Development of an Active Load Cell Force Measurement Test Rig

As industrial machine performance requirements progress, accurate high frequency fluid-film bearing coefficients are necessary in order to ensure accurate prediction of system level machine rotordynamics. Traditional fluid-film bearing test rigs have been shown to enable accurate dynamic bearing coefficient identification. However, the uncertainty of these coefficients significantly increase at higher frequencies (>250 Hz). Therefore, as modern high performance machinery require high accuracy high frequency dynamic coefficient validation, a new bearing test rig design is required. This work solves this problem through the development of a new test rig based on the development of an “Active Load Cell”. The theoretical development, test rig design and detailed simulation results are presented to demonstrate the dynamic force measurement performance capabilities of an Active Load Cell over a broad frequency range.