VIBRATION ANALYSIS: THE HEART BEAT OF YOUR

EQUIPMENT.

VIBRATION ANALYSIS: In gear reducers, vibration analysis can determine misalignment,

unbalance, mechanical looseness, eccentric shafts, gear wear, broken teeth, and bearing
wear. In electric motors vibration analysis can determine misalignment, unbalance,
mechanical looseness, eccentric rotors, bearing wear, loose rotor bars, and poor end turn
connections. Vibration analysis can be applied to all rotating equipment, ( from less than 1
rpm to 10000 rpm and above) these include electric motors, fans, machine tools, paper
machines, turbines, conveyor belt drives, pumps, air-compressors, motor-generator sets,
reciprocating engines, rolling mills, and mining equipment from long wall shearers to
continuous mining machines.

Introduction to Vibration
INDEX

acceleration
amplitude
Amplitude demodulation
Amplitude modulation
Angular Misalignment
Average
Bearing Mobility
bearing tones
Beats
Belt drives
blade rate
bump test
carrier
1
Cavitation
Centrifugal Compressors
Centrifugal Fans
Commercial Standards
Compressor surge
continuous spectrum
Couplings
Crest factor
critical
D.C. Motors
dB
degrees of freedom
Deterministic
differentiation
displacement
Dynamic Imbalance
Eccentric Sheaves
excitation force
fans
fault
FFT
FFT analyzer
First Order
Forcing Frequencies
frequency
Frequency Analysis

2
frequency domain
FTF
Fundamental Train Frequency
G
Gear eccentricity
Gear pumps
ghost
harmonic
harmonic series
harmonics
ICP
imbalance
Induction Motors
Integration
ISO Standards
jerk
journal bearing
Kurtosis
linear
Log
logarithm
Loose Windings
looseness
Magnetostriction
mils
Mil-Std 167-2

3
misalignment
Modal Analysis
Modulation
NAVSEA Technical Specification
non-synchronous components
Oil Whirl
Orbit plots
oscillation
overhung
Parallel Misalignment
Peak Amplitude
Peak-to-Peak
pendulum
period
phase
Pumps
quasi-periodic
Random Noise
Reciprocating Machines
resonance
RMS
Rolling Element Bearings
Root Mean Square
rotor
rotor bar
rotor bow

4
screw type pump
Sensor Mounting Pads
Sheave Misalignment
sidebands
signals
Simple Harmonic Motion
sine wave
sinusoid
slip
slot pass frequency
spectrum
Spectrum Comparison
Spectrum Mask
stationary
stator
Synchronous Averaging
Synchronous Motors
tachometer
ten-point divider
time domain
tooth-mesh
transducer
trending
trigger
Truncation
Turbines

5
vane pass
VdB
velocity
vibration
Vibration Severity Chart
vibration spectrum
VTAG
wave form
waveform
whole body motion

Introduction to Vibration

More:

What is Vibration?
Energy and Power Considerations
Linear and Non-Linear Systems
Frequency Analysis
Octave Band and One-Third Octave Band Analysis
Linear and Logarithmic Amplitude Scales

What is Vibration?

In its simplest form, vibration can be considered to be the oscillation or repetitive motion of an
object around an equilibrium position. The equilibrium position is the position the object will attain
when the force acting on it is zero. This type of vibration is called "whole body motion", meaning
that all parts of the body are moving together in the same direction at any point in time.
The vibratory motion of a whole body can be completely described as a combination of individual
motions of six different types. These are translation in the three orthogonal directions x, y, and z,
and rotation around the x, y, and z-axes. Any complex motion the body may have can be broken
down into a combination of these six motions. Such a body is therefore said to possess six degrees
of freedom. For instance, a ship can move in the fore and aft direction (surge), up and down

6
direction (heave), and port and starboard direction (sway), and it can rotate lengthwise (roll), rotate
around the vertical axis (yaw), and rotate about the port-starboard axis (pitch).
Suppose an object were restrained from motion in any direction except one. For instance, a clock
pendulum is restricted from motion except in one plane. It is therefore called a single degree of
freedom system. Another example of a single degree of freedom system is an elevator moving up
and down in an elevator shaft.
The vibration of an object is always caused by an excitation force. This force may be externally
applied to the object, or it may originate inside the object. It will be seen later that the rate
(frequency) and magnitude of the vibration of a given object is completely determined by the
excitation force, direction, and frequency. This is the reason that vibration analysis can determine
the excitation forces at work in a machine. These forces are dependent upon the machine condition,
and knowledge of their characteristics and interactions allows one to diagnose a machine problem.

Simple Harmonic Motion

The simplest possible vibratory motion that can exist is the movement in one direction of a mass
controlled by a single spring. Such a mechanical system is called a single degree of freedom spring-
mass system. If the mass is displaced a certain distance from the equilibrium point and then
released, the spring will return it to equilibrium, but by then the mass will have some kinetic energy
and will overshoot the rest position and deflect the spring in the opposite direction. It will then
decelerate to a stop at the other extreme of its displacement where the spring will again begin to
return it toward equilibrium. The same process repeats over and over with the energy sloshing back
and forth between the spring and the mass -- from kinetic energy in the mass to potential energy in
the spring and back.
The following illustration shows a graph of the displacement of the mass plotted versus time.

If there were no friction in the system, the oscillation would continue at the same rate and same
amplitude forever. This idealized simple harmonic motion is almost never found in real mechanical
systems. Any real system does have friction, and this causes the amplitude of vibration to gradually
decrease as the energy is converted to heat. The following definitions apply to simple harmonic
motion:
T = The period of the wave.

7
The period is the time required for one cycle, or one "round trip" from one zero crossing to the next
zero crossing in the same direction. The period is measured in seconds, or milliseconds, depending
on how fast the wave is changing.
The unit for frequency is F = The Frequency of the wave, = 1/T
the Hz, named after
Heinrich Hertz, the German The frequency is the number of cycles that occur in one second,
scientist who first and is simply the reciprocal of the period.
investigated radio.

Equations of Motion

If the position, or displacement, of an object undergoing simple harmonic motion is plotted versus
time on a graph as shown above, the resulting curve is a sine wave,or sinusoid, and is described by
the following equation:

where d = instantaneous displacement,

D = maximum, or peak, displacement
= angular frequency, = 2f
t = time
This is the same curve that the sine function from trigonometry generates, and it can be considered
the simplest and most basic of all possible repetitive wave forms. The mathematical sine function is
derived from the relative lengths of the sides of a right triangle, and the sine wave is actually a plot
of the value of the sine function versus angle. In the case of vibration, the sine wave is plotted as a
function of time, but one cycle of the waveform is sometimes considered to equal 360 degrees of
angle. More will be said about this when we consider the subject of phase.
The velocity of the motion described above is equal to the rate of change of the displacement, or in
other words how fast its position is changing. The rate of change of one quantity with respect to
another can be described by the mathematical derivative, as follows:

where v = instantaneous velocity.

Here we see that the form of the velocity function is also sinusoidal, but because it is described by
the cosine, it is displaced by 90 degrees. We will see the significance of this in a moment.
The acceleration of the motion described here is defined as the rate of change of the velocity, or how
fast the velocity is changing at any instant:

where a = instantaneous acceleration.

Note here also that the acceleration function is displaced by an additional 90 degrees, as indicated
by the negative sign.

8
If we examine these equations, it is seen that the velocity is proportional to the displacement times
the frequency, and that the acceleration is proportional to the frequency squared times the
displacement. This means that at a large displacement and a high frequency, very high velocities
result, and extremely high levels of acceleration would be required. For instance, suppose that a
vibrating object is undergoing 0.1 inch of displacement at 100 Hz. The velocity equals displacement
times frequency, or

,
Acceleration equals displacement times frequency squared, or
a = 0.1 x 10000 = 1000 inches per second per second.
One G of acceleration equals 386 inches per second per second, so this acceleration is

Now, see what happens if we raise the frequency to 1000 Hz:

, and

Thus, we see that in practice, high frequencies can not be associated with high
displacement levels.

Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

A small compact physical structure, such as a marble, can be thought of as simply a mass. It will
move in response to an external force applied to it, and Newton’s laws of motion will govern its
movement. Simply put, Newton's laws dictate that if the marble is at rest, it will remain at rest
unless acted on by an external force, and if in motion it will continue in motion unless acted on by an
external force. If it is subjected to an external force, its acceleration will be proportional to that
force.
Most mechanical systems are more complex than a simple mass, and they do not necessarily move
as a whole when subjected to a force. Mechanical systems, such as rotating machines, are not
infinitely rigid, and have varying degrees of flexibility at different frequencies. As we will see, their
motion in response to an external force is dependent on the nature of that force and the dynamic
characteristics of their mechanical structure, and is often difficult to predict. The disciplines of Finite
Element Modeling (FEM) and Modal Analysis are dedicated to predicting how a structure will respond
to a known force. We will not discuss these fields further, for they are very complex, but it is
instructive to look into how forces and structures interact if we are to understand the usefulness of
vibration analysis of machines.

Vibration Amplitude Measurement

The following definitions apply to the measurement of mechanical vibration amplitude.

9
Peak Amplitude (Pk) is the maximum excursion of the wave from the zero or equilibrium point.
Peak-to-Peak Amplitude (Pk-Pk) is the distance from a negative peak to a positive peak. In the case
of the sine wave, the peak-to-peak value is exactly twice the peak value because the waveform is
symmetrical, but this is not necessarily the case with all vibration waveforms, as we will see shortly.
Root Mean Square Amplitude (RMS) is the square root of the averageof the squared values of the
waveform. In the case of the sine wave, the RMS value is 0.707 times the peak value, but this is
only true in the case of the sine wave. The RMS value is proportional to the area under the curve --
if the negative peaks are rectified, i.e., made positive, and the area under the resulting curve
averaged to a constant level, that level would be proportional to the RMS value.

The RMS value of a vibration signal is an important measure of its amplitude. As mentioned before,
it is numerically equal to the square root of the average of the squared value of amplitude. To
calculate this value, the instantaneous amplitude values of the waveform must be squared and these
squared values averaged over a certain length of time. This time interval must be at least one period
of the wave in order to arrive at the correct value. The squared values are all positive, and thus so is
their average. Then the square root of this average value is extracted to get the RMS value.
Average Amplitude, which is simply the The RMS value must be used in all calculations regarding
arithmetic average of the signal level power or energy in a waveform. An example of this is the
over time, is not used in vibration 117 volt AC line. The 117 volts is the RMS value of the
measurements, and we will not voltage, and it is used in calculations of the wattage (power)
consider it further. drawn by devices connected to it. Remember that the RMS
value of a sine wave is 0.707 times the peak value, and this
is the only wave form where this is true. We will see shortly

10
 that this is important.

The Concept of Phase

Phase is a measure of relative time difference between two sine waves. Even though phase is truly a
time difference, it is almost always measured in terms of angle, either degrees or radians. This
represents normalization to the time taken by one cycle of the wave in question, without regard to
its true time period.
The phase difference between two waveforms is often called a phase shift. A phase shift of 360
degrees is a time delay of one cycle, or one period of the wave, which actually amounts to no phase
shift at all. A phase shift of 90 degrees is a shift of 1/4 of the period of the wave, etc. Phase shift
may be considered positive or negative, i.e., one waveform may be delayed relative to another one,
or one waveform may be advanced relative to another one. These conditions are called phase lag
and phase lead respectively.

In this example, the lower curve is shifted 90 degrees with respect to the upper curve. This is a time
lag of one-fourth of the period of the wave. You could also say the upper waveform has a 90 degree
phase lead.
Phase can also be measured with reference to a particular time. An example of this is the phase of
an imbalance component in a rotor with reference to a fixed point on the rotor, such as a key way. To
measure this phase, a triggerpulse must be generated from a certain reference point on the shaft.
This trigger can be generated by a tachometer or some type of optical or magnetic probe that senses
a discontinuity on the rotor, and is sometimes called a "tach" pulse.

Phase of a Rotor

11
The phase angle can be measured from the reference position either in the direction of rotation or
opposite to the direction of rotation, i.e., phase lag or lead, and different equipment manufacturers
use different conventions. In the DLI Balance program software for the DC-7, either direction may be
selected at the operator's preference.

