Strain and stress sensor

• Measurement of stress in a mechanical component is important when

assessing whether or not the component is subjected to safe load
levels.
• It is used to indirectly measure other physical quantities such as
force (by measuring strain of a flexural element), pressure (by
measuring strain in a flexible diaphragm), and temperature (by
measuring thermal expansion of a material).
• The most common transducer used to measure strain is the electrical
resistance strain gage.

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Electrical Resistance Strain Gage
 The most common transducer for experimentally measuring strain in a mechanical component is
the bonded metal foil strain gage.
 It consists of a thin foil of metal, usually constantan, deposited as a grid pattern onto a thin plastic
backing material, usually polyimide.
 The foil pattern is terminated at both ends with large metallic pads that allow lead wires to be
easily attached with solder. The entire gage is usually very small, typically 5 to 15 mm long.
 To measure strain on the surface of a machine component or structural member, the gage is
adhesively bonded directly to the component, usually with epoxy or cyanoacrylate.
 The backing makes the foil gage easy to handle and provides a good bonding surface that also
electrically insulates the metal foil from the component. Lead wires are then soldered to the
solder tabs on the gage.

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• For below rectangular box resistance is given by:

• where rho is the foil metal resistivity, L is the total length of the grid lines, and A is
the grid line cross-sectional area.

• If we first take the natural logarithm of both sides,

• after derivation we get:

• Where the LHS term is gauge factor and the last term of LHS is piezo resistive
effect of material.
• For the bonded metal foil strain gage, the gage factor F is usually close to 2, and
the gage resistance R is close to 120 Ω

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• Solution.
𝑑𝑅 = 𝑅 ∗ 𝐹 ∗ 𝑒
= 120 ∗ 2 ∗ 100 ∗ 10^ − 6
= 0.024 𝑜ℎ𝑚

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Measuring resistance changes with a Wheatstone bridge
• To use strain gages to accurately measure strains experimentally, we
need to be able to accurately measure small changes in resistance.
• The most common circuit used to measure small changes in
resistance is the Wheatstone bridge, which consists of a
four-resistor network excited by a DC voltage.
• There are two different modes of operation of a Wheatstone bridge
circuit: the static balanced mode and the dynamic unbalanced mode.

a. Static balanced
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Static balanced bridge circuit
• Only used for fixed load
• R2&R3 precision resistance
• R4 precision potentiometer (variable
resistance )
Its adjusted until the voltage b/n point where Vex is the DC voltage applied to
A and B is zero the bridge called the excitation voltage.
• R1 strain gauge resistance which its after rearranging:
change is measured.
• In balanced state voltage between A
and B equal so
i1R1=i2R2

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Dynamic balanced bridge circuit
• R1 is representing a strain gage and R4 representing a potentiometer, the bridge
is first balanced, before loads are applied, by adjusting R4 until there is no output
voltage. Then changes in the strain gage resistance R1 that occur under time-
varying load can be determined from changes in the output voltage.

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Measuring Different States of Stress with Strain Gages
• If a component is loaded uniaxially (i.e., loaded in only one direction
in tensionor compression), the state of stress in the component can
be determined with a single gage mounted in the direction of the
load.
• By measuring the strain εx, the stress is obtained using Hooke’s law

• where,

• Therefore, the force P applied to the bar

can be determined from the strain gage measurement:

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TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
• Temperature sensors appear in buildings, chemical process plants,
engines, transportation vehicles, appliances, computers, and many
other devices that require monitoring and control of temperature.
• It can be measure temperature indirectly by measuring quantities
such as pressure, volume, electrical resistance, and strain and then
convert the values using the physical relationship between the
quantity and temperature.

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1. Liquid-in-Glass Thermometer
A simple nonelectrical temperature-measuring device is the liquid-in-glass thermometer.
It typically uses alcohol or mercury as the working fluid, which expands and contracts relative to
the glass container. The upper range is usually on the order of 600F.
When making measurements in a liquid, the depth of immersion is important, as it can result in
different measurements. Because readings are made visually, and there can be a meniscus at the
top of the working fluid, measurements must be made carefully and consistently.
2. Bimetallic Strip
 It is composed of two or more metal layers having different coefficients of thermal expansion.
 The strip can be straight, as shown in the figure, or coiled for a more compact design Because
these layers
are permanently bonded together, the structure will deform when the temperature changes. This
is due to the difference in the thermal expansions of the two metal layers.
 The deflection can be related to the temperature of the strip. Bimetallic strips are used in
household and industrial thermostats where the mechanical motion of the strip makes or breaks
an electrical contact to turn a heating or cooling system on or off.

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Electrical Resistance Thermometer (RTD)
It is constructed of metallic wire wound around a ceramic or glass core and hermetically
sealed.
The resistance of the metallic wire increases with temperature. The resistance-
temperature relationship is usually approximated by the following linear expression:

 Temperature is usually the ice point of water (0C). The most common metal used in
RTDs is platinum because of its high melting point, resistance to oxidation, predictable
temperature characteristics, and stable calibration values. The operating range for a
typical platinum RTD is - 220 C to 750 C. Lower cost nickel and copper types are also
available, but they have narrower operating ranges.

