Partial rotor rub occurs when an obstacle on the stator of a rotating machinery disturbs the free whirling motion of the rotor, which is more common than full annular rub among the cases of rubbing in rotating machinery. The intermittent contacts and friction during partial rotor rub makes the phenomenon complex. The several nonlinear phenomena of superharmonics, subharmonics, and jump phenomenon are demonstrated for the partial rub using an experimental apparatus in this study. The orbit patterns are also measured experimentally. In order to explain the phenomena of partial rotor rub, the analytical model for the contact between the rotor and stator should be chosen carefully. In this respect, a piecewise-linear model and a rebound model using the coefficient of restitution are investigated on the basis of the experimental observations. Also, Numerical simulations for the two models of contact are done for the various system parameters of clearance, contact stiffness, and friction coefficient. The results show that the piecewise-linear model for partial rotor rub is more plausible to explain the experimental observgations.