Summary:

In order to switch on the angular alignment for the IMC mirrors, we needed to center the laser onto the quad-photodiodes at the IMC and the AS Table(WFS1 and WFS2)

I and Gautam went to the IMC table and did the dc centering for the quad-photodiode by varying the beamsplitter angles. After this, we turned the WFS loops off and performed beam centering for the Quad PDs at the AS Table, the WFS1 and WFS2.

Once we had the beam approximately centered for all of the above 3 PDs, we turned on the locking for IMC, and it seems to work just fine. We are waiting for another hour for switching on the angular allignment for the mirrors to make sure the alignment holds with WFS turned off.

[Yehonathan, Gavin]

Measuring POX11_Q_MON and injecting a signal into the ITMX_UL_IN port a signal could not be seen on the function generator. After debugging the source of the issue was two fold:

• By using the quadrant drives for coils (UL, UR etc) a signal has to pass through a switch before reaching the driver. To resolve this the signal input was switched to POS_IN (driving the entire coil at once rather than in quadrants) which has no switch to bypass.
• The averaging on the Stanford SR785 was set too low. By increasing the averages from 10 to 25 the signal became more visible.

Unrelated to these issues the signal input was switched to POY11_Q_MON and ITMY_POS_IN as part of the debugging process. The function generator used was switched from the Stanford to the Siglant SDG 1032X.

An unrelated issue but note worthy was the Lenovo 40m laptop used to measure the IFO state (locked or unlocked) ran out of battery in a very short timespan.

To gauge where the resonance of the test masses are FEA model of a simple 40m test mass was computed to give an esitimate at what frequency the eigenmodes exist. For the first two modes the model gave resonances at 20.366 kHz (butterfly mode) and 28.820 kHz (drumhead mode). Then by measuring with an acquisition time of 1 s at they frequencies on the SR785 and injecting broad band white noise with a mean of 0 V and a stdev of 2 V, small peaks were seen above the noise at 20.260 kHz and 28.846 kHz. By then injecting a sine wave at those frequencies with 9 Vpp, the peak became clearly visible above the noise floor.

The last step is to measure the natural decay of these modes when the excitation is turned off. It is difficult to tell currently if these are indeed eigenmodes or just large cavity injections with an associated stabilisation time (what could appear as a ringdown decay). More investigation is required.

[Yehonathan, Gavin]

As the resonant modes of the 40m TMs are at high frequencies (starting at 28.8 kHz) we started background checks to understand if we would be able to see resonant frequency excitations in the DCPD output. We used the SR785 in the Q_OUT_DEMODULATOR port of the INPUT_MODE_CLEANER to measure around this frequency. Currently we could not see any natural excitation about the noise floor indicating it may not be possible to see such a small excitation. In any case we are conducting additional measurements in the I_MON port of 1Y2_POY11 to understand if this is a certainty.

Summary of This Week's Activities:

6/16: LIGO Orientation; First Weekly Meeting; 40m tour with Jenne; Removed WFS Box Upper Panel, Inserted Cable, Reinstalled panel

6/17: Read Chapter 1 of Control Systems Book; LIGO Safety Meeting; Koji's Talk about PDH Techniques, Fabry-Perot Cavities, and Sensing/Control; Meeting w/ Nancy and Koji

6/18: LIGO Talk Part II; Glossed over "LASERS" book; Read Control Systems Book Chapter 2; Literary Discussion Circle

6/21: Modecleaner Matrix Discussion with Nancy; Suggested Strategy: construct row-by-row with perturbations to each d.f. --> Leads to some questions on how to experimentally do this.

6/22: Learned Simulink; Learned some Terminal from Joe and Jenne; LIGO Meeting; Rana's Talk; Christian's Talk; Simulink Intro Tutorial

6/23 (morning): Simulink Controls Tutorial; Successfully got a preliminary feedback loop working (hooray for small accomplishments!)

Outlook for the Upcoming Week:

Tutorials (in order of priority): Finish Simulink Tutorials, Work through COMSOL Tutorials

Reading (in order of priority): Jenne's SURF Paper, Controls Book, COMSOL documentation, Lasers by Siegman.

Work: Primarily COMSOL-related and pre-discussed with Rana

Summary of this Week's Activities:

6/30: 2nd and 3rd drafts of Progress Report

7/1: 4th draft and final drafts of Progress Report; submitted to SFP

7/5: Began working through busbar COMSOL example

7/6: LIGO meeting and lecture; meeting with Koji and Steve to find drawing of stacks; read through Giaime's thesis, Chapter 2 as well as two other relevant papers.

7/7: Continued working on busbar in COMSOL; should finish this as well as get good headway on stack design by the end of the day.

Single layer of stack successfully modeled in COMSOL. I'm working on trying to add Viton springs now and extend it to a full stack. Having some difficulty with finding consistent parameters to work with.

For the last week, I have been attempting to determine the mirror stack transfer function which relates mechanical mirror response to a given ground-motion drive. The idea is to model the stacks in COMSOL and ultimately apply mechanical tests for manual calculation.

