Smart Sensors, Dumb Engineers ? How To Avoid Crossed Signals in Instrumentation

摘要

How much time do you spend going back and correcting or re-acquiring your data because either a sensor was oriented incorrectly, switched with another sensor channel or the sensor simply wasn?t working when you acquired the data? How many times has the instrumentation phase of your modal test (including the time required to get all sensors working properly and entered accurately into the data acquisition system) required more time and effort than actually conducting the modal test itself? With all the advances in modal test instrumentation, why are sensors and cables very often the weakest link in the modal test process? Have so- called smart sensors really improved modal testing? This paper addresses these questions and explores the authors? experience with various types of sensors, methods of instrumenting test articles, advances over the years, successes and failures, and some best practices in the use of modal test instrumentation, especially for ?large? (100-500) channel count tests.