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Course Outline no. 197-3 .
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Digital Signal Processing
and Data Analysis

Course No. 197-3

(Course Outline shown below.)

For Whom Intended

1. Testing laboratory personnel who want to expand their analysis capabilities, perhaps in the interest of improving their test designs;
2. analysis personnel responsible for the interpretation of data acquired in the laboratory;
3. test requesters/designers who want to know what tools are available and what to expect from them.

Objectives  To help participants to understand basic mechanical and structural concepts and terminology. It is not an in-depth mechanical engineering course but rather a course aimed at individuals who require an intensive review of basic principals, without the assumption of any prior knowledge of the topic. The course is fast paced and as non-mathematical as possible.

Brief Course Description  The objective of the course is to provide participants with a working knowledge of the tools available for analysis of data acquired by digital data acquisition systems for a variety of laboratory and field applications. Basic analysis principals and methods are presented and reinforced with practical examples from everyday testing operations. The interaction between test design, data acquisition and analysis is emphasized. The lectures and discussions are designed to promote understanding the concepts involved through "mechanical feel" rather than mathematics.

Participants are encouraged to offer problems from their own activities for discussion and solution by the class.

The course is presented as a series of highly-interactive lecture/discussion sessions. Problems for individual and group solution are interspersed throughout the course to act as training aids and to evaluate class progress. Special-interest discussions are encouraged outside of the regular course sessions.

Demonstration programs written in LabView are used during the course to illustrate the concepts. These demonstrations are available for download, free of charge. Students are encouraged to download the demonstration programs prior to class, and install them on a laptop computer they can bring with them to class and use to follow along with the instructor when the demonstrations are presented.

Certificate Programs  This course is an elective for any of TTi's specialist certificate programs.

Related Courses  Course 197-3 is available for on-site presentations only. In the "Open" presentations of Course 197-5, Digital Signal Processing, Data Acquisition and Analysis, the content of Course 197-3 is combined with Course 196, Digital Data Acquisition.

Prerequisites  Participants should have attended TTi's course, Digital Data Acquisition, or some equivalent training program. A good understanding of the engineering problem to be analyzed is expected. An understanding of basic computer and data acquisition principles will be useful.

Text  Each student will receive a course workbook, including most of the viewgraphs used in the course presentation.

Course Hours, Certificate and CEUs  Class hours/days for on-site courses can vary from 14-35 hours over 2-5 days as requested by our clients. Upon successful course completion, each participant receives a certificate of completion and one Continuing Education Unit (CEU) for every ten class hours.

Course Outline No. 197-3

• Introduction and Overview
• Review of Basic Concepts
  • The time and frequency domains
  • Time histories and time series analysis
  • Sampling theory; acquiring good data
  • Linear systems; transform concepts
  • Spectra
• "Static" (Load/Deflection) Test Analysis
  • Basic curve fitting
    • Least squares techniques, linear regression, polynomial regression
    • Spline fitting
    • Yield point determination
• Oscillating-Signal Analysis
  • Basic characterization
  • Decibels
  • Data smoothing, averaging, trend removal...
  • Random signals
  • Probability distribution
  • Correlation
• Spectral Domain Operations
  • Calculating and displaying the spectrum
    • The Fourier Transform... as a Black Box
    • — What it does (and doesn't) do
    • — Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
    • — Basic relationships and rules
    • — Spectral "arithmetic"
    • "1/N" Octave analysis
    • Spectral graphing formats
  • Engineering applications
    • Power Spectral Density (PSD)
    • Transfer functions
    • Forced-response analysis
• Data Filtering
  • Filtering in the spectral domain
  • Time-domain filtering
    • FIR, IIR filters
  • When to use time-domain and spectral-domain filters
• Signal Integration and Differentiation
  • Practical problems with real data
• Transient Data Analysis: Spectral Analysis
  • Shock Response Spectra
• Continuous-Data Analysis
  • Finite measurement-length effects
    • Gibb's Phenomenon...Ringing
    • Windowing, window types/uses/advantages and disadvantages
• Data Averaging
  • Time block averaging
  • Spectral averaging, PSD
  • Average transfer-function calculation
  • Coherence
• Special Topics
  • Anti-alias filter-correction techniques (download TTi's Aliasing Demonstration program)
  • Data interpolation
    • Averaging and derivative techniques
    • Spectral extension
  • Data Acquisition System Calibration
• Using the tools
• Class problems
• Final Examination
• Award of Certificates for successful completion

Printable (.pdf) version of course outline no. 197-3 ( Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

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