Machinery Messages Sampling waveforms and computing spectra ‘by Dom Southich “Technical Training Engineer Bently Nevada Corporation here ate three “Laws of the Us I verse" which deal with samp waveforms and computing spec tro with a Fast Fourier Transform (FET): The sample rate governs the fre= queney response. The wotal sample time governs the resolution, The number of samples governs the numberof ines. Since sample rate, total sample time andthe numberof samples interact, you red to only specify Wo ofthe thre. Experiment 1 12 owit Lawé1: The sample rate governs the frequency response ‘The faster you sample, the higher the frequency response you will get. Or, ‘conversely if you need to measure high frequencies, the sample rate must alo be high. Infact, to avoid a phenomenon ‘known as aliasing, the sample rate must be atleast twice 8 fasta the highest ‘frequency component in the signal. F,22Fya Fy Its where Fy= the sample rate ip Hertz Puce the highest frequency ‘component in the signal in Herte tye the somple interval in seconds ‘Thar seems easy enough, but how do you know the highest frequency compo- nent in a signal you haven't measured yet? The answer that you don't know, ‘There is, however, a way around this ‘quandary first, specify the highest fre- quency you want to measure, Fron ‘Then, remove all frequency compo ‘nentsin the signal higher than Fy, ith ‘low-pass filter (which iscalled an umti- alias filter in this application). Finally, the low-pass filtered signal can be sam- pled aca rate faster than 2+P,y, (2.50 3 times is ypiea) Since “real-world” filters must be ‘used (theoretically, ideal filters are not yet commercially available), the usualy a possibilty of aliasing occurs Experiment 2 September 1903fing in the highest Frequencies of most FFT spectra. To avoid plotting possibly aliased values, these top ines are ust ally discarded. Only the lowest 100 ines of «128 line Spectrum are ploted, the lowest 200 lines of a 256 line Speetrur, the lawest 400 lines of @ S12 line Spec- cum, ete Examples (1) To see up to 500 He in a Spee- trum, the sample rate must be at least 1000 samples per second, 2) For a sample rate of 32 syn- chronous samples per revolution, the highest frequency line in a Speetcum will (theoretically) be WGordersof running speed (16X). [Note that this aw says nothing about how many samples are taken or how Tongit takes to collect allot the samples. Consequently, it doeso't say anything about how many Spectrum Fines there willbe or what the spacing between the Tines wil be either. Law#2: The total sample time ‘governs the resolution “The resolution you get out ofan FFT, ice. the spacing between Spectrum lines, i the reciprocal of the length of time you sample, If you have to resolve or Amplitude valu Phase value = Arctangent distinguish two separate frequencies which are close together (small a) you tnust sample fora lng time (large). aur where af= the spacing between fe- «quency ines in Hoste ‘T= the total sample time in seconds Lake at Experiment 1A sevefoem hasbeen printed in yellow ink om a blue background, Since yellow and blue ate wwelleparated frequencies the wave Torms can be quikly distinguished. In Experiment 2, we hae changed the Boe background io shade of yellow close in hue tothe shade of yellow use forthe veaveform, It is now more difficult to {stinguish the yellow figure onthe yel- Jow background, and you wll have to look for longer period of time before you ea resolve the waveform Examples: (1) For atoral sample time of 05 see ‘ons the frequency lines of the Specirum willbe 2 He apart. @)"To esol two frequency compo nents which are 6 «pm (0.1 Hz) part, the signal mist he sampled for at east 1 seconds. @) Fora tal sample time of 8 rx0- ations, the frequency lines ofthe Spectrum will be spaced 18 of on "Direct valuc® + “Quadrature” value? “Quadrature” value “Direct” valu “Direct” (cosine) Value = Figure 1 (Complex Spectrum Lines September 1993. order of running speed apart (18%). [Note that this law says nothing about what the sample rate is, oF how many samples are collected. Correspondingly itdoes not sy anything about frequency response, or how many Spectrum lines there will be either. Law#3: The number of samples ‘govems the number of lines in the ‘Spectrum, FFTs use complex numbers. The numberof frequency domain valuesyoo {get out of an FFT isthe same as the rnumber of time domain simples you put in. Think of it as a Conservation of Numbers principle at work here. Esch frequency line from an FFT has adieet ‘of cosine part and a quadrature or sine part, These are called “real” and “imag- inary respectively, in some math books. Ifyou putin 2048 time domain samples, you obtain 2048 frequency domain walues — a 1024 line Spectrum where cach line has two values, 2 direet value and a quadrature value. Note that this is ‘equivalent to saying that each Spectrum line has both an amplitude value and phase value For rotating machinery, we almost always plot only the amplitude values from the complex output of an FFT; the phase values are not plotted as part of a Spectrum. These amplitude spectra, therefore, consist of half the number lines as there are time domain samples, ‘The phase values are not discarded: they ate simply used elsewhere. Typ ‘eal, only the phase of synchronous frequency lines (integral multiples of running speed, ie. IX, 2X, 3X, ete, oF ‘occasionally integral submuliples of running speed, be. W2X, V3X, V4X, 2ISX, ete.) are used. The phase of all non-synchronous frequency lines wil vary as & function of exacty when the signal is sampled; sampling cither a fraction ofa second earlier oF later ean produce willy different phase values. [Note that this law says nothing