Abstract
Various sensors exist for measuring torsional vibrations in rotating machinery. When acquiring torsional vibration measurements on a physical system, it is important that the noise floor of the measurement system be lower than that of the response. The goal of this work is to develop an experiment to compare the noise floor of various torsional vibration sensors. A test fixture has been designed and manufactured in order to minimize the angular acceleration of a rotating shaft, so that it runs at a nearly constant angular velocity. The shaft is equipped with a massive flywheel and a soft drive belt in order to isolate any torque fluctuations from the drive motor. Since the test fixture ideally has minimal angular acceleration, the measurements obtained from the sensors during steady-state rotation should be an estimate of the noise floor of each sensor. Rotational measurements at 1200 rpm are obtained from a range of sensors and compared. The sensors include torsional accelerometers, a rotational laser vibrometer, optical encoders of various sizes, a gear tooth sensor, and an optical sensor on zebra tape. The results show that some sensors have lower noise floors than others, depending on the frequency range of interest.
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Seidlitz, S., Kuether, R.J. & Allen, M.S. Experimental Approach to Compare Noise Floors of Various Torsional Vibration Sensors. Exp Tech 40, 661–675 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-016-0073-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-016-0073-1