DYNAMICS OF MACHINES

Unit II
BALANCING

B.K.Parrthipan, M.E., M.B.A., (Ph.D).,

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 Balancing
• Balancing is the process of designing or
modifying machinery so that the unbalance is
reduced to an acceptable level and if possible
is eliminated entirely.
• If the moving part of a machine are not
balanced completely then the inertia forces are
set up which may cause excessive noise,
vibration, wear and tear of the system. So
balancing of machine is very necessary.

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 Static Balancing
A system of rotating masses is said to be in
static balance if the combined mass centre of
the system lies on the axis of rotation.
Condition for static balancing
• The net dynamic force acting on the shaft is
equal to zero. This requires that the line of
action of three centrifugal forces must be the
same.

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 Dynamic Balancing
• A system of rotating masses is in dynamic
balance when there does not exist any resultant
centrifugal force as well as resultant couple.
Condition for dynamic balancing
• The net dynamic force acting on the shaft is
equal to zero.
• The net couple due to the dynamic forces
acting on the shaft is equal to zero.

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 Balancing of rotating mass
• Whenever a certain mass is attached to a rotating shaft,
it exerts some centrifugal force, whose effect is to bend
the shaft and to produce vibrations in it.
• In order to prevent the effect of centrifugal force,
another mass is attached to the opposite side of the
shaft, at such a position so as to balance the effect of
the centrifugal force of the first mass. This is done in
such a way that the centrifugal force of both the masses
are made to be equal and opposite.
• The process of providing the second mass in order to
counteract the effect of the centrifugal force of the
first mass, is called balancing of rotating masses.

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 Balancing of rotating mass
Example:
Watch needles are properly balanced by providing some extra
projections (mass) in the opposite direction.
The following cases are important from the subject point of view:
1. Balancing of a single rotating mass by a single mass rotating in
the same plane.
2. Balancing of a single rotating mass by two masses rotating in
different planes.
3. Balancing of different masses rotating in the same plane.
4. Balancing of different masses rotating in different planes.

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 Balancing of reciprocating mass
• The various forces acting on the reciprocating parts of
an engine.
• The resultant of all the forces acting on the body of
the engine due to inertia forces only is known as
unbalanced force or shaking force.
• Since the shaking force and a shaking couple vary in
magnitude and direction during the engine cycle,
therefore they cause very objectionable vibrations.
• Thus the purpose of balancing the reciprocating
masses is to eliminate the shaking force and a shaking
couple.
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 Balancing of reciprocating mass
• In most of the mechanisms, we can reduce the
shaking force and a shaking couple by adding
appropriate balancing mass, but it is usually not
practical to eliminate them completely.
• In other words, the reciprocating masses are only
partially balanced.
Note : The masses rotating with the crankshaft are
normally balanced and they do not transmit any
unbalanced or shaking force on the body of the
engine.
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Primary and Secondary Unbalanced
Forces of Reciprocating Masses

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Primary and Secondary Unbalanced
Forces of Reciprocating Masses

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Primary and Secondary Unbalanced
Forces of Reciprocating Masses

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 Partial Balancing of Locomotives
• The locomotives, usually, have two cylinders with
cranks placed at right angles to each other in order to
have uniformity in turning moment diagram. The two
cylinder locomotives may be classified as :
1. Inside cylinder locomotives and
2. Outside cylinder locomotives.

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 Partial Balancing of Locomotives
• In the inside cylinder locomotives, the two cylinders are
placed in between the planes of two driving wheels as shown
in Fig. (a) , whereas in the outside cylinder locomotives, the
two cylinders are placed outside the driving wheels, one on
each side of the driving wheel, as shown in Fig. (b).

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 Partial Balancing of Locomotives
• The locomotives may be
(a) Single or uncoupled locomotives and
(b) Coupled locomotives.
• A single or uncoupled locomotive is one, in
which the effort is transmitted to one pair of
the wheels only, whereas in coupled
locomotives, the driving wheels are connected
to the leading and trailing wheel by an outside
coupling rod.
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 Effect of Partial Balancing of
Reciprocating Parts of Two
Cylinder Locomotives
1. Variation in tractive force along the line of
stroke
2. Swaying couple and
3. Hammer Blow

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 Variation of Tractive Force
• The resultant unbalanced force due to the two
cylinders, along the line of stroke, is known as
tractive force.

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 Swaying couple
• The unbalanced forces along the line of stroke
for the two cylinders constitute a couple about
the centre line YY between the cylinders.
• This couple has swaying effect about a vertical
axis, and tends to sway the engine alternately
in clockwise and anticlockwise directions.
Hence the couple is known as swaying couple.

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 Hammer Blow
• The effect of an unbalanced primary force
perpendicular to the line of stroke is to produce
variation in pressure on the rails, which results
in hammering action on the rails. The
maximum magnitude of the unbalanced force
along the perpendicular to the line of stroke is
known as a hammer blow.

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 Balancing of Multi-cylinder In-line
Engines
• The multi-cylinder engines with the cylinder centre lines
in the same plane and on the same side of the centre line
of the crankshaft, are known as In-line engines.
• The following two conditions must be satisfied in order
to give the primary balance of the reciprocating parts of a
multi-cylinder engine :
1. The algebraic sum of the primary forces must be
equal to zero. In other words, the primary force
polygon must close and
2. The algebraic sum of the couples about any point in
the plane of the primary forces must be equal to zero.
In other words, the primary couple polygon must close.
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 Balancing of V Engine
• V engines are also radial engines as the
cylinders are arranged along the radial lines.
These cylinders have a common crank.
• Aero engine is an example of a V engine.

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 Balancing of Linkages
• We know that a linkage is obtained if one of
the links of a kinematic chain is fixed to the
ground.
• If motion of each link results in definite
motions of the others, the linkages is known as
mechanism. Therefore the study of balancing
of linkages becomes necessary for the design
engineers.

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 Balancing of Linkages
Problems in balancing of linkages
The two problems that arise in balancing
linkages are :
(i) Balancing the shaking force (i.e., Unbalanced
force) and
(ii) Balancing the shaking moment (i.e., Unbalanced
couple).
But our study is limited to force balancing of
linkages only.

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 Methods of Force Balancing of
Linkages
Five methods of force balancing of linkages given by
Lowen and Berkof are:
(i) Method of static balancing
In this method concentrated link masses are
replaced by systems of masses that are
statistically equivalent.
(ii) Method of principal vectors
In this method, an analytical expression is
obtained for the centre of mass (centroid) and
then manipulated to learn how its trajectory can
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 Methods of Force Balancing of
Linkages
(iii) Method of Linearly independent vectors
In this method, the centre of mass of a mechanism
is made stationery, causing the coefficients of the
time dependent terms of the equation describing
the trajectory of the total centre of mass to vanish.
(iv) Use of cam driven masses
The use of cam driven masses is to keep the total
centre of mass stationery.

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 Methods of Force Balancing of
Linkages
(v) Addition of an axially symmetric duplicate
mechanism
The new combined total centre masses is to keep the
total centre of mass stationery.

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 Balancing Machines
Balancing machines are used to
• determine whether the rotating parts of a
machine is completely balanced or not.
• check the static and dynamic balancing of the
rotating parts and
• determine the extent to which balancing is
done (in case of unbalanced system)

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 Balancing Machines - Types
Three types of balancing machines are available
(i) Static balancing machines
These machines measure the static unbalance
only.
(ii) Dynamic balancing machines
These machines measure the dynamic unbalance
only.
(iii) Universal balancing machines
These machines are capable of measuring both
static and dynamic unbalance.

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