Design and implementation of vibration isolation system for mobile doppler wind LIDAR

Abstract

The operation of a Doppler wind LIDAR in a mobile environment is very sensitive to shocks and vibrations, which can cause critical failures such as misalignment of the optical path and damage to optical components. To be able to stabilize the LIDAR and to perform wind field measurements in motion, a shock absorption and vibration isolation system was designed and implemented. The performance of the vehicle-mounted Doppler wind LIDAR was tested in motion, first in a circular test route with a diameter of about 30 m and later in regular expressway traffic. The vibration isolation efficiency of the system was found to be higher than 82% in the main vibration area and shock dynamic deflection was smaller than maximal deflection of the isolator. The stability of the laser locking frequency in the same mobile environment before and after the vibration isolation system installation was also found to be greatly improved. The reliability of the vibration isolation system was confirmed by good results of the analysis of the LIDAR data, in particular the plane position indicator of the line of sight velocity and the wind profile.