The design and construction of rotating machinery operating at
supercritical speeds was, in the 1920s, an event of revolutionary
importance for the then new branch of dynamics known as rotor dynamics.
In the 1960s, another revolution occurred: In less than a decade,
imposed by operational and economic needs, an increase in the power of
turbomachinery by one order of magnitude took place. Dynamic analysis of
complex rotor forms became a necessity, while the importance of
approximate methods for dynamic analysis was stressed. Finally, the
emergence of fracture mechanics, as a new branch of applied mechanics,
provided analytical tools to investigate crack influence on the dynamic
behavior of rotors.
The scope of this book is based on all these developments. No topics
related to the well-known classical problems are included, rather the
book deals exclusively with modern high-power turbomachinery.