Power Spectral Density Computation and Dominant Frequencies Identification from the Vibration Sensor Output under Random Vibration Environment

The objective of the modal and spectral analysis is to determine the vibration characteristics of structures such as natural frequencies, dominant frequencies and mode shapes. Such modal and spectral analyses have major relevance to the study of the dynamic properties of the structures undergoing dynamic vibration. Methods for the estimation of the power spectral density and identification of the dominant frequencies from the sensor responses under random vibrating environment are presented in this paper. Periodogram using FFT, Welch Method and MUSIC algorithm are used to analyse the known frequency sinusoids with additive white noise and output of the vibration sensor mounted on the test object. The resultant spectra obtained using the methods and their corresponding errors with the reference spectrum are analysed. The Welch method is further studied with three different windows, namely, Hann, Hamming and Blackman-Harris and with three different overlapping criteria viz. 0%, 25% and 50%. The same algorithm and methodology were adopted and compared in two different platforms: Mathematical Model Simulation and Hardware-In-Loop-Simulation. It is observed from the results that Welch Method with 25% overlap used in combination either with Hann or Blackman-Harris window yields more accurate results, compared to other combinations. Also, 25% overlap provides better execution time trade-off compared to 50% overlap.