Experimental Investigation of Three-Dimensional Shroud Contact Forces in Forced-Vibration Testing of a Shrouded Blade

Low Pressure Turbine (LPT) blades encounter highly stressed forced vibrations driven by centrifugal force and steady/unsteady aerodynamic loads. To prevent the blades from failure due to high cycle fatigue (HCF), the amplitude of these vibrations must be estimated and reduced. Friction damping devices like under-platform dampers, shrouds and snubbers are usually implemented to lessen these blade vibration amplitudes. For adjacent shrouded blades coupled to each other at the blade tips, the blade vibration levels are strongly affected by the three-dimensional periodic contact forces at shrouds resulting in energy dissipation due to friction. Therefore, to experimentally validate the numerical contact models that predict nonlinear forced response of shrouded blades, it is equally important to measure the contact forces acting at the shrouds. This study outlines the development and commissioning of an experimental test rig that allows the measurement of three-dimensional shroud contact forces and the forced response of the shrouded blade simultaneously. Firstly, the design requirements of the experimental setup that were considered while deciding the test rig components, are highlighted. The test rig comprises of a pair of tri-directional contact force transducers in contact with the two shroud ends of a dummy blade and includes a blade twisting mechanism for the application of the normal preload. The employed tri-directional contact force transducers consist of three uniaxial strain gauge-based force sensors, arranged in a tripod configuration, and attached to a reference block that accommodates the shroud. The calibration and the decoupling procedure of the tri-directional contact force measurement system is then briefly described. This is followed by the details of the experimental process to acquire the forced response and three-dimensional shroud contact forces simultaneously for a specified frequency range determined by a prior experimental modal analysis of the blade and test rig. Subsequently, the effects of the variation in shroud normal preload and excitation force on measured response and shroud contact forces are also discussed. Finally, the results demonstrate how the proposed experimental test rig provides a thorough understanding of the dynamic response of the shrouded blade and shroud contact forces which will lead to a more reliable experimental validation of simulation tools and its effect on system dynamics.