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 Thermistor
It is a semiconductor device, available in probes of different shapes and sizes, whose
resistance changes exponentially with temperature. Its resistance temperature
relationship is usually expressed in the form.

where T0 is a reference temperature, R0 is the resistance at the reference temperature,

and beta is a calibration constant called the characteristic temperature of the material.
A well-calibrated thermistor can be accurate to within 0.01C or better, which is better
than typical RTD accuracies. However, thermistors have much narrower operating ranges
than RTDs.
A thermistor’s resistance actually decreases with increasing temperature. This is very
different from metal conductors that experience increasing resistance with increasing
temperature.

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Thermocouple
• When Two dissimilar metals in contact it form a thermoelectric
junction that produces a voltage proportional to the temperature of
the junction. This is known as the See-beck effect.
• Because an electrical circuit must form a closed loop, thermoelectric
junctions occur in pairs, resulting in what is called a thermocouple.

Here we have wires of metals A and B forming junctions at different

temperatures T1 and T2, resulting in a potential V that can be
measured. The thermocouple voltage V depends on the metal
properties of A and B and the difference between the junction
temperatures T1 and T2.
.

a. Thermocouple junction b. Thermocouple circuit

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• The thermocouple voltage is directly proportional to the junction
temperature difference: 𝑉 = 𝑎(T1 − T2)

where 𝑎 is called the Seebeck coefficient.

The five basic laws of thermocouple behavior follow.
1. Law of lead wire temperatures.
• The thermoelectric voltage due to two junctions in a circuit consisting of two different
conducting metals depends only on the junction temperatures T1 and T2.
2. Law of intermediate lead wire metals.
A third metal C introduced in the circuit constituting the thermocouple has no influence on the
resulting voltage as long as the temperatures of the two new junctions (A-C and C-A) are the
same (T3 = T4).

3. Law of intermediate junction metals.

if a third metal is introduced within a junction creating two new junctions (A-C and C-B), the measured
voltage will not be affected as long as the two new junctions are at the same temperature (T1 =T3).

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3.Intermediate junction
2. Intermediate lead wire
4.Law of intermediate temperatures.
• Junction pairs at T1 and T3 produce the same voltage as two sets of junction
pairs spanning the same temperature range
(T1 to T2 and T2 to T3);

5.Law of intermediate metals.

• the voltage produced by two metals A and B is the same as the sum of the
voltages produced by each metal (A and B) relative to a third metal C.

Law intermediate metals

Law intermediate temperatures

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 This result supports the use of a standard reference metal (e.g., platinum) to be used as a basis to
calibrate all other metals.

Standard thermocouple consists of wires of two metals, A and

B, attached to a voltage-measuring device with terminals made
of metal C .

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Vibration and acceleration sensor
• An accelerometer is a sensor designed to measure acceleration, or rate of change
of speed, due to motion (e.g., in a video game controller), vibration (e.g., from
rotating equipment), and impact events (e.g., to deploy an automobile airbag).
• mechanically attached or bonded to an object or structure for which acceleration
is to be measured.
• Strain gages or piezoelectric elements constitute the sensing element of an
accelerometer, converting acceleration into a voltage signal.

• The design of an accelerometer is based on the inertial effects associated with a

mass connected to a moving object through a spring, damper, and displacement
sensor.
• When the object accelerates, there is relative motion between the housing and
the seismic mass.

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• A displacement transducer senses the relative motion.
• Through a frequency response analysis of the second-order system
modeling the accelerometer, we can relate the displacement
transducer output to either the absolute position or acceleration of
the object.

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Piezoelectric Accelerometer
• The highest quality accelerometers are constructed using a
piezoelectric crystal, a material whose deformation results in charge
polarization across the crystal.
• In a reciprocal manner, application of an electric field to piezoelectric
material results in deformation.
• a piezoelectric accelerometer consists of a crystal in contact with a
mass, supported in a housing by a spring.

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• The purpose for the preload spring is to help keep the mass in contact with
the crystal and to keep the crystal in compression, which can help prolong its
life.
• When the supporting object experiences acceleration, relative displacement
occurs between the case and the mass due to the inertia of the mass
• The resulting strain in the piezoelectric crystal causes a displacement charge
between the crystal conductive coatings as a result of the piezoelectric effect.
• It doesn’t requires external power supply.
• Accelerometer measures acceleration only in the direction in which it is
mounted
• Naturally occurring piezoelectric materials are Rochelle salt, tourmaline, and
quartz. Some crystalline materials can be artificially polarized to take on
piezoelectric characteristics by heating and then slowly cooling them in a
strong electric field. Such materials are barium titanate, lead zirconate (PZT),
lead titanate, and lead metaniobate.

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the crystal is effectively a capacitor and a charge source
that generates a charge q across the capacitor plates proportional to
the deformation of the crystal.
The sensitivity of the accelerometer is the ratio of the charge output
to the acceleration of the housing expressed in pC/g, (rms pC)/g, or
(peak pC)/g, where g is the acceleration due to gravity.
The output of the accelerometer is attached to a charge amplifier,
which converts the displacement charge on the crystal to a voltage

Equivalent circuit
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• In general, piezoelectric accelerometers cannot measure constant or
slowly changing accelerations, because the crystals can measure a
change in force only by sensing a change in strain. But they are
excellent for dynamic measurements such as vibration and impacts
• The dynamic range of an accelerometer ranges from a few hertz
to a fraction of the resonant frequency given by

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