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The NI Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite provides order analysis tools for acquiring, analyzing, and presenting sound and vibration information. The presentation tools include the spectral map, order spectrum, order waveform, order magnitude and phase graph, orbit plot, timebase plot, and shaft centerline plot functions and displays. You can use these order analysis tools to analyze sound and vibration signals and improve your knowledge of a device under test.

The following sections describe order analysis functions and displays and the common steps for using these tools in an order analysis application process.

Programming with Order Analysis Functions and Displays

When programming with the order analysis functions and displays that the Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite provides, you might encounter three signal types: waveform, even-angle, and vector signal. A waveform signal is a time signal acquired with a fixed-time sampling rate. An even-angle signal is a resampled signal with a constant number of samples per revolution. A vector signal is a complex signal comprised of the magnitude and phase of a certain order. All three signals might work as the input signals, intermediate results, and final output results in different functions and displays.

The order analysis functions and displays use different signal types as inputs and outputs. For each signal type, the order analysis functions and displays use a different programming flow. Understanding the programming flow can help you better use the order analysis functions and displays. The following illustration shows a comprehensive flowchart for all order analysis functions and displays.

Note  The different colored lines represent different signal types.

The Data Source block is the well-conditioned and preprocessed data source containing both the waveform signals and speed profile. The rightmost blocks are the order analysis results and displays of the waveform signals and speed profile after some intermediate and final processing functions. Look for the specific function you need from the rightmost portion of the chart and trace the programming flow for that function. For example, if you want to display a filtered orbit plot, you need to convert the waveform signal to an even-angle signal. Then you must use the OAT Order Magnitude and Phase VI to convert the even-angle signal to a vector signal. In some cases, you might want to remove the slow-roll errors in the vector signal. Finally, you need to use OAT Orbit Plot VI to display the results. The boxes in dashed lines are optional operations.