CHAP GER ss Strain Gage Circuitry, Transducers, and Data Analysis 3.1 INTRODUCTION The electrical resistance strain gage is the most versatile of many devices to measure strains on the surfaces of machine components and structural members. Because resis- tance change in a strain gage is usually very small, it cannot be measured accurately with an ordinary ohmmeter. The Wheatstone bridge is widely used in practice; one or more of the four arms of the bridge are strain gages. In this chapter, the basic principles of the Wheatstone bridge and the potentiometer are described. Such effects as due to lead wire resistance are discussed briefly. Some transducers, in which the strain gages are used as the sensing elements, are considered. Strain gage data analyses are pre- sented. Finally, the nonlinearity of Wheatstone bridge and the variations of gage factor are discussed briefly, because they are very important when large strains are to be measured by using strain gages 3.2. WHEATSTONE BRIDGE The Wheatstone bridge [1] is a basic circuit employed to measure extremely small resistance changes in a strain gage when it is subjected to a strain. Figure 3.1 shows a constant-voltage Wheatstone bridge that is normally used to record strain gage outputs in static and dynamic applications, Let us consider briefly the principle of operation of the Wheatstone bridge. For the circuit shown in Fig. 3.1, the voltage drops across R, and Ry, denoted by V,, and V,,, respectively, are given by the equa- tions3.2. Wheatstone Bridge 57 FIGURE 3.1. Constant-voltage Wheatstone bridge. where V is the applied voltage across the bridge. ‘The voltage output of the bridge E is represented by RiRs ~ RRe E = Vey — Vea = : 4 (Ri + Re)(Rs + Ra) Itis clear that the output voltage of the bridge is zero (i.e., the bridge is balanced) when the term RR, RR, is zero or when RR, G1) (32) Equation (3.2) represents 2 very important relationship which indicates that any change in the resistance in one arm of the bridge can be balanced by adjusting the resistance(s) in the other arms of the bridge. Figure 3.2 shows some of the typical bal- ancing arrangements. QP be —— ae) | \ j th Hl th v Vv Vv @ (b) © FIGURE 3.2 Typical methods of balancing the Wheatstone bridge.58 Chapter 3 Strain Gage Circuitry, Transducers, and Data Analysis Consider an initially balanced bridge, namely, RR; = R)R,, so that E = 0, and then resistances R,, R,, Rj,and R, are changed by the amounts AR,, AR,, AR,, and AR,. The voltage output AE of the bridge can be determined using Eq. (3.1); that is, (Ry + ARi)(Rs + ARs) — (Ra + ARg)(Ry + Ry) (Ri + AR, + R; + AR,)(R; + AR; + R, + AR,) Using Eq, (3.2), neglecting second-order terms (e.g., AR, AR,) and relatively smaller terms (e.g, R; AR;) in the denominator, it can be shown that RR ( AR; ARs AR, ARs Ry Roe oe Rao Ry an be rewritten as a ey G@+mp\R, RRs Ry Equation (3.4) is the basic equation governing the strain measurement of a Wheatstone bridge. Note that the second-order terms should be included when the strains being measured are greater than 5%. The correction for nonlinearity of the Wheatstone bridge will be discussed in Section 3.6. The sensitivity of the Wheatstone bridge, S,, can be defined as, al (ee oe AE= ¥ Pet By Let RJR, =m; then Eq. AE=V 3.4) S, € €(l+m) RC Rn Re RY Normally, a fixed voltage is applied to the bridge, then the sensitivity of the bridge depends on the number of active arms employed, the gage factor G,, and the resistance ratio m, However, a voltage magnitude can be selected to increase circuit sensitivity. The upper limit of the voltage is determined by the power dissipated by the strain gage(s) used in the bridge. Once a particular gage type is selected, the gage factor can- not be varied to increase sensitivity. Finally, the two most important parameters are the number of active arms and the resistance ratio. Quarter-, half-, and full-bridge arrange- ments are obtained if one, two, and four active strain gage arms are employed, respec- tively; these are discussed in some detail below. 3.5) Quarter Bridge ‘The arrangement is called a quarter bridge when only one active strain gage is used, as shown in Fig. 3.3. In this figure, R, is the active strain gage, which undergoes the same deformation as the structure, and R, is the dummy or inactive gage, which is identical to the active gage but does not encounter any mechanical strains and is used for com- pensating the temperature effect; the other two arms contain fixed resistors. Any resis- tance change AR, in the gage will disturb the balance of the bridge. The change of resistance in the active gage may be produced by mechanical loading and/or by tem- perature changes if the strain gage material's thermal expansion coefficient differs from that of the structure’s material undergoing strain analyses. If the bridge is initially balanced, from Eq. (3.4) the out-of-balance voltage AE will be