Vibration measurement for rotating disk using contactless laser excitation

This paper proposes a contactless vibration testing system for rotating disks based on an impulse response excited by a laser ablation. High power YAG pulse laser is used in this system for producing an ideal impulse force on structural surface without contact. The contactless vibration testing system is composed of a YAG laser, laser Doppler vibrometer and spectrum analyzer. This system makes it possible to measure vibration characteristics of structures under operation, such as vibration measurement of a rotating disk. The effectiveness of this system is confirmed by experimental and theoretical analyses. In this paper, a platter of hard disk drive is employed as an experimental object. Vibration characteristics of a rotating and non-rotating platter are measured and compared with the results of theoretical analysis.