INTRODUCTION

The balancing of rotating masses is vital to keep away from vibrations. In overwhelming
modern machines, for example, steam turbines interior ignition motors and electric generators,
vibration could cause calamitous disappointment. Vibrations are loud and awkward and when
an auto wheel is out of balance, the ride is very unpalatable. Because a straightforward wheel,
balancing basically includes moving the focal point of gravity to the focal point of revolution
however as we might see, for more and more intricate bodies, there is a whole other world to
it. For a body to be totally adjusted it must have two things: static balance and dynamic balance.

Static Balance (Single-plane balance). This occurs when the resultant of the
centrifugal forces is equal to zero and the centre of gravity is on the axis of rotation.
Dynamic Balance (Two-plane balance). This occurs when there is no resulting
turning moment along the axis.

STATIC BALANCE

Despite its name, static balance does apply to things in motion. The unbalanced forces of
concern are due to the accelerations of masses in the system. The requirement for static balance
is simply that the sum of all forces on the moving system must be zero [1]. Another name for
static balance is single-plane balance, which means that the masses which are generating the
inertia forces are in, or nearly in, the same plane [1]. It is basically a two-dimensional issue.
A few cases of regular devices which meet this measure, and in this way, can effectively be
statically balanced, are: a solitary gear or pulley on a shaft, a bicycle or bicycle tire and wheel,
a thin flywheel, a plane propeller, an individual turbine blade wheel (yet not the whole turbine).
The shared factor among these devices is that they are overall short the axial direction
contrasted with the radial direction, and subsequently can be considered to exist in a solitary
plane. A car tire and wheel are just insignificantly suited to static balancing as it is sensibly
thick the axial direction contrasted with its distance across. Regardless of this reality, auto tires
are here and there statically balanced. Even more frequently they are progressively balanced.

Figure l-a shows a link in the shape of a "V", which is part of a linkage. We want to statically
balance it. We can model this link dynamically as two-point masses m1 and m2 concentrated
at the local CGs of each "leg" of the link as shown in Figure l-b. These point masses each
have a mass equal to that of the "leg" they replace and are supported on massless rods at the
position (R1 or R2) of that leg's CG. We can solve for the required amount and location of a
third "balance mass" to be added to the system at some location to satisfy the
equilibrium.

Assume that the system is rotating at some constant angular velocity . The accelerations of
the masses will then be strictly centripetal (toward the centre), and the inertia forces will be
centrifugal (away from the centre) as shown in Figure 1. Since the system is rotating, the figure
shows a "freeze-frame" image of it. The position at which we "stop the action", for drawing the
picture and doing the calculations, is both arbitrary and irrelevant to the computation. We will
set up a coordinate system with its origin at the centre of rotation and resolve the inertial forces
into components in that system. Writing the equilibrium equation for this system we get:

Note that the only forces acting on this system are the inertia forces. For balancing, it does not
matter what external forces may be acting on the system. External forces cannot be balanced
by making any changes to the system's internal geometry. Note that the 2 terms cancel and
equation (1-a) could be re-written as follows.
Breaking into x and y components:

The terms on the right sides are known. Then one can solve for the magnitude and direction of
the product needed to balance the system.

After the product is calculated from equation (1 ), there is infinity of solutions

available. We can either select a value for and solve for the necessary radius at which it
should be placed, or choose a desired radius and solve for the mass that should be placed there.

Once a combination of and is chosen, it remains to design the physical counterweight.

The chosen radius is the distance from the pivot to the CG of whatever shape we create for
the counterweight mass. A possible shape for this counterweight is shown in Figure l-c. Its
mass must be , distributed to place its CG at radius and at angle .

DYNAMIC BALANCE

Dynamic balance is sometimes called two-plane balance. It requires that two criteria be met.
The sum of the forces must be zero (static balance) plus the sum of the moments must also be
zero.
These moments act in planes that include the axis of rotation of the assembly such as planes
XZ and YZ in Figure 2. The moment's vector direction, or axis, is perpendicular to the
assembly's axis of rotation.

Any rotating object or assembly which is relatively long in the axial direction compared to the
radial direction requires dynamic balancing for complete balance. It is possible for an object to
be statically balanced but not be dynamically balanced. Consider the assembly in Figure 2. Two
equal masses are at identical radii, 180 apart rotationally, but separated along the shaft length.
A summation of -ma forces due to their rotation will be always zero. However, in the side view,
their inertia forces form a couple which rotates with the masses about the shaft. This rocking
couple causes a moment on the ground plane, alternately lifting and dropping the left and right
ends of the shaft.

Some examples of devices which require dynamic balancing are: rollers, crankshafts,
camshafts, axles, clusters of multiple gears, motor rotors, turbines, and propeller shafts. The
common denominator among these devices is that their mass may be unevenly distributed both
rotationally around their axis and longitudinally along their axis.
To correct dynamic imbalance requires either adding or removing the right amount of mass at
the proper angular locations in two correction planes separated by some distance along the
shaft [2]. This will create the necessary counter forces to statically balance the system and
provide a counter couple to cancel the unbalanced moment. When an automobile tire and wheel
is dynamically balanced, the two correction planes are the inner and outer edges of the wheel
rim. Correction weights are added at the proper locations in each of these correction planes
based on a measurement of the dynamic forces generated by the unbalanced, spinning wheel.

It is always good practice to first statically balance all individual components that go into an
assembly, if possible. This will reduce the amount of dynamic imbalance that must be corrected
in the final assembly and reduce the bending moment on the shaft. Consider the system of three
lumped masses arranged around and along the shaft in Figure 3.

Assume that, for some reason, they cannot be individually statically balanced within their own
planes. We then create two correction planes labelled A and B. In this design example, the
unbalanced masses m1, m2, m3 and their radii R1, R2, R3 are known along their angular
locations t1, t2 and t3. We want to dynamically balance the system. A three-dimensional
coordinate system is applied with the axis of rotation in the Z direction. Note that the system
has again been stopped in an arbitrary freeze-frame position. Angular acceleration is assumed
to be zero. The summation of forces is:

Dividing out the 2 and rearranging we get:

Breaking into x and y components:

Equations (3-c) have four unknowns in the form of products at plane A and products
at plane B. To solve, we need the sum of the moments which we can take about a point in one
of the correction planes such as point O. The moment arm (z-distance) of each force measured
from plane A are labelled 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 in the figure; thus

Dividing out the 2 , breaking into x and y components and rearranging:

The moment in the XZ plane (i.e., about the Y axis) is:

These can be solved for the products in x and y directions for correction plane B which can
then be substituted into equation (3-c) to find the values needed in plane A. Equations (1 - d)
and (1-e) can then be applied to each correction plane to find the angles at which the balance
masses must be placed and the product needed in each plane. The physical counterweights
can then be designed consistent with the constraints outlined in the section on static balance.
Note that the radii and do not have to be the same value.
REFFERENCES

[1] Norton, R.L. (1999): DESIGN OF MACHINERY, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0-
07-048395-7, 1999.
[2] Khurmi, R.S., Gupta, J.K. (1976): THEORY OF MACHINES, Eurasia Publishing
House Ltd, 1976.