Procuring the correct drawings to base my 3D models off of was no simple task. There are two binders full of a random assortment of drawings, and some of them are associated with the smaller chambers, while others are appropriate for the main chamber, which is what we're interested in right now. For future workers, I suggest checking that your drawings are appropriate for the task at hand with other people before wasting time beginning the painstaking process of CAD design in COMSOL.

The drawings that I ultimately decided to use are attached below. They detail four layers of stacks, each which arrange 15, 12, 8, and 5 (going from bottom to top) Viton damping springs in an orderly fashion. The numbers have been chosen to keep the load per spring as constant as possible, in order for all springs to oscillate with as close a resonant frequency to each other as possible.

After making some minor simplifications, I have finished modeling the top stack:

After triangular meshing, before my many failed attempts at mechanical testing:

Both the Viton and steel portions have been given their material properties, and so I should be (theoretically ) ready to perform some eigenfrequency calculations on this simplified system. If my predictions are correct, these eigenfrequencies shouldn’t be too far of the eigenfrequencies of the 4-layer stacked system, because of the layout of the springs. I’ve tried doing mechanical tests on the top stack alone, but there hasn’t been much progress yet on this end, mostly because of some boundary value exceptions that COMSOL keeps throwing at me.

In the next couple weeks or so, I plan to extend this model to combine all four layers into one completed stack, along with a simple steel base and mirror platform. I also plan to figure out how to make eigenfrequency and transfer function measurements.

Lastly, to anyone who is experienced with COMSOL, I am facing two major roadblocks and could really use your help:

1) How to import one model into another, merge models together, or copy and paste the same model over and over.

2) Understanding and debugging run-time errors during mechanical testing.

If you have any idea how to attack either of these issues, please talk to me! Thanks!

Eigenfrequency analysis has been successfully completed in COMSOL on both a tutorial camshaft, as well as a homemade metal bar.

Upon increasing in complexity to the busbar, I once again began getting into run time errors and increased lag. It seems that this is due to undefined eigenvalues when solving the linear matrices. I tried many boundary values as well as initial conditions in case this was the issue, but it was not. There seems to be some sort of an internal inconsistency. This is no longer a matter of tweaking parameters.

Next steps:

1) Try using the same techniques on the actual mirror stacks to see if we get lucky.

2) In the likely case that this doesn't happen, continue the debugging process. If necessary, a good deal of time may need to be spent learning the COMSOL lower-level jargon.

Viton flouroelastomers have somewhat variable material properties. The following parameters are being used for eigenfrequency analysis.

Young's Modulus: 72,500-87,000 psi (cite: http://www.row-inc.com/pfa.html) *Accurate for PFAs

Poisson's Ratio: 0.48-0.50 (cite: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/poissons-ratio-d_1224.html) *Accurate for rubber

Density: 1800 kg/m^3 (cite: http://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/Star/compos.pl?matno=275)

Via reconfiguration of Viton parameters (previously posted), I managed to debug the COMSOL run time errors and null pointer exceptions. Listed are the resultant eigenfrequencies obtained through structural analysis testing. For all tests, the bottom of the Viton springs are constrained from motion, and all other parts are free to oscillate. Notice that color variations signify displacement from the equilibrium position. Also note that different initial conditions produce different eigenmodes:

No initial displacement:

0.01 m x-displacement:

0.01 m y-displacement:

 0.01 m z-displacement:

Clearly, the plate has its first harmonic between 210-215 Hz, which is much greater than seismic noises (which never exceed the 10-Hz range). This suggests a highly attenuating transfer function. Since the remaining three plates have been designed to resonate similarly, it is likely that the entire stack system will also function very well.

Next steps:

1) Extend the eigenfrequency analysis to obtain a transfer function for the single-plate system

2) Expand the CAD model to include all four stack layers, and perhaps a base

 The Young's Modulus for PFA turned out to be orders of magnitude greater than for Viton. The revised values produced much more accurate results:

Young's Modulus for Viton-75: 1950 psi or 6.6 MPa

(Courtesy Row, Inc. and Steve Vass)

This website contains other details: http://www.row-inc.com/viton.html

My previous eigenfrequency analysis was incorrect by two orders of magnitude due to the misuse of Young's Modulus information for Viton. After editing this parameter (as documented on 7/14 19:00), the eigenmodes became much more reasonable. I also discovered the Deformation option under the Surface Plotting Options, which makes the eigenmodes of the single stack much more apparant.

Attached are pictures of the first four eigenmodes:

First Eigenmode: y-translational, 7.49 Hz

Second Eigenmode: x-translational, 7.55 Hz

Third Eigenmode: z-rotational, 8.63 Hz

Fourth Eigenmode: z-translational, 18.26 Hz

I experimentally determined the spring constant of a single Vitol spring in order to obtain a rough estimate for the natural frequency of single-stack oscillation.

The procedure basically involved stacking metal bars of known mass onto the Vitol and using a caliper to measure deviations from the equilibrium length.

The plot below shows that, for small compressions, the response is linear to an R-squared of 0.98.

The experimental spring constant came out to be about 270 lb/ft, or 3900 N/m.

Previous documents have listed that the top stack takes on a load of approximately 43 kg. per individual spring. A bit of calculation yields an experimental resonant frequency of 9.5 Hz.

