Journal of Sound and Vibration (1992) 157(2), 375-38 I

CRACK DETECTION AND VIBRATION CHARACTERISTICS OF CRACKED SHAFTS

A. S. SEKHAR AND B. S. PRABHU

Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Madras 600 036, India
(Receiued 20 Nooember 1991)

1. INTRODUCTlON

A strong interest has developed within the past several years in the dynamic behavior of
turbomachinery with cracked shafts. An excellent review of the field of the dynamics of
cracked rotors and of different detection procedures to diagnose fracture damage has been
presented by Wauer [I]. Vibration investigation of a damaged structure is one approach
for fault diagnosis. Vibration diagnosis, as a non-destructive detection technique, has
recently become of greater importance.
A crack on a beam element introduces considerable local flexibility due to the strain
energy concentration in the vicinity of the crack tip under load. The vibrational character-
istics of a cracked Timoshenko shaft were investigated by Rajab and Sabeeh [2]. They
presented analytical expressions and derived curves relating the crack depth and location
on the shaft to changes in the first few natural frequencies of the shaft. The element
stiffness matrix of a beam with a crack was derived from an integration of the stress
intensity factors and then a finite element model (FEM) of a cracked beam was established
in reference [3]. A similar approach based on the flexibility matrix developed by Papado-
poulos and Dimarogonas [4] is dealt with by using FEM in the present study for crack
detection.

2. CRACK MODELLING

According to the principle of Saint-Venant, the stress field is affected only in the region
adjacent to the crack. The element stiffness matrix, except for the cracked element, may
be regarded as unchanged under a certain limitation of element size [3]. The additional
stress energy of a crack has been studied thoroughly in fracture mechanics and the flex-
ibility coefficient, expressed by a stress intensity factor, can be easily derived by means of
Castiglianos theorem in the linear-elastic range. As an example, a shaft can be divided
into elements as shown in Figure 1. The behavior of the elements situated to the right of
the cracked element may be regarded as external forces applied to the cracked element,
while the behavior of elements situated to its left may be regarded as constraints [3]. Thus
the flexibility matrix of a cracked element with constraints may be calculated.
With the shearing action neglected, and by using the strain energy, the flexibility
coefficients for an element without a crack (see Figure 1) can be derived in the form

0 13
3EI
C,=
0 -- I2 -1
2EI EI

- I2 0 0 1
2EI EI
375
0022-460)3/92/170375+07 $OS.OO/O 0 1992 Academic Press Limited
376 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Here EZ is the bending stiffness and I is the element length. The additional strain energy

due to the crack results in a local flexibility matrix

&/R
CM/R
1
Sym

&/R

where F,, = nER2/(1 - v2), R = D/2 and v = 0.3.

The dimensionless compliance coefficients, Eii, are computed from the derivations
discussed in reference [4]. The total flexibility matrix for the cracked section is given as
[Cl = [Gl+ [Ccl.
From the equilibrium condition (see Figure 1)

h,q2,. . * 7 4dT = mq5, *. . 941JT, (1)

where the transformation is

--1 0 0 0
O-l 0 0
0 I -1 0
-I 0 0 -1
T=
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
-0 0 0 1

The stiffness matrix of the cracked element can be written as

Kc1= PWl[~lT. (2)

3. THE EQUATION OF MOTION

The dynamic modelling of rotor-bearing systems by using finite elements has been
developed by Nelson and McVaugh [5]. By making use of this modelling the equation of
motion of a rotor-bearing system without a crack can be expressed

[Ml {G>+ PM + [Kl bd = {Q>, (3)

where the mass matrix includes the rotary and translational mass matrices and the damping
includes the gyroscopic moments. The details of the matrices of equation (3) have been
given in reference [5].
When the crack is assumed to affect only the stiffness, the stiffness matrix of equation
(3) is replaced by [a for a cracked shaft. The natural frequencies are obtained by solving
the eigenvalue problem [K]- w~[M]=O, and [a-w*[M]=O, for the untracked and
cracked shafts, respectively.
The presence of a crack in a structure tends to modify the dynamic characteristics of
the structure, such as the natural frequencies and mode shapes. This fact can be used
inversely to predict the crack parameters from measurements of the changes in the natural
 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 377

Figure 1. Simply supported shaft with a cracked element.

frequencies and mode shapes of the structure once a functional relationship between the
crack parameters and the changes in the structure dynamic characteristics have been
determined.
The normalized eigenfrequency due to the crack is given as a function of dimensionless
crack parameters as

Am/o =f{WJ z/L, o/o}, (4)

where w is the natural frequency of the untracked rotor system and do is the change in
natural frequency due to the crack.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A steel shaft supported on two rigid bearings at both ends having Youngs modulus
E= 2.06 x 10 N/m2 and density 7800 kg/m3 is considered for the analysis.
The variations of the eigenfrequencies of different orders for different crack locations
and depths and for different geometric ratios of shaft are shown in Figure 2.
The normalized changes in the eigenfrequencies of different orders as functions of crack
parameters for L/D=4 are given in Figure 3 and Figure 4 shows the mode shapes for
some cases.
As expected, the fundamental frequency decreases when the crack occurs close to the
middle of the shaft where, for the simply supported shaft considered, the maximum ampli-
tude of the mode shape occurs.
Figure 3 is similar to the figures presented by Rajab and Sabeeh [2]. The general trend
of the decrease in natural frequencies with increase in crack depth is also observed at
378 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

0.65 -

OaO -

_ o-75 N 0.75 -

? a.70 2 o-70-
3 3
0.65 0.65 -

0.60 -

o-55 - v

0.50 -

0.45 - ( b )
0.40 - I I I 1 I

0.90 -

0.65 -

0.60 - 0.60 - L/D=4 -

n 0.75 - L/D=4 - _ 0.75 -

$ 0.70 - 5 0.70 -

0.65 - 0.65 -

0.60 - 0.60 -

0.55 - 0.55 -

oal - 0.50 -

0.45 - (c ) @45- (d)

I I I I I I I I I I ,
0.40 0.40 _

o*w -
0.65 - 0.65 -

O-SO- 0.80 -

N 0.75 -
L/D=4 -

@65 - @65 -
L/O = 4
0.60 -

0.55 -

0.50 -

0.45 - (
0.40 . I I 1 ! 1
0.0 @I 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

Crock depth, a/D

Figure 2. Variations of eigenfrequencies with different crack parameters for different shaft geometric ratios,
Z/Lvalues: (a) 0.5; (b) 0.5; (c) 0.5; (d) 0.1; (e) 0.1; (f) 0.1.

higher frequencies. Due to the shift in the node positions for higher modes the changes in
the natural frequency and mode shape depend on how close the crack is to the mode shape
node [2].
Thus, based on the changes in the eigenfrequencies, the crack position and depth can
be determined as discussed in reference [2].
 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 379

0.4 -

5 0*3-
3
a
0.2
-

3
3 0.2 - 0.325.
a

0.25 /---

o*io
t

6
Crack depth, a/D

Figure 3. Variations of normalized changes in eigenfrequencies with crack depth.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The detection of cracks in shafts by measuring the changes in an adequate number of

natural frequencies has been considered by using FEM.
The changes in natural frequencies due to a crack are appreciable in cases of shafts with
low slenderness ratio L/D.
380 LElTERS TO THE EDITOR

-6 /- a/D=O.I-)C

(a) -

0
-I

-2
-3
-4
-5
-6

(b)

Figure 4. Mode shapes of different order eigenfrequencies for different crack parameters. (a) First mode,
Z/L=O.5; (b) first mode, Z/L=O.l; (c) second mode, Z/L=O.l. - --, No crack.
 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 381

REFERENCES

1. J. WAUER 1990 Applied Mechanics Reviews 43(l), 13-17. On the dynamics of cracked rotors: a
literature survey.
2. M. D. RAJAB and A. AL SABEEH 1991 Journal of Sound and Vibration 147,465-473. Vibration
characteristics of cracked shafts.
3. G.-L. QIAN, S.-N. Gu and J.-S. JIANG 1990 Journal of Sound and Vibration 138, 233-243. The
dynamic behaviour and crack detection of a beam with a crack.
4. C. A. PAPADOPOULOS and A. D. DIMAROG~NAS 1987 Journalof Soundand Vibration 117,81--93.
Coupled longitudinal and bending vibrations of a rotating shaft with an open crack.
5. H. D. NELSON and J. M. MCVAUGH 1976 ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry 98(2),
593-600. The dynamics of rotor-bearing systems using finite elements.