A signal processing method for identifying the input-output behavior of accelerometers is developed. The method is based on the state-space description of the relationship between input, noise and output signals. The accelerometers is modeled as a one-degree-of-freedom system. The acceleration input signal is derived from the interferometrically measured displacement signal by a subroutine for the low- noise estimate of the input acceleration. For observed sequences of input-output data, the parameters of the transfer function of the accelerometer are estimated by minimizing the prediction error sequence of the state-space model. The identification procedure developed was applied to accelerometer input-output data furnished by a shock acceleration standard. The results obtained for pulses with peak values ranging from about 10⁴ m/s² to 5(DOT)10⁴ m/s² were in good agreement with calibration results known from sine and shock calibrations for the accelerometer under investigation. The estimated transfer function characterizes the input-output behavior of the accelerometer in the time and frequency domain and allows us to determine the acceleration output signals for non-stationary input signals, for example, the input and output peak values in primary shock calibrations.

Date Published: 22 May 2000
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 4072, Fourth International Conference on Vibration Measurements by Laser Techniques: Advances and Applications, (22 May 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.386714

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4072:
Fourth International Conference on Vibration Measurements by Laser Techniques: Advances and Applications
Enrico Primo Tomasini, Editor(s)