Vibration Units

So far, we have been looking at the displacement of a vibrating object as a measure of its vibration
amplitude. The displacement is simply the distance from a reference position, or equilibrium point.
In addition to varying displacement, a vibrating object will experience a varying velocity and a
varying acceleration. Velocity is defined as the rate of change of displacement, and in the English
system is usually measured in units of inches per second. Acceleration is defined as the rate of
change of velocity, and in the English system, is usually measured in units of G, or the average
acceleration due to gravity at the earth's surface.
The displacement of a body undergoing simple harmonic motion is a sine wave as we have seen. It
also turns out (and is easily proved mathematically), that the velocity of the motion is sinusoidal.
When the displacement is at a maximum, the velocity will be zero because that is the position at
which its direction of motion reverses. When the displacement is zero (the equilibrium point), the
velocity will be at a maximum. This means that the phase of velocity waveform will be displaced to
the left by 90 degrees compared to the displacement waveform. In other words, the velocity is said
to lead the displacement by a 90-degree phase angle.
Remembering that acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, it can be shown that the
acceleration waveform of an object undergoing simple harmonic motion is also sinusoidal, and also
that when the velocity is at a maximum, the acceleration is zero. In other words, the velocity is not
changing at this instant. Then, when the velocity is zero, the acceleration is at a maximum -- the
velocity is changing the fastest at this instant. The sine curve of acceleration versus time is thus
seen to be 90 degrees phase shifted to the left of the velocity curve, and therefore acceleration leads
velocity by 90 degrees.
These relationships are shown here:

'

Note here that the acceleration is 180 degrees out of phase with the displacement. This means the
acceleration of a vibrating object is always in the opposite direction to the displacement!
It is possible to define another parameter that is the rate of change of acceleration, and it is called
"jerk". Jerk is what you feel when your car comes to a stop if you maintain a constant brake pedal

12
pressure. It is really the sudden cessation of the deceleration. Elevator manufacturers are interested
in measuring jerk, for it is the variation in acceleration that elevator passengers are especially
sensitive to.

Summary of Amplitude Units:

In the English system of measurements, displacement is usually measured in mils (thousandths of

an inch), and the peak-to-peak value is used by convention.
Velocity is usually measured in inches per second, and the convention is to use the peak value or the
RMS value. The peak value is the most commonly used, not because it is better, but because of long
tradition.
Acceleration is usually measured in Gs, where 1 G is the acceleration due to gravity at the earth's
surface. The G is not actually an acceleration unit -- it is simply an amount of acceleration we
experience as inhabitants of the earth. Acceleration is sometimes measured in inches per second per
second (in/sec2), or m/sec2, that are true units. One G is equal to 386 inches/sec2 or 9.81
meters/sec2.
The process of converting a signal from displacement to velocity or velocity to acceleration is
equivalent to the mathematical operation of differentiation. Conversely, the conversion from
acceleration to velocity or velocity to displacement is mathematical integration. It is possible to
perform these operations in vibration measuring instruments and thus to convert from any system of
units to any other one. From a practical standpoint however, differentiation is an inherently noisy
process, and is seldom done. Integration, on the other hand, can be done very accurately with
inexpensive electrical circuitry. This is one reason that the accelerometer is the de facto standard
transducer for vibration measurement, for its output is easily integrated once or twice in order to
display velocity or displacement. Integration is not suitable, however, for signals of very low
frequencies (Below 1 Hz), for in this region the noise level increases and the accuracy of the
integration process itself suffers. Most commercially available integrators operate correctly above
one Hz, which is sufficiently low for almost all vibration applications.

Displacement, Velocity and Acceleration

A vibration signal plotted as displacement vs. frequency can be

This means that a plot of vibration converted into a plot of velocity vs. frequency by a process of
velocity will slope upwards as differentiation, as we have defined earlier. Differentiation involves
frequency rises compared to the a multiplication by frequency, and this means the vibration
same signal plotted as velocity at any frequency is proportional to the displacement
displacement. times the frequency. For a given displacement, if the frequency is
doubled, the velocity will also double, and if the frequency is
increased tenfold, the velocity is also increased by a factor of ten.
In order to obtain acceleration from velocity, another differentiation is required, and this results in
another multiplication by frequency. The result is that for a given displacement, the acceleration is
proportional to the frequency squared. This means that the acceleration curve slopes upward twice
as steeply as the velocity curve.
To illustrate these relationships, consider how easy it is to move your hand back and forth over a
distance of one foot at one cycle per second, or 1 Hz.. It might be possible to attain the same hand
displacement at 5 or 6 Hz. But consider how fast your hand would be moving if it had the same 1
foot displacement at 100 Hz, or 1000 Hz!
Now consider the great force that would be required to move your hand a

13
Newton's second law of foot at these higher frequencies. Force equals mass times acceleration
motion states that force according to Newton, so the force required goes up as the square of the
equals mass times frequency. This is the reason we never see high acceleration levels
acceleration. combined with high displacement values. The very large forces that would
be required are simply not found in practice.

From these considerations, it can be seen that the same vibration data plotted in displacement,
velocity, and acceleration will have very different appearances. The displacement curve will greatly
emphasize the lowest frequencies, and the acceleration curve will greatly emphasize the highest
frequencies at the expense of the lowest ones.
The relationship between levels of displacement, velocity, and acceleration versus frequency in
standard English units of mils peak-to-peak, inches per second peak, and G RMS are expressed by
the following equations:

14
The three curves shown above display the same information, but the emphasis is changed. Note that
the displacement curve is difficult to read at higher frequencies, and acceleration has enhanced
higher frequency levels. The velocity curve is the most uniform in level over frequency. This is typical
of most rotating machinery, but in some cases the displacement or acceleration curves will be the
most uniform. It is a good idea to select the units so the flattest curve is attained -- this provides the
most visual information to the observer. Velocity is the most commonly used vibration parameter for
machine diagnostic work.

Complex Vibration

In a linear mechanical system, all the vibration Vibration is the motion resulting from an
components will exist together, and none will oscillating force, and for a linear mechanical
interfere with any other. In the case of a non- system, the vibration frequency will be the same
linear system, the vibration components will as the forcing frequency. If there are several

15
interact and generate new components which are
not in the forcing function. See also the section
on linear systems in the Machine Monitoring
chapter.
forcing frequencies occurring at the same time,
then the resulting vibration will be a summation of
the vibration at each frequency. Under these
conditions the resulting waveform of the vibration
will not be a sinusoid, and may be very complex.

In the diagram, the high frequency and the low frequency

Certain machines, especially very slow
speed ones, produce vibration wave
forms that are relatively easy to interpret
directly. See also the section on Time
Domain Analysis in the Machinery
Monitoring chapter.
vibration add together to make the complex waveform. In
simple cases like this, it is relatively easy to find the
frequencies and amplitudes of the two components by
examination of the wave form, but most vibration signals
are far more complex than this, and can be extremely
difficult to interpret. In a typical rotating machine, it is
often hard to get very much information about the inner
workings of the machine by looking at the vibration wave
form, although in certain cases wave form analysis is a
powerful tool, as will be discussed in the chapter on
machine vibration monitoring.

Energy and Power Considerations

Energy is required to produce vibration and in the case of machine vibration, this energy comes from
the source of power to the machine. This energy source can be the AC power line, an internal
combustion engine, or steam driving a turbine, etc. Energy is defined as force multiplied by the
distance over which the force acts, and the SI unit of energy is the Joule. One Joule of energy is
equivalent to a force of one Newton acting over a distance of one meter. The physical concept of
work is similar to that of energy, and the units used to measure work are the same as those for
measuring energy.

16
The actual amount of energy present in the machine vibration itself is usually not very great
compared to the energy required to operate the machine for its intended task.
Power is defined as the rate of doing work, or the rate of energy transfer, and according to the SI, it
is measured in Joules per second, or Watts. One horsepower is equivalent to 746 watts. Power is
proportional to the square of the vibration amplitude, just as electrical power is proportional to the
voltage squared or the current squared.
According to the law of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be
transformed into different forms. The vibratory energy in a mechanical system is ultimately
dissipated in the form of heat.

Mechanical Structures

In analyzing the vibration of a machine, which is a more or less complex mechanical system, it is
useful to consider the sources of vibration energy and the paths in the machine that this energy
takes. Energy always moves, or flows, from the source of the vibration to the energy absorber where
it is converted into heat. In some cases, this may be a very short path, but in other situations, the
energy may travel relatively long distances before being absorbed.
The most important absorber of energy in a machine is friction, which can be sliding friction or
viscous friction. Sliding friction is represented by relative motion between parts of the machine, and
an example of viscous friction is the oil film in a journal bearing. If a machine has very little friction,
its vibration level tends to be fairly high, for the vibration energy builds up due to the lack of
absorption. On the other hand, a machine with greater inherent friction will have lower vibration
levels because the energy is absorbed quickly. For example, a machine with rolling element bearings
(often called anti-friction bearings), generally vibrates more than a machine with sleeve bearings,
where the oil film acts as a significant absorber of energy. The reason that airplane structures are
riveted together rather than being welded into a solid unit is that the riveted joints move slightly,
absorbing energy by sliding friction. This keeps vibrations from building up to destructive levels.
Such a structure is said to be highly damped, and the damping is actually a measure of its energy
absorption capability.

Natural Frequencies

Any physical structure can be modeled as a number of springs, masses, and dampers. Dampers
absorb energy, but springs and masses do not. As we saw in the previous section, a spring and a
mass interact with one another to form a system that resonates at their characteristic natural
frequency. If energy is applied to a spring-mass system, it will vibrate at its natural frequency, and
the level of the vibration depends on the strength of the energy source as well as the absorption or
damping inherent in the system. The natural frequency of an undamped spring-mass system is given
by the following equation:

where Fn = The natural frequency

k = the spring constant, or stiffness
m = the mass

17
From this, it is seen that if the stiffness increases, the natural frequency also increases, and if the
mass increases, the natural frequency decreases. If the system has damping, which all physical
systems do, its natural frequency is a little lower, and depends on the amount of damping.
The multitude of spring-mass-damper systems that make up a mechanical system are called
"degrees of freedom", and the vibration energy put into a machine will distribute itself among the
degrees of freedom in amounts depending on their natural frequencies and damping, and on the
frequency of the energy source. For this reason, the vibration will not be uniformly distributed in the
machine. For instance, in a machine driven by an electric motor, a major source of vibration energy
is residual imbalance in the motor rotor. This will result in a measurable vibration at the motor
bearings. But if the machine has a degree of freedom with a natural frequency close to the RPM of
the rotor, its vibration level can be very high, even though it may be a long distance from the motor.
It is important to be aware of this fact when evaluating the vibration of a machine -- the location of
the maximum vibration level may not be close to the source of the vibration energy. Vibration energy
frequently travels great distances along pipes, and can wreak havoc when it encounters a remote
structure with a natural frequency near that of its source.

Resonance

Resonance is an operating condition where an excitation frequency

Examples of highly resonant is near a natural frequency of the machine structure. A natural
mechanical systems are frequency is a frequency at which a structure will vibrate if
bells and tuning forks. deflected and then let go. A typical structure will have many
natural frequencies. When resonance occurs, the resulting vibration
levels can be very high and can cause rapid damage.
In a machine that produces a broad spectrum of vibration energy, a
Under no circumstances resonance shows up in the vibration spectrum as a peak whose
should a machine be frequency is constant even as the machine speed is varied. The
operated at a speed peak may be quite sharp, or may be broad; depending on the
corresponding to a amount of effective damping the structure has at the frequency in
resonance! question.
In order to determine if a machine has prominent resonances, one
of several tests can be performed to find them:
The "Bump Test" -- The machine is impacted with a heavy mass such as a wooden four by four or
the booted heel of the foot of a football player while recording vibration data. If a resonance is there,
the machine vibration will be at the natural frequency as it dies away.
The "Run Up" or "Coast Down" -- The machine is turned on, or turned off, while taking vibration data
and tachometer data. The time wave form will show maxima when the RPM matches natural
frequencies.
"Variable Speed Test" -- With a machine whose speed can be varied over a wide range, the speed
can be varied while taking vibration and tachometer data. The data are interpreted as in the run up
test.
The figure below shows an idealized response curve of a mechanical resonance. The behavior of a
resonant system when subjected to an external force is interesting and somewhat counter intuitive.
It depends strongly on the frequency of the excitation force. If the forcing frequency is lower than
the natural frequency -- in other words to the left of the peak -- then the system behaves like a
spring, and the displacement is proportional to the force. The spring of the spring-mass combination
making up the resonant system is dominant in determining the response of the system. In this
spring-controlled region, the system behaves in agreement with our intuition, responding with
greater motion as greater force is applied to it, and the motion is in phase with the force.

18
In the region above the natural frequency, the situation is different. Here, the mass is the controlling
element, and the system looks like a mass to an input force. This means its acceleration is
proportional to the applied force, and the displacement is relatively constant with changing
frequency. The displacement is out of phase with the force in this region -- when you push against
the system, it moves toward you and vice versa!
At the resonance itself, the system looks completely different to an applied force. Here, the mass
and spring elements effectively cancel each other out, and the force sees only the damping, or
friction, in the system. If the system is lightly damped, it is like pushing on air. When you push on it,
it recedes from you on its own. Consequently, you cannot apply much force to the system at
resonance, and if you continue to try, the vibration amplitude builds up to very high values. It is the
damping that controls the motion of a resonant system at its natural frequency.

