The article presents the results of research on polymer composites based on polypropylene filled with various fillers. The physical and thermal properties of the composites are the result of the used polymer matrix as well as the properties and geometric features of the used filler. The geometric shape of the filler is particularly important in the processing of plastics in which the flow is forced, and high shearing tension occurs, which determines the high macromolecular orientation and specific arrangement of the filler particles. Thermal analysis (STA) was used in the research and photographs were taken using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) of fractures of polymer composites. The following fillers were used: talc, fibreglass, glass beads, and a halogen-free nitrogen-phosphorus flame retardant. The test material was obtained by extrusion. Shapes for strength tests, which were subjected to scanning microscopy tests after a static tensile test, were obtained by injection. The carried-out tests allowed us to determine the influence of the type and shape of individual fillers on structural changes in the structure of polypropylene composites and the degree of sample weight loss in a specific temperature range, depending on the used filler.

A gyroscopic rotor exposed to unbalance and internal damping is controlled with an active piezoelectrical bearing in this paper. The used rotor test-rig is modelled using an FEM approach. The present gyroscopic effects are then used to derive a control strategy which only requires a single piezo actuator, while regular active piezoelectric bearings require two. Using only one actuator generates an excitation which contains an equal amount of forward and backward whirl vibrations. Both parts are differently amplified by the rotor system due to gyroscopic effects, which cause speed-dependent different eigenfrequencies for forward and backward whirl resonances. This facilitates eliminating resonances and stabilize the rotor system with only one actuator but requires two sensors. The control approach is validated with experiments on a rotor test-rig and compared to a control which uses both actuators.

Variation in powertrain parameters caused by dimensioning, manufacturing and assembly inaccuracies may prevent model-based virtual sensors from representing physical powertrains accurately. Data-driven virtual sensors employing machine learning models offer a solution for including variations in the powertrain parameters. These variations can be efficiently included in the training of the virtual sensor through simulation. The trained model can then be theoretically applied to real systems via transfer learning, allowing a data-driven virtual sensor to be trained without the notoriously labour-intensive step of gathering data from a real powertrain. This research presents a training procedure for a data-driven virtual sensor. The virtual sensor was made for a powertrain consisting of multiple shafts, couplings and gears. The training procedure generalizes the virtual sensor for a single powertrain with variations corresponding to the aforementioned inaccuracies. The training procedure includes parameter randomization and random excitation. That is, the data-driven virtual sensor was trained using data from multiple different powertrain instances, representing roughly the same powertrain. The virtual sensor trained using multiple instances of a simulated powertrain was accurate at estimating rotating speeds and torque of the loaded shaft of multiple simulated test powertrains. The estimates were computed from the rotating speeds and torque at the motor shaft of the powertrain. This research gives excellent grounds for further studies towards simulation-to-reality transfer learning, in which a virtual sensor is trained with simulated data and then applied to a real system.

In modern turbomachinery, the performance and reliability is often limited by shaft vibrations induced by fluid film forces and moments of (i) plain or (ii) profiled annular seals. Therefore, these narrow annuli are mainly responsible for the overall system behaviour, i.e. safe operation and maintenance intervals. However, many studies focus only on the characteristics from the forces due to the translational motion, although the influence of the rotordynamic tilt and moment coefficients is well known. Therefore, these additional coefficients are much less researched. Especially, for profiled seals, the availability of reliable experimental data for validation purpose is rare. To overcome this fact, a test rig is operated at the Chair of Fluid Systems at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. The generic experiments presented here investigate the force and moment characteristic of plain, symmetrically profiled and non-symmetrically profiled annular seals within the relevant parameter range for turbulent flows in pumps. The investigations focus on the influence of the annulus length as well as the pressure difference across the annulus.