaft is incorporated utilizing the Timoshenko shaft model and the rotor is considered rigid having a mass and moment of inertia. The viscoelastic support of the linear bearing is modeled as Kelvin–Voigt model which accounts for the in-phase stiffness and the loss coefficient of the material. The equations of motion are derived and both free and forced vibration analysis are performed. The effects of stiffness and damping parameters of the viscoelastic supports on the complex natural frequencies are studied. The forced response due to the disk mass unbalance is also investigated.