FEMCI Book - Calculating Grms https://femci.gsfc.nasa.gov/random/randomgrms.

html

Calulating Grms
(Root-Mean-Square Acceleration)
It is very easy to describe the Grms (root-mean-square acceleration, sometimes written as GRMS or Grms or
grms or grms) value as just the square root of the area under the ASD vs. frequency curve, which it is. But to
physically interpret this value we need to look at Grms a different way. The easiest way to think of the Grms is
Home to first look at the mean square acceleration.
» Back to the Book «
Presentations Mean-square acceleration is the average of the square of the acceleration over time. That is, if you were to
References look at a time history of an accelerometer trace and were to square this time history and then determine the
Workshop average value for this squared acceleration over the length of the time history, that would be the mean
Links square acceleration. Using the mean square value keeps everything positive.
FEMCI Is
The Grms is the root-mean-square acceleration (or rms acceleration), which is just the square root of the
mean square acceleration determined above.

If the accelerometer time history is a pure sinusoid with zero mean value, e.g., a steady-state vibration, the
rms acceleration would be .707 times the peak value of the sinusoidal acceleration (if just a plain average
were used, then the average would be zero). If the accelerometer time history is a stationary Gaussian
- NASA GSFC random time history, the rms acceleration (also called the 1 sigma acceleration) would be related to the
- GSFC Code 542 statistical properties of the acceleration time history (you may have to refresh your probability and statistics
knowledge for this):

68.3% of the time, the acceleration time history would have peaks that would not exceed the +/- 1 sigma
accelerations.
95.4% of the time, the acceleration time history would have peaks that would not exceed the +/- 2 sigma
accelerations.
99.7% of the time, the acceleration time history would have peaks that would not exceed the +/- 3 sigma
accelerations.

There is no theoretical maximum value for the Gaussian random variable; however, we typically design to 3
sigma since it would only be theoretically exceeded 0.3% of the time. In addition, from a practical point of
view, we know that it would be physically impossible to achieve unreasonably high sigma values.

Below is presented the method to calculating the root-mean-square acceleration (Grms) response from a
random vibration ASD curve.

Typical random vibration response curve:

Grms values are determined by the square root of the area under a ASD vs. frequency response curve. The
Acceleration Spectral Density values are in g2/Hz and the frequencies are in Hz.

The figure above shows a bandwidth of 10 Hz, which will be used as an example for calculating Grms.

First, calculate the number of octaves. From the plot, FL = 20Hz and FH = 30Hz. The equations below gives
#octaves = 0.58 .

Second, calculate the dB value. For FL = 20Hz, ASDL = 1.0 g2/Hz, while ASDH = 1.1 g2/Hz. The calculated
value is 0.41 dB. (The definition of dB is also provided.)

Third, calculate the slope, m, of the segment between the frequencies FL and FH. Dividing the number of dB
by the number of octaves gives m = 0.71 dB/oct.

Fourth, calculate the area under the curve between the frequencies FL and FH. In our example, A = 10.53 g2.

NOTE - The above equation is invalid if the slope m = -10log(2) because you would be dividing by
zero.
If m = -10log(2), use the following equation for the area:

1 of 2 19/06/2019, 8:33 PM
FEMCI Book - Calculating Grms https://femci.gsfc.nasa.gov/random/randomgrms.html

(L'hôpital's Rule is used to solve the equation as the limit of [1 + m/(10log2)] goes to zero -- or some such
nonsense.)

Finally, take the square root of the area for the Grms value. To finish our example, the acceleration = 3.24
Grms.

In order to calculate the Grms value for the entire curve, sum up all the areas (A1 + A2 + A3 + ... + An = A)
and take the square root of the sum.

NOTE: 3dB is a factor of 2 for ASD curves (g2/Hz) while 6dB is a factor of 2 for Grms values. For example,
reducing a peak ASD value of 12g2/Hz by -3dB would give you 6g2/Hz; reducing a value of 12Grms -3dB
results in a value of 9Grms and reducing it -6dB results in a value of 6Grms. This tends to be confusing for
people new to random vibration.

An Excel 97 spreadsheet, grms.xls, written by Bob Coladonato that calculates all these values is available for
downloading. The only input values necessary are frequencies and their respective ASD levels.

Microsoft Excel 97 Spreadsheet for Grms calculations. (Hold your shift key down while clicking on the link to
save the file to your hard drive.)

An Excel 95 version, grms95.xls, is also available.

Thanks to Bob Coladonato and Bill Case, both now retired from Goddard, and Jaap Wijker of University of
Technology Delft in the Netherlands for their assistance with this page.

Ryan Simmons
August 1997

HOME | FEMCI BOOK | PRESENTATIONS | REFERENCES | WORKSHOP | LINKS | ABOUT | MINUTES | PRIVACY

2 of 2 19/06/2019, 8:33 PM