Examples of resonances in machines are the so-called critical frequencies of rotating shafts.
The phase angle between the excitation source vibration and the response of the structure is always
90 degrees at the natural frequency
In the case of long rotors such as turbines, the natural frequencies are called "critical frequencies" or
"critical speeds," and care must be taken that these machines are not operated at speeds where 1X
or 2X correspond to these critical frequencies.

Linear and Non-Linear Systems

To assist in understanding the transmission of vibration through a machine, it is instructive to

investigate the concept of linearity and what is meant by linear and non-linear systems. Thus far, we
have discussed linear and logarithmic amplitude and frequency scales, but the term "linear" also
refers to the characteristics of a system which can have input and output signals. A "system" is any
device or structure that can accept an input or stimulus in some form and produce a corresponding
output or response. Examples of systems are tape recorders and amplifiers, which operate on
electrical signals, and mechanical structures, whose inputs are vibration forces, and whose outputs
are vibration displacements, velocities, or accelerations.

More:

19
 Definition of Linearity
Non-Linearities in Systems
Non-Linearities in Rotating Machines

Definition of Linearity

A system is said to be linear if it meets the following two criteria:

1. If input x to the system results in output X, then an input of 2x will produce output of 2X. In other
words, the magnitude of the system output is proportional to the magnitude of the system input.
2. If input x produces output X, and input y produces output Y, then an input of x + y will produce an
output of X + Y. In other words, the system handles two simultaneous inputs independently, and
they do not interact within the system. Implicit in these criteria is the fact that a linear system will
not produce any frequencies in the output that are not present in the input.
Note that there is nothing in these criteria that says the system output is the same as the system
input, or even that it resembles the system input. For instance, the input could be an electric
current, and the output could be a temperature. In the case of mechanical structures such as
machines, we will consider the input to be a vibratory force and the output to be the measured
vibration itself.

Non-Linearities in Systems

Absolutely perfect linearity does not exist in any real system. There are many different types of non-
linearity, and they exist in varying degrees in all mechanical systems, although many actual systems
approach linear behavior, especially with small input levels. If a system is not perfectly linear, it will
produce frequencies in its output that do not exist in its input. An example of this is a stereo
amplifier or tape recorder that produces harmonics of its input signal. This is called "harmonic
distortion", and it degrades the quality of the music being reproduced. Harmonic distortion almost
always gets much worse at high signal levels. An example of this is a small radio that sounds
relatively "clean" at low volume levels, but sounds harsh and distorted at high volume levels.
Many systems are very nearly linear in response to small inputs, but become non-linear at higher
levels of excitation. Sometimes a definite threshold exists in which input levels only a little above the
threshold result in gross non-linearity. An example of this is the "clipping" of an amplifier when its
input signal level exceeds the voltage or current swing capacity of its power supply. This is analogous
to a mechanical system where a part is free to move until it hits a stop, such as a loose bearing
housing that can move a little before being stopped by the mounting bolts.

Non-Linearities in Rotating Machines

As has been discussed, the vibration of a machine is actually its response to forces caused by
moving parts in the machine. We measure the vibration at various locations on the machine, and
deduce from these vibrations the magnitude of the forces. In measuring the frequency of the
vibration, we assume the forces occur at the same frequency as the response, and that the
measured levels are proportional to the magnitudes of the forces. This rationale assumes that the
machine is linear in its response to forcing functions, and this is a reasonable assumption for most
machines.
However, as a machine wears and clearances increase, or if it develops cracks or loose parts, its
response will no longer be linear, and the result is that the measured vibration can be quite different

20
in character from the forcing functions. For instance, an unbalanced rotor imparts a sinusoidal force
at a frequency of 1X to the bearing, and this force does not contain any other frequency. If the
mechanical structure of the machine is non-linear, this sinusoidal force will be distorted, and the
resulting vibration will occur at harmonics of 1X as well as 1X. The extent and magnitude of the
harmonic content of the vibration is a measure of the degree of non-linearity of the machine. For
instance, the vibration of a journal bearing contains greater and greater numbers and magnitudes of
harmonics as the bearing clearance increases.
Flexible couplings are non-linear when misaligned, and this is the reason their vibration signature
contains a strong second harmonic of 1X. Worn couplings that are misaligned often produce a strong
third harmonic of 1X. When forces acting at different frequencies interact in a non-linear way in a
machine, the result is the generation of sum and difference frequencies -- new frequencies that are
not present in the forcing functions themselves. These sum and difference frequencies are the
sidebands found in spectra of defective gearboxes, rolling element bearings, etc. In the case of a
gearbox, one forcing frequency is the gear mesh and another is the rpm of the gear. If the gear is
eccentric or otherwise misshapen, the rpm will modulate the gear mesh resulting in sidebands.
Modulation is always a non-linear process, creating new frequencies that do not exist in the forcing
functions.

Frequency Analysis

To get around the limitations in the analysis of the wave form itself, the common practice is to
perform frequency analysis, also called spectrum analysis, on the vibration signal. The time domain
graph is called the waveform, and the frequency domain graph is called the spectrum. Spectrum
analysis is equivalent to transforming the information in the signal from the time domain into the
frequency domain. The following relationships hold between time and frequency:

A train schedule shows the equivalence of information in the time and frequency domains:

21
The frequency representation in this case is much shorter than the time representation. This is a
"data reduction".
Note that the information is the same in both domains, but that it is much more compact in the
frequency domain. A very long schedule in time has been compressed to two lines in the frequency
domain. It is a general rule of the transformation characteristic that events that take place over a
long time interval are compressed to specific locations in the frequency domain.

More:

Why perform Frequency Analysis?

How to perform Frequency Analysis
Examples of some wave forms and their spectra
Modulation Effects
Beats

Why perform Frequency Analysis?

In the figure below, note that the individual frequency components are separate and distinct in the
spectrum, and that their levels are easily identified. It would be difficult to extract this information
from the time domain waveform.

It has been argued that the
primary reason for the
widespread use of
frequency analysis is the
wide availability of the
inexpensive FFT analyzer!
In the next figure, we see that events that are overlapped and
confused in the time domain are separated into individual
components in the frequency domain. The vibration waveform
contains a great deal of information that is not apparent to the eye.
Some of the information is in very low-level components whose
magnitude may be less than the width of the line of the waveform
plot. Nevertheless, such very low-level components may be
important if they indicate a developing problem such as a bearing
fault. The essence of predictive maintenance is the early detection
of incipient faults, so we must be sensitive to very small values of
vibration signals, as we will see shortly.

22
In the next figure, a very low-level component represents a small developing fault in a bearing, and
it would have been unnoticed in the time domain or in the overall vibration level. Remember that the
overall level is simply the RMS level of the vibration waveform over a broad frequency range, and
that a small disturbance such as the bearing tone shown here could double or quadruple in level
before the overall RMS would be affected.

On the other hand, there are circumstances where the waveform provides more information to the
analyst than does the spectrum.

How to perform Frequency Analysis

23
Before we investigate the procedure of performing spectrum analysis, we will look at the various
types of signals we will be working with.
From a theoretical and practical standpoint, it is possible to divide all time domain signals into
several groups. These different signal types produce different types of spectra, and to avoid errors in
performing frequency analysis, it is instructive to know their characteristics.

More:

Stationary Signals
Deterministic Signals
Non-Stationary Signals
Stationary Signals

The first natural division of all signals is into either stationary or non-stationary categories.
Stationary signals are constant in their statistical parameters over time. If you look at a stationary
signal for a few moments and then wait an hour and look at it again, it would look essentially the
same, i.e. its overall level would be about the same and its amplitude distribution and standard
deviation would be about the same. Rotating machinery generally produces stationary vibration
signals.
Stationary signals are further divided into deterministic and random signals. Random signals are
unpredictable in their frequency content and their amplitude level, but they still have relatively
uniform statistical characteristics over time. Examples of random signals are rain falling on a roof, jet
engine noise, turbulence in pump flow patterns and cavitation.
Deterministic Signals

Deterministic signals are a special class of stationary signals, and they have a relatively constant
frequency and level content over a long time period. Deterministic signals are generated by rotating
machines, musical instruments, and electronic function generators. They are further divisible into
periodic and quasi-periodic signals. Periodic signals have waveforms whose pattern repeats at equal
increments of time, whereas quasi-periodic signals have waveforms whose repetition rate varies over
time, but still appears to the eye to be periodic. Sometimes, rotating machines will produce quasi-
periodic signals, especially belt-driven equipment.
Deterministic signals are probably the most important in vibration analysis and their spectra
resemble the following:

24
 Periodic signals always produce spectra with discrete frequency
Most quasi-periodic signals are components that are a harmonic series. The term "harmonic" comes
actually a combination of from music, where harmonics are multiples of the fundamental
several harmonic series. frequency.

Non-Stationary Signals

Non-stationary signals are divided into continuous and transient types. Examples of non-stationary
continuous signals are the vibration produced by a jackhammer and the sound of a fireworks display.
Transient signals are defined as signals which start and end at zero level and last a finite amount of
time. They may be very short, or quite long. Examples of transient signals are a hammer blow, an
airplane flyover noise, or a vibration signature of a machine run up or run down.

Examples of some wave forms and their spectra

Following are some waveforms and spectra that illustrate some important characteristics of
frequency analysis. While these are idealized in the sense that they were made from an electronic
function generator and analyzed with an FFT analyzer, they do show certain attributes that are
commonly seen in machine vibration spectra.

25
A sine wave consists of a single frequency only, and its spectrum is a single point. Theoretically, a
sine wave exists over infinite time and never changes. The mathematical transform that converts the
time domain waveform into the frequency domain is called the Fourier transform, and it compresses
all the information in the sine wave over infinite time into one point. The fact that the peak in the
spectrum shown above has a finite width is an artifact of the FFT analysis, which will be discussed
later.
A machine with imbalance has an excitation force that is a sine wave at 1X, or once per revolution. If
the machine were perfectly linear in response, the resulting vibration would be a pure sine wave like
the one shown above. In many poorly balanced machines, the waveform does resemble a sine wave,
and there is a large vibration peak in the spectrum at 1X, or one order.

26
Here we see that a harmonic spectrum results from a periodic waveform, in this case a "clipped" sine
wave. The spectrum contains equally spaced components, and their spacing is equal to 1 divided by
the period of the waveform. The lowest of the components above zero frequency is called the
fundamental, and the others are called harmonics. This waveform came from a signal generator, and
it can be seen that it is not symmetrical about the zero line. This means it has a "DC." component,
and this is seen as the first line at the left in the spectrum. This is to illustrate that a spectrum
analysis can go all the way to zero frequency, or in common terminology, to DC.
In vibration analysis of machinery, it is not usually desirable to include such low frequencies in the
spectrum analysis for several reasons. Most vibration transducers do not have response to DC,
although there are accelerometers that are used in inertial navigation systems that do have DC
response. For machine vibration, the lowest frequency that is generally considered of interest is
about 0.3 orders. In some machines this will be below 1Hz. Special techniques are required to
measure and interpret signals below this frequency.

Note that because this spectrum It is not uncommon in machine vibration signatures to see a
consists of discrete points, the waveform which is clipped something like the one shown above.
signal is by definition What this usually means is there is looseness in the machine, and
deterministic! something is restricting its motion in one direction.

The signal shown above is similar to the previous one, but it is clipped on both positive and negative
sides, resulting in a symmetrical waveform. This type of signal can occur in machine vibration if
there is looseness in the machine and motion is restricted in both directions. The spectrum seems to
have harmonics, but they are actually only the odd-numbered harmonics. All the even-numbered
harmonics are missing. Any periodic waveform that is symmetrical will have a spectrum with only
odd harmonics! The spectrum of a square wave would also look like this.
Sometimes the vibration spectrum of a machine will resemble this if there is extreme looseness and
the motion of the vibrating part is restricted at each extreme of displacement. An unbalanced
machine with a loose hold-down bolt is an example of this.

27
Shown above is a short impulse produced by a signal generator. Note that its spectrum is continuous
rather than discrete. In other words, the energy in the spectrum is spread out continuously over a
range of frequencies rather than being concentrated only at specific frequencies. This is
characteristic of non-deterministic signals such as random noise and transients. Note that the level
of the spectrum goes to zero at a particular frequency. This frequency is the reciprocal of the length
of the impulse, therefore the shorter the impulse, the greater its high frequency content. If the
impulse were infinitely short (the so-called delta function, in mathematics), then its spectrum would
extend from 0 to infinity in frequency.
By examining a continuous spectrum, it is usually impossible to tell whether it is the result of a
random signal or a transient. This is an inherent limitation of Fourier-type frequency analysis, and
for this reason it is a good idea to look at the wave form when a continuous spectrum is
encountered. As far as machine vibration is concerned, it is of interest to the analyst whether
impacting is occurring (causing impulses in the wave form) or random noise (for example, from
cavitation) exists in the signal.
A rotating machine seldom produces a single impulse like this, but in the "bump test", this type of
excitation is applied to the machine. Its vibration response will not be a classic smooth curve like this
one, but it will be continuous with peaks corresponding to the natural frequencies of the machine
structure. This spectrum shows that the impulse is a good input force to use in this type of test, for
it contains energy over a continuous frequency range.

