A novel mirror-assisted method for full-field vibration measurement of a hollow cylinder using a three-dimensional continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer system

Abstract

A novel general-purpose three-dimensional (3D) continuously scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (CSLDV) system was recently developed by the authors to measure 3D vibration of a structure with a curved surface. As a non-contact system, it can avoid the mass-loading problem in 3D vibration measurement using triaxial accelerometers. In previous studies, the 3D CSLDV system was used to measure 3D full-field vibration of a turbine blade with a curved surface and identify its operating deflection shapes (ODSs) and mode shapes. The 3D CSLDV system had the same level of accuracy as that with a commercial 3D scanning laser Doppler vibrometer system, but can measure many more points in much less time than the latter. However, the 3D CSLDV system can be limited by its field of view, which is a common problem for optical-based measurement devices. Moving the 3D CSLDV system to different positions to measure different parts of a test structure is not practical during 3D CSLDV measurement, since the system has to be re-calibrated once it has been moved, which can be time-consuming and introduce measurement errors. This work proposes a novel mirror-assisted testing methodology for 3D CSLDV measurement that aims to measure vibration of difficult-to-access areas of a structure without moving the 3D CSLDV system during the test, and stitch ODSs of its different parts together to obtain its panoramic 3D ODSs. The proposed methodology includes a novel scan trajectory design method that uses virtual areas of the structure behind the mirror to conduct continuous and synchronous scanning of three laser spots, and a novel velocity transformation method that uses virtual positions of three laser heads behind the mirror to stitch ODSs of different parts of the structure together. To demonstrate the proposed methodology, 3D CSLDV measurement is conducted on an aluminum hollow cylinder specimen, which has difficult-to-access areas such as its side and back surfaces, with the assistance of the mirror to obtain its panoramic 3D ODSs corresponding to its first two modes. Comparison between identified ODSs of the hollow cylinder specimen from the experiment and mode shapes from its finite element model is made and modal assurance criterion values are larger than 0.98.