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A new HB (Harmonic Balance)/AFT (Alternating Frequency Time) method is further developed to obtain synchronous and subsynchronous whirling response of nonlinear MDOF rotor systems. Using the HBM, the nonlinear differential equations of a rotor system can be transformed to algebraic equations with unknown harmonic coefficients. A technique is applied to reduce the algebraic equations to only those of the nonlinear coordinates. Stability analysis of the periodic solutions is performed via perturbation of the solutions. To further reduce the computational time for the stability analysis, the reduced system parameters (mass, damping, and stiffness) are calculated in terms of the already known harmonic coefficients. For illustration, a simple MDOF rotor system with a piecewise-linear bearing clearance is used to demonstrate the accuracy of the calculated steady-state solutions and their bifurcation boundaries. Employing ideas from modern dynamics theory, the example MDOF nonlinear rotor system is shown to exhibit subsynchronous, quasi-periodic and chaotic whirling motions.

A HB (Harmonic Balance)/AFT (Alternating Frequency/Time) technique is developed to obtain synchronous and subsynchronous whirling motions of a horizontal Jeffcott rotor with bearing clearances. The method utilizes an explicit Jacobian form for the iterative process which guarantees convergence at all parameter values. The method is shown to constitute a robust and accurate numerical scheme for the analysis of two dimensional nonlinear rotor problems. The stability analysis of the steady-state motions is obtained using perturbed equations about the periodic motions. The Floquet multipliers of the associated Monodromy matrix are determined using a new discrete HB/AFT method. Flip bifurcation boundaries were obtained which facilitated detection of possible rotor chaotic (irregular) motion as parameters of the system are changed. Quasi-periodic motion is also shown to occur as a result of a secondary Hopf bifurcation due to increase of the destabilizing cross-coupling stiffness coefficients in the rotor model.