28
If the same impulse that produced the previous spectrum is repeated at a constant rate, the
resulting spectrum will have an overall envelope with the same shape as the spectrum of the single
impulse, but it will consist of harmonics of the pulse repetition frequency rather than a continuous
spectrum.
A bearing produces this type of signal with a definite defect in one of the races. The impulses can be
very narrow, and they will always produce an extensive series of harmonics.

Modulation Effects

Modulation is a non-linear effect in which several signals interact with one another to produce new
signals with frequencies not present in the original signals. Modulation effects are the bane of the
audio engineer, for they produce "intermodulation distortion", which is annoying to the music
listener. There are many forms of modulation, including frequency and amplitude modulation, and
the subject is quite complex. We will now look at the two primary types of modulation individually.

29
 Frequency modulation (FM) is the varying in frequency of one
It is rare to see frequency signal by the influence of another signal, usually of lower
modulation by itself; most frequency. The frequency being modulated is called the "carrier".
machines will produce amplitude In the spectrum shown above, the largest component is the
modulation at the same time as carrier, and the other components which look like harmonics, are
frequency modulation! called "sidebands". These sidebands are symmetrically located on
either side of the carrier, and their spacing is equal to the
modulating frequency.
Frequency modulation occurs in machine vibration spectra, especially in gearboxes where the gear
mesh frequency is modulated by the rpm of the gear. It also occurs in some sound system
loudspeakers, where it is called FM distortion, although it is generally at a very low level.

30
This example shows amplitude modulation at about 50% of full modulation
Notice that the frequency of the waveform seems to be constant and that it is fluctuating up and
down in level at a constant rate. This test signal was produced by rapidly varying the gain control on
a function generator while recording the signal.
The spectrum has a peak at the frequency of the carrier, and two
This type of signal is often more components on each side. These extra components are the
produced by defective bearings sidebands. Note that there are only two sidebands here compared
and gears, and can be easily to the great number produced by frequency modulation. The
identified by the sidebands in sidebands are spaced away from the carrier at the frequency of the
the spectrum. modulating signal, in this case at the frequency at which the control
knob was wiggled. In this example, the modulating frequency is
much lower than the modulated or carrier frequency, but the two
frequencies are often close together in practical situations. Also
these frequencies are sine waves, but in practice, both the
modulated and modulating signals are often complex. For instance,
the transmitted signal from an AM radio station contains a high-
frequency carrier, and many sidebands resulting from the carrier
modulation by the voice or music signal being broadcast.

A vibration and acoustic signature similar to this is frequently

produced by electric motors with rotor bar problems.

Beats

This waveform looks like amplitude modulation, but is

It is almost impossible to tell beating from actually just two sine wave signals added together to
amplitude modulation by looking at the form beats. Because the signals are slightly different in

31
waveform, but they are fundamentally frequency, their relative phase varies from zero to 360
different processes, caused by different degrees, and this means the combined amplitude varies
phenomena in machines. The spectrum due to reinforcement and partial cancellation. The
tells the story. spectrum shows the frequency and amplitude of each
component, and there are no sidebands present. In this
example, the amplitudes of the two beating signals are
different, causing incomplete cancellation at the null
points between the maxima. Beating is a linear process
-- no additional frequency components are created.
Electric motors often produce sound and vibration signatures that resemble beating, where the beat
rate is at twice the slip frequency. This is not actually beating, but is in fact amplitude modulation of
the vibration signature at twice the slip frequency. Probably it has been called beating because it
sounds somewhat like the beats present in the sound of an out of tune musical instrument.
The following example of beats shows the combined waveform when the two beating signals are the
same amplitude. At first glance, this looks like 100% amplitude modulation, but close inspection of
the minimum amplitude area shows that the phase is reversed at that point.

'

This looks like 100% amplitude modulation!

This example of beats is like the previous one, but the levels of the two signals are the same, and
they cancel completely at the nulls. This complete cancellation is quite rare in actual signals
encountered in rotating equipment.

32
Earlier we learned that beats and amplitude modulation produce similar waveforms. This is true, but
there is a subtle difference. These waveforms are enlarged for clarity. Note that in the case of beats,
there is a phase change at the point where cancellation is complete.

Octave Band and One-Third Octave Band Analysis

More:

Logarithmic Frequency Scaling

Logarithmic Frequency Scaling

So far, the only type of frequency analysis discussed has been on a linear frequency scale, i.e., the
frequency axis is set out in a linear fashion. This is suitable for frequency analysis with a frequency
resolution that is constant throughout the frequency range, commonly called "narrow band" analysis.
The FFT analyzer performs this type of analysis.
There are several situations where frequency analysis is desired, but narrow band analysis does not
present the data in its most useful form. An example of this is acoustic noise analysis where the
annoyance value of the noise to a human observer is being studied. The human hearing mechanism
is responsive to frequency ratios rather than actual frequencies. The frequency of a sound
determines its pitch as perceived by a listener, and a frequency ratio of two is a perceived pitch
change of one octave, no matter what the actual frequencies are. For instance if a sound of 100 Hz
frequency is raised to 200 Hz, its pitch will rise one octave, and a sound of 1000 Hz, when raised to
2000 Hz, will also rise one octave in pitch. This fact is so precisely true over a wide frequency range
that it is convenient to define the octave as a frequency ratio of two, even though the octave itself is
really a subjective measure of a sound pitch change.
This phenomenon can be summarized by saying that the pitch perception of the ear is proportional
to the logarithm of frequency rather than to frequency itself. Therefore, it makes sense to express
the frequency axis of acoustic spectra on a log frequency axis, and this is almost universally done.
For instance, the frequency response curves that sound equipment manufacturers publish are always

33
plotted in log frequency. Likewise, when frequency analysis of sound is performed, it is very common
to use log frequency plots.
The octave is such an important frequency interval to the ear that so-called
The vertical axis of an octave band analysis has been defined as a standard for acoustic analysis.
octave band spectrum The figure below shows a typical octave band spectrum where the ISO
is usually scaled in standard center frequencies of the octave bands are used. Each octave band
dB. has a bandwidth equal to about 70% of it center frequency. This type of
spectrum is called constant percentage band because each frequency band
has a width that is a constant percentage of its center frequency. In other
words, the analysis bands become wider in proportion to their center
frequencies.

It can be argued that the frequency resolution in octave band analysis is too poor to be of much use,
especially in analyzing machine vibration signatures, but it is possible to define constant percentage
band analysis with frequency bands of narrower width. A common example of this is the one-third-
octave spectrum, whose filter bandwidths are about 27 % of their center frequencies. Three one-
third octave bands span one octave, so the resolution of such a spectrum is three times better than
the octave band spectrum. One-third octave spectra are frequently used in acoustical
measurements.
A major advantage of constant percentage band analysis is that a very wide frequency range can be
displayed on a single graph and the frequency resolution at the lower frequencies can still be fairly
narrow. Of course, the frequency resolution at the highest frequencies suffers, but this is not a
problem for some applications such as fault detection in machines.
In the chapter on machine fault diagnosis, it will be seen the narrow band spectra are very useful in
resolving higher-frequency harmonics and sidebands, but for the detection of a machine fault, no
such high resolution is required. The vibration velocity spectra of most machines will be found to
slope downwards at the highest frequencies, and a constant percentage band (CPB) spectrum of the
same data will usually be more uniform in level over a broad frequency range. This means that a
CPB spectrum takes better advantage of the dynamic range of the instrumentation. One-third octave
spectra are sufficiently narrow at low frequencies to show the first few harmonics of run speed, and
can be used effectively for the detection of faults if trended over time.
The use of constant CPB spectra for machine monitoring is not very well recognized in industry with
a few notable exceptions such as the US Navy submarine fleet.

Linear and Logarithmic Amplitude Scales

It may seem to be best to look at vibration spectra with a linear amplitude scale because that is a
true representation of the actual measured vibration amplitude. Linear amplitude scaling makes the

34
largest components in a spectrum very easy to see and to evaluate, but very small components may
be overlooked completely, or are at best difficult to assign a magnitude to. The eye is able to see
small components about 1/50th as large as the largest ones in the same spectrum, but anything
smaller than this is essentially lost. In other words, the dynamic range of the eye is about 50 to 1
Linear scaling may be adequate in cases where the components are all about the same size, but in
the case of machine vibration, beginning faults in such parts as bearings produce very small signal
amplitudes. If we are to do a good job of trending the levels of these spectral components, it is best
to plot the logarithm of the amplitude rather than the amplitude itself. In this way, we can easily
display and visually interpret a dynamic range of at least 5000 to 1, or more than 100 times better
than the linear scaling allows.
To illustrate different types of amplitude presentations, the same vibration signature will be shown in
linear and two different types of logarithmic amplitude scales.
It might be said that the dynamic range of the eye, when looking at linear spectra, is about 34 dB.

More:

Linear Amplitude Scaling

Logarithmic Amplitude Scaling
The Decibel
dB Values vs. Amplitude Level Ratios
Unit Conversions
VdB Levels vs. Vibration Levels in ips

Linear Amplitude Scaling

Note that this linear spectrum shows the larger peaks very well, but lower level information is
missing. In the case of machine vibration analysis, we are often interested in the smaller
components of the spectrum, i.e., in the case of rolling element bearing diagnosis. This subject will
be covered in detail in the chapter on Machine Vibration Monitoring.

Logarithmic Amplitude Scaling

35
 The spectrum above plots
the logarithm of the vibration level rather than the level itself.
Since this spectrum is on a log amplitude scale, multiplication by any constant value simply
translates the spectrum up on the screen without changing its shape or the relationship between the
components.
Multiplication of the signal level translates into addition on a log scale. This means that if the amount
of amplification of a vibration signal is changed, the shape of the spectrum is not affected. This fact
greatly simplifies visual interpretation of log spectra taken at different amplification factors -- the
curves are simply translated up or down on the graph. With a linear scaling, the shape of the
spectrum changes drastically with different degrees of amplification.
The next spectrum is presented in decibels, a special type of log scaling that is very important in
vibration analysis

The Decibel

36
The decibel (dB) is defined by the following expression:

where: LdB = The signal level in dB

L1 = Vibration level in Acceleration, Velocity, or Displacement
Lref = Reference level, equivalent to 0 dB
The Bell Telephone Labs introduced the concept of the decibel before 1930. It was first used to
measure relative power loss and signal to noise ratio in telephone lines. It was soon pressed into
service as a measure of acoustic sound pressure level.
The vibration velocity level in dB is abbreviated VdB, and is defined as:

or

37
 The reference, or "0 dB" level of 10-9 meter per sec is sufficiently
The Systeme small that all our measurements on machines will result in positive dB
Internationale, or SI, is the numbers. this standardized reference level uses the SI, or "metric,"
modern replacement for the system units, but it is not recognized as a standard in the US and
metric system. other English-speaking countries. (The US. Navy and many American
industries use a zero dB reference of 10-8 m/sec, making their
readings higher than SI readings by 20 dB.)
The VdB is a logarithmic scaling of vibration magnitude, and it allows relative measurements to be
easily made. Any increase in level of 6 dB represents a doubling of amplitude, regardless of the
initial level. In like manner, any change of 20 dB represents a change in level by a factor of ten. Thus
any constant ratio of levels is seen as a certain distance on the scale, regardless of the absolute
levels of the measurements. This makes it very easy to evaluate trended vibration spectral data; 6
dB increases always indicate doubling of the magnitudes.

dB Values vs. Amplitude Level Ratios

The following table relates dB values to amplitude ratios:

dB Change Linear Level dB Change Linear Level

Ratio Ratio
0 1 30 31

3 1.4 36 60

6 2 40 100

10 3.1 50 310

12 4 60 1000

18 8 70 3100

20 10 80 10,000

24 16 100 100,000

It is strongly recommended that VdB be used as the vibration amplitude scaling because so much
more information is available to the viewer compared to linear amplitude units. Also, compared to a
conventional log scale, the dB scale is much easier to read.

Unit Conversions

Acceleration and Displacement can also be expressed on dB scales. The AdB scale is the most used
one, and its zero reference is set 1 micro G, commonly abbreviated G.

38
It turns out that AdB = VdB at 159.2 Hz. VdB levels, AdB levels, and DdB levels are related by the
following formulas:
Any vibration parameter --
displacement, velocity, or
acceleration can be displayed on
a dB scale. The reference
quantities for 0 dB on these
scales were chosen such that
the dB levels of all three
quantities are the same at a
frequency of 159.2 Hz, which is
equal to 1000 radians per
second.

Acceleration and Velocity in linear units are calculated from dB levels as follows:

It is convenient to
remember the following rule
of thumb:
At 100 Hz, 1G = 120 AdB =
124 VdB = 2.8 mils p-p.

