Multi-objective optimisation of a small aircraft turbine engine rotor system with self-updating Rayleigh damping model and frequency-dependent bearing-pedestal model

A self-updating Rayleigh damping model and frequency-dependent bearing-pedestal model for multi-objective optimisation is presented through this paper and is applied for a small turbine engine rotor system for aircraft application. This engine is used as an auxiliary power unit on aircraft. The Rayleigh damping model and frequency-dependent bearing pedestal model are verified by carrying out experiments on this auxiliary power unit rotor system. The novel self-updating feature calculates the Rayleigh damping coefficients and frequency-dependent bearing-pedestal stiffness for each chromosome and modifies rotor system equation of motion for computing the objectives during multi-objective optimisation for each chromosome. This novel model is used for multi-objective optimisation of auxiliary power unit rotor system. The unbalance response and weight are minimised subjected to critical speed constraint. Controlled elitist genetic algorithm is used for the optimisation resulting in Pareto optimal solutions and the acceptable solution is identified as the solution close to Utopia point. The results are compared with the constant Rayleigh damping model. The new model has produced an accurate optimum solution superior to constant Rayleigh damping model.