M.

Sc EIS Course

Sensors and Sensing Processes

Question Sheet 4 Strain gauges


Q1. A Wheatstone bridge has a 120! copper-nickel strain gauge as arm 1, and a
similar dummy gauge in arm 2 (on the same side of the bridge). The remaining arms
of the bridge have fixed 120! resistors. Assume that the maximum allowed current
through the strain gauges is 30mA and that the gauge factor is 2 (G=2).

i) Calculate the maximum DC supply voltage to the bridge
ii) If the sensing gauge is bonded to steel with a Youngs Modulus (ratio
stress/strain) of 210x10
9
N/m
2
, and the bridge is supplied by 5V DC, what is
the bridge output voltage when the applied stress is 700N/cm
2
.

Q2. The figure on page 2 shows a strain gauge force transducer in which the force f is
applied to the end of a cantilever beam of mild steel having a Youngs Modulus of
2x10
11
Nm
-2
. Four strain gauges with a gauge factor of 2 (G=2) are attached to the
upper and lower faces of the cantilever as shown and are connected differentially in a
bridge circuit excited at 9V DC and feeding an amplifier if gain 200.

i) Draw the electrical equivalent circuit for the bridge and deduce the output of
the amplifier per unit strain.
ii) Find the DC sensitivity of the system and the maximum measurable input
force (assuming the amplifier saturates at 4.5V).

Note : A force f at the free end of the cantilever produces a surface stress at a distance
x from the free end of 6fx/(bd
2
) .


Strain
Gauges
f
Side view
Sectional
plan view
l = 50 mm
x = 40 mm
b = 10 mm
d = 2 mm
d
x
l
b