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Chapter 28

SYNCHRONOUS TIME AVERAGING


The signal to be measured and analyzed can sometimes be corrupted by unwanted
contributions from noise, line hum, or other machines running nearby. When this
occurs, spectrum averaging can be used to smooth out the total signal, but the technique does not necessarily help with analyzing a particular machine.
Other techniques are required to extract only the signal harmonics related to the
desired rotating element from a composite measured signal.

SEPARATING SIGNAL FROM

NOISE

Several techniques are available for cleaning up a signal surrounded by noise. With
most techniques, some type of spectrum averaging is used. However, for the most
part, the enhancement provided by standard averaging is limited. If the level of the
periodic component is below that of the surrounding noise, increasing the number of
spectrum averages will not reveal the buried signal. It will only make the adjacent
noise smoother.
Figure 28.1 illustrates a periodic signal that has been buried in noise. The display on
the left is the unaltered waveform. The periodic signal also was available as a reference waveform, but was not used in this first measurement. The display on the right is
that of a standard averaged spectrum. In this case, 1000 averages were used and the
total signal power was averaged. In the standard averaged display, only the fundamental spectrum component at 350 Hz is visible. From this display, it is not clear if there
are any harmonics or their distribution.
With synchronous time averaging, blocks of time records are triggered from the
desired reference signal and averaging takes place in the time domain. Waveforms

259

Vibration Fundamentals

260

A-Mag Spec-A1

B-Time-A1

volt.

VP

100
1

Second8

8om

Hertz

XJszslr R2.495m OA.402.6m nm

X27.73m Y549.41~

Figure 28.1 Unaltered time waveform (lef) and standard averaged spectrum (right) afer
1000 averages.

B-Time-A1

vom

VP

100

-1
0
X:37.73m R549.4m

Seeonds

8om

0
Hertz
XJ.825k R2.495m OA.402.6mnm

5k

Figure 28.2 Sync averaged time waveform (kft)and sync spectrum (right)after 10,000 averages.

that are synchronous with the reference tend to be reinforced frame after frame,
whereas those that are random or synchronous at a different rate are not reinforced
and average to zero. After sufficient averaging in the time domain, a single FFTis performed and the result is referred to as a sync spectrum.
With this method, the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) improves proportional to the square
root of the number of averages taken. Theoretically, all noise components could be
eliminated by averaging for a long period of time. The result of synchronous spectrum
averaging should be only a periodic spectrum or nothing at all. Because the reference
signal is available for the waveform shown in Figure 28.1, it can be used as an external trigger input to the real-time analyzer and a Synchronous Average performed (see
Figure 28.2).
Two important factors should be remembered when performing a synchronous time
average:
1. A reference signal is crucial and must be mechanically linked to the physi-

cal shaft or other rotating element to be isolated. An external signal generator set, for example, at approximately the same frequency as the desired
rotating element turning speed may appear to momentarily offer some sig-

Synchronous Time Averaging

261

nal cleanup. However, since it is not phase locked with the machine, averaging enhancement soon ceases and no long-term improvement results.
2. Averaging is done in the time domain and must be followed by a single
FFT. This is important because the FFT typically performs a power
average, including all coefficients that are present. However, with synchronous averaging, we care only about terms that are phase locked
with the reference signal. Thus, we need to average in the time domain
by creating blocks of data that always begin (or end) when the tachometer triggers. In this way, nonsynchronous, or random, events average to
zero due to bipolar cancellation. In nonsynchronous or standard spectrum averaging, all components (both synchronous and other periodic
and random data) are averaged. This smooths the spectrum, but does not
enhance the S/N.

