Consider a two rotor system as shown in Figure.

It consists of a shaft with two rotors A and B at

its end.

The torsional vibration occurs only when two rotors A and B rotate in opposite direction
When the two rotors rotate in opposite direction as shown in Figure, the amplitudes of vibration at
both ends will be in opposite directions. In such case some length of shaft is twisted in one
direction, while the rest is twisted in the other direction. There is a point or a section of the shaft
which remains untwisted. This point or section where amplitude of vibration is zero is known as
node point or nodal section.
At node point, the amplitude of vibration is zero. Therefore two rotor system with shaft AB
carrying rotors A and B at ends can be considered as equivalent to two single rotor systems with
i) Shaft NA carrying rotor A and
ii) Shaft NB carrying rotor B

Circular natural frequency (n)

𝐾𝑡 𝐺𝐽
𝜔𝑛 = √ =√
𝐼 𝐿𝐼
For shaft NA and rotor A
𝐺𝐽
𝜔𝑛 𝐴 = √
𝐿𝐴 𝐼𝐴
For shaft NB and rotor B
𝐺𝐽
𝜔𝑛 𝐵 = √
𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐵

Position of Node
The natural circular frequency of shaft is same (the natural circular frequency of both
the shafts NA and NB should be same, as node point is a common point for both shafts.)
𝜔𝑛 𝐴 = 𝜔𝑛 𝐵
𝐺𝐽 𝐺𝐽
√ =√
𝐿𝐴 𝐼𝐴 𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐵

𝐺𝐽 𝐺𝐽
=
𝐿𝐴 𝐼𝐴 𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐵

𝐿𝐴 𝐼𝐴 = 𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐵

𝐿𝐴 𝐼𝐵
=
𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐴

𝐿𝐵 𝐼𝐵
𝐿𝐴 =
𝐼𝐴

𝐿 = 𝐿𝐴 + 𝐿𝐵