Compared with the theoretical COMSOL first harmonic of about 7.5 Hz, there is a reasonable amount of error. Of course, I used this calculation as a simple ballpark estimate: errors from misplacement onto the Viton were minimized through use of a level, but were still inevitable on the mm scale. Since the two methods yield answers with the same order of magnitude, we are ready to move forward and build the remaining layers of the stack.

Expanding on the single-layer model, I added the second, third, and fourth layers to the stack in COMSOL. Eigenfrequency analysis run times increased exponentially as the model multiplied in complexity. The following images document the some of the important eigenfrequencies:

First Eigenmode: y-translational, 3.34 Hz:

Second Eigenmode: x-translational, 3.39 Hz:

Third Eigenmode: z-rotational, 3.88 Hz:

Sixth Eigenmode: z-translational, 8.55 Hz:

As expected, the eigenfrequencies are generally lower, but still in the same range, as the single-layer model, because of greater mass but constant weight-per-spring distribution.

Next Steps:

1) Extend a single stack to the full stack system, which consists of three stacks like this. Perform similar eigenmode analysis.

2) Analyze the mirror suspension system and incorporate a similar pendulum on the top plate.

3) Make transfer function measurements between seismic and mirror motions.

Some clarification is warranted regarding the different shapes of stacks. Corrections are appreciated:

1) The single-leg stack that I just completed should function as a working model for the IO, OO, and MC1/3. Rana commented, however, that the current dimensions are slightly off for MC1/3 (which makes sense since I could only find drawings for the IOC). If anyone knows the whereabouts of similar drawings for MC1/3, I'd much appreciate it.

2) A triple-leg stack can model the BS, ITMX, and ITMY chambers. I don't have exact dimensions for these, but I can make decent approximations from to-scale stack drawings. I'll probably work on a model for this style next, since at least I have some information regarding this version.

3) The MC2 chamber has its own stack model, about which I haven't found any drawings in the binders. I can't start on MC2C at all until I find such drawings.

Summary of this week's activities:

7/14: Analytical calculation of Viton spring constant; updated Viton values in models; experimental confirmation of COMSOL eigenfrequencies (single stack layer)

7/15: Extensions to 2-, 3-, and 4-layer stack legs. Eigenfrequency characterizations performed for each level. Meshing issues with 4-layer stack prevented completion.

7/19: Debugged the 4-layer stack. Turned out to be a boundary condition issue because of non-sequential work-plane definitions. Successful characterization of single-leg eigenfrequencies.

7/20: Prototype three-legged stack completed, but dimensions are incorrect. Read Sievers paper for details of triple-legged stack. Sorted through many stack design binders in efforts to distinguish IOC/OOC, BSC/ITMX/ITMY, MC1/MC3, and MC2 dimensions.

7/21: Researched frequency domain analysis testing in COMSOL. Attempting to first find transfer function of a single-layer stack --> currently running into some run-time errors that will need some more debugging in the afternoon.

Now that venting is complete, this is a request for anyone who opens any chamber:

1) Please notify me immediately so I can take pictures of the stacks in that chamber.

2) If I'm not around, please take a few pictures for me. I'm most interested in the shape, number of layers, size, and damper arrangements of each stack.

This is most important for the MC1/MC3 chamber, MC2 chamber, and BS/ITMX/ITMY chambers.

Thanks!

Over the past couple days, I discovered a simple, direct method for calculating frequency responses with a combination of COMSOL and any plotter such as Excel or MatLab. The simple case of rectangular prism of steel was analyzed using this method; details will be posted shortly on the COMSOL Wiki page. The frequency response matched theoretical reasoning: the bar acts as a simple mechanical low-pass filter, rapidly attenuating driving frequencies at the base beyond the first eigenmode.

It therefore shouldn't be too difficult to extend this analysis to the MC1/MC3 stack. The many eigenfrequencies will produce a more complicated transfer function, and so more data points will be taken.

The major shortcoming of this method involves dealing with the imaginary components of the eigenfrequencies. As of now, I haven't found a way of measuring the phase lag between the drive and the response. I also haven't found a way of changing the damping constants and therefore playing with phase components.

The attached pictures give a brief overview of my transfer function measurement procedure in COMSOL. For more details, please see the Wiki.

I have successfully completed a preliminary transfer function measurement test on the MC1/MC3 stack in COMSOL. Using the measurement scheme described on the Wiki, I initialized a 1 N/m^2 sinusoidal perturbation on the bottom of the stack and measured the maximum displacement of the top layer. This preliminary test just calculated the responses to 1-,2-,3-,4-, and 5-Hz drives along the x-axis (pictures attached).

Currently, I am rerunning the same test but from 1-10 Hz with 0.1-Hz steps. When both x- and y-axis responses have been plotted, I can move on to repeating this entire process on the MC2 stack.

I completed the frequency domain analysis mentioned previously in the x-direction. Although I ran it from 1-10 Hz, with 0.1-Hz increments, COMSOL was unable to complete the task past 7 Hz because the relative error was beyond the relative tolerance. To solve this issue, I'd have to rerun the simulation with a finer mesh, an unfavorable option because of the already-extensive run times. The Bode magnitude plot from this simulation is attached:

This simulation raises some questions about the feasibility of this method:

1) Do we have the computing power necessary?

