Study on the Forced Torsional Vibration Response of Multiple Rotating Blades with Underplatform Dampers

Underplatform dampers (UPDs), a type of dry friction damper, are commonly used for vibration reduction of turbine blades. This study investigated the effect of UPDs on the forced torsional vibration response of turbine blades within a multi-blade system. Pre-stressed finite element modal analysis and the harmonic balance method were combined to calculate the forced torsional vibration responses of a system with and without UPDs. The experiments were then carried out on a rotating multi-blade system with and without UPDs, with a focus on the effect of mass stacking on damping performance. The results showed that the installation of underplatform dampers could increase the frequency corresponding to the maximum response of the blade torsional vibration and cause multiple peaks that varied in the vibration response based on the mass of the UPDs. With an appropriate normal force, the underplatform dampers could effectively reduce the blade torsional vibration by 68.9%. However, excessive normal force of UPDs could lead to multiple large vibration peaks, which should be avoided in engineering practice. Additionally, the numerical results for the forced torsional vibration response of the rotating multi-blade system with UPDs were relatively close to the experimental results, indicating that the calculation method could be effectively applied to the nonlinear prediction of forced vibrations of rotating blades with dampers.