LMS Test.

Lab Signature-Cycle to Cycle to averaging

scottbeebe
Siemens Experimenter
12-18-2017 05:34 PM
(view in My Videos)

LMS Test.Lab Signature  

This article details how to use LMS Test.Lab Signature to measure data on a piece of rotating
machinery. Possible measurement functions include orders and spectral waterfall functions.
These functions show the evolution of vibration or sound as a function of speed of the rotating
object.

A minimum of two channels of data are required to measure spectral waterfalls and orders:

 Tachometer Transducer
 Sound or Vibration Tranducer(s)

The speed of a rotating piece of machinery is measured in revolutions per minute, or RPM, by
the tachometer. The sound and/or vibration of the rotating system is measured in conjunction
with the tachometer, using microphones and accelerometers.

Equipment Needed

Here is a complete list of required equipment (Figure 1):

 SCADAS data acquisition system

  Computer with LMS Test.Lab Signature
 Tachometer
 Accelerometer(s) or Microphone(s)
 Appropriate cables
 Test object

Figure 1: Equipment used in rotating machinery testing with LMS Test.Lab Signature

Depending on the test object, different types of tachometers might be used (Figure 2).  For
example, magnetic pickups are ideal for metal gears, while lasers are often used with striped
“zebra tape”.

 
Figure 2: Different tachometer devices – Left is magnetic pickup, right is zebra tape

A tachometer measures speed in revolutions per minute or RPM. The tachometer sensor detects
when a gear tooth, piece of reflective tape, or stripe passes by the sensor as shown in Figure 3. 

Figure 3: The time between pulses is used to calculate the revolutions per minute (RPM) of the
rotating system

 
Using the time between crossings, the LMS Test.Lab software can calculate the speed at which
the shaft is rotating in units of RPM.

Getting Started

The following channels should be in place:

 Tachometer attached to SCADAS input labeled TACHO or T1

 Microphone or accelerometer sensors attached to dynamic input channels on SCADAS

To get started with LMS Test.Lab Signature:

 Turn ON the SCADAS frontend and make sure it is connected to the PC. For SCADAS
XS this is a USB connection, while for SCADAS mobiles, this is an Ethernet connection.
 Double-click the “LMS Test.Lab” icon on the Windows desktop or in the Windows start
menu.
 Open up the “Test.Lab Signature” folder.
 Double-click the ‘Signature Acquisition’ icon, as shown in Figure 4. Depending on the
exact license purchased, ‘Signature Testing – Standard’ or ‘Signature Testing –
Advanced’ might be used instead.

Figure 4: Double-click the

‘Signature Acquisition’ icon to get started

Note: It is also possible to copy this icon onto your desktop to create a shortcut. Right click on
the icon and select “Send to -> Desktop (create a shortcut)”.

 
Once the software is open, a mostly grey screen appears, waiting for a project to be opened.
Click the white page icon in the top left to open a new project as shown as in Figure 5. The
software will communicate to the SCADAS frontend to determine the number of available
channels for the test. This can take a few seconds depending on the number of channels.  

Figure 5: Click on the white page icon in the upper left to open a new projectAfter the new
project is open, it is called “Project1.lms” by default. This is similar to how Microsoft
Powerpoint starts with “Presentation1.pptx” or Microsoft Word starts with “Document1.docx”. 
Choose “File -> Save As…” from the main menu to save a project to the desired name as shown
in Figure 6. The project file will have an *.lms extension and can be stored in any directory.

 
Figure 6: Choose “File -> Save As…” to save the project file

There are several ‘worksheets’ along the bottom of the screen as shown in Figure 6. To setup
and perform a signature measurement, work through the worksheets from left to right, starting
with the ‘Documentation’ worksheet and ending in the ‘Measure’ worksheet. Note that the
Navigator worksheet, which is used for data viewing, can be skipped until some data is acquired.

In the ‘Documentation’ worksheet, pictures of the test setup can be stored and other
documentation created.  See the Knowledge Base article called ‘What’s up with the
Documentation worksheet’.

Channel Setup

After documenting, select the ‘Channel Setup’ worksheet as shown in Figure 7. An Excel-like
table contains a list of all the channels in the connected SCADAS frontend.  Each row
corresponds to one channel.

 
Figure 7: In the ‘Channel Setup’ worksheet, each row corresponds to one channel

Turn ON the Input1 and Tacho1 channels by checking the box next to each input name:

 Input1 (Microphone): The channel group id should be set to ‘acoustic’ and the input
mode should be set to ‘ICP’.
 Tacho1 (Tachometer): Use all of the default settings.

If triaxial accelerometers are being used, see the Knowledge Base article: ‘Cool triaxial
accelerometer tips’ for some useful setup tips.

Now the microphone can be calibrated before taking the measurement.

