App Note 52
App Note 52
com 5/16/2023
INTRODUCTION
In this App Note, ten FEA mode shapes of the base plate & bearing blocks of a rotating machine are used to curve-
fit and expand the first-order ODS of the machine. ODS-FRFs were acquired while the machine was running at
three different operating speeds. The ODS-FRFs were acquired at eight points on the machine using 4-channel data
acquisition hardware with a uni-axial accelerometer as a fixed reference and a roving tri-axil accelerometer attached
at each of eight test points.
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App Note 52 www.vibetech.com 5/16/2023
The peak values of the ODS-FRFs at the running speed were saved as the first-order ODS.
When displayed in animation on a 3D model of the machine, an order-based ODS is a convenient way of
visualizing distributed vibration levels caused by unmeasured internal cyclic forces.
• Order-based ODS’s can be represented as a summation of mode shapes.
• The order-based ODS’s or their modal participation can be used for monitoring the health of a machine.
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App Note 52 www.vibetech.com 5/16/2023
The machine was supported on four rubber mounts (one under each corner), so it behaves much like a mass on a
spring. Its rigid body motion participates significantly in its first-order ODS.
Hotkey 1 - FEA MODE SHAPES
Six rigid-body and four flexible-body FEA mode shapes were obtained from an FEA model of the base plate &
bearing blocks of the machine.
These ten FEA mode shapes were obtained using the VES-8000 FEA option in MEscope.
In this App Note, these FEA mode shapes are used to curve-fit and expand the experimental ODS's.
• Press Hotkey 1
Sweep animation through the ten FEA mode shapes will begin. One of the rigid-body mode shapes and a flexible-
body mode shape are shown in the two figures below.
The FEA mode shapes have 1938 DOFs, but 24 of their DOFs coincide with the same 24 DOFs as the
experimental ODS’s.
The FEA mode shapes are curve-fit to the ODS’s using data from their common DOFs.
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SHAPE PARTICIPATION
The participation bar chart on the right side of the figure above shows the participation of each FEA mode shape in
the 24-DOF experimental ODS. The bars show that the rigid-body FEA mode shapes (S1 to S6) dominate the
ODS, but they will participate differently at each speed.
Complex-valued participations were used to curve-fit the complex-valued ODS data with normal FEA mode
shapes.
MAC & SDI values at or above 90% verify that complex-valued ODS data can be accurately represented as a
summation of FEA mode shapes.
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App Note 52 www.vibetech.com 5/16/2023
MAC & SDI are calculated between all 1938 DOFs of the two expanded ODS’s.
Low MAC & SDI ➔ the first-order ODS has changed significantly between speeds 985 RPM & 1440 RPM.
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App Note 52 www.vibetech.com 5/16/2023
Low MAC & SDI ➔ the first-order ODS has changed significantly between speeds 985 RPM & 2280 RPM.
CONCLUSIONS
In this App Note, ten FEA mode shapes of the base plate & bearing blocks of a rotating machine were used to
curve-fit and expand the first-order ODS of a rotating machine. ODS data was acquired while the machine was
running at three different speeds. ODS data was acquired using 4-channel data acquisition hardware with a uni-axial
accelerometer as a fixed reference and a roving tri-axil accelerometer attached at eight different points on the
machine.
This App Note illustrated how ten FEA mode shapes of a machine modeled with free-free boundary conditions
can be used to expand its operating data, thus conforming a fundamental law,
Fundamental Law of Modal Analysis: All vibration is a summation of mode shapes.
This decomposition & expansion of operating data using FEA mode shapes offers some important advantages,
• Real-world ODS data can be accurately curve-fit using mode shapes.
• Normal FEA mode shapes can be used to curve-fit complex-valued ODS data.
• Normal mode shapes derived from an FEA model with free-free boundary conditions & no damping can
be curve-fit to real-world vibration data that includes real-world boundary conditions & damping.
Hotkey 7 - REVIEW STEPS
To review the steps of this App Note,
• Press Hotkey 7 Review Steps
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