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The Physics Teacher -- November 2011 -- Volume 49, Issue 8, pp. 505

Vibration Analysis and the Accelerometer

Paul Hammer

East Catholic High School, Manchester, CT

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Have you ever put your hand on an electric motor or motor-driven electric appliance and felt it vibrate? Ever wonder why it vibrates? What is there about the operation of the motor, or the object to which it is attached, that causes the vibrations? Is there anything “regular” about the vibrations, or are they the result of random causes? In this paper, I will introduce a laboratory approach that may be followed to begin to understand the vibration characteristics of a rotating device—in this case, an electric box fan. This approach involves collecting data with an accelerometer and analyzing the data with software that performs a fast Fourier transform analysis.

© 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers

Article Outline

  1. Background
  2. Accelerometer primer
  3. Simple vibration analysis
  4. Fan data collection
  5. Evaluation of fan FFT
  6. “Modification” of fan
  7. Conclusion

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

accelerometers, domestic appliances, electric motors, fans, fast Fourier transforms, physics education, student experiments, vibrations

PACS

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0031-921X (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Association of Physics Teachers

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3651735

Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG.1
Acceleration-time data for the speaker driven by a single frequency source.

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FIG.2
Results of FFT analysis of acceleration-time data for the speaker driven by a single frequency source.

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FIG.3
Accleration-time data for the small box fan at high speed.

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FIG.4
Results of FFT analysis of acceleration-time data for the small box fan at high speed.

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FIG.5
Acceleration-time data for the modified small box fan at high speed.

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FIG.6
Results of FFT analysis of acceleration-time data for the modified small box fan at high speed.

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