Note that the time domain wave form is always represented in linear amplitude units - it is not
possible to use a log scale in the wave form plot because some of the values are negative, and the
logarithm of a negative number is not defined.

VdB Levels vs. Vibration Levels in ips

Peak level is the de facto Following is a convenient conversion table for relating VdB levels
standard unit for vibration to inches per second peak:
velocity measurements,
even though RMS level
would make more sense in
most cases.

VdB ips peak VdB ips peak VdB ips peak

60 .0006 90 .018 120 .56

62 .0007 92 .022 122 .70

64 .0009 94 .028 124 .88

39
66 .0011 96 .035 126 1.1

68 .0014 98 .044 128 1.4

70 .0018 100 .056 130 1.8

72 .0022 102 .070 132 2.2

74 .0028 104 .088 134 2.8

76 .0035 106 .11 136 3.5

78 .0044 108 .14 138 4.4

80 .0056 110 .18 140 5.6

82 .0070 112 .22 142 7.0

84 .0088 114 .28 144 8.8

86 .011 116 .35 146 11.1

88 .014 118 .44 148 14.0

Vibration Transducers

More:

Overview

Overview

The vibration transducer is a device that produces an electric signal

An early vibration that is a replica, or analog, of the vibratory motion it is subjected
transducer is the human to. A good transducer should not add any spurious components to
finger! An earlier, and much the signal, and should produce signals uniformly over the
more sensitive one is the frequency range of interest.
lateral line organ of the
fishes.

Different types of transducers respond to different parameters of the vibration source, as shown in
the following table:
Name: Sensitive To:

40
Proximity Probe Displacement

Velocity Probe Velocity

Accelerometer Acceleration

On the following pages, we will examine the characteristics of these transducers.

More:

The Proximity Probe

The Velocity Probe
The Accelerometer

The Proximity Probe

The Proximity Probe, also called an "Eddy Current Probe" or

One very common type of
proximity probe is known
commercially as a
"Proximiter", which is a
trademark of the Bentley
Nevada Company.
"Displacement Transducer", is a permanently mounted unit, and
requires a signal-conditioning amplifier to generate an output
voltage proportional to the distance between the transducer end
and the shaft. It operates on a magnetic principle, and is thus
sensitive to magnetic anomalies in the shaft -- care should be
taken that the shaft is not magnetized to assure the output signal
is not contaminated. It is important to realize that the transducer
measures relative displacement between the bearing and the
journal, and does not measure total vibration level of the shaft or
the housing. The displacement transducer is very commonly
installed in large machines with journal bearings where it is used to
detect bearing failure and to shut the machine down before
catastrophic failure occurs.

These transducers are frequently used in pairs oriented 90 apart, and can be connected to the
vertical and horizontal plates of an oscilloscope to display the "orbit", or path of the journal as it
migrates around in the bearing.
The frequency response of the displacement transducer extends from DC (0 Hz) to about 1000 Hz.

41
The Velocity Probe

Velocity Transducer

Some velocity transducers are made with a moving coil outside a stationary magnet. The principle of
operation is the same. Another type of velocity transducer consists of an accelerometer with a built-
in electronic integrator. This unit is called a "Velometer", and is by all accounts superior to the classic
seismic velocity probe
The velocity probe was one of the first vibration transducers to be built. It consists of a coil of wire
and a magnet so arranged that if the housing is moved, the magnet tends to remain stationary due
to its inertia. The relative motion between the magnetic field and the coil induces a current that is
proportional to the velocity of motion. The unit thus produces a signal directly proportional to
vibration velocity. It is self-generating and needs no conditioning electronics in order to operate, and
it has a relatively low electrical output impedance making it fairly insensitive to noise induction.
In spite of these advantages, the velocity transducer has many disadvantages that make it nearly
obsolete for new installations, although there are many thousands of them still in use today. It is
relatively heavy and complex and thus expensive, and it has poor frequency response, extending
from about 10 Hz to 1000 Hz. The spring and the magnet make up a low-frequency resonant system
with a natural frequency of about 10 Hz. This resonance needs to be highly damped to avoid a large
peak in the response at this frequency. The problem is that the damping in any practical design is
temperature sensitive, and this causes the frequency response and phase response to be
temperature dependent.

The Accelerometer

42
Piezo-Electric Accelerometer
The compression-type accelerometer, diagrammed here, was the first type to be developed. The
shear type, which is arranged so the active element is subjected to shear forces, is generally
preferred.
There are also other designs for accelerometers
The piezo-electric accelerometer can be considered the standard vibration transducer for machine
vibration measurement. It is made in several different configurations, but the illustration of the
compression type serves to describe the principle of operation.
The seismic mass is clamped to the base by an axial bolt bearing down on a circular spring. The
piezo-electric element is squeezed between the mass and the base. When a piezo-electric material
experiences a force, it generates an electric charge between its surfaces. There are many such
materials, with quartz being one of the most commonly used. There are also synthetic ceramic piezo
materials that work well, and in some cases, work at higher temperatures than quartz is able to do.
If the temperature of a piezo material is increased, finally the so called "curie point", or "curie
temperature" is reached, and the piezo-electric property is lost. Once this happens, the transducer is
defective and not repairable.
When the accelerometer is moved in the up and down direction, the force required to move the
seismic mass is born by the active element. According to Newton's second law, this force is
proportional to the acceleration of the mass. The force on the crystal produces the output signal,
which is therefore proportional to the acceleration of the transducer. Accelerometers are inherently
extremely linear in an amplitude sense, meaning they have a very large dynamic range. The
smallest acceleration levels they can sense are determined only by the electrical noise of the
electronics, and the highest levels are limited only by the destruction of the piezo element itself. This
range of acceleration levels can span an amplitude range of about 108, which is 160 dB! No other
transducer can match this performance.
The piezo-electric accelerometer is very stable over long periods of time, and will maintain its
calibration if it is not abused. The two ways that accelerometers can be damaged are subjecting
them to excessive heat and dropping onto a hard surface. If dropped more than a few feet onto a
concrete floor or steel deck, the accelerometer should be re-calibrated to be sure the crystal is not
cracked. A small crack will cause the sensitivity to be reduced and also will greatly affect the
resonance, and thus the frequency response. It is a good idea to calibrate accelerometers about
once a year if they are in service with portable data collectors.
The frequency range of the accelerometer is very wide, extending from very low frequencies in some
units to several tens of kilohertz. The high-frequency response is limited by the resonance of the
seismic mass coupled to the springiness of the piezo element. This resonance produces a very high
peak in the response at the natural frequency of the transducer, and this is usually somewhere near

43
30 kHz for commonly used accelerometers. A rule of thumb is that an accelerometer is usable up to
about 1/3 of its natural frequency. Data above this frequency will be accentuated by the resonant
response, but may be used if the effect is taken into consideration.
Most accelerometers used in industry today are of the "ICP"
When using an ICP accelerometer, care type, meaning they have in internal integrated circuit
must be preamplifier. This preamp is powered by a DC polarization of
taken not to subject it to acceleration the signal lead itself, so no extra wiring is needed. The
levels where the output voltage will device the accelerometer is connected to needs to have this
exceed several volts. Otherwise, the DC power available to this type of transducer. The ICP
internal preamplifier will be overloaded accelerometer will have a low-frequency roll-off due to the
and data distortion will result! amplifier itself, and this is usually at 1 Hz for most generally
available ICP units. There are some that are specially
designed to go to 0.1 Hz if very low frequency data is
required.
When an ICP accelerometer is connected to the power source, it takes a few seconds for the
amplifier to stabilize, and during this time, any data the unit is collecting will be contaminated by a
slowly varying voltage ramp. For this reason, there must be a time delay built into data collectors to
assure the unit is stable. If the delay is too short, the time waveform will have an exponentially
shaped voltage ramp superimposed on the data, and the spectrum will show a rising very low-
frequency characteristic sometimes called a "ski slope". This should be avoided because the dynamic
range of the measurement is compromised.
The resonant frequency of an accelerometer is strongly dependent on its mounting. The best type of
mounting is always the stud mount -- anything else will reduce the effective frequency range of the
unit.

When mounting an accelerometer, it is important that the vibration path from the source to the
accelerometer is as short as possible, especially if rolling element bearing vibration is being
measured.

The FFT Analyzer

More:

Background
Spectrum Analysis

Background

44
This section will cover the operation and theory of the FFT analyzer, which is the most commonly
used piece of signal analysis equipment in the vibration field. Many workers think of the FFT analyzer
as a "magic box," into which you put a signal and out of which comes a spectrum. The assumption
usually is that the spectrum tells the truth -- the box cannot lie. We will see that this assumption is
valid in many cases, but we will also see that we can be misled, for there are several pitfalls in the
process of digital signal analysis. One of the purposes of this section is to help you avoid falling into
any of the pitfalls, and if you do, how to crawl out smelling like a rose.
FFT analysis is but one type of digital spectrum analysis, but we will not concentrate on the other
types because they do not apply directly to the VMS program.

Spectrum Analysis

Spectrum analysis, which is defined as the transformation of a signal from a time-domain

representation into a frequency-domain representation, has its roots in the early 19th century, when
several mathematicians were working on it from a theoretical basis. But it took a practical man, an
engineer with a good mathematical background, to develop the rationale upon which almost all our
modern spectrum analysis techniques are based. That engineer was Jean Baptiste Fourier, and he
was working for Napoleon during his invasion of Egypt on a problem of overheating cannons when he
derived the famous Fourier Series for the solution of heat conduction. It may seem a far cry from
overheating cannons to frequency analysis, but it turns out that the same equations apply to both
cases. Fourier later generalized the Fourier series into the Fourier Integral Transform. The advent of
digital signal analysis naturally led to the so-called Discrete Fourier Transform and the Fast Fourier
Transform or FFT

More:

Forms of the Fourier Transform

The Fourier Series
The Fourier Integral Transform
The Discrete Fourier Transform
The Fast Fourier Transform
Analog to Digital Conversion
Aliasing
Leakage
Windows
The Hanning Window
Overlap Processing
The Picket Fence Effect
Averaging
Time Synchronous Averaging
Pitfalls in the FFT

Forms of the Fourier Transform

There are four forms of the Fourier Transform, as follows:

Fourier Series -- Transforms an infinite periodic time signal into an infinite discrete frequency
spectrum.

45
Fourier Integral Transform -- Transforms an infinite continuous time signal into an infinite continuous
frequency spectrum
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) -- Transforms a discrete periodic time signal into a discrete periodic
frequency spectrum
Fast Fourier Transform -- A computer algorithm for calculating the DFT
They will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

The Fourier Series

The Fourier Series operates on a time signal that is periodic, i.e., a time signal whose waveform
repeats over and over again out to infinite time. Fourier showed that such a signal is equivalent to a
collection of sine and cosine functions whose frequencies are multiples of the reciprocal of the period
of the time signal. The rather unexpected result is that any wave shape whatsoever, as long as it is
not infinite in length, can be represented, as the sum of a collection of harmonic components, and
the fundamental frequency of the harmonic series is 1 divided by the length of the wave shape. The
amplitudes of the various harmonics are called the Fourier coefficients, and their values can be
calculated easily if the equation for the wave shape is known. They can also be calculated graphically
from the wave shape itself. A certain physics class is known to have done this with the silhouette of
Marilyn Monroe. They posted the MM coefficients on the bulletin board as an "in" joke.

More:

Fourier Coefficients
Fourier Coefficients

The calculation of the Fourier coefficients is defined as a mathematical transformation from the time
domain to the frequency domain. One important fact emerges from the Fourier Series, and that is
that the original waveform can be reconstructed from the frequency coefficients; in other words it is
possible to transform from the frequency domain back to the time domain without loss of
information. The Fourier series is perfectly adequate for performing frequency analysis on periodic
waveforms; that is to say on deterministic signals.

The Fourier Integral Transform

The natural extension of the Fourier series to encompass time signals of infinite length, i.e., non-
repetitive continuous signals, is the Fourier Integral Transform, or more simply the Fourier
Transform. This integral will transform any continuous time signal of arbitrary shape into a
continuous spectrum extending to infinite frequency. An interesting characteristic of the Fourier
Transform is that an event encompassing a short time interval will be spread out over a wide
frequency range and vice versa. This was seen in the Introduction to Vibration chapter where a
spectrum of a short impulse is shown.

