On the dynamics of the fluid balancer

This paper is concerned with the dynamics of a so-called fluid balancer; a hula hoop ring-like structure containing a small amount of liquid which, during rotation, is spun out to form a thin liquid layer on the outermost inner surface of the ring. The liquid is able to counteract unbalanced mass in an elastically mounted rotor. The paper derives the equations of motion for the coupled fluid–structure system, with the fluid equations based on shallow water theory. An approximate analytical solution is obtained via the method of multiple scales. For a rotor with an unbalance mass, and without fluid, it is well known that the unbalance mass is in the direction of the rotor deflection at sub-critical rotation speeds, and opposite to the direction of the rotor deflection at super-critical rotation speeds (when seen from a rotating coordinate system, attached to the rotor). The perturbation analysis of the problem involving fluid shows that the mass center of the fluid layer is in the direction of the rotor deflection for any rotation speed. In this way a surface wave on the fluid layer can counterbalance an unbalanced mass.