Orthogonalization of the measuring basis of triaxial vibration transducers by the method of successive approximations

Abstract

The transversal sensitivity of tri-axial vibration transducers, which have found vast application in various vibration measuring and material testing systems, decreases the accuracy of measurements. We present a solution to the problem of eliminating the error attributed to the presence of the transverse sensitivity. The measurement error depends on many factors including the ratio of vibration components along the sensitivity axes, the width of the vibration spectrum, and the presence of intrinsic resonances of the vibration transducers in the main and transverse directions. The developed method provides almost complete compensation of the error. Analysis of the components of sensitivity vectors along the measuring directions showed that the transversal sensitivity vectors are in fact the parasitic penetrations from other directions, and can be decomposed along the measuring axes. To orthogonalize the sensitivity vectors during calibration, the sensitivity vectors should be rotated until they coincide with the orthogonal directions. A measuring basis with zero transverse sensitivities is thus obtained, and the sensitivity matrix is reduced to a diagonal form. With this approach the fundamentals and practical algorithm using successive approximations of triaxial transducer calibration with orthogonalization are outlined. Each orthogonalization step is illustrated by the current sensitivity matrix, showing the progress of transversal sensitivity reduction. The results of the developed tri-axial transducer coupled to a special preamplifier-converter with transversal sensitivities reduced to nearly zero values using the developed method are presented. Since calibration is carried out without dismantling of a vibration transducer, it can be carried out not only during its manufacture, but also during verification upon operation, which increases the service life. The use of the described technique not only improves the metrological parameters of vibration transducers, but also provides a significant reduction of the requirements for the accuracy of manufacturing their measuring system, thus reducing the production costs. The presented method is promising for the developing new precise multi-axis vibration transducers and measuring systems on their base.