The Discrete Fourier Transform

Neither the Fourier Series nor the Fourier Transform lends itself easily to calculation by digital
computers. To overcome this hurdle, the so-called Discrete Fourier Transform, or DFT was
developed. Probably the first person to conceive the DFT was Wilhelm Friederich Gauss, the famous

46
19th century German mathematician, although he certainly did not have a digital computer on which
to implement it. The DFT operates on a sampled, or discrete, signal in the time domain, and
generates from this a sampled, or discrete, spectrum in the frequency domain. The resulting
spectrum is an approximation of the Fourier Series, an approximation in the sense that information
between the samples of the waveform is lost. The key to the DFT is the existence of the sampled
waveform, i.e., the possibility of representing the waveform by a series of numbers. To generate this
series of numbers from an analog signal, a process of sampling and analog to digital conversion is
required. The sampled signal is a mathematical representation of the instantaneous signal level at
precisely defined time intervals. It contains no information about the signal between the actual
sample times.
If the sampling rate is high enough to ensure a reasonable representation of the shape of the signal,
the DFT does produce a spectrum very close to a theoretically true spectrum. This spectrum is also
discrete, and there is no information between the samples, or "lines" of the spectrum. In theory,
there is no limit to the number of samples that can be used, or the speed of the sampling, but there
are practical limitations we must live with. Most of these limitations are the result of using a digital
computer as the calculating agent.

The Fast Fourier Transform

In order to adapt the DFT for use with digital computers, the so-called Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
was developed. The FFT is simply an algorithm for calculating the DFT in a fast and efficient manner.
Cooley and Tukey are credited with the discovery of the FFT in 1967, but it existed much earlier,
although without the digital computers needed to exploit it. The FFT algorithm places certain
limitations on the signal and the resulting spectrum. For instance, the sampled signal to be
transformed must consist of a number of samples equal to a power of two. Most FFT analyzers allow
512, 1024, 2048, or 4096 samples to be transformed. The frequency range covered by FFT analysis
depends on the number of samples collected and on the sampling rate, as will be explained shortly.

Analog to Digital Conversion

The first step in performing an FFT analysis is the actual sampling process, which is illustrated here:

Analog to Digital
Conversion

47
The sampling is an analog, not digital, process and is accomplished with a "sample and hold" circuit.
The output of this circuit is a sequence of voltage levels that are fed into an analog to digital
converter (ADC). Here the voltage levels are converted into digital words representing each sampled
level. The accuracy of the sampled levels depends in part on the number of bits in the digital words.
The greater the number of bits, the lower the noise level and the greater the dynamic range will be.
Most FFT analyzers use 12-bit words and this produces a dynamic range of about 70 dB (3,100:1).
Fourteen bit words can achieve 80 dB (10,000:1) dynamic range.
It can be seen here that the sampling rate determines the highest frequency in the signal that can
be encoded. The sampled waveform cannot know anything about what happens in the signal
between the sampled times. Claude Shannon, the developer of the branch of mathematics called
information theory, determined that to encode all the information in a signal being sampled, the
sampling frequency must be at least double the highest frequency present in the signal. This fact is
sometimes called the Nyquist criterion.

Aliasing

It is important that there is no information in the sampled waveform near the sampling frequency to
avoid a problem called aliasing.

Aliasing
Here the actual signal is represented in black and the sampled representation of it is in gray. The
vertical lines represent the sampling frequency. Note that if the sampling frequency is the same as
the sampled frequency, each sample is the same size, and the output of the sampling circuit will be
a constant direct voltage -- obviously having no relation to frequency of the input signal.
Now note what happens if the actual signal is higher in frequency than the sampling frequency. The
sampler output looks like a very low frequency, and again it is not a correct representation of the
actual signal. This phenomenon is called aliasing, and it can lead to gross errors unless it is avoided.
The best way to avoid aliasing is to pass the input signal through an analog low-pass filter whose
cut-off frequency is less than one-half the sampling frequency. In most modern FFT analyzers, the
sampling frequency is set to 2.56 times the filter cut-off frequency. The filter must have a very sharp
cut off characteristic, or roll off, and this means it will also have Phase Shift that can affect the data
if one needs phase information near the upper end of the frequency span of the analyzer. To avoid

48
this, select a frequency span so the frequency in question is in the lower half of the frequency range.
This is important in performing balancing with an FFT analyzer, where phase of the 1X vibration
signal is needed.
Aliasing also occurs in other media, such as motion pictures. For instance, sometimes in western
movies the wagon wheel spokes may appear stopped, or rotating backward. This is optical aliasing,
for a movie is a sampled representation of the original motion. Another example of optical aliasing is
the stroboscope, which is set to flash at a rate equal to or near the rotation rate of the object being
observed, making it appear stationary or slowly turning.
Sampling Rules for Digital Signal Analysis
The data path must contain an analog Anti-Aliasing low-pass filter
You must sample at least twice as fast as the highest frequency to be analyzed
The Frequency Response of the analysis depends on the sampling frequency
These rules apply to all FFT analysis, and the analyzer automatically takes care of them. The anti-
aliasing filter is internally set to the appropriate value for each frequency range of the analyzer. The
total sampling time is called the time record length and the nature of the FFT dictates that the
spacing between the frequency components in the spectrum (also called the frequency resolution) is
1 divided by the record length. For instance, if the frequency resolution is one Hz, then the record
length is one second, and if the resolution is 0.1 Hz, then the record length is 10 seconds, etc. From
this it can be seen that in order to perform high resolution spectrum analysis relatively long times
are required to collect the data. This has nothing to do with the speed of the calculations in the
analyzer; it is simply a natural law of frequency analysis.

Leakage

The FFT analyzer is a batch processing device; that is it samples the input signal for a specific time
interval collecting the samples in a buffer, after which it performs the FFT calculation on that "batch"
and displays the resulting spectrum
If a sinusoidal signal waveform is passing through zero level at the beginning and end of the time
record, i.e., if the time record encompasses exactly an integral number of cycles of the waveform,
the resulting FFT spectrum will consist of a single line with the correct amplitude and at the correct
frequency. If, on the other hand, the signal level is not at zero at one or both ends of the time
record, truncation of the waveform will occur, resulting in a discontinuity in the sampled signal. This
discontinuity is not handled well by the FFT process, and the result is a smearing of the spectrum
from a single line into adjacent lines. This is called "leakage"; it is as if the energy in the signal
"leaks" from its proper location into the adjacent lines.
The shape of the "leaky" spectrum depends on the amount of signal truncation, and is generally
unpredictable for real signals.

49
Windows

In order to reduce the effect of leakage, it is necessary to see to it that the signal level is zero at the
beginning and end of the time record. Multiplying the data samples by a so-called “windowing” or
“weighting” function, which can have several different shapes, does this. The most common forms of
windows and their uses are considered next.

If there is no windowing function used, this is called "Rectangular", "Flat", or "Uniform" windowing.
In the figure above, the effect of the data truncation can be seen as discontinuities in the windowed
waveform. The FFT analyzer only knows what is in the time window, or time record. It assumes the
actual signal contains the discontinuities, and they are the cause of the leakage seen in the previous
figure. Leakage could be avoided if the input waveform zero crossings were synchronized with the
sampling times, but this is impossible to achieve in practice.

More:

Windowing for Transient Signals

50
Windowing for Transient Signals

In the case where the input signal is a transient, it will by definition begin and end at zero level, and
as long as it is entirely within the time record, no truncation will occur, and the analysis will be
correct because the FFT sees the entire signal. It is very important that the entire transient fit into
the record, and the record length is dependent upon the frequency range of the analysis. Most FFT
analyzers allow the user to see the time record on the screen, so it can be assured that this
condition is met.

The Hanning Window

The Hanning window, after its inventor whose name was Von Hann, has the shape of one cycle of a
cosine wave with 1 added to it so it is always positive. The sampled signal values are multiplied by
the Hanning function, and the result is shown in the figure. Note that the ends of the time record are
forced to zero regardless of what the input signal is doing.
While the Hanning window does a good job of forcing the ends to zero, it also adds distortion to the
wave form being analyzed in the form of amplitude modulation; i.e., the variation in amplitude of the
signal over the time record. Amplitude Modulation in a wave form results in sidebands in its
spectrum, and in the case of the Hanning window, these sidebands, or side lobes as they are called,
effectively reduce the frequency resolution of the analyzer by 50%. It is as if the analyzer frequency
"lines" are made wider. In the illustration here, the curve is the actual filter shape that the FFT
analyzer with Hanning weighting produces. Each line of the FFT analyzer has the shape of this curve
-- only one is shown in the figure.

51
If a signal component is at the exact frequency of an FFT line, it will be read at its correct amplitude,
but if it is at a frequency that is one half of delta F (One half the distance between lines), it will be
read at an amplitude that is too low by 1.4 dB.
The illustration shows this effect, and also shows the side lobes created by the Hanning window. The
highest-level side lobes are about 32 dB down from the main lobe.

The measured amplitude of the Hanning weighted signal is also incorrect because the weighting
process removes essentially half of the signal level. This can be easily corrected, however, simply by
multiplying the spectral levels by two, and the FFT analyzer does this job. This process assumes the
amplitude of the signal is constant over the sampling interval. If it is not, as is the case with
transient signal, the amplitude calculation will be in error, as shown in the figure below.

The Hanning window should always be used with continuous signals, but must never be used with
transients. The reason is that the window shape will distort the shape of the transient, and the
frequency and phase content of a transient is intimately connected with its shape.
The measured level will also be greatly distorted. Even if the transient were in the center of the
Hanning window, the measured level would be twice as great as the actual level because of the
amplitude correction the analyzer applies when using the Hanning weighting.

52
A Hanning weighted signal actually is only half there, the other half of it having been removed by the
windowing. This is not a problem with a perfectly smooth and continuous signal like a sinusoid, but
most signals we want to analyze, such as machine vibration signatures are not perfectly smooth. If a
small change occurs in the signal near the beginning or end of the time record, it will either be
analyzed at a much lower level than its true level, or it may be missed altogether. For this reason, it
is a good idea to employ overlap processing. To do this, two time buffers are required in the
analyzer. For 50% overlap, the sequence of events is as follows: When the first buffer is half full, i.e.,
it contains half the samples of a time record, the second buffer is connected to the data stream and
also begins to collect samples. As soon as the first buffer is full, the FFT is calculated, and the buffer
begins to take data again. When the second buffer is filled, the FFT is again calculated on its
contents, and the result sent to the spectrum-averaging buffer. This process continues on until the
desired number of averages is collected.

Overlap Processing

Overlap processing can only be achieved if the time required to calculate the FFT is shorter than the
time record length. If this is not the case, the spectral calculations will lag behind the data
acquisition leaving gaps of unanalyzed signal. See also the paragraph on real time speed later in this
section.

If the overlap is 2/3, i.e., 66.7%, then the overall time weighting of the data will be flat, and there is
no advantage to using a greater overlap. Most data collection for machinery analysis uses 50% data
overlap, which provides adequate amplitude accuracy for most vibration work.
Here is a summary of the relationship between sampling rate, number of samples, time record
length, and frequency resolution that affect FFT analysis. The sampling rate in samples per second,
times the time record length T in seconds, equals the number of samples N. In the FFT analyzer, the
number of samples N is constrained to a power of two.

53
FFT Fundamentals

The FFT algorithm, operating on N samples of time data produces N/2 frequency lines. Thus a time
record of 512 samples will generate a spectrum of 256 lines. FFT analyzers generally do not display
the upper spectral lines because of the possibility of their being contaminated by aliased
components. This is because the anti-aliasing filter is not perfect, and has a finite slope in its cut-off
range. Therefore, a 256 line spectrum will be displayed as a 200 line spectrum, and a 512-line
spectrum will be displayed as a 400 line spectrum, etc.
The frequency resolution, DF, is equal to the frequency span divided by the number of lines, and this
is equal to 1/T. Conversely, the time record length T equals 1/DF. From this it can be seen that as
the frequency resolution increases (smaller DF), the time record length also increases in proportion.
For this reason, to create a high-resolution spectrum requires a relatively long time to acquire the
data.

The Picket Fence Effect

As has been mentioned before, the FFT spectrum is a discrete spectrum, consisting of estimates of
what the spectral level is at specific frequencies. These frequencies are determined by the analysis
parameters that are set up in the analyzer, and have nothing to do with the signal being analyzed.
This means there may be, and probably are, peaks in the true spectrum of the signal that are
between the lines of the FFT analysis. This also means that in general, the peaks in an FFT spectrum
will be measured too low in level, and the valleys will be measured too high. Moreover, the true
frequencies where the peaks and valleys lie will not be those indicated in the FFT spectrum.

54
This phenomenon is called resolution bias error, or more commonly, the picket fence effect. In other
words, looking at an FFT spectrum is a little like looking at mountain range through a picket fence.

