Abstract: The authors present the principle, configuration and realization of the electrical system of CKY-200 geotechnical centrifuge, which is made up of drive system, static DAQ (Data Acquisition) system, photography system, video system and dynamic balance system. The digital DC drive system can compensate the disturbance caused by the fluctuation from power grid, load change, etc. The interlock PLC (Programmable Logical Controller) system makes convenience for the connection, fault detection and maintenance. Photoelectric encoder is used to measure the rotation speed, which ensures the precision and the long time operation of centrifuge. The sensors can be connected to the DAQ modules in different ways. Fixed-point high speed flashing technology is applied to  photography system. Test results demonstrate the high precision of drive system, the stability and reliability of the DAQ system. It’s also shown that the photography system could take vivid and complete pictures, the unbalanced force can be monitored in real-time  and the safety system is superb. The system could run 48 hours properly with full load and fault-free.

Key words: geotechnical centrifuge, centrifugal simulation technique, electrical system, drive system, dynamic balance system, photography and video system, static DAQ system