Exporting from Polytec PSVSoft via ASAM ODS Simcenter Testlab to process and export to .unv

In this comprehensive (but quite long - sorry!) video, I go thro' the process of exporting measurement data from an scanning LDV experimental model analysis campaign completed in Polytec PSVSoft via ASAM-ODS, to then import into Siemens Simcenter Testlab for Modal Analysis processing before exporting from there to Universal File Format (.unv).

The purpose of the video is primarily to to enable junior researchers and learners within the Vibration Lab at our Botany campus UTS Tech Lab facility to replicate the process. It also, however serves the purpose of allowing the software and hardware manufacturers Polytec and Siemens Simcenter to observe the stages of the process where there are challenges in case these are matters that can be resolved in future software releases. To that end, I do show the PC machine and OS details in the video but I did not explicitly show the software versions for PSVSoft (6.3) and Simcenter Testlab (2406).

It is observed that there are some important steps to complete in PSVSOft before collecting data which include i) completing the 2D alignment and verifying the coordinates of the measurement grid correspond to the physical dimensions of the points on the structure - presently there's an issue with this - and ii) to identify the location(s) of the excitation transducer(s) (Qsources Qlws in this case) and put a point manually on the grid at this location which can then be specified prior to exporting the ASAM-ODS file.

Upon importing (converting) the ASAM-ODS file into Simcenter Testlab, it is observed that the Geometry is not properly generated by PSVSoft in that the component name is missing. This would ultimately result in any processing of mode shapes not being properly associated with the geometry and, therefore, the animations of shapes not being possible to observe. I go thro' a workaround to this where I copy out the points and surfaces into Excel, delete the geometry, save, close and reopen the Testlab project, and then recreate the geometry, including the specification of a "Root" component to coincide with the function naming that PSVSoft uses. This mostly works - especially previously when tested - but, in this session, the copy and pasting of the surfaces information into the table in the Geometry workbook would not work so I skipped that and will need to try to work out why that did not work this time in the future.

Ultimately, the Modal Analysis processing in Testlab is quite straightforward using Modal Data Selection (to review and select the FRFs in accordance with the points on the geometry) and Time MDoF to process the data using the Stabilisation Diagram in particular to select the stable poles. Some commentary about plot doublets for these kinds of (almost) axisymmetric structures is given including the use of the Mode Indicator Function and, possibly, multiple references to identify each doublet (future work). Lastly, the modes are reviewed in the Navigator tab before being exported to .unv for investigation in other packages such as PERMAS.