Averaging

One of the important functions of the FFT analyzer is that it is easily able to do averaging of spectra
over time. In general, the vibration signal from a rotating machine is not completely deterministic,
but has some random noise superimposed on it. Because the noise is unpredictable, it alters the
spectrum shape, and in many cases can seriously distort the spectrum. If a series of spectra are
averaged together, the noise will gradually assume a smooth shape, and the spectral peaks due to
the deterministic part of the signal will stand out and their levels will be more accurately
represented. It is not true that simply averaging FFT spectra will reduce the amount of the noise --
the noise will be smoothed but its level will not be reduced.
There are two types of averaging in general use in FFT analyzers, called linear averaging and
exponential averaging. Linear averaging is the adding together of a number of spectra and then
dividing the total by the number that was added. This is done for each line of the spectra and the
result is a true arithmetic average on a line-by-line basis. Exponential averaging generates a
continuous running average where the most recently collected spectra have more influence on the
average than older ones. This provides a convenient form to examine changing data but still have
the benefit of some averaging to smooth the spectra and reduce the apparent noisiness of them.

Time Synchronous Averaging

Time synchronous averaging, also called time domain averaging, is a completely different type of
averaging, where the waveform itself is averaged in a buffer before the FFT is calculated. In order to
do time domain averaging, a reference trigger pulse must be input to the analyzer to tell it when to
start sampling the signal. This trigger is typically synchronized with an element of the machine that
is of interest.
The average gradually accumulates those portions of the signal that are synchronized with the
trigger, and other parts of the signal, such as noise, are effectively averaged out. This is the only
type of averaging which actually does reduce noise.
More information on applications of time synchronous can be found in the next chapter on Machine
Vibration Monitoring.

Pitfalls in the FFT

55
This is a summary of the pitfalls that plague the FFT analysis technique. This is not to say that FFT
analysis is no good -- on the contrary, it has revolutionized the analysis of vibration data. The
important fact is that the problems with FFT analysis can be overcome by proper technique, and the
residual effects that remain can be reduced to insignificant levels.
Sampling causes aliasing
Time limitation causes leakage
Discrete frequencies in the calculated spectrum causes the picket fence effect.

Machine Vibration Monitoring

More:

Introduction
Practical Aspects of Vibration Measurement
The Concept of Spectrum Comparison

Introduction

It has been shown many times over that the vibration signature of an operating machine provides
far more information about the inner workings of the machine than any other type of non-
destructive test. A bearing that has a small developing defect will cause a telltale change in the
machine vibration, as will an imbalance condition, a misalignment, or any of a myriad of other faults.
Vibration analysis, properly applied, allows the technician to detect small developing mechanical
defects long before they become a threat to the integrity of the machine, and thus provides the
necessary lead-time to schedule maintenance to suit the needs of the plant management. In this
way, plant management has control over the machines, rather than the other way around.
Vibration measurement and analysis is the cornerstone of Predictive Maintenance, which stands in
sharp contrast to the historical "run-to-failure" type of maintenance practice. Numerous studies,
such as those conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), have shown that on
average, the cost to industry for maintenance will be reduced by more than 50% if a predictive
maintenance program is used instead of run-to-failure.

More:

History of Vibration Analysis used for Machinery Maintenance

History of Vibration Analysis used for Machinery

Maintenance

56
The first vibration meters were introduced in the 1950s, and they measured the overall, or "broad
band" level of machine vibration, either in peak-to-peak mils (thousandths of an inch) of vibratory
displacement, or in inches per second (IPS) of vibration velocity. A little later, tunable analog filters
were added to the meters in order to discriminate between different frequency components, and
thus to produce a sort of vibration spectrum.
The 1970s brought forth the personal computer and the advent of digital signal processing that led
to the FFT analyzer, and it made quick work of calculating a frequency spectrum from a recorded
vibration signal. The first such analyzers were quite bulky, weighing as much as 75 pounds, and this
made them more suited as laboratory instruments than portable units for field use.
The 1980s saw the exploitation of the microprocessor on a single silicon chip, and the battery-
powered truly portable digital signal analyzer quickly followed this. It is this device, coupled with a
computer program that stores the data and takes care of the logistics of vibration data collection
that has revolutionized the application of vibration analysis to machinery diagnostics.

Practical Aspects of Vibration Measurement

More:

Test Point Location

Vibration Sensor Orientation
Triaxial Measurements
Orientation Examples
Sensor Mounting Pads -- "Blocking"
Vibration Surveys

Test Point Location

In general, it is desirable to locate the test transducer as close as possible to the bearing with solid
metal between the bearing and the sensor. Avoid bearing caps, which are of thin metal and are thus
poor conductors of vibration energy. If possible, pick test point locations so that there is no metal-to-
metal joint between the bearing and the sensor. The joint between the end bell and stator housing of
a motor is an example of this. Fan housings on the ends of motors are also to be avoided.

57
In general, it has been found that for motors of less than about 50 HP, one test point is adequate,
but for motors over 50 HP, each bearing should have its own test point. In any machines that are
especially sensitive to bearing damage, and bearing problems should be detected as early as
possible, each bearing should have its own test point.
Another consideration in the integrity of the path between the bearing itself and the transducer: If
the motor and bell is a solid casting, it will effectively transmit vibration with little loss of high
frequencies, but if it contains one or more metal to metal connections, the high frequencies will be
significantly distorted.

Vibration Sensor Orientation

In any machinery-monitoring program, it is extremely important that the data is collected in exactly
the same manner each time a measurement is taken. This is to assure that the data is repeatable
and can be trended over time. For this reason, it is not recommended that hand-held transducers be
used. By far the most reliable data is collected when the transducer is stud mounted to the machine
surface.

Triaxial Measurements

To assist in the determination of machine problems, it is very helpful to have vibration data from
each measurement point in three directions. These directions are called Axial, Radial, and Tangential.
Axial is the direction parallel to the shaft in question, radial is the direction from the transducer to
the center of the shaft, and tangential is 90 degrees from radial, tangent to the shaft.

58
 Alignment of Vibration Axes

Orientation Examples

The following diagram shows the six possible orientations of the sensor for a horizontal machine.

For vertical machines, 'R' is Radial, 'T' is Tangential, and 'A' is vertical:

59
Sensor Mounting Pads -- "Blocking"

When using a triaxial accelerometer, it is extremely important that it be installed in exactly the same
location each time the data is collected, and also that it be oriented in the same direction. One way
of assuring this is to use permanently affixed mounting blocks on the machine.
The cylindrical mounting block, or "pad", is a bronze disc with a central tapped hole and a key way at
the edge that receives an indexing pin on the transducer itself. The transducer that is sensitive along
the axis of the mounting screw is channel No. 1, the axis in the direction of the key way is channel
No. 2, and the axis perpendicular to this is channel No. 3. The pad is normally attached to the
machine with a hard, strong adhesive such as Versilok ä type 204 structural adhesive.
As was mentioned above, it is very important that the orientation of the block is known by the
software, and if a block is replaced, the new one must be oriented in the same direction. The VTAG
states the proper orientation of each block. The installation of the mounting blocks is sometimes
referred to as "blocking" a machine.

60
Sensor Mounting Pad

Vibration Surveys

When performing a vibration survey of a group of machines, the following points should be
considered in order to assure consistency of the data from one measurement time to the next.

More:

Test Conditions
Operating Conditions
Warm-up
Visual Inspection
Test Conditions

The vibration signature of a machine is strongly dependent on the operating parameters as well as
its physical condition. These operating parameters include such things as running speed, load, pump
discharge pressure, and compressor delivery pressure.
The machine must be in its normal operating condition when vibration data is collected. If this is not
the case, the vibration signature will not match the vibration signatures previously recorded, and
trending vibration levels over time becomes impossible. Running speeds of induction motors depend
on the load, and should not vary from one collection time to the next by more than a few percent.
This means that load conditions must be as nearly as possible the same.

The vibration level contributed by extraneous sources, such as nearby machines, must also be the
same for each data collection time. Do not collect data with adjacent machines turned off if the
previous spectra were recorded with them running. This is especially true with strong background
vibration levels, as in the engine room of a ship. Propulsion diesels must be operating at the same
speed for each data collection session!
Operating Conditions

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It is imperative that when collecting data, the test RPM is very near the RPM that was used for the
previous tests. In turbine-driven equipment, the speed should be verified by the use of a portable
stroboscopic or other tachometer, and it must be running at a constant, not varying, speed!
Gauge pressures should reflect normal operating conditions. Pump testing with discharge valves
closed is discouraged, but if a pump must be tested in a recirculating condition, the recirculation
valve may be partially closed to attain a normal discharge pressure.
Warm-up

All machines should be tested in a fully warmed-up condition. Machine temperature will affect
alignment and operating clearances due to thermal expansion. A cold machine will have a different
vibration signature than a warmed-up machine, sometimes extremely different.
Visual Inspection

Visual inspection of an operating machine while vibration testing is important, for valuable clues to
machinery condition can often be uncovered. RPM and discharge pressure, etc., should be noted. The
following items should be checked:
Are there any unusual noises present?
Do any bearings feel hotter than normal?
Can you feel any excessive vibration level?
Is there anything unusual about the operation of the machine?
Are there any fluid or steam leaks obvious?
Do the gauge readings look normal?
Does the machine operator have any comments on machine
condition?

The Concept of Spectrum Comparison

More:

Vibration Measurement Parameters

Machinery Testing Schedule
Trending of Vibration Data
The Reference Spectrum
Forcing Frequencies
Order Normalization
Evaluating Machine Vibration Spectra

Vibration Measurement Parameters

As we saw in the Introduction to Vibration chapter, it is possible to examine the same vibration
signal in terms of Acceleration, Velocity, or Displacement. It is seen that velocity at any frequency is
proportional to the displacement times the frequency, and the acceleration at any frequency is
proportional to velocity times frequency, which means it is also equal to displacement times
frequency squared.

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Machinery Testing Schedule

It is important to begin a vibration-monitoring program of manageable size and then gradually

expand it as you gain experience. The most important machines to monitor should be those that are
critical to the plant's productivity and/or have a poor maintenance record. Variable speed machines,
extremely complex machines, and reciprocating machines should not be included at first.
For a successful monitoring program, machinery measurements must be carried out on a scheduled
periodic basis. Most equipment should be tested monthly, with certain less important machines on a
3-month schedule. Weekly testing is common for critical machines. In any case, it is important to
tailor your measurement schedule to suit the machines and their condition. As experience is gained,
it will be easy to revise the testing schedule accordingly.

Trending of Vibration Data

Trending is the storage of vibration signatures recorded at specific time intervals and plotting the
changes in vibration levels at the forcing frequencies vs. time. An upward trend in level indicates a
developing problem.
The simplest way to utilize the concept of vibration trending is to establish a representative vibration
spectrum of a normally operating machine as a reference, and compare this reference to spectra
measured at later times on the same machine. The comparison of the spectra is made possible by
order normalization, which will be discussed shortly. When performing the spectral comparison there
are several important points that need to be addressed:

63
•
The operating conditions of the machine when measuring the new vibration data must match as closely
as possible the conditions under which the reference spectrum was recorded. Otherwise, the spectra will
not be comparable and gross errors can be made.
•
The vibration data must be recorded in exactly the same way that the reference data were measured.
The transducer must be mounted in exactly the same location, and its calibration must be accurate. If
possible, the same transducer should be used for all successive measurements on the machine.
•
When taking vibration data with an FFT analyzer, or data collector, it is important to average several
instantaneous spectra together to reduce random variations and the effects of extraneous noise in the
measured signal. The number of spectral averages recorded to produce the spectra must be sufficient to
produce a uniform and steady signature. Usually from six to ten averages will do this, but on some
machines with a relatively high random noise content in their vibration signature, longer averaging
times may be needed. A rule of thumb is to record a spectrum with several averages and then
immediately record another one with twice as many averages. If the spectra are significantly different,
the number of averages should be doubled again and another spectrum recorded. If the latter two
spectra are similar, then the previous number of averages is adequate for this machine.

The Reference Spectrum

When performing trending, it is extremely important to be sure that the reference spectrum to which
the subsequent test spectra will be compared is truly representative of the machine.

More:

Averaged Vibration Signatures

The Spectrum Mask
Averaged Vibration Signatures

Long experience has shown that an excellent way to generate a meaningful reference is to average
several spectra together from machines of the same type. If there are a number of similar machines
in a plant the statistical average of their reference spectra is a good indication of the overall
characteristics of that particular machine. A series of similar machines in good working order will
produce vibration spectra that are similar to one another, but will have random variations in level.
The spectra of the machines are averaged together and the standard deviations in level at each
significant frequency are calculated.
Some types of machines are so individualistic that when averaged together, the standard deviation
between the vibration magnitudes is so great that the average is essentially meaningless. In this
case, each machine must be used by itself to produce a meaningful reference by averaging a series
of measurements over a fairly long time period, and generating a mask from this average reference
spectrum.
There are many situations where a large selection of similar machines is not available, and in this
case, the averaged reference spectra are taken on the same machine at different times. When
averaging spectra from a group of machines to make a reference spectrum, care must be taken to
see that the spectra to be averaged are valid and that the machines they come from are not
defective. One of the most important jobs of the vibration analyst is to be sure that the average
reference spectra are valid and representative of the machines in question. Do not confuse reference
spectrum averaging to produce a reference signature with spectrum averaging done at the time of
vibration data collection, as described above.

