The rotating-accelerometer centripetal term is the inward acceleration contribution at a sensor rigidly attached a distance from a rotation axis. With outward radial unit vector and tangential vector , differentiating the rotating position gives
It is a real kinematic acceleration, rather than an electronic zero error. A rotating accelerometer measures the relevant projection of specific force, so center motion and gravitational acceleration must also be included when interpreting an actual channel. A primary rotating-sensor experiment explicitly separates radial and tangential measurement contributions.[ref]
At and , the radial contribution is . It is steady in the rotating radial coordinate even though its direction continuously turns in a laboratory frame. Reversing rotation preserves this term because is squared; the tangential term instead follows angular acceleration.
A rotating-accelerometer speed-ripple term remains when speed is not constant. If , then
For the preceding radius, and ripple amplitude give mean , fundamental ripple amplitude4m/s² and second-ripple amplitude0.01m/s². Subtracting a record's mean removes only the steady part. A spectral component can therefore arise from speed variation in this kinematic term, which should be checked against the measured rotation history before attributing it to another vibration source.
The rotating-accelerometer speed-ripple term is the changing part of centripetal acceleration caused by variation in shaft speed. For a radial sensor at fixed radius , the contribution is . Writing gives
The term linear in speed variation can be appreciable even when the ripple is small relative to mean speed. Interpreting a rotating accelerometer also requires its measurement axes and their changing projection of other acceleration components.[ref]
If , the mean is , the ripple at angular frequency has amplitude , and the component at has amplitude . With , and , these are mean and amplitudes4 and0.01m/s². Removing the mean retains both changing terms.
A synchronized shaft-speed estimate permits a model-based correction using the measured square of speed. Its accuracy is limited by centripetal subtraction error. Linearizing gives error magnitude approximately . At the preceding operating point, a radius error10µm contributes0.10m/s² and a speed error0.1rad/s contributes0.40m/s² in magnitude. The signs and timing of those errors matter when subtracting signals.
This correction removes the modeled centripetal contribution, while retaining the need to account for center motion, angular acceleration, specific force and sensor orientation. In particular, speed ripple is a physical kinematic input to the channel; it need not indicate a separate structural vibration mode.