EXCITATION AND MEASUREMENT

OF VIBRATIONS
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Schematic of an excitation and measurement system
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Types of excitation signals

WIDE BAND SIGNALS NARROW BAND SIGNALS

Non-periodic Pure random
Swept sine
Pseudo-random
Periodic stepped sine
Periodic random
Periodic chirp
Transient random
Transient
Burst chirp
Impulse
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Non-periodic excitation: Pure random signal
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Periodic excitation: Pseudo-random signal

Sum of harmonics
with unit amplitude
and frequency
multiple of an
elementary
frequency

Random phase
variation
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Periodic excitation: Periodic random signal
Random amplitude of harmonics with a frequency multiple of an
elementary frequency
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Periodic excitation: Periodic chirp

Fast sinusoidal
sweeping in a
certain frequency
interval

Periodic signal by
repetition of the
sweeping
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Transient excitation: Transient random signal (burst random)

Interrupted pure
random signal

Leakage
atenuation

• Transient exciation: Burst chirp

Truncated burst
chirp

Leakage
atenuation
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Transient excitation: Impulsive signal
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Narrow band signals

- Swept sine
- Sinusoidal excitation whose frequency varies very slowly
in time, behaving approximately as a sinusoidal signal
with constant frequency in each measurement along the test
- response with a stationary nature

- Stepped sine
- discrete variation of the sinusoidal frequency of excitation
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Equipments of the excitation sub-system

- Signal generator
- Amplifier
- Excitor

• Excitors
- Vibrators
- Mechanical
- Electro-magnetic
- Electro-hydraulic
- Impulse hammer
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Mechanical vibrators: Eccentric mass vibrator

- Application in large structures (e.g. dams)

- Necessity of a perfect fixation
- Low forces at low frequencies F( t ) = 2mω2r cos(ωt )
- Difficulty of measurement of the applied force and phase
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Electro-magnetic vibrators
- Generation of a force proportional to the instantaneous value of an
electrical current passing through a magnetic field

- Possibility of application of forces of different nature

- Realtively low maximum applied forces (about 500N)
- Useful interposition of a load cell
- Application in small and medium size structures
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Electro-hydraulic vibrators
- Amplification of a signal, coming from a signal generator,
by hydraulic means, based on the circulation of a fluid at
high pressure, causing the motion of the actuator
- Advantages
- Possibility of application of any type of force, with a
variable spectral content in a range of about 0-150Hz
- Possibility of application to large structures
- Limitations
- Very heavy and expensive equipments
- Reduction of forces applied at low frequencies
- Necessity of measurement of the applied forces
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

• Impulse hammers
- Applicable to small and medium size
structures
- Advantage: wide band exciation
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Mechanical vibrator and impulse hammer (FEUP)
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Electro-magnetic vibrator (FEUP)
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Servo-hydraulic vibrator for vertical exciation (EMPA)
- Maximum force: ± 5kN
- Frequency range: 2.3-100Hz
- Mass: 500 kg
- Some bridges tested:
- Berspurbrüke Deibüel
(32+41+37m)
- Fussgängerbrüke Wimmis
(27+54+27m)
- Aarebrüke Aarburg (72m)
- Pont sur la Dala
(62+85+62m)
- Westendbrüke Berlin
(8 vãos, 240m)
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Servo-hydraulic vibrator for horizontal excitation (EMPA)

- Maximum force: ± 32kN

- Frequency range:
4-60Hz
- Mass: 1000 kg
- Application to dams
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
• Measurement sub-system
- Active and passive transducers

- Piezoelectric transducers
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
- Force transducers

- Great flexibility of use

frequency range: from about 0 to hundreds of kHz
maximum forces: from some N to tens of kN
sensitivity: from some microV/N to some V/N
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
- Motion transducers (accelerometers)
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS

- Signal conditioning
- Amplifier
- Analogue filtering
- Cut-off frequency
- order of the filter
- Analogue integration
- to velocities
- to displacements
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
- Acquisition, analysis and signal processing
- Configuration based on PC + A/D conversion card (FEUP)
EXCITATION / MEASUREMENT OF VIBRATIONS
- Acquisition, analysis and signal processing
- Configuration based on a spectral Fourier analyzer (FEUP)