Keywords
1. Introduction
Signal characteristics and processing are an important factor during today’s digital world including the motion control and strain measurement applications. A digital signal is someone that can assume only a finite set of values is given for both the dependent and independent variables being analyzed (Smith, 2006). The independent variables are usually time or space; and the dependent variables are usually amplitudes. To use digital signal processing tools effectively, an analog signal must be converted into its digital representation in time space. In practice, this is implemented by using an analog-to-digital converter (A/D), which is an integral part of data acquisition (DAQ) cards (Vaseqhi, 2009). One of the most important parameters of an analog input system is the sampling rate at which the DAQ card samples an incoming signal. During the measurement and processing of the signal digitally, it is common to face noise problems interfacing the signals captured (Yuksekkaya, 1999; Chu & George, 1999; Kester, 2004). The noise could be coming from various sources with different characteristics and affecting the measurement systems. Once the signal is contaminated with the noise, the reading from the instruments will not be representing the actual situation of the physical phenomenon being captured. Therefore, it is an important area of practice to analyze the characteristics of the noise for any implementation of the signal analysis before constructing further refinements for data analysis. Furthermore, it would be a more practical to take some precautions in order to reduce the effects of the noise on the signal. Even it is possible to use some tools to decrease the effects of the noise to the signal ratio, it would be more practical to eliminate the noise as much as possible at the first hand. It is also evident from the industrial applications that the cost of initial investments for any noise elimination applications is cheaper than that of later investments.
Computer-based data acquisition systems using small computers have been successfully applied in many industrial applications including the motion control processes producing high performances at relatively low costs. As the investment cost of data processing systems decreases, it is getting more common to see a number of data acquisition systems implemented applications in our daily life. The benefits of a data acquisition system include: an improved analysis, accuracy and consistency, reduced analysis time and cost, and lower response time for an out-of-control situation regarding quality. It could be easily noticed that there would be a tremendous amount of noise superimposed on the signal coming from the measurement units. The noise could be coming from different sources depending on the application area. The main sources of the noise, however, are mechanical and electrical noises commonly found at the industrial applications (Yuksekkaya, 1999). Therefore, refinements are necessary for most of the times so that the noise problems could be eliminated from the signal in order to make an accurate measurement during the motion control.
During the industrial applications such as CNC controlled lathes and load cells taking the dynamic measurements, a considerable amount of mechanical noise could be superimposed to the signal from the ground due to the vibration of the buildings. The mechanical noise problem could damage the reading from the instruments due to the noise superimposed to the signal. In this text, an extensive analysis of the mechanical noise due to the building vibration has been analyzed and possible solutions to the problem discussed.
2. Diagnostics of noise in the signal
As stated, digital signal is a finite set of values in both the dependent and independent variables. One of the most important parameters of an analog input system is the rate at which the DAQ card samples an incoming signal. A fast sampling rate acquires more points in a given time. As a result, a better representation of the signal is formed. Sampling too slow may result in a poor representation of the signal. This may cause a misrepresentation of a signal, which is commonly known as an aliasing effect. In order to avoid aliasing effects, the
In any digitally working environment, most of the time, there were two types of main noise problems that needed to be solved in order to have a meaningful result as follows (Yuksekkaya & Oxenham 1999; Yuksekkaya et. al. 2008):
Electrical Noise:
Static
Fluorescent lamps
Computer screens
Others
Dynamic
AC power lines
Stepper motor
Transformers
Magnetic fields from other equipment
Mechanical Noise:
Vibration from stepper motor
Vibration from building
Vibration from the other sources
2.1. Electrical noise
Tensile testing devices are a combination of a strain measurement unit and a stepper motor which drives the measurement unit. During the processing of a strain measurement, the location of measurement unit should be precisely located in order to have an accurate stress-stain reading from the instrument. Most of the time, strain measurements are taken in the presence of electrical and magnetic fields, which can superimpose electrical noise on the measurement signals. If the electrical noise is not controlled properly, the noise can lead to inaccurate results and incorrect interpretation of the signals coming from the strain gages as well as the inaccurate location data. In order to control the noise level and maximize the signal-to-noise ratio, it is first necessary to understand the types and characteristics of electrical noise as well as the sources of such noises. Without understanding the noise and its sources, it is impossible to apply the most effective noise-reduction methods on any particular instrumentation problem.
