Electricity: motive power systems – Impact – mechanical shock – or vibration-producing motors
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-04
2002-07-02
Ramirez, Nestor (Department: 2834)
Electricity: motive power systems
Impact, mechanical shock, or vibration-producing motors
C318S128000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06414452
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention is applicable to a vibrating device equipped with a vibrating table and a waveform control unit, and it relates to a real-time adaptive waveform control device and method which can make target waves and reproduced waves coincide with each other by a single excitation.
Previously, in order to examine the behavior, strength or the like of structures during, for example, earthquakes, various types of vibration tests have been performed, and for the purpose thereof, a vibrating unit has been used. 
FIG. 12
 schematically shows the configuration of this type of vibrating unit. This vibrating unit has a vibrating table which vibrates with a test piece 
223
 of a body to be tested is mounted thereon, and a waveform control unit 
100
 which controls the waveform of the vibration. Furthermore, the above described vibrating table 
2
 has a vibrating table control section 
21
 in which an output signal from the waveform control unit 
100
 is inputted, an exciting machine 
221
 into which a control signal from this vibrating table control section 
21
 is inputted, and a test piece mounting table 
222
 which is excited by this exciting machine 
221
. A vibrating table excitation mechanism 
22
 comprises the exciting machine 
221
 and the table 
222
. Thus, the signal of an excitation wave 
90
 emitted from the waveform control unit 
100
 is converted into a servo command for operating the exciting machine 
221
 at the vibrating table control section 
21
, and the table 
222
 and the test piece 
223
 mounted thereon are vibrated by the operation of the exciting machine 
221
 receiving the servo command signal.
Here, the excitation wave 
90
 means a waveform of a vibration inputted to the vibrating table 
2
, and in order to perform a proper vibration test, it is necessary to indicate an excitation wave 
90
 to the vibrating table 
2
 so that the test piece 
223
 may be vibrated by a specific waveform to be realized (target waveform). That is, it is necessary to set the excitation wave 
90
 to have such a waveform as to make the vibrational waveform (reproduced wave 
20
) obtained from an acceleration sensor 
224
 provided on the table 
222
 and the target wave coincide with each other. The waveform control unit 
100
 is a unit provided for the purpose of generating such a proper excitation wave 
90
.
Generally, the correlation between the excitation wave 
90
 and the reproduced wave 
20
 can be expressed by the following expression (1) as a function of the frequency (&ohgr;):
Y
(&ohgr;)=
G
(&ohgr;)·
X
(&ohgr;)  (1)
where Y(&ohgr;) expresses the characteristic of a reproduced wave 
20
, and X(&ohgr;) expresses the characteristic of an excitation wave 
90
, and G(&ohgr;) expresses the characteristic of a vibrating table 
222
 including a test piece 
223
 (hereafter, referred to simply as the characteristic of the vibration table). When this expression (1) is changed into an expression for determining an excitation wave X(&ohgr;), the following expression (2) is found:
X
(&ohgr;)=
G
−1
(&ohgr;)·
Y
(&ohgr;)  (2)
where G
−1
(&ohgr;) is the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table. In the above described waveform control unit 
100
, an excitation wave X(&ohgr;) is determined using equation (2) so as to make the reproduced wave Y(&ohgr;) coincide with the target wave. Since the reproduced wave Y(&ohgr;) is set to become the target wave, it is known that a proper excitation wave X(&ohgr;) can be calculated if the inverse characteristic G
−1
(&ohgr;) of the vibrating table is determined.
However, it is difficult to directly determine this inverse characteristic G
−1
(&ohgr;) of the vibrating table since it changes with the vibrating table 
2
 itself, test pieces 
223
, and the amplitude level of the vibration or the like. Accordingly, usually, some experimental approach is used, in which estimated values {tilde over (G)}
−1
(&ohgr;) for the inverse characteristic G
−1
(&ohgr;), are calculated on the basis of experimental data concerning excitation waves 
90
 and reproduced waves 
20
 obtained when the vibrating unit is actually operated. In a conventional vibrating unit, this determination of the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table is not performed during the actual excitation of the vibrating table 
2
, but it has been performed after the excitation in an off-line manner. In other words, conventionally, the inverse characteristic of a vibrating table are estimated in advance from the data obtained by previous vibration tests or preliminary tests, and the estimated values are used as fixed values in subsequent vibration tests.
FIG. 13
 shows a conventional vibrating unit in terms of a waveform control unit 
100
. In 
FIG. 13
, the parts except the vibrating table 
2
 form the waveform control unit 
100
 in FIG. 
12
. Furthermore, the dotted line in 
FIG. 13
 expresses operations carried out in an off-line manner. At the time of excitation, a target wave 
11
 emitted from a target wave generator 
1
 is transmitted to an off-line compensation wave generator 
3
, and the target wave 
11
 is compensated by the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table calculated in advance. That is, a proper excitation wave 
90
 is generated on the basis of the above described expression (2) from the target wave 
11
 and the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table. Actually, in the above described expression (2), the estimated values {tilde over (G)}
−1
(&ohgr;) for the inverse characteristic are used in place of the actual inverse characteristic G
−1
(&ohgr;)of the vibrating table. Using more precise expressions,the waveform obtained as a result of the compensation done in the off-line compensation wave generator 
3
 is called an (off-line) compensation wave. In this example, this compensation wave is used as an excitation wave 
90
 to be transmitted to the vibrating table 
2
 as it is.
The generated excitation wave 
90
 is transmitted to the vibrating table as mentioned above, and the vibrating table excitation mechanical section 
22
 is vibrated under the control of the vibrating table control section 
21
. Furthermore, the data of the excitation wave 
90
 during the excitation and the reproduced wave 
20
 are recorded in an excitation-wave recorder 
5
 and a reproduced wave recorder 
6
, respectively. After the end of the excitation, on the basis of this recorded data, with the vibrating table inverse characteristic calculator 
4
, estimated values 
40
 [{tilde over (G)}
−1
(&ohgr;)] of the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table are determined in an off-line manner as mentioned above, and that such values are utilized for future excitation or the like.
Furthermore, in the off-line compensation wave generator 
3
, the calculation based on the above described expression (2) is performed by a computing unit 
32
, and a Fourier transform unit 
31
 and an inverse Fourier transform unit 
33
 are units which transform the target wave 
11
 in the time domain into the frequency domain and the compensation wave (excitation wave 
90
) in the frequency domain into the time domain, respectively.
FIG. 14
 is a flow chart in the case where the waveform control unit 
100
 sown in 
FIG. 13
 is used, and it shows the procedure up to the main excitation (main test) from the identification of the inverse characteristic of the vibrating table. First of all, an excitation by a weak random wave is performed, and from the reproduced wave at that moment, the estimated value {tilde over (G)}
−1
(&ohgr;) of the inverse characteristic of in the case where the excitation level (amplitude level of the vibration) is low is determined (step S
1
 in FIG. 
14
). Next, the initial excitation level is set (step S
2
 in FIG. 
14
), and an excitation is performed by the off-line compensation wave generated by using the determined inverse characteristic {tilde over (G)}
−1
(&ohgr;) (steps S
3
 and S
4
). Usually, the initial excitation level is
Hiroe Takaharu
Maekawa Akihiro
Okuda Yukihito
Sakuno Makoto
Alston & Bird LLP
Jones Judson H.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
Ramirez Nestor
LandOfFree
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