EASTERN MEADITERRANEAN UNIVERSTY

DEPARTMENT OF Mechatronics Engineering

Name : Wajdi Ayman Taha AL-IRANI

Studant Number : 18700590
Semester: Fall 2021/2022
9.8:

The metal strain gauge was discovered long before the discovery of thepiezoresistance effect in
semiconductors and has still been widely used for mechanical transducers in industries. Due to
the affinity between metal strain gauge sensors and piezoresistive sensors, the metal strain
gauge is first briefly introduced in this section.

Consider a metal filament with a circular cross section. If the radius of the cross section is r,
the length of the filament is l and the resistivity of the material is ρ, the resistance of the
filament is R=ρl/πr2. If the filament is stretched by an external force F, the stress in the filament
is T=F/πr2 and the strain (the relative elongation) in the filament is ε≡ Δl/l=T/E, where E is
the Young's Modulus of the material. As metal is usually a polycrystalline material with a fine
grain structure, its mechanical and electrical properties are isotropic. Thus, the relative change
in resistance caused by the force is

ΔRR=Δll−2Δrr+Δρρ

As well known in mechanics, the longitudinal stretch of a filament is always accompanied with
it a lateral contraction, i.e. Δr/r = −v(Δl/l), where v is the Poisson ratio of the material. For most
materials, vhas a value of about 0.3. Thus we have

ɛΔRR=(1+2v)ɛ+Δρρ

Usually, the relative change of resistivity, Δρ/ρ, is a function of stress/strain and is expressed
as πT = πEε, where π is the piezoresistive coefficient of the material. Therefore, we have

ɛɛΔRR=(1+2v+πE)ɛ=Gɛ

where G, the relative change in resistance per unit strain, is referred to as the gauge factor,
or, G factor, of the filament.
As π is negligible for metal materials, the gauge factor is just a little larger than unity, i.e., G ≈
1 + 2v = 1.5 ∼ 2.0. As the maximum strain of the gauge is in the order of 10−3, the relative
change of the resistance is also in the order of 10−3.
S. C. Smith discovered in 1954 that the change in resistance of a strained (or
stressed) germanium or silicon filament was much larger than that of a metal strain gauge. He
discovered that the change in resistance was mainly caused by the change in resistivity of the
material instead of the change of the geometric dimensions. Therefore, the effect is referred to
as the piezoresistance effect. Though piezoresistance effect is quite similar to the strain gauge
effect of metal but the difference between them is significant

The effect of metal strain gauge is caused by the geometric deformation of the resistor, whereas
piezoresistance effect is caused by the change in resistivity of the material. As a result, the
effect of piezoresistance can be two orders of magnitude larger than that of the metal strain
gauge effect.
The effect of metal strain gauge is isotropic whereas the effect of piezoresistance is
generally anisotropic. This means that, (ΔR/R), (π) and (I) are tensors and the relation among
them, (ΔR/R)≅(π)(T), is a tensor equation.

With the discovery of piezoresistance effect, people realized that the large effect of resistance
change would have important applications in sensors, especially in mechanical sensors
dominated at that time by metal strain gauges. Soon a semiconductor piezoresistive sensing
element (a semiconductor strain gauge or a piezoresistor) was developed and found
applications in mechanical sensors. Though a semiconductor strain gauge has much higher
sensitivity than a metal one, the metal strain gauge matches the metal substrate better and shows
better stability than a semiconductor strain gauge. Therefore, semiconductor strain gauge has
not been successful in replacing the metal strain gauge sensors.
9.9:

In order to measure strain with a bonded resistance strain gauge, it must be connected to an
electric circuit that is capable of measuring the minute changes in resistance corresponding to
strain. Strain gauge transducers usually employ four strain gauge elements electrically
connected to form a Wheatstone bridge circuit .
A Wheatstone bridge is a divided bridge circuit used for the measurement of static or dynamic
electrical resistance. The output voltage of the Wheatstone bridge circuit is expressed in
millivolts output per volt input. The Wheatstone circuit is also well suited for temperature
compensation.
The Wheatstone bridge can be used in various ways to measure electrical resistance:

 For the determination of the absolute value of a resistance by comparison with a known
resistance
 For the determination of relative changes in resistance

The latter method is used with regard to strain gauge techniques. It enables relative changes of
resistance in the strain gauge, which are usually around the order of 10-4 to 10-2 Ω/Ω to
be measured with great accuracy.
The bridge excitation is usually an applied, stabilized direct, or alternating voltage V s. If a
supply voltage Vs is applied to the bridge supply points 2 and 3, then the supply voltage is
divided up in the two halves of the bridge R1, R2 and R4, R3 as a ratio of the corresponding
bridge resistances, i.e., each half of the bridge forms a voltage divider.
The bridge can be imbalanced, owing to the difference in the voltages from the electrical
resistances on R1, R2 and R3, R4. This can be calculated as follows:

if the bridge is balanced and

where the bridge output voltage V0 is zero.

With a preset strain, the resistance of the strain gauge changes by the amount ΔR. This gives
us the following equation:

For strain measurements, the resistances R1 and R2 must be equal in the Wheatstone bridge.
The same applies to R3 and R4.
With a few assumptions and simplifications, the following equation can be determined (further
explanations are given in the HBM book 'An Introduction to Measurements using Strain
Gauges'):

In the last step of calculation, the term ΔR/R must be replaced by the following:

Here k is the k-factor of the strain gauge, ε is the strain. This gives us the following:

https://www.hbm.com/en/7163/wheatstone-bridge-circuit/
https://www.omega.com/en-us/resources/wheatstone-bridge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/metal-strain-gauge