Figure 4: Energy corrected spectrum

## Amplitude And Energy Correction – A Brief Summary

Amplitude and energy correction has been and is a continuing point of confusion for many people calculating spectra from time domain signals using Fourier transform methods. The first thing to say, the information contained in data presented as amplitude and energy corrected spectra is equivalent. The only difference is the scaling of the numbers calculated.

## Order Cuts And Overall Level

Order cuts are taken from a set of FFTs, each one at a different rpm. The rms level is then found as the Square root of the Sum of the squares of each of the FFT values. Mathematically, if $x_{ks}$ is the modulus (magnitude) of the $k^{th}$ value of the FFT at speed s for $k = 1,\dots,N-1$ then the rms value at that speed is given by

$rms_s = \sqrt{\sum_{k=0}^{N-1}{x_{ks} ^2}}$

This takes into account the entire energy at that speed both the order and the non order components, including any noise.

## Time Varying Overall Level Vibration (or Noise)

A common requirement to measure overall level vibration (or noise) as a function of time. Now, the overall level is a measure of the total dynamic energy in the signal. That is it does not contain the energy due to the DC level, which is the same as the mean value. The overall level is often loosely referred to as the signal RMS value. However the formal definition of the RMS level is that it contains the DC level as well as the dynamic energy level. If only the dynamic contribution is required then the measure needed is, strictly speaking, the Standard Deviation (SD). Sometimes it is useful to refer to the SD as the Dynamic RMS.