Correcting numerical integration errors caused by small aliasing errors

Small sampling errors can have a large effect on numerically integrated waveforms. An example is the integration of acceleration to compute velocity and displacement waveforms. These large integration errors complicate checking the suitability of the acceleration waveform for reproduction on shakers. For waveforms typically used for shaker reproduction, the errors become significant when the frequency content of the waveform spans a large frequency range. It is shown that these errors are essentially independent of the numerical integration method used, and are caused by small aliasing errors from the frequency components near the Nyquist frequency. A method to repair the integrated waveforms is presented. The method involves using a model of the acceleration error, and fitting this model to the acceleration, velocity, and displacement waveforms to force the waveforms to fit the assumed initial and final values. The correction is then subtracted from the acceleration before integration. The method is effective where the errors are isolated to a small section of the time history. It is shown that the common method to repair these errors using a high pass filter is sometimes ineffective for this class of problem.