2002 Student Conference on Research and Development Proceedings, Shah Alam, Malaysia
td iL
A LabVIEW based Data Acquisition System for Vibration Monitoring and
Analysis
Asan Gani' and M.J.E. Salami'
Dept. of Mechatronics, Facultj of Engineering
International Islamic Universitj Malaysia
I asant3.iiu.edu.my
Absbact-LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument
Engineering Workbench) is gaining its popularity as a
graphical programming language especially for data
acquisition and measurement. This is,due to the vast
array of data acquisition cards and measurement
systems, which can be supported by the LabVIEW as
well as the relatively easy by which advanced software
can be programmed. One area of application of
LabVIEW is in the monitoring and analysis of
vibration signals. The analysis and monitoring of the
signal are of the concem for fault detection and
implementing predictive maintenance. This paper
describes a LabVIEW based data acquisition and
analysis developed specifically for Vibration
monitoring and used with Vibration Faults Simulation
Systems (VFSS). On-line displays of time and
frequency domain of the vibration signal provide a
user-friendly data acquisition interface.
Keywords: Signal analysis; predictive maintenance;
Graphical programming; Virtual Instrument; Data
Acquisition System
1. INTRODUCTION
PC based data acquisition @AQ) systems in
measurement and analysis is gaining importance in
industry and research organizations as this canbe used
for teaching, iesearch and product development due to
its flexibility of using virtual instrumentation
technologies. Important components for DAQ system
are shown in fig. 1 [13].
Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation
Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) is a graphical
programming environment based on the concept of
data flow programming. This programming paradigm
has been widely used for data acquisition and
instrument control. There are three important
components involved in test and measurement
applications, namely data acquisition, data analysis and
data visualization. LabVIEW features an easy-to-use
graphical programming environment, which covers
these vital components [ 9 ] . Many exciting experiments
can be designed and demonstrated by integrating these
powerful Virtual Instrument technology products in a
flexible laboratory environment with enormous
possibilities of expansion and experimentation.
The LabVlEW full development system
features the analysis library. The function in this
library is called virtual Instruments (VIS).These VIS
allow us to use classical digital processing algorithms
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without writing a single line of code. The LabVIEW
block diagram approach and the extensive set of
analyhcal VIS simplify the development of analysis
applications. These VIS are arranged in subgroups,
some of which are: Digital signal processing and
Windows. In addition to the analysis Library, there are
a number of specialized toolkits, such as Digital Filter
Design, Fuzzy and control Toolkit.
2. SIGNALS PROCESSING USING LABVIEW
To use digital signal processing techniques,
the analog signal must be converted into its digital
representation. In practice, this is implemented by
using an analog-todigital (AD) converter. One of the
most important parameters for processing analog
signals is the sampling rate. The sampling rate
determines how often an analog-todigital (AD)
conversion takes place. The effect of under sampling is
that the signal appears as if it has a different frequency
than it truly does. This misrepresentation of a signal is
called an alias. According to the Nyquist theorem, to
avoid aliasing the sampling rate must be greater than
twice the maximum frequency component in the
acquired signal.
2.1 Discrete Fourier Transform @FT) and Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT)
The samples of a signal obtained from a DAQ
board constitute the time domain representation of the
signal. This representation gives the amplitudes of the
signal at the instants of time during which it had been
sampled. The representation of a signal in terms of its
individual frequency components is known as the
frequency domain representation of the signal. The
frequency domain representation could give more
insight about the signal and the system through which
it has been generated.
2.2 Windowing
In practical application only a finite number
of samples of the signal is obtained. When the
D F T m is used to find the frequency content of a
signal, it is inherently assumed that the data is a single
period of a periodically repeating waveform. Leakage
exists because of the finite time record of the input
signal. An appropriate window is usually selected so as
to reduce the spectral leakage. That is by applying a
smoothing window function to the data before it is
discrete-time Fourier transformed can greatly minimize
spectral leakage.
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 Fig.1. PC based DAQ system