I already moved my work from my personal Mac Pro to Kallo (4 GB --> 12 GB RAM difference). Now, instead of crashing the program constantly, I typically wait a half hour for a standard run of the model. Preferably, I could move my work to Megatron or some other workhorse-computer... but I also know that many of the big boys are already being strained as is.

2) Is it possible to take measurements through Matlab?

This way, I could write a script to instruct COMSOL and just run a few tests at a time overnight. Also, I wouldn't have to sit and record measurements manually as I've done here. The benefits of such an improvement warrant further attention. I'll work on this option next.

3) Up until what frequency do we need to model?

As I've shown, normal meshing yields data up to 7 Hz. Is this enough? Do we need more data? Certainly not less, I'm quite sure. We need to keep in mind that as frequency range increases, run times increase exponentially.

4) How do we incorporate gravity into the equation?

Gravity will produce a bit of extra force in the non-restoring direction for off-axis deviations, slightly decreasing the expected frequency. Whether or not this is an important effect is questionable, since the deviations are typically on the order of a micron, which is orders of magnitude smaller than the initial displacement I'm using on the base. I've decided to ignore this complication for now.

I made some progress on a couple issues:

1) I figured out how to create log-transfer function plots directly in COMSOL, which eliminates the hassle of toggling between programs.

2) Instead of plotting maximum displacement, which could lead to inconsistencies, I've started using point displacement, standardizing to the center of the top surface.

3) I discovered that the displacement can be measured as a field vector, so the minor couplings between each translational direction (due to the asymmetry in the original designs) can be easily ignored. 

Summary of this week's activities:

7/21: Frequency Domain Analysis of rectangular bar; discussed with Koji how to convert complex eigenfrequencies into phase factors.

7/23: Created Wiki page about FDA; Journal Club

7/26: Recreated Stack_1234.mph due to boundary value issues; FDA for 1,2,3,4,5 Hz

7/27: Discovered MC2 logbooks for later design; ran the complete x-translational FDA for Stack_1234.mph

7/28: Finished y-translational FDA (posted previously); "Tapered Cantilever" COMSOL tutorial for gravity-load analysis.

[Gopal, Jan]

For the past couple of days, Jan and I have been discussing a major issue in COMSOL involving modeling both oscillatory and non-oscillatory forces simultaneously while using FDA. It turns out that he and I had run into the same problem at different times and with different projects. After discussing with an expert, Jan had decided in the past that this simple task was impossible via direct means.

The issue could still be resolved if there was a way for us to work on the Weak Form of the differential equations describing the system:

• Usually, one must define weight as a body load in the negative-z direction. However, this problematically instantiates a new force in COMSOL, which is automatically driven over the range of frequencies during FDA.
• Instead, we could define gravity as an anti-restoring force, since we assume that the base of the stack is fixed.
• In other words, F_g = (ρ*g/L)*x + (ρ*g/L)*y for a point mass which is constrained on the bottom (for small angles).
• Working in Weak Form then, we'd never have to define an explicit gravity load-- this could just be an extra couple of terms in the differential equation which are related entirely to the x- and y-vectors (well-defined for each mesh point). This would fool COMSOL into never tacking on the oscillatory term during FDA. 

According to current documentation however, Weak Form analysis is not yet possible in COMSOL 4.0. Jan suggested moving my work over to ANSYS or waiting for the 4.0 upgrade, but there's probably not enough time left in my SURF for either of these options. I suggested attempting a backwards-compatibility test to COMSOL 3.5; Jan and I will be exploring this option some time next week. 

I have discovered a method of completely characterizing the 6x6 response of all six types (x-,y-, and z- translational/rotational) of oscillatory disturbances at the base of the stack.

• "Tipping" drives are trivial, and simply require a face load in the appropriate direction.
• "Tilting" drives could use a torque, but I am instead implementing multiple edge loads in opposing directions to create the appropriate net curl. This curl will be kept constant across the three axes for sake of comparing the resulting transfer functions.
• "Tipping" responses are once again trivial, and merely require the displacement vector of the top center coordinate to be recorded.
• "Tilting" responses require the normal vector to be recorded and manipulated to produce the angular coordinates (assuming right-handed coordinate system):
  • θ_x = tan^-1(x/z)
  • θ_y = tan^-1(y/z)
  • θ_z = tan^-1(y/x)
    

The first three concepts have been confirmed through simulations to produce correct transfer functions. The last test seems to be producing some problems, in that the vector normal to the equilibrium position (an obvious and useless piece of information) is sometimes given instead of the vector normal to the position of maximum displacement. This means that, as of now, I have the capability of measure the half of the complete 6x6 matrix of transfer functions in the coming weeks. The first three of eighteen transfer functions are attached below and will be included in my progress report.

Over the past 36 hours, I've run full-fledged FDAs on KALLO.

The transfer functions for translational drives and responses are neatly described by the attached transfer function "matrix."

Next steps:

1) Extend the 3x3 analysis to include tilts and rotations in a 6x6 analysis.