Calibration

A pistonphone can be used to calibrate the microphone.  The pistonphone produces a specific
frequency and amplitude level to check the calibration of the microphone and adjust it if
necessary.

 
At the top of the ‘Calibration’ worksheet, enter the specific information for the calibrator being
used (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Enter
calibrator information (Unit, Frequency, and Level) at the top of the ‘Calibration’ worksheet

The unit for a microphone calibrator is “Pa” which is an abbreviation for the sound pressure
measurement unit of Pascals. In this case, 1000 Hz and 94 dB RMS are settings from the
calibrator.  The frequency of 1000 Hz is common for microphone calibrators because the A-
weighting curve has 0 dB of attenuation or gain at that frequency, so it cannot affect the
calibration value.

Insert the microphone into the calibrator as shown in Figure 9.

 
 Figure
9: Microphone (left) and Calibrator (right)After entering the calibrator values, turn on the
calibrator, and press the “Check” and “Start” buttons at the bottom of the worksheet as shown in
Figure 10. The calibration time history and frequency spectrum should show on the left hand
side.

Figure 10: Press the “Check” and “Start” buttons to start viewing calibration signal
If the calibrator frequency measures as expected, the calibration starts.  An orange message will
indicate that calibration is in progress as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Orange message area indicates that calibration is in progress

This orange message area is designed to allow viewing from across a room so a single person
can do the calibration.

When the calibration is finished, the message area turns green as shown in Figure 12.

 
Figure 12: Green message area indicates that calibration is finished

The newly calculated calibration values are shown in a column called “New Sensitivity”.

The previous calibration values are shown in the column labelled “Actual Sensitivity”.  The
“Actual Sensitivity” values are used for the measurement.

Press the “Accept” button (lower right) to update the calibration values.  The values in “New
Sensitivity” will replace the values in “Actual Sensitivity”. These values will automatically be
active everywhere in LMS Test.Lab, including the ‘Channel Setup’ worksheet.

The left side displays will also update to reflect the new calibration values.

Tracking Setup

In the ‘Tracking Setup’ worksheet, there are two main objectives:

  Tachometer Setup – Set the pulses per revolution and trigger to read RPM properly from
the tachometer.
 Tracking Setup – Set how the acquisition will be performed. The type of result as well as
the start and stop conditions are set in this worksheet.

Tachometer Setup

Set the pulses per revolution on the right hand side to match the number of pulses per revolution
of the tachometer being used.  In this example, the number of pulses is set to 1. The tachometer
calculates RPM using only the one piece of tape placed on the flywheel of the stirling engine.

With the test object running, set the trigger level for the tachometer as shown in Figure 13. The
black line, which is a graphical representation of the trigger level, should ideally be placed in the
center of the pulses.

Figure 13: Set the trigger level to be in the center of the amplitude of the pulses

If the trigger is set properly, the yellow RPM readout in the lower left should read close to the
expected RPM value.

 
The trigger level can be changed if the RPM is not reading properly.  The trigger level can be
lowered or raised by:

 Level Value: Manually typing in a level value on the right side menu.
 Cursor: Moving the black bar (ie, Y cursor) in the display window up or down.

If the trigger is set too high or too low, the tachometer will read zero RPM as shown in Figure
14.

Figure 14: If the pulse train signal does not pass thru the trigger level, the RPM will read zero

Set the trigger level to where the tachometer pulse passes through the signal and the RPM reads
out properly at the bottom of the tracking screen.

Tracking Setup

The type of results, as well as the start and stop conditions of the measurement, are set in the
Tracking setup area in the lower right of the worksheet.  Examples of possible start and stop
conditions include:

 Manual start and measurement that lasts 30 seconds

  Start and stop based on a RPM range

In addition to start and stop definition, there are two options for measurement output that can be
defined: tracked and stationary (Figure 15):

 Stationary: a single, averaged spectrum

 Tracked: multiple spectra, usually plotted against RPM or time

If both a tracked result and stationary result are desired, this is possible.  The measurement mode
should be set to tracked, and ‘Map statistic’ functions should be checked on. The ‘Map Statistic’
function can be enabled in the Online Processing worksheet in the Sections area under Map
Statistics.

Figure 15: Stationary versus Tracked measurement mode

In this example, measurement mode will be set to tracked to measure a run down from 800 RPM
to 300 RPM, with the increment setting of 2 RPM.  The data will be collected from 800 rpm to
300 rpm with a spacing of 2 RPM between each spectrum in the resulting waterfall.
Approximately 250 spectrums will be calculated during the measurement (500 RPM range
divided by increment of 2). In reality, the 2 RPM is a decrement, not an increment, in this
example.  