Virtually, every electrical device that generates, consumes, or transmits power is a potential source for causing noise in strain gages. In general, the higher the voltage or current level and the closer the circuit is to the electrical device, the greater the induced noise will be superimposed to the signal. A list of common sources of electrical noise could be found in any signal analysis textbooks and electrical noise from those sources could be categorized into two basic types, that is: electrostatic and magnetic noises (Croft et al., 2006; Agres, 2007). The characteristics of these two types of noise are different; and they require different noise reduction techniques in order to eliminate their effects on the signals. Most of the noise coming from outside may be eliminated by using shielded, twisted cables and eliminating the ground loops in the system (more than one connection of the system to the ground). Furthermore, electromagnetic noises could be eliminated by using a special designed apparatus named as
2.2. Mechanical noise
It would be practically possible to see that a strain measurement signal could be so sensitive that it would be continuously picking up mechanical noise from different sources such as from the buildings and from the stepper motors. It is necessary to analyze the building and stepper motor vibration sources separately. An extensive analysis of the mechanical noise coming from the building and potential solutions for the vibration sources are given as follows:
2.2.1. Building vibration
Laboratory measurement instruments could be located in either stationary or mobile laboratories depending on the type of measurements necessary to perform. Regardless of the location of the instruments, it is a known fact that the ground vibration will affect the instrument’s reading if correct precautions will not be applied. A considerable amount of mechanical noise would be coming from the ground due to the vibration of the building. In order to eliminate, or at least minimize, the effect of the ground movement as much as possible, usually the testing instrument was mounted on the top of a heavy marble block that was supported by a spring-like material. In order to analyze the vibrating mechanical system, let us consider an object hanging from a spring as shown in Figure 2 (Halliday et al., 2007; Zill & Cullen, 2006).
The weight,
where g is the acceleration of the gravity. In order to keep complications to a minimum for the sake of analysis purposes, it was assumed that the spring obeys Hooke’s law, that is, force is proportional to displacement. Namely,
Where
Observing that
This is an equation of harmonic motion and its solution was discussed in almost every differential equation book (Halliday et al., 2007; Zill & Cullen, 2006). The solution for such a system is:
If the term
Regardless of the values of A and B, that is, regardless of how the system is set in motion, Equation 4 describes the periodic motion with the period of
or frequency of
Whether there is friction in the system or not, the quantity
As mentioned earlier, the process by which free vibration diminishes in the amplitude is called the damping effect. If the damping effect presents in the system, the energy of the vibrating system will be dissipated by various mechanisms affecting the system, and often, more than one mechanism could be present in the system at the same time. In such a system, the damping force,
where the constant,
This system is usually called a mass-spring-damp system, and its governing equation can be written according to the Newton’s second law of motion as follows:
where
It is clear that
If
where both of the roots of the second order differential equation,
From the equation
Then, the damping ratio, ζ, is defined as:
If
where
By defining some of the terms in the equation given above differently and using some trigonometric identities, the solution of the equation may be written in a more compact form as follows:
The differential equation is solved, subject to the initial conditions
By setting
However, the complete solution of Equation 9 consists of transient and steady parts given as follows:
where the constant A and B can be determined in terms of the initial displacement and initial velocity. The steady state deformation of the system, due to harmonic force given in Equation 19 can be rewritten as follows:
where
and
Differentiating Equation 22 gives the velocity as follows:
where
After applying the basic definitions and solutions of the differential equation for a mass-spring-damper system, force transmission and vibration isolation can be taken into account as follows: Consider the mass-spring-damper system (The system is the instrument itself and any foundation making the total weight higher), shown in Figure 3 subjected to a harmonic force. The force transmitted to the base is given by:
Substituting Equation 22 for
The maximum value of
which after using
Substituting Equation 23 gives an equation for the ratio of the maximum transmitted force to the amplitude
The transmissibility is plotted in Figure 4 as a function of the frequency ratio ω/ωn, for several values of the damping ratio, ζ. For the transmitted force to be less than the applied force, the stiffness of the support system, and hence, the natural frequency, should be small enough so that the ratio of ω/ωn should be bigger than
Figure 5 shows a typical building vibration effect on the acquired signal from an instrument. In order to reduce the amount of vibration that is transmitted to the instrument, natural rubber-like materials, such as tennis balls, are the appropriate choice. Figure 6 shows the effect of vibration dampers on the instrument. As seen from the graph, the usage of vibration damper reduces the effects of mechanical vibrations significantly. Some further improvements can be achieved by precisely calculating (and if necessary modifying) the stiffness of the insulation material taking into consideration the low damping coefficient or increasing the weight of instrument.
In the analysis of the ground vibration, as seen, only vertical vibration of the building is considered. However, it is clearly known that buildings are exciting in three dimensions. As seen in the analysis, it was assumed that only vertical vibration had a significant effect on the data. This assumption may introduce some experimental errors into the measurement. However, a significant drop in the amplitude of the noise transmitted suggested that either the tennis balls were also eliminating some of the vibration effects coming from the other directions, or the vibration coming from the other directions did not have a significant effect on the signal. Therefore, vibration effects from other directions were not investigated further in this analysis.
In the engineering view of the problem, the ground vibration problem has a crucial effect on measurement instruments. Therefore, it would be advisable to take all of the necessary precautions in order to reduce the amount of transmitted ground vibration to the minimum level as much as possible by using damper systems which make the ratio of ω/ωn is bigger than
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