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The Spectrum Mask

As we have seen, healthy machines will show minor deviations in their vibration spectra because of
small load variations, temperature variations, line voltage variations, and background noise level
fluctuations. These variations in vibration signatures can cause false alarms to be generated if the
raw spectrum is directly compared to a valid reference spectrum. For this reason, it is desirable to
generate a so-called mask spectrum from the reference spectrum. The mask is a new spectrum
made by increasing the levels in the reference spectrum by various amounts at different frequencies.
For instance the mask might be 6 dB above the reference at 1X, but only 4 dB above the reference
at 2X.
A good staring point for establishing the mask is to add one standard deviation in level at each
spectral peak to the averaged reference spectrum. A large class of machines will be found to produce
averaged spectra with fairly small standard deviations, and with these machines in particular it is a
good idea to perform the spectrum averaging and then generate the mask by adding one standard
deviation to the average spectrum at each frequency. A group of machines which exhibits large
standard deviations in level when making the reference will be more difficult to deal with in
generating the mask, and the mask levels will have to be higher than one standard deviation above
the reference.
The determination of the shape of the mask spectrum can be fairly complicated, and it depends on
the machine in question and normal variation in its vibration spectral levels at different frequencies.
This can only be determined by looking at a series of historical spectra and applying good judgment
and a good knowledge of the machine itself.

Forcing Frequencies

The value of vibration analysis of machinery is based on the fact that specific elements in the
rotating parts of any machine will produce forces in the machine that will cause vibration at specific
frequencies. One of the most important of the forcing frequencies is the RPM of the shaft, and it
arises from the fact that any rotor will always have a certain amount of residual imbalance. This
imparts a radial centripetal force on the bearings, causing the structure to vibrate at the 1X, or
fundamental, frequency. The so-called bearing tones, which are characteristic of each bearing
geometry, are forces generated by defects in the races and rolling elements of the bearing itself.
Gear tooth-mesh frequencies come from the individual impacts of gear teeth against each other, and
the tooth-mesh frequency is equal to the number of teeth on the gear times the gear RPM. Vane
pass or blade pass frequencies are similar to tooth mesh and are equal to the number of vanes in an
impeller or number of blades in a fan times the RPM. Each forcing frequency will create a peak in the
vibration spectrum, the amplitude of the peak being dependent on the severity of the condition that
causes it. Thus the frequency indicates the type of problem and the amplitude indicates its severity.
As an example of a simple forcing frequency, the ceiling fan illustrated below would produce
vibration component each time a blade struck the fly swatter, giving rise to a peak in the spectrum
at 5 times the turning speed.

65
The figure below, showing a centrifugal air compressor, illustrates some of the forcing frequencies in
the spectrum.

Following is an example of forcing frequency calculation for a gear-driven machine:

Let us assume that the motor/gear/fan components have the following element counts:
Machine Elements of Number of
Component Component Elements
Motor Cooling Fan Fan Blades 11

Motor Rotor Rotor Bars 42

Drive Pinion Gear Teeth 36

Driven Gear Gear Teeth 100

Fan Fan Blades 9

In this case of a multiple shaft machine, we must consider that the fundamental frequencies of the
motor and fan shafts are different. Let us assume that the motor is again running at 1780 RPM. To
calculate the fan shaft RPM, we must first find the reduction ratio of the gearbox. To find this we
would look at the number of gear teeth on each of the gears. Divide the drive pinion tooth count by
the driven gear tooth count:

or

Next, multiply this ratio by the motor shaft RPM to find the fan shaft RPM;

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We would now say that the fundamental frequency of the motor is 1780 CPM and the fundamental
frequency of the fan is 640.8 CPM.
We multiply the number of elements on each component by the fundamental frequency of the shaft
from which it rotates. The components that are on the motor shaft will be multiplied by 1780 CPM
and the components on the fan shaft will be multiplied by 640.8 CPM. To make this easier, let us
separate the components with their corresponding shafts:
Motor Shaft Elements Forcing Frequency,
CPM
Rotation 1 1,780

Motor Cooling Fan 11 19,580

Motor Rotor 42 74,760

Drive Pinion 36 64,080

Fan Shaft Elements Forcing Frequency

Rotation 1 640.8

Driven Gear 100 64,080

Fan 9 5,767.2

The
Frequency Axis
When plotting vibration spectra from rotating machines, you have several choices of units for the
frequency axis. Probably the most natural unit is the cycle per second, or hertz (Hz). Another unit in
common use is Revolutions Per Minute (RPM), or Cycles per Minute (CPM). Hz is converted to CPM by
multiplying by 60. Many people feel that CPM is a convenient scale to use because the machines are
described in terms of RPM. This practice results in quite large numbers for the frequency axis,
however, and many other people prefer to use Hz because the smaller numbers are more
convenient.

Machine Vibration Analysis

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 More:

Introduction
Time Domain Analysis
Cepstrum Analysis
Statistical Properties of Vibration Signals
Amplitude Demodulation
Root Cause Failure Analysis

Introduction

The steps in manual (non-automatic) machine vibration analysis are:

•
Identifying vibration peaks in the spectrum and relating them to forcing frequencies
•
Determining the severity of machine problems from the amplitudes and relationships between the
vibration peaks.
•
Making the appropriate repair recommendations based on the severity of the machine problem.
In order to do a proper job of vibration analysis, several tools are needed: If the vibration spectra
are being analyzed on a computer, a calculator and Vibration Test and Analysis Guide (VTAG) for the
machine in question are required. If the vibration spectra have been printed on paper, then a
straight edge and ten-point divider are desirable. Previous vibration data and average vibration data
are also helpful if available.

More:

The Vibration Test and Analysis Guide (VTAG)

Checking for Data Validity
Step-by-Step Analysis of Spectra
Identifying the First Order (1X) Peak

The Vibration Test and Analysis Guide (VTAG)

The VTAG contains important information about the design of the machine, the test points and their
locations, the frequency ranges to be tested, and the forcing frequencies to be expected. The VTAG
should be consulted before any vibration analysis is attempted.
Following is an example of a VTAG:

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Checking for Data Validity

After determining the shaft rotation rate and locating it on the spectrum (it will be the first order in a
normalized spectrum), the vibration analyst must check the validity of the spectrum. Data validity
can be corrupted by such things as incorrect labeling of accelerometer orientation or position,
improper accelerometer attachment, rapid accelerometer temperature changes, and incorrect
machine operating conditions.
When data are to be compared to previously collected data from the same point, similar test
conditions must be maintained, especially machine speed, load, and operating temperature.

69
The integrity of the accelerometer cable is crucial to the collection of valid data. If the central
conductor in the cable is intermittent or open, the measured signal will consist mostly of random
noise, and if the cable shield is intermittent or broken, the data will be contaminated with 60 Hz
noise and harmonics. (50 Hz in countries with 50 Hz power lines.) In electrically driven machines,
the 60 Hz line frequency will produce a series of 120 Hz harmonics in the vibration spectrum, as
explained in the section on electrically induced vibration.
If an accelerometer is exposed continuously to a higher temperature than that for which it is rated, it
will become desensitized, and the data it senses from then on will be worthless. Some
accelerometers will operate up to 400 degrees F, but most give up the ghost at about 200 degrees F.
Care must be taken that the accelerometer is not dropped onto a hard surface lest the piezo-electric
element be damaged. If the element is cracked, the stiffness of the internal assembly will decrease,
reducing the resonant frequency of the accelerometer, and this can greatly change its sensitivity at
high frequencies.

Step-by-Step Analysis of Spectra

In preparation for the diagnostic techniques described in the next chapter, the first steps of analysis
should be performed as follows:
This procedure assumes the vibration spectra are printed on paper. When viewing spectra on the
computer screen, similar procedures are used, as explained in the software instructions.
Note that all the following steps are greatly simplified if the spectra are order normalized.

Identifying the First Order (1X) Peak

The first step in machine vibration analysis is to identify the spectral peak corresponding to shaft
rotation rate, or the so-called 1X peak. This will be the 1X in a normalized spectrum. It is important
to check to be sure the normalization was done correctly. It is also called the first order peak. In
multiple-shaft machines, each shaft will have a characteristic 1X peak, and these are then located by
the analyst.

More:

Single-shaft machine
Multiple-shaft machine
Single-shaft machine

Mark the harmonics of 1X on the spectra. This is simplified if you use a ten-point divider.
Identify the fan blade pass frequency and mark it on the spectra. This is the number of blades
multiplied by the RPM. Note the harmonics of blade pass frequency if they are prominent.
Look for bearing tones, which are between the harmonics of the 1X run speed and not synchronous
with it. Mark them on the spectra. There are other machine components besides bearings that
generate non-synchronous tones. Probably the most common one is belt drives.
Multiple-shaft machine

Identify and mark the 1X and harmonics of the pump on the spectra. The pump RPM can be found
from the VTAG, or can be calculated from the motor speed and gear ratio as follows: If the motor is
turning 1780 and the gear ratio is 2.3 to 1, then the pump speed is:

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Identify and mark the pump vane pass frequency and harmonics, if any, on the spectra. The vane
pass is the number of vanes times the pump RPM.
Search the spectra for non-synchronous components that could be bearing tones, or consult the
VTAG for bearing tone frequencies, and mark them on the spectra.
After performing all these tasks, you are ready for the work described in next chapter on Machine
Diagnostics.

Time Domain Analysis

More:

The Waveform vs. the Spectrum

FFT Analyzer Setup for Waveform Collection
Acceleration vs. Velocity
Phase in the Time Domain
The Wave Form as an analytical tool
Synchronous Averaging
Analyzer Set-Up for Synchronous Averaging
Case Histories using Synchronous Averaging

The Waveform vs. the Spectrum

Time Domain Analysis is simply the use of the waveform instead of the spectrum to help diagnose
machine problems. As we learned in the frequency analysis section of the Vibration Fundamentals
course, the spectra of an impulse or transient and of a random signal may look almost exactly alike.
This is true even though the parent time signals are very different in character.
The waveform immediately shows the difference, however, and therefore it is a good idea for the
analyst to examine the waveform when the spectrum may not provide all the information needed to
make a complete diagnosis.

FFT Analyzer Setup for Waveform Collection

When setting up an analyzer to store waveforms, an important point should be born in mind, and
that is that the frequency range normally convenient for looking at a spectrum is usually not suited
to looking at the waveform. Most FFT analyzers, with a few notable exceptions, do not allow you to
set up specific sampling rates or time domain record lengths – you must set them up in terms of
frequency span and frequency resolution. Remember from the FFT Analysis chapter that the time
record length used by the analyzer to calculate the spectrum is the reciprocal of the line spacing, or
resolution, of the spectrum.
Spectra are generally scaled so relatively wide frequency ranges can be examined, and the FFT
analyzer of necessity acquires a short time record. For instance, a 400-line spectrum extending from
DC to 1000 Hz will have a line spacing of 1000/400, or 2.5 Hz. The time record length used to
calculate this spectrum is 1/2.5, or 0.4 seconds. This time record, which is the actual waveform, will
show details that happen in that 0.4-second time span, but in practice, when looking at a machine
vibration waveform, we are often looking for events that occur over a much longer time than that. If

71
we are looking for beats in the vibration signature of an electric motor, or of the combined vibration
of two machines running at slightly different speeds, we need to see a waveform that is at least
several seconds long.
To acquire a waveform lasting five seconds, we need to set up a line spacing of 1/5 Hz, and this can
be done by adjusting the number of lines of resolution and the frequency span to suitable values.
To find out the sampling rate of the waveform, and thus it time resolution, again we need to get the
information from the spectrum characteristics. The sampling frequency of the time record for most
analyzers is 2.56 times the highest frequency in the spectrum. Thus a frequency span of 100 Hz
implies a sampling frequency of 256 samples per second, and a span of 1000 Hz requires a sampling
rate of 2560 samples per second.
Remember that a meaningful time record contains many more data points that the usual spectrum,
and therefore you need to take care that you have enough memory available in your data collector
to store the waveform data. For this reason, it is best to use the lowest sampling rate and the
shortest time record length that will provide the needed data. For example if you just want to
resolve beats in waveform that only occur once in several seconds, the sampling rate need not be
very high – 50 samples per second is probably fast enough. This corresponds to a frequency span of
50/2.56, or 19.53 Hz. So you can select 20 Hz in the frequency span set up.
On the other hand, if you want to examine a waveform that might have interesting glitches at 50
times per second, then you need to sample fast enough to resolve each glitch. You might sample at
1000 samples per second, and this requires a frequency span of 1000/2.56, or about 390 Hz.
A good rule of thumb to memorize is that the time record length depends only on the line spacing of
the FFT spectrum and the sampling rate depends only on the frequency range of the FFT spectrum,
and they are independently adjustable. We will return to this subject of time resolution versus
frequency resolution soon, when we look into Synchronous Averaging.

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