Sensor and Instrumentation for Cable Tension Quantification

A stainless steel based miniature sensor is designed and fabricated for cable tension measurement. The sensor, with a cut out pattern, is only 5 mm high, has an external diameter of 4.5 mm and is instrumented with four silicon strain gauges. Applied load will elastically deform the sensor geometry and will induce a resistance change in the Si-piezoresistors. Instrumentation is done using commercial components, and comprise two programmable current sources, that operate the Si-gauges in a current driven Wheatstone bridge configuration. A programmable multi-channel instrumentation amplifier interfaces the Wheatstone bridges with a PIC microcontroller and its on-board 12 bit AD converter. The implemented microcontroller and PC software allows remote adaptation of the analog front and facilitates communication and signal visualization. The sensor system can measure axial forces up to 1000N with a resolution better than 1N.

Jaar van publicatie:2014

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open