2) Figure out how to do the same types of tests for phase instead of displacement.

Summary of this week's activities:

7/28:    Finished Y-Translational 4-Stack Analysis

"Tapered Cantilever" COMSOL tutorial

Tried (and failed) isolating gravity from oscillation

7/29:    Developed tilt/rotation load combinations for torsional inputs and showed these to work in the model

Tried using Normal Vector mode on top plate to obtain output tilts; worked for the rectangular bar, but not for the full stack

Talked to Jan about a 1st-order alternative to gravity - requires Weak Form (only found in COMSOL 3.5 right now)

Began Z-Translational 4-Stack Analysis -- Ran Overnight

7/30:    Progress Report 1st Draft

Completed Z-Translational 4-Stack Analysis

8/1:      Progress Report 2nd Draft

8/2:      Progress Report 3rd Draft

Submitted Progress Report

8/3:      Finalized Eigenfrequency Analysis for MC1/MC3 Stack

24 Physical Eigenmodes plotted and recorded, as expected

Should be good enough for the final report --> focus on transfer function analysis for the remainder of the SURF

8/4:      Prescribed Displacement Tests on Simple Rectangular Block --> shown to better produce displacement-displacement transfer functions

X-to-X Transfer Function seems much better when plotted

Should now be able to do the Displacement portion of Transfer Function Analysis on MC1/MC3 for Translational Modes

(I apologize that this update is a little late)

I reran the FDA in COMSOL on the MC1/MC3 Stack and produced the following Displacement-Displacement Transfer Functions:

X-Translational Drive has a blue background

Y-Translational Drive has a red background

Z-Translational Drive has a green background

Obtaining the Displacement-to-Phase part of the Transfer Function still produces difficulties -- I'm still working on the COMSOL-Matlab interface to perhaps better facilitate this.

RA: I have deleted those plots because they weren't transfer functions. Transfer functions must always be the ratio of something to something. For example: if I had a nickel for every bad plot I see, I would be a millionaire. In that example, the transfer function would have the units of nickels/plots. For the stacks, it should be meters/meter.

My apologies for the mislabeled axes on my previous plots. They have been corrected to a ratio (in./in.), as Rana so kindly suggested in his helpful, not-at-all-condescending response.

I have chosen to stay in the English system because all of the original stack drawings are in inches as well.

Time Domain Analysis on a Driven, Damped Simple Pendulum has produced a method for implementing gravity.

COMSOL made this simple task a cryptic one: the following methods had previously failed:

• Previous Frequency Domain testing lead to unwanted oscillations of all loads.
• Prescribed accelerations at first seemed to create a constant gravity, but instead incorrectly constrained net acceleration to the inputted amount

Methodology:

1) An (approximately) impulse displacement was applied in the horizontal direction. The pendulum bob's displacement was observed for varying pendulum lengths.

2) The drive and response displacements vs. time were FFT'd to produce transfer functions.

3) The fundamental frequencies were inverted, squared, and plotted against frequency.

4) Since the graph is linear with an R^2 of over 0.99, it is reasonable to assume that gravity is properly acting as a restoration force.

Summary of this Week's Activities:

6/23: LIGO Safety Tour; Simulink Controls Tutorial

6/24: Simulink Diagram for Feedback Loop; Constructed Pendulum Transfer Function; Discussion with Dr. Weinstein

6/25: Prepare for pump-down of vacuum chamber; crane broken due to locking failure; worked through COMSOL tutorials

6/28: Ran through Python Tutorials; Began learning about Terminal

6/29: Wrote Progress Report 1 First Draft

6/30: Began editing Progress Report 1

For the sake of future users, I have decided to periodically add tips and tricks in using COMSOL that I have figured out, most probably after hours of circuitous efforts. They will always be listed under the new COMSOL Tips category.

Today's topic: Intrusions

COMSOL has a very user-friendly interface for taking objects from 2D to 3D using the "extrusion" feature. But suppose one wants to design an object which contains screw holes or some other indentation. I've found that creating "punctures" in COMSOL is either impossible or very complicated.

Instead, COMSOL encourages users to always "add" to the object. In other words, one must form the lowest level first, then build layers sequentially on top using new work plane and boolean difference operators. This will probably be a bit clearer with an example:

1) First, create the planar projection in a work plane:

2) Extrude the first layer only in the regular fashion:

 3) Add a new work plane which is offset in the z-direction to the deepest point of the intrusion.

 4) Now, create the shape of the intrusion in this new work plane.

5) Use the Boolean "Difference" to let COMSOL know that, on this plane, the object has a hole.

 6) Extrude once more from the second work plane to complete the intrusion.

Summary of this Week's Activities:

Wed. 7/7: COMSOL Busbar tutorials; began stack design; began base; Viton rubber research

Thurs. 7/8: Completed Viton rubber research; updated materials; finished designing the base layer

Fri. 7/9: Research model coupling papers; extensive eLog entry about base design and troubleshooting

Sun. 7/11: Played around with Busbar to find first eigenfrequency; continued crashing COMSOL

Mon. 7/12: Intrusions in COMSOL eLog tutorial entry; research eigenfrequency analysis; successfully got first eigenmode of rectangular bar

Tues. 7/13: Updated Poisson ratio of Viton and subsequently succeeded in running eigenfrequency tests on base stack layer. Systematic Perturbation Tests were documented in the most recent elog entry. Discussed results with Rana and decided this didn't make sense. Analytical study required.