Fig. 2. Front panel and block diagram of the spectrum analyzer

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Types of windowing: Many Merent types of
windows are available in the LabVIEW analysis
library. Some of these windows are Rectangular,
Hanning, Hamming, Blackman-Harris, Triangle, Flat
Top and Exponential.
2.3 Digital filters
Filtering is the process by which the
frequency content of a signal is altered. It is one of the
most commonly used signal processing techniques.
Modem digital signal processing tools make it possible
to replace analog filters with digital filters in
applications that require flexibility and
prograqmability. Digital filters. have the following
advantages over their analog counterparts: *,
i. They are programmable
ii. They are stable and predictable
iii. They do not drift with temperature or humidity
and do not require precision components
iv. They have a superior performance-to-cost ratio
Digital filters in LabVIEW have features to
control parameters such as filter order, cutoff
frequencies, amount of ripple, and stopband
attenuation. LabVIEW offers wide range of Infinite
lmpulse Response (IIR) and Finite Impulse Response
(FIR) filters such as Butterworth, Chebyshev ,
Chebyshev I1 or Inverse Chebyshev , Bessel, and
Elliptic.
3. DESIGNED SPECTRUM ANALYZER
A simple signal processing wftware that serves
as spectrum analyzer is designed and developed using
LabVIEW. The software can perform the following
function:
i. Acquire analog input signals from different
channels.
ii. Select appropriate filters to process the acquired
data.
iii. Display time domain signal.
iv. Study the effects of windows on the acquired data.
v. Display the signals spectra.
3.1 Front panel
The spectrum analyzer front panel shown in fig.2 has
three settings, time domain display, and spectrum
analysis display. The descriptions of these are given
below:
i. Filter setting:This panel allows the user to select
various design of filters. The filters are:
Butterworth, Chebychev, Inverse Chebychev,
Elliptic and Bessel. For each selected filter, the
user can set the cut off frequency to perform
lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and bandstop
filtering.
ii. Acquire setting: The spectrum setting allows the
mer to select channel, sampling rate, number of
samples, and different types of windows.
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iii. ' Display setting: Allows various types of spectrum
analysis ( FFT ,averaged FFT(Mag-Phase), Power
and averaged Power), Power and Frequency
Estimate, and &splay unit (dB or rms value)
iv. Time domain: This chart will display the acquired
signals in time domain
v. Spectrum analysis: Spectrum analysis chart will
display the frequency component of the signal and
their amplitudes.
3.2 Block diagram
The window diagram holds the block diagram
of the VI , which is its graphical source code. The
block diagram is constructed by wiring together
objects that receive data, perform specific functions
such as FIT, and control the flow of execution. The
block diagram of a typical signal analyzer is shown in
fig. 2.
4. DATA ACQUISITION (DAQ) BOARD
A 16 bit, National Instruments PCI E series
DAQ board is used to acquire analog inputs from
accelerometers. The board model is PCI-MO-16XE-
10. It has 16 ,singleended or 8 differential mode
software selectable channels. The maximum sampling
rate of the board is 100kS/s and voltage range is *
1OV. Fig. 3 shows the DAQ board.
Fig.3. DAQboard
5. VIBRATION TRANSDUCERS
Critical to vibration monitoring and analysis
is the machine-mounted sensor. Three parameters
representing detected motion in vibration monitoring
are displacement, velocity, and acceleration. Selection
of a sensor proportional to displacement, velocity or
acceleration depends on the frequencies of interest and
the signal levels involved. Sensor selection and
installation is often the determining factor in accurate
diagnoses of machinery condition.
5.1 Piezoelectric accelerometer
Piezoelectric (PE) accelerometer is the most
widely used transducer for vibration monitoring (121.
It contains piezoelectric crystal element, which is
preloaded by a mass of certain value, and the entire 7. REFERENCES
assembly is enclosed in a rugged protective housing.
The piezoelectric crystal produces an electrical output Application Note 243, The Fundamentals of
when it is physically stressed. The variable vibration Signal Analysis, Hewletl Packard.
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"C, which is sufficient for laboratory use.
v. Grounding and isolation

6. CONCLUSION

The spectrum analyzing software mentioned in this

paper is mend to be used with Vibration Faults
simulation system to measure and analyze the vibhtion
faults signals. The WSS is used to simulate most
common faults in rotating machinery. Satisfactory
results have been obtained in this initial investigation.
The use of virtual instruments is cost effective and
suitable for lab experiments and exposing students to
virtual Instruments and PC based measurements.

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