Acquisition Setup
 

Move to the ‘Acquisition Setup’ worksheet as shown in Figure 16. Here the bandwidth and
frequency resolution for the Fourier spectrums can be set:

 For setting the bandwidth, make sure to set it to the highest frequency of interest.  For
example, the human hearing range is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. For an acoustic signal, setting a
bandwidth of 20,000 Hertz or higher is ideal.  For vibration measurements, a bandwidth
of a few thousand Hertz is typical.
 The frequency resolution can also be set for the the resulting spectrums by selecting
either the frequency lines or resolution in the upper right.

***Important: Set the sampling rate high enough to capture any frequency of interest,
because it is difficult to re-measure later once the test object is de-instrumented and sent
away.***

Figure 16: ‘Acquisition Setup’ worksheet for setting Bandwidth and Frequency Resolution

If the measurement consists of both acoustic and vibraiton signals, different sampling rates can
be set for each type of signal.  Check on the 'Multiple Sample Rates' checkbox in the upper right
corner of the software.

 
See the 'Digital Signal Processing' Knowledge Base article for more information on sampling
rates, frequency resolution, bandwidth, etc.

Online Processing

Move to the ‘Online Processing’ worksheet. It is possible to have the LMS Test.Lab Signature
software process the data while it is being acquired.  For example, go to the acoustic tab at the
top of the worksheet and change the ‘Final weighting’ to A-weighting as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17: In the Acoustic group set the Final Weighting field to ‘A-weighting’By setting A-
weighting in the Acoustic group, any spectrums calculated from the acoustic channels will be A-
weighted, even if the time data is being acquired with Linear weighting. 

Some additional notes about weighting wiht LMS Test.Lab:

 
 1. Pre-Weighting - If the Pre-Weighting channel setup field is set to A-weighting, because
the time signal is being weighted before reaching the SCADAS frontend, the frequency
data will not be A-weighted again. A-weighting would only be applied once, not twice.
2. Frontend-Weighting - If the frontend weighting channel setup field is set to A-weight the
time data, the same holds true: any frequency data will not be A-weighted again by using
the A-weighting setting in Online Processing.

Additional processing functions, like overall level and orders, can be calculated while the
acquisition is on-going. Go to the ‘Overall Level’ tab in the middle of the worksheet and make
sure the ‘Overall Level’ checkbox is checked ON as shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18: Overall Level setup in the ‘Online Processing’ worksheet

In the ‘Order Sections’ tab, enter the orders to be calculated.  For example, entering “1;2;3;4;5;6”
will create a table of six orders to be calculated.  Make sure to press ENTER or the orders will
not be calculated.

If the orders have been entered correctly, a table should appear as shown in Figure 19.

 
Figure 19: Enter orders to be calculated in the Order Section of the ‘Online Processing’
worksheet

After pressing enter, the table should be filled in with the orders.    The cut mode for the orders
and corresponding bandwidth can be entered.  If there is more than one tracking tachometer, it
can be selected in the upper left of the menu.  Orders with respect to each separate tachometer
can be entered.

There are many other calculations that can be done while the measurement is in progress,
including psycho-acoustic metrics, frequency band cuts, frame statistics, and derived channels.

Measure

In the Measure worksheet, the acquisition is performed. All settings from previous worksheets
are used in this worksheet.  There are some Function buttons across the top where these settings
can be changed (F3, F4, F5, F6, F8).  Any changes performed with the function buttons are
cascaded automatically to all related worksheets.

 
In the lower right, there are buttons to start and stop the acquisition as shown in Figure 20. 
Displays can be setup to monitor the data while acquiring.

Throughput

Make sure that the check box that says ‘Save Throughput’ is checked as shown in Figure 20.
Checking this ON saves raw throughput time data for listening and re-processing at a later time.

Figure 20: Make sure the ‘Save

Throughput’ checkbox is ON in the Measure worksheet to record the throughput time data

In addition to collecting the throughput time file, the processed data will also be calculated
during the measurement.  Be sure that under “Tools -> Add-ins” that the “Time Recording
during Signature” add-in is turned ON, otherwise an error message may appear, especially if this
is the first time the software is being used.

Displaying Data while Measuring

 

Displays can be configured to monitor and view data while measuring (Figure 21). To do so:

1. Open a display by clicking on one of the icons in the upper left.

2. To select the data to display, click on ‘Data Explorer’ in the upper right.
3. Navigate into the ‘Online Data’ folder and select the data to be displayed. Drag and drop
the desired data into the display.