Wed. 7/14: Went over to machine shop to experimentally extrapolate spring constant of Viton. Calculations to be done in the afternoon.

Summary of this Week's Activities:

Thursday, August 5:

X-Displacement Transfer Function Measurement

JPL Tour

Friday, August 6:

Y-Displacement Transfer Function Measurement

Z-Displacement Transfer Function Measurement

Monday, August 9:

Worked on COMSOL/MatLab Interface --> problems may be due to older version

Discussed with Koji options for calling our COMSOL sales representative

Jan and I decided that there is in fact something wrong with the installations on both my Mac and Kallo

Reinstalled on both machines, but the problem was not solved

Jan said we'd go see Larry tomorrow

Tuesday, August 10:

Attempted to figure out Time-Dependent Modal Analysis --> don't think it's what we need

Began reading the LiveLink for MatLab documentation --> even the directions in this produced issues

Discovered "Prescribed acceleration" option for gravity:

A test with it on the simplest stack eliminated the unwanted oscillation, which I guess is a partial success...

Trying the same thing with Koji on a simple pendulum, however, didn't produce the expected increase in resonant frequency

(Jan was unable to see Larry today, but we're meeting on Wednesday instead).

Wednesday, August 11 (morning):

Some background research on multiple-layer stack theory

Began working on presentations

  In this experiment, we used a feedback control to create a stable trap for a NdFeB permanent magnet. The block diagram is the following:

signal into another  SR560 as a low-pass filter with a gain of 100 above 30 Hz. We used the "DC" coupling modes in both

preamplifers. The output is then used to drive a coil. The coil has a dimension of 1.5 inch in diameter and 2 inch in length.

The inductance of the coil is around 0.5 H and the resistance is 4.7 Om. Therefore, it has a corner frequency aournd 10/2pi Hz.

The coil has a iron core inside to enhance the DC force to the permanent magnet. The low-frequency 1/f response of the magnet is produced

by the eddy current damping of the aluminum plane that is below the magnet. This 1/f response is essential for a stable configuration. In the

next stage, we will remove the aluminum plane, and instead we will use a filter to create similar transfer function. At high-frequencies, it behaves as 

a free-mass and has a 1/f^2 response. Finally, the magnet is stably levitated.

I am using SR785 Spectrum Analyzer now and also tomorrow. 
I will put it back on Sunday. If anyone needs it during the weekend,
please just take it and I can reset it by myself later. Thanks.

I measured the open-loop transfer function of the magnetic levitation system.

The schematic block diagram for this measurement is the following:

I injected a signal at a level of 20mV between two preamplifiers, and the corresponding open-loop

transfer function is given by B/A.  I took a picture of the resulting measurement, because

I encountered some difficulties to save the data to the computer via the wireless network.

The bode plots for the transfer function shown on the screen is the following:

I am puzzled with the zero near 10 Hz. I think it should come from the mechanical response function, because there is no zero in the transfer functions

of the preamplifer and the coil itself. I am not sure at the moment.

The corresponding configuration of the levitated magnet is

I have created a directory under the svn. The link is https://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:30889/svn/trunk/docs/haixing

In the directory, there are three folders are related to the magnetic levitation.

The experimental data is in the "experiment_data".

The comsol numerical modelling files are in "mag_levi_comsol_modelling" which contains "1x1 magnets",

"4x4 magnets" and "16x16 magnets" sub-folders where detailed modelling results are included.The mathematica

notebooks in those folders are used to produce the plots I posted on the wiki page.

The "mag_levi_feedback" contains the Simulink modelling of the feedback loop. To generate the plot for the

open-loop transfer function. One needs to ruc the "mag_lev.m" file.

I added an integrator to increase the gain at low frequencies (below 5 Hz). In addition, I increased

the band of the differentiator. The schematics for both integrator and differentiator are the following:

The magnetic is stably levitated.

I turned off the light to get rid of 60Hz noise on the photodiode. I tried to measured the

open-loop transfer function of this setup, but somehow the SR560 is always saturate

when I injected the signal from SR785, which produces some weird results at

low-frequencies.

In addition, I found out that when the light is turned on, the levitation

can be stable even when I inverted the sign of the control loop. The control signal

on the osciloscope is the following:

This oscillator is around 120 Hz, which should be  the harmonics of 60 Hz from light pollution.

I am not sure exactly why it is stable when the control-loop sign is flipped. This could

be similar to the Pauli trap in the iron trap, because the coil not only provides a force

but also provides the rigidity. The sign of such rigidity depends on the sign of the control

current. If such oscillating rigidity changes at a frequency much higher than the response

frequency of the magnet, it will stablize  the system simply by significantly increasing

the inertial of the magnet.More investigations are essential to completely understand it.

