Experimental Investigation of Vibration Characteristics, Dynamic Balancing, and Critical Speed Analysis

Abstract

Vibration in rotating machinery is the most significant contributor to mechanical failure, downtime, and maintenance cost in industrial plants — with unbalance, misalignment, and bearing defects collectively responsible for over 70 percent of rotating equipment failures. This paper presents a systematic experimental investigation of the vibration characteristics, critical speed behaviour, and dynamic balancing of a flexible multi-disk rotor system representative of industrial pump, compressor, and turbine rotors. The experimental rotor comprises a 40 mm diameter steel shaft of 860 mm length supporting three discs at defined span locations, mounted on two rolling element bearings with an overhang extension. Vibration measurements are conducted using proximity probes (shaft displacement) and accelerometers (bearing housing vibration) with 16-channel simultaneous data acquisition across the full speed range from 0 to 4000 rpm. Frequency Response Function (FRF) analysis is used to identify natural frequencies and damping ratios; a Campbell diagram is constructed to identify critical speeds and potential resonance conditions from integer-order excitations.

Cite as:

S. Mulani, A. Awasare& S. S. Patil. (2026). Experimental Investigation of Vibration Characteristics, Dynamic Balancing, and Critical Speed Analysis. Recent Innovations in Material Engineering, 2(2), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21885491