Figure 21: Click on icons in upper left to open displays, and select ‘Data Explorer’

There are several folders in the ‘Online Data’ folder:

 Fixed Sampling – Named for the mode of data acquisition. It is also possible to have a
‘Real-time octave’ folder and an ‘Angle domain’ folder if those modes are turned on
under the “Tools -> Add-ins” menu
 Monitor – Data selected from this folder and placed in a display continously updates
when the system is armed, whether an acquisition is in progress or not. It is useful for
monitoring the channels to make sure the transducers are working
 Instantaneous – Data in this folder updates only when a acquisiton is in progress. It shows
the current spectra being acquired and stored.
 RunUp/RunDown/Time/Stationary – Data in this folder is calculated using the ‘Tracking
Setup’ settings. The folder includes items like waterfalls, order cuts, frequency sections,
etc. The folder name changes if the tracking setting is changed.
For more information on creating and changing display layouts, see the ‘LMS Test.Lab Display
Layout’ Knowledge Base article.

Acquiring Data

To begin the measurement, use the buttons on the middle of the right hand side. Press the ARM
button and then the PLAY (with arrow) button (Figure 22). This will start the measurement.
When the start trigger condition is reached, the displays should update.

Figure 22: Measurement action buttons in Measure worksheet

When the rundown has finished, press “Yes” to accept the data and then press ARM button again
to disarm.

Post Processing Data: Processing Cursor

Use the processing cursor to interrogate the data (Figure 23):

 1. In a colormap display, right click and select “Add Processing Cursor -> Order”.
2. From the cursor processing dialog box, drop the data into a 2D display. Close the box
when finished.
3. Move the cursor and the order information in the 2D display will update.

Figure 23: Use the Processing Cursor to interact with the data

More information on the Processing cursor can be found in the Knowledge Base article
'Interactive Order Cursor!'.

Post Processing Data: Audio Replay

It is possible to listen to the recorded data and filter it while listening (Figure 24):

1. Right click in colormap or other display that contains listening data of interest and select
“Audio Replay…”. When using a 2D display, first select the curves and right click on
them.
2. In the Audio replay menu, add a filter type (bandpass, bandstop, highpass, lowpass, etc)
3. Set the frequency ranges for the selected filters.
4. Use the “Play” button to start listening.
Figure 24: To listen to data, right click in display and choose “Audio replay…”

When listening, filters can be turned ON and OFF using the checkbox next to the filter type.

If Audio Replay does not appear when right clicking, make sure to turn it on under “Tools ->
Add-ins”.  Select “Audio Replay and Filtering”.

If performing multiple runs and statistics, the “Run Data Averaging and Comparison” organizer
under “Tools -> Add-ins” is very helpful.  It can be used to capture the maximum, average,
minimum, and six sigma standard deviation of the runs.  More information is available in the
'Compare runs' Knowledge Base article.

Questions?  Contact us!

Related Links

 What is an order?
 Interpreting Colormaps
 Torsional Vibration: What is it?
 Balancing: Static, Coupled, and Dynamic
 LMS Test.Lab Signature
  LMS Test.Lab Throughput Processing Tips
 Run Comparison in LMS Test.Lab
 LMS Test.Lab Displays: Interactive order cursor!
 Cool Channel Setup tricks for Triaxial Accelerometers
 Zebra Tape Butt Joint Correction for Torsional Vibrations
 Balancing: Static, Coupled, and Dynamic
 Removing Spikes from RPM Signals
 Tips and tricks for acquiring torsional orders
 Harmonic Removal
 Cycle to Cycle Averaging in Simcenter Testlab

Labels:

 Rotating Machinery Testing

 Simcenter Testlab

Share
Comment
Related content

 Hands-Free Data Acquisition! (Almost...)

by scottbeebe in Testing Knowledge Base

 How to measure strain gauges with

Simcenter Testla...
by JohnHiatt in Testing Knowledge Base

 What's an Order?
by Jacklyn in Testing Knowledge Base

 Interactive order cursor!

by PJS in Testing Knowledge Base
  Cool Channel Setup tricks for Triaxial
Acceleromet...
by PJS in Testing Knowledge Base

 Simcenter Testlab Throughput Processing

Tips
by scottbeebe in Testing Knowledge Base

 Compare Runs in LMS Test.Lab

by Jacklyn in Testing Knowledge Base

 Balancing: Static, Coupled, and Dynamic

by Jacklyn in Testing Knowledge Base

 Removing Spikes from RPM Signals

by scottbeebe in Testing Knowledge Base

 Capturing Transient Events in Simcenter

Testlab
by scottbeebe in Testing Knowledge Base

Contributors
 

scottbeebe

Recommendations

Re: LMS Test.Lab Signature

Re: LMS Test.Lab Throughput Processing
Tips
Re: LMS Test.Lab Display Layouts
LMS Test.Lab Impact Testing
Re: LMS Test.Lab Active Picture
Latest articles
Subject

Long Cable Lengths and ICP Transducers

Simcenter Testlab: Automatic Peak/Valley
Cursor
How to avoid that activating an Active
Picture ope...
Simcenter Testlab: Matrix-Heatmap
Display
Simcenter Testlab Tokens: What are they,
and how d...
View All