Assessment of Rotational Accelerometer Mountings for Rotational Frequency Response Function Measurement

Abstract

Kistler Kshear 8840 piezoelectric rotational accelerometer is designed with an M5 bolt type of mounting and a 5mm diameter of through or pre-tapped hole is required in a structure under test. However, the mounting is not applicable for some cases, and other types of mounting need to be used. This work investigates the applicability and accuracy of five different configurations of mounting for Kistler Ksher 8840 piezoelectric rotational accelerometer for the measurement of the rotational FRFs of a steel plate. The mounting configurations consist of 3D printed PLA and ABS mounting, bee’s wax, steel, and bolt mounting. The rotational FRF of the steel plate was measured by using impact testing method. The applicability and accuracy of the mountings were evaluated by comparing the measured FRFs with the finite element (FE) FRFs counterparts. The comparisons of the results revealed that using the bee’s wax mounting had produced the most accurate and least noisy FRF. It was also found that using the 3D printed PLA mounting had contributed to the highest contamination of noise and several spurious peaks in the measured FRFs. These findings provide useful information for selecting the appropriate types and designs of mounting for the Kistler 8840 rotational accelerometer.