During an experiment involving the use of a piezoelectric ac

During an experiment involving the use of a piezoelectric actuator and recording motion at the point of actuation using an accelerometer, would the following improve or worsen the signal to noise ration in measured acceleration data:

1. increase the duration of the measurement

2. repeat the experiement multiple times and average the results

3. use a different type of excitation signal instead of chirp

4. change the rate at which the chirp sweeps from low to high frequency

Solution

Point 1:

Increasing the duration of measurement will give you information as to what noise is being added when there is no motion happening.

This will not directly improve the signal to noise ratio but it will inform you as to which is noise and which is valuable signal data.

Point 2:

Accelerometers can be very sensitive and they are also sensitive to Ambient Temperature,therefore repeating the experiment would rather amplify the noise and degrade the valuable signal data.

Point 3:

Any type of excitation signal that will effect the motion of the actuator(other than its default motion) will not be of any help as it will add more noise to the accelerometer data.

Point 4:

Experimental results have shown that it is uneffected by the frequency rate of change.

Therefore there will be no change in the signal to noise ratio