APPLICATIONS
There are many applications of synchronous time averaging, but the more common
uses include (1) obtaining multiple-order reference, (2) eliminating beating responses,
and (3) recovering signals below the noise level.
Multiple-Order Reference

In some cases, the primary signal of interest may not be at the fundamental shaftspeed frequency, but rather at some multiple of that frequency. For example, the analyst may want to focus on the condition of a rotating element by removing all vibration except for specific passing frequencies, such as the number of blades on a turbine
wheel, the number of impellers in a pump, gear ratio, etc.
If a multiple tachometer signal of the desired rate is available, it can be used as the
reference trigger input. By using multiples of the tachometer input, only the trigger
multiple and its harmonics will be preserved. An example of this is seen in Figure
28.3 below, where a 3x running speed signal was used as the trigger input to the time
synchronous averaging process. With this trigger, the time waveform and resulting

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.: I ":seconds
I: I

seconds

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0

60k
60k

Figure 28.3 Sync averaged time waveform (le


(lefi)
trigger.
') and sync spectrum (right) using 3x as trgg
'er.

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Vibration Fundamentals

Figure 28.4 Long-term (top) and expanded (bottom)time recording of beat.

spectrum will contain only the third order of running speed and each of its harmonics
(3x, 6x, 9x, etc.).
If the contribution of a particular component (e.g., 35-tooth gear) is of interest, it also
is feasible to multiply a known tachometer signal by a phase-locked ratio to recover
just that signal from a composite waveform. In this case, the higher harmonics may
not be of interest and, if they are, there may be a conflict between spectrum resolution
and waveform stability. Remember that time synchronous averaging depends on the
stability of the systems generating the multiple signals, especially on the stability of
the recovered waveform. The more this waveform wanders in frequency or speed, the
more difficult the synchronous averaging process will be.
Eliminating Beating Responses

In some cases, two machines or elements operating near the same running speed can
create a phenomenon referred to as beating, which can confuse an otherwise
straightforward measurement. This is another case where having the tachometer reference for the specific rolling element can accurately separate out the desired component. An example of this is seen in Figure 28.4, which shows long-term and expanded
time recordings of beat.

Synchronous Time Averaging

263

13
10

I
Figure 28.5 A 24OO-cpm, 40-Hz track (lej?) and 3 - 0 waterfall (right) over a 1-min interval.

X:2.4Wk Y4.174 OA3.141 ma

Figure 28.6 Sync spectrum using 2400-cpm reference, 200 averages; beating component at
2376 cpm.

Figure 28.5 illustrates a 3-D waterfall and 2400-cpm, 40-Hz track over a 1-min interval. Note that beating causes the spectrum level of the 2400-cpm, 40-Hz component
to vary from nearly 0 to more than 8.6 V.
However, as shown in Figure 28.6, the actual level of the 2400-cpm component, as
derived through sync averaging with respect to the actual 2400-cpm reference, is
4.174 V peak.
Recovering Signals Below the Noise Level

A benefit of synchronous time averaging is that no theoretical limit exists for the
amount of signal cleanup that can be performed. It is one of the few signal-processing techniques available where the S/N enhancement is proportional to the square root
of the number of time-averaged blocks processed. Thus, the longer the averaging

Vibration Fundamentals

264

&Mag Spec-AI
20

0
X1.465 Y:800.9m OA6372 m a

Hertz

2k

Figure 28.7 Standard free-run spectrum analysis performed with 1000 spectrum averages.

20

volts
Penk

10

X:1.465k Y:349.lm OA:265.8

Figure 28.8 Sync averaged spectrum of same signal shown in Figure 28.7.

takes place, theoretically, the cleaner the signal gets until the only signal left is the
trigger, or synchronizing frequency, and its harmonics.
The spectrum shown in Figure 28.7 is the result of 1000 averages of a free-running
signal input. The only apparent signal is a peak at 40 Hz. However, it is suspected that
there might be a signal contributing at approximately 37 times the nominal 40-Hz
component. To verify this, a synchronous time average was performed with a reference signal of 1466 Hz.
The time synchronous spectrum shown in Figure 28.8 was performed with 3400 time
averages followed by a single FFT. This technique makes it apparent that a clear signal exists at 1466 Hz. Also note that the amplitude of this 1466 Hz component is less
than half that of the amplitude of the 1466 Hz component in Figure 28.7. This indicates that the desired signal is at least 6 dB below the level of the surrounding noise in
the original broadband spectrum.

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