JANUARY 8TH,

FLIGHT

1942

>

SHOCK DAMPERS
Some Interesting Results of Tests on a Gipsy Engine Crankshaft with
Rotating Pendulum Torsional Vibration Absorbers

Gipsy-Six crankshaft with torsion dampers opposite each crank throw.

lOTATING pendulum vibration absorbers were

first introduced as standard equipment on aircraft
engine crankshafts in 1936, when one of the
crankshaft counterweights on the Series " G " Wright
Cyclone radial engine was used as a rotating pendulum
vibration absorber. Service experience soon revealed
that the device had succeeded in smoothing engine vi'
tion to such an extent that quite important reducti'
of wear of engine components and of controllable-pitf
airscrew mechanisms were being obtained. Indeed,
results were so encouraging that in the case of the G.ioo
Cyclone engine, introduced in 1939, both crankshaft
counterweights were used as rotating pendulum torsjprr
vibration absorbers, with the result that a higher takeoff speed was found to be permissible and that even
with this higher speed there was a reduction of airscrew
stress due to reduced torsional vibration.

The Theory Explained

Until quite recent times the real principles underlying the operation of rotating pendulum torsional
vibration absorbers were not generally understood, and
there is little doubt that in many instances where these
devices failed to give satisfaction the fault was due to
an imperfect understanding of their mode of action.
A paper entitled " T h e Elements of Pendulum
Dampers," by R. W. Zdanowich and T. S. Wilson,

published jn Vol. 143, p. 182, of the Iroffeedihis 01 the

neers^ 3fc therefore
Institution of Mechanic^
specially ^welcome
f\me when so much
attentif
s of increasing engine
perf
presents the subject in
artic
practical manne
be ,
in this country
tory theory of the rota
orber
ults
unicatjo'ns on this
in
c.I.Mech.E., p . 223
^ description
r
's carried .out by theT)e Havilland Aircraft
of si
crankshaftjajted with
Company on
he aniffgernent of the
rotating pend
sorjaers are shown
crankshaft a:
are designed to
in the photogr!
reduce the/Major 3rd ordejirfrjrquey<?ariation. There are
on a corresponding
six absorber assembl
anged that an absorber
number of cr;
each of the six crank
mass is diamej
also function as crank web
pins. Thus the
a useful relief of main-bearing
counterweights,
ly lightens the duty required from
loading, which n
these bearings bujt' also improves the internal balance
of the forces acting on the crankshaft and crankcase.
The latter consideration is of great
importance from the point of view
of crankcase design, since it enables
lighter scantlings to be employed
without the danger of fatigue cracks
developing, at points of local stress
concentration, due to the distortions
which would otherwise be caused by
the centrifugal forces originated by
the rotation of the revolving parts of
individual crank throws.
Each absorber mass consists of
two steel rings case-hardened and
ground in the bores and on the side
faces. These rings are quite free to
roll on a case-hardened steel pin
which itself is free to roll in a casehardened steel bush pressed into a
carrier arm forged integrally with
the crank web. The special feature
One of the shock dampers assembled . . .