Experimental Stress Analysis

Prof. K. Ramesh
Department of Applied Mechanics
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras

Module No. # 05
Lecture No. # 33
Strain Gauge Alloys, Carriers and Adhesives

In the last class, we had discussed what is the strain sensitivity of a strain gauge, because
earlier we looked at strain sensitivity of a conductor. Then, when we saw, when we have
to make a strain gauge, you have to make it as a loop; so you have a finite area, you have
a grid pattern, and once you make it as a grid, the grid is sensitive to strain along the
axial direction, as well as strain along the transverse direction. Then we moved on to
discuss how do you measure the small changes in resistance caused by application of
stress on the actual specimen, which is translated as strain and sensed by the strain
gauge, and you measure it by a Wheatstone bridge. Then we said, if we have to find out
state of strain on a free surface, I need three strain gauges. And we also saw while you
make metal foil strain gauges, these three strain gauges can be pre-aligned and available
in one packing; that is the advantage.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:37)

And one of the simplest rosettes we saw was a three element rectangular rosett. And I
said, rosette analysis becomes extremely simple, if you recall your famous strain
transformation law, which is given as follows. And I have also asked you to work out by
noting the readings of strain gauge A, strain gauge B and strain gauge C, how do we get
the strain component epsilon xx, epsilon yy and gamma xy?
And when you have the strain gauges at 45 degrees, the, whatever the strain measured
by the strain gauge B is related to gamma xy epsilon C and epsilon A, and when you
solve these three equations, which is straight