Random Kurtosis Control

Simulating random vibration provides a better insight into the effects that real world motion has on objects and systems, especially compared to sine testing. However not all the properties of standard Gaussian random vibrations mimic or capture important aspects of the real world, such as high peak events. The new m+p Kurtosis control feature gives the user control over the high level content of the random vibration signal.

A test was set up to investigate the effects changing the Kurtosis value of a random test profile has on the peak values generated in a random signal during a closed loop test. The crest factor of the positive peaks as well as the negative peaks is observed as well. 

Probability functions for Kurtosis 3 and Kurtosis 5 settings	VibRunner windows with probability function displayed

From the Kurtosis data collected a trend was observed that an increase of the Kurtosis values resulted in an increase in the crest factor ratio of the generated random vibrations, as well as an increase in the peak events being observed. This shows that the m+p Kurtosis feature increases the occurrence of higher peak events in a controlled way, thus providing m+p VibControl the ability to simulate a wider range of real world vibration environments.

Download the application note “The Effect of Kurtosis on Random Vibration Testing”