For information about Pauli trap, one can look at the wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrupole_ion_trap

I have assembled the circuit and the control box for the quadrant magnetic levitation yesterday. The final setup is shown

in the figure below:

Due to my carelessness, I I connected the wrong ends of the power supply. I damaged 4 op-amp and one voltage 

regulator during this assembly. This stupid mistake spent me several hours to fix, and I got a bitter lesson;-(

Afterwards, I replaced those op-amps and reconnected the power supply . Kiwamu helped me and we measured

the transfer function of this circuit.  The transfer function agrees with  the specification in the schematics which

has a integrator below 1 Hz and a differentiator from 5 to 20 Hz. The bode plot for the measured transfer function

is the following:

Today I tested the photodetector parts and found that there is a mysterious oscillation. Whenever I connect the

photodector input A of the circuit (as indicated in the figure below),

the output of the op-amp has a 500k Hz oscillation shown up in the oscilloscope.This happens even A is disconnected from

the photodetector and connected to an open end wire. I don't know how to eliminate it, and its amplitude is so large (peak to

peak is around 2.5 V) which completely dominates the photodetector output. Does anybody has some ideas? Thanks.

 1. They are all connected to the box which has a single connection to the board ground. If I connect each of them to the ground, there would be many small loops

of ground. Of course, I should have replaced all the connectors such that the they are disconnected to the box as point out by Robert.

2. The oscillation disappears after I add 5 nF capacitor in parallel to the existing resistor. Thank you very much for pointing this out.

I have tried to make the quadrant magnetic levitation work but unfortunately I did not succeed. During the experiment, I have made

the following changes to the circuit and setup:

(1) I added small resistors (6K) in parallel to R11, R23, R35 and R47 (indicated in the following schematics)  to increase

the control bandwidth from 20 Hz  to 80 Hz.

(2) I changed RLED1, RLED2, RLED3, RLED4 from 2.2K to 1.5K  in the LED driver such that the current of the

LED increases and in turn the displacement sensitivity increases.

(3) I changed R51 and R51 (in the differencing block for PD1 and PD2) from 5K to 1 K. Correspondingly,

I increased R52 and R54 from 5K to 50K. This changes increase the gain in the differential control by a

factor of 50, which compensates the gain loss after increasing the control bandwidth.

 (4) The trim pots in the coil drive block have the following values: 100K for pot1 and pot4, 1K fro pot 2 and pot3.

To increase the gain, I replaced R17, R30, R31, R41 by 102 Om resistors (we run out of 100 Om chip resistors.)

(5) I wrapped the OSEM flags by plastic tubes to block the light from the LED more efficiently. This also removed

the changes of the photocurrent in the photodetector when the levitated plate moves horizontally.

Possible issues that cause the setup not working at the moment:

(1) The feedback gain could be probably still not enough. During the experiment, I can't feel any force changes when the

flags crossing the zero point. The error signals and control signal has the right sign.

(2) The levitated weight may be not enough and the working point is below the extremum of the DC attracting force.

This could give rise to a large negative spring which requires unreasonable feedback gain to compensate.

(3) The DC attracting force between the magnets are differing each other too much (mismatch) and can't

be compensated by the coil driving force.

(4) The control bandwidth may be still not  large enough. Initially my design was 100 Hz, but I forgot to divide

the angular frequency by 2pi and the resulting circuit has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. Later I increase it up to 80 Hz

by changing the resistors as mentioned before.

(5) The polarization of the coil could have a wrong sign. I have checked with Gauss meter, but still the absence

of zero-point crossing force change makes me worry about this.

For continuation of this work, I will finish writing my document and summarize all the results and outline what

needs to be done in the future. If everything goes well, I will be back in June and can spend more time on this

experiment. I can also work with the summer students together on this project.

[Yehonathan, Hang]

We did some quick DC balancing of the MC2 coil drivers to reduce the l2a coupling. We updated the gains in the C1:SUS-MC2_UL/UR/LR/LLCOIL to be 1, -0.99, 0.937,-0.933, respectively. The previous values were 1, -1, 1, -1.

The procedures are the following:

Lock IMC.

Drive UL+LR and change the gain of LR to zero pitch.

Drive UR+LL and change the gain of LL to zero pitch.

Lastly, drive all 4 coils and change UR & LR together to zero yaw. 

We used C1:SUS-MC2_LOCKIN1_OSC to create the excitations at 33 Hz w/ 30,000 cts. The angular error signals were derived from IMC WFSs.

While this time we did things by hand, in the future it should be automated as the procedure is sufficiently straightforward. 

My old scheme was flawed as I used pitch as the readback. The pitch signal could not distinguish the cross-coupling due to coil imbalance and that due to the natural suspension L2P. A new scheme based on yaw alone has been developed and will be integrated into ifo_test. For now we revert the C1:SUS-MC2_UL/UR/LR/LLCOIL gains back to 1, -1, 1, -1. 

[Jon, Hang]

After updating the 40 m finesse file to incorporate the new SRC length (and the removal of SR2), we find that the current SRM radius curvature is fine. Thus a replacement of SRM is NOT required. 

Basically, the new one-way SRC gouy phase is 11.1 deg according to Finesse, which is very close to the previous value of 10.8 deg. Thus the transmode spacing should be essentially the same. 

In the first attached plot is the mode content calculated with Finesse. Here we have first offset DARM by 1m deg and misaligned the SRM by 10 urad. From the top to bottom we show the amplitude of the carrier fields, f1, and f2 sidebands, respectively. The red vertical line is the nominal operating point (thanks Koji for pointing out that we do signal recycling instead of extraction now). No direct co-resonance for the low-order TEM modes. (Note that the HOMs appeared to also have peaks at \phi_srm = 0. This is just because the 00 mode is resonant and thus the seed for the HOMs is greater. )

We can also consider a clean case without mode interactions in the second plot. Indeed we don't see co-resonances of high order modes. 

[Jon, Tega, Hang]

We proposed a few BHD mode-matching telescope designs and then preformed a few monte-carlo experiments to see how the imperfections would change the story. We assumed a 2 mm (1-sigma) error on the location of the components and 1% (1-sigma) fractional error on the RoC of the curved mirrors. The angle of incidence has not yet been taken into account (no astigmatism at the moment but will be included in the follow-up study.)

For the LO path things are mostly fine. We can use LO1 and LO2 as the actuators (Sec. 2.2 of the note), and when errors are taken into account more than 90% of times we can still achieve 98% mode matching. The gouy phase separation between LO1 and LO2 > 34 deg for 90% of the time, which corresponds to a condition number of the sensing matrix of ~ 3. 

The situation is more tricky for the AS path. While the telescopes are usually robust against 2 or 3 mm of positional error, the 1% RoC does affect the performance quite significantly. In the note we choose two best-performing ones but still only 50% of the time they can maintain a power-overlap of > 99%. In fact, the 1% RoC error assumed should be quite optimistic... Not sure if we could achieve this in reality. 

One potential way out is to ignore the MM for the first round of BHD. Here anyway we only need to test the ISC schemes. Then in the second round when we have the whole BHD board suspended, we can then use AS1 and the BHD board as the actuators. This might be able to make things more forgiving if we don't need to shrink the AS beam very fast so that it could be separated from AS4 in gouy phase.

As Rana suggested, we present the scattering plot of the AS path mode matching for various variables. The plot is for the AS path, Plan 2 (whose params we summarize at the end of this entry).

In the corner plot, we color-coded each realization according to the mode matching. We use (purple, olive, grey) for (MM>0.99, 0.98<MM<=0.99, MM<=0.98), respectively. From the plot, we can see that it is most sensitive to the RoC of AS1. The plot also shows that we can compensate for some of the MM errors if we adjust the distance between AS1-AS3 (note that AS2 is a flat mirror). The telescope is quite robust to other errors.

The compensation requirement is further shown in the second plot. To correct for the 1% RoC error of AS1, we typically need to adjust AS1-AS3 distance by ~ 1 cm (if we want to go back to MM=1; the window for >0.99 MM spans also about 1 cm). This should be doable because the nominal distance between AS1-AS3 is 115 cm. 

The story for plan1 is similar and thus not shown here. 

==============================================================

AS path plan2 nominal params:

label     z (m)     type             parameters  
-----     -----     ----             ----------  
SRMAR          0    flat mirror      none:     
AS1       0.7192    curved mirror    ROC: 2.5000 
AS2       1.2597    flat mirror      none:     
AS3       1.8658    curved mirror    ROC: -0.5000
AS4       2.5822    curved mirror    ROC: 0.6000  
OMCBS1    3.3271    flat mirror      none:   

Please see the attached doc. 

I think the conclusion is that if the AS1 RoC error is not significantly more than 1%, then with some adjustment of the AS1-AS3 distance (~ 1 cm), we could find a solution that simultaneously makes the AS path mode-matching better than 99% for the t- and s-planes. 

The requirement of the LO path is less strict and the current plan using LO1-LO2 actuation should work. 

We computed the required actuation range for the telescope design in elog:15357. The result is summarized in the table below. Here we assume we misalign an IFO mirror by 1 urad, and then compute how many urad do we need to move the (AS1, AS4) or (LO1, LO2) mirrors to simultaneously correct for the two gouy phases. 

The most demanding ifo mirrors are the ETMs and the BS, for every 1 urad misalignment the telescope needs to move 10-15 urad to correct for that. However, it is unlikely for those mirrors to move more 100 nrad for a locked ifo with ASC engaged. Thus a few urad actuation should be sufficient. For the recycling mirrors, every 1 urad misalignment also requires ~ 1 urad actuation. 

As a result, if we could afford 10 urad actuation range for each telescope suspension, then the gouy phase separations we have should be fine. 

================================================================

Edits:

We looked at the oplev spectra from gps 1274418500 for 512 sec. This should be a period when the ifo was locked in the PRFPMI state according to elog:15348. We just focused on the yaw data for now. Please see the attached plots. The solid traces are for the ASD, and the dotted ones are the cumulative rms. The total rms for each mirror is also shown in the legend. 

I am now confused... The ITMs looked somewhat reasonable in that at least the < 1 Hz motion was suppressed. The total rms is ~ 0.1 urad, which was what I would expect naively (~ x100 times worse than aLIGO). 

There seems to be no low-freq suppression on the ETMs though... Is there no arm ASC at the moment???