Appendix B
Windowing
Introduction
The Distance
The theoretical requirement for inverse FFT is for the data to extend from zero frequency to infinity. Side lobes appear around a discontinuity due to the fact that the spectrum is cut off at a finite frequency. Windowing reduces the side lobes by smoothing out the sharp transi- tions at the beginning and at the end of the frequency sweep. As the side lobes are reduced the main lobe widens thereby reducing the resolution.
In situations where there may be a small discontinuity close to a large one, side lobe reduc- tion windowing should be used. When distance resolution is critical windowing can be re- duced.
Examples
The types of windowing in order of increasing side lobe reduction are: rectangular, nominal side lobe, low side lobe, and minimum side lobe. Figures
DistanceToFault
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5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 |
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