about the sample rate or the total imei takes tocollect all of the samples. Correspon ingly, it does not say anything about frequency response of frequency res0- lution either. > omit 13Examples: These three Laws of the Universe are interdependent. Again, you must spe ify any two of them to meet your requirements; the third then becomes fixed, and you can't do anything 40 change it (1) Ifyou sample for 0.5 seconds and you want a 3200 line $ (which is a truncated 4096 line Spectrum): Lawi: a tet Ha, 4006 line Spectrom requires 8192 samples Te F,= 8192 samples 5 seconds ‘= 16.384 samplesisecond Fy = 16384 H2? = $192 He nesam™ 3200s % 2 He = 6100 He 2) Ifyou have to resolve frequencies 12 epm (0.2 Hz) apart, and you want an SOK (really 1024) fine Spectrum: 5 second Lawes Law?) T= vat seconds Law#3; a 1024 line Spectrum equines 2048 samples 2048 samples seconds 409.6 samplesisecond Fc™ 409.6 H2!2 = 214 8 He 800 lines * 0.2 Heine 10H (3) Ifyou tive to reso frequencies ‘epm (0.1 Hz) apart and the high: est frequency you need 10 see is oa He fF 180 He: Lawifl: Fy22+F yy 2 24180 Hz 2360 Hz" Lawe2: T= Wat = 0.1 He = 10 seconds Therefore, taking 360 samples/second (or more) for 10 seconds = 3600 (or more) samples, The nest higher power of 2 is 4096. 4096 samples will yield. a 2048 line Spec tram which will be truncated to 1600 lines. A 1600 line Spectrum with lines 01 Hi apart only shows up wo 160 Hy, which is not high enough to mect requitements. The next higher power of 2 is 8192. {8192 samples ill yield. a 40% line Spee trum which will he truncated to 3200 14 owit nes A 3200 line Spectrum with lines 0.1 He apart will stow up 0320 He (4) you ake 32 samples pertevolue sionfor resolutions you wiltake Digital Signal Processing (DSP) 4 total of 256 samples and get a “Tricks” 128 line Spectrum, which will ‘There a sruneate wo 100 Fines, and 100 lines % 0.125 Hevline 28x, also some DSP techniques ‘which an be used to “enhance” an FFT. T= 8 revolutions But be aware, there are always IFT = US revolutions = tradeofts 18x Without resompling, the number of Fux 32 samples per revolu- Spectrum lines eam be increased, and ion? = 16X the line spacing ean be decreased, pro Figures 263 For steady state applications, i.e. when the machine is running at a constant speed, the signal can be sampled over a longer time period. Notice that the 3200 line Spectrum (Figute 1) required 32 seconds to acquire the waveform data. The 400 line Spectrum (Figure 2) only sampled for 4 seconds, and provides inadequate resolution. September 1993ducing an “enhanced” Spectrum. To accomplish this, one major assumption must be made: a set of samples taken over a relatively short period of time ‘must accurately represent a longer term behavior ofthe signal For example, you ‘assime that 'you were wosample 2,48, cle., times longer, the signal wouldnt change characteristics, Without getting too technical, one technique (called $9880 20m zero-padding) and the rationale behind itisas follows: you sample a signal at a certain rate for a certain period of time, say 2088 samples per second for 05 seconds, you will get (24 samples, a 512 line Spee- ‘trum with a high frequency of 1024 Hz and a resolution of 2 Hz, Assuming that this 0.5 second period accurately epre- sents the behavior of the signal aver a ‘rane Figures 465 For transient applications, startupishutdown, the signal should be sampled over as short atime pesiod as possible to avoid “smearing.” Smearing occurs when the machine speed changes while the datas being sampled, Lethe machine speed might be 2000 rpm at the beginning of the sample period and, due to acceleration be 2200 rpm at the end of the sample period. Comparing Figure 3 and Figure 4, natice thatthe 100 Ine Spectrum _rovides beter information than the 400 line Spectrum (due tothe shorter sample period). September 1903 ss LD second period, scale the samples (multiply each sample value by an amplitude adjustment factor), put them inthe first half of a 2088 sample buffer, fil the last half ofthe buffer with zeros, then perform the FFT. The resulting Spectrum will have 1024 Fines, a high Frequency of 1(24 Hz and a resolution of 1H, ‘This same technique will work with ‘ther larger bulers, such as ones four times as large. In this example, fill the first 1/4 of the buffer with scaled sam- ples and the last 3/4 with zeros. If you have a buffer which is eight times as big, fl the frst 1/8 ofthe buffer with scaled samples and the last 7/8 with eros, ete ‘These “enhanced” spectra will have hoth high resolution and short sample times. Information accuracy and quality ‘Zero-pacding changes only the com- putational line spacing: the effective resolution bandwidth remains the same ‘no matter how many zeros are added (Reference 1). Inother words, the infor- ‘mation content (the effective resolution bandwidth) isthe same with or without the zero padding. ‘The more accurately the samples taken over short time period represent what really happened over a longer (but ‘not totally sampled) time period, the ‘more accurate the enhanced Spectrum willbe I the samples taken over a short time period de not accurately eepresent the signal over the longer period, the cenhanced Spectrum will misrepresent what really happened over the longer period. The higher the degree of en ‘cement, for example, 8 t0 1,160 1,320 ete, the more likely iis for this mis- representation to oecur. Sometimes these DSP “tricks” are valid and sometimes they aren‘. Uni- versal application of any technique which might he valid only within lim ited scope of circumstances can produce poor or misleading results. Reference 1. Rober K Oinesand Loren Exec Appi Time Senet dab, ohn Wiley & Sons, Now ore 1m, p28. obit 15