METHOD OF BALANCING A BLADED ROTOR

摘要

A method is disclosed for balancing the fan rotor (10) of a turbine engine having a hub (12) with blades (16) extending radially therefrom. In the preferred embodiment the method includes the steps of determining (30) a penalty associated with each possible unique blade arrangement in which a limited number of blades is relocated from their initially assigned locations on the hub to new target locations. A subset of these arrangements is selected (34), the subset members being the arrangements having the lowest penalties. For each member of the subset, the penalty determination (36) is made for each possible unique blade arrangement in which a limited number of blades is relocated from their initial locations in each subset member to new target locations. If these latter penalty determinations identify an arrangement having a penalty less than that of any arrangement in the subset, the subset selection (34) and penalty determination steps (36) are repeated until no further reduction in penalty is observed. Once a blade arrangement having the smallest penalty is identified, the imbalance associated with that arrangement is compared (42) to a predetermined imbalance limit. If the imbalance is no greater than the limit, the blades (16) are deployed (44) on the hub in accordance with that arrangement.