FFT Fundamentals (Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite) - Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite 7.

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Sound and Vibration
Measurement Suite 7.0 Help
Edition: November 2008
Part #: 372416B-01
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FFT Fundamentals (Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite)
Table of Contents
The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) resolves a time waveform into its sinusoidal components.
The FFT takes a block of time-domain data and returns the frequency spectrum of the data.
The FFT is a digital implementation of the Fourier transform. Thus, the FFT does not yield a
continuous spectrum. Instead, the FFT returns a discrete spectrum, in which the frequency
content of the waveform is resolved into a finite number of frequency lines, or bins.
Number of Samples
The sampled time waveform input to an FFT determines the computed spectrum. If an
arbitrary signal is sampled at a rate equal to f
s
over an acquisition time T, N samples are
acquired. Compute T with the following equation:
where
T is the acquisition time
N is the number of samples acquired
f
s
is the sampling frequency
Compute N with the following equation:
N = T f
s
Frequency Resolution
For FFT, the spectrum computed from the sampled signal has a frequency resolution df. Calculate the frequency resolution with
the following equation:
where
Note The frequency resolution is determined solely by the acquisition time. The frequency resolution improves as the
acquisition time increases.
Maximum Resolvable Frequency
The sampling rate of a time waveform determines the maximum resolvable frequency. According to the Shannon Sampling
Theorem, the maximum resolvable frequency must be half the sampling frequency. To calculate the maximum resolvable
frequency, use the following equation:
where
f
max
is the maximum resolvable frequency
f
Nyquist
is the Nyquist frequency
f
s
is the sampling frequency
Minimum Resolvable Frequency
The minimum resolvable frequency is 0 (DC). The analysis from 0 to f
Nyquist
is the baseband analysis.
Number of Spectral Lines
The number of lines in the spectrum is half the number of samples, N, in the waveform.
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Directly specify the number of lines in the spectrum when using the Zoom FFT VIs. Specify the number of data samples to control
the number of spectral lines when using the Baseband FFT VIs and the Baseband Subset VIs.
Relationship between Time-Domain and Frequency-Domain Specifications and Parameters
The following table summarizes the relationship of time-domain specifications to frequency-domain parameters.
Frequency Domain
f
Nyquist
f
max
# lines df
Time Domain f
s
, N, T f
s
E
b
E
b
N
where
f
s
is the sampling frequency
E
b
is the effective bandwidth
N is the number of samples acquired
T is the acquisition time
The previous table shows that the sampling frequency and the block size acquired during each cycle of a continuous acquisition
completely determine the frequency-domain parameters in baseband FFT analysis. However, many stand-alone instruments are
operated by specifying the frequency range of interest and the number of lines in the FFT.
Use the information in the following table if you prefer to specify the spectrum parameters and determine the required data-
acquisition parameters from these specifications.
Time Domain
f
s
N T
Frequency Domain f
max
, # lines, df
where
f
max
is the maximum resolvable frequency
E
b
is the effective bandwidth
# lines is the number of lines in the spectrum
df is the frequency resolution
The previous table shows how a stand-alone instrument uses the frequency range of interest and the number of lines in the FFT to
determine an appropriate sampling frequency and block size.
In the previous tables, E
b
is the ratio of the alias-free bandwidth to the sampling frequency. In traditional instruments, E
b
is
typically . However, the alias-free bandwidth depends on the hardware used to acquire the dynamic signal. E
b
can have a
maximum value of 0.5. This maximum value corresponds to a perfect anti-aliasing filter. For example, if 1,024 samples are input
to the FFT algorithm, the computed spectrum has 512 non-DC spectral lines. The computed spectrum has a total of 513 lines
including the DC component. Acquire these same 1,024 samples on an instrument with a standard effective bandwidth, then use
the equation in the first table above to find the expected number of alias-free lines in the computed spectrum. Complete the
necessary calculations with the following equations:
# lines = (E
b
)(N)
E
b
is entirely a hardware property. However, mathematically, you can use the FFT to compute the frequency spectrum up to the
Nyquist frequency. Remember to account for the presence or absence of an anti-aliasing filter when performing frequency
analysis. The Frequency Analysis VIs compute every spectral line, alias-free or not. Use the frequency range to limit the analysis
to the alias-free region of the spectrum with FFT subset and zoom FFT measurements. Use the SVFA Get Spectrum Subset VI to
limit the analysis to the alias-free region of the spectrum with baseband FFT measurements.
Increasing Frequency Resolution
Increasing the frequency resolution helps you distinguish two individual tones that are close together. For example, if you analyze
a signal that contains two tones at 1,000 Hz and 1,100 Hz, use a sampling frequency of 10,000 Hz. Acquire data for 10 ms with a
FFT Fundamentals (Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite) - Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite 7.0 Help - National Instruments
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frequency resolution of 100 Hz. The following front panel shows the results of this analysis.
Notice that you cannot distinguish one tone from the other.
Increase the acquisition time to 1 s to achieve a frequency resolution of 1 Hz. The following front panel shows the results obtained
with a 1 s acquisition time.
You can distinguish the individual tones with the increased acquisition time.
The following strategies achieve a finer frequency resolution:
Decrease the sampling frequency, f
s
. Decreasing f
s
usually is not practical because decreasing f
s
reduces the frequency
range.
Increase the number of samples, N. Increasing N yields an increased number of lines over the original frequency
range.
Implement the decreased f
s
strategy with zoom FFT analysis. Use baseband FFT and FFT-subset analyses to implement the
increased N strategy. Baseband FFT analysis and FFT-subset analysis both achieve the same frequency resolution. However, FFT-
subset analysis computes only a narrow subset of the spectrum.

Resources
Known Issues for the NI Sound and Vibration Toolkit 7.0 and the NI Sound and Vibration Measurement - NI Developer
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FFT Fundamentals (Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite) - Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite 7.0 Help - National Instruments
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Sound and Vibration Measurement Suite Shipping Examples - NI Developer Zone
Sound and Vibration Toolkit and Measurement Suite 5.0 Known Issues - NI Developer Zone


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