Resonance response of a simply supported rotor-magnetic bearing system by harmonic balance

Both the primary and superharmonic resonance responses of a rigid rotor supported by active magnetic bearings are investigated by means of the total harmonic balance method that does not linearize the nonlinear terms so that all solution branches can be studied. Two sets of second order ordinary differential equations governing the modulation of the amplitudes of vibration in the two orthogonal directions normal to the shaft axis are derived. Primary resonance is considered by six equations and superharmonic by eight equations. These equations are solved using the polynomial homotopy continuation technique to obtain all the steady state solutions whose stability is determined by the eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix. It is found that different shapes of frequency-response and forcing amplitude-response curves can exist. Multiple-valued solutions, jump phenomenon, saddle-node, pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations are observed analytically and verified numerically. The new contributions include the foolproof multiple solutions of the strongly nonlinear system by means of the total harmonic balance. Some predicted frequency varying amplitudes could not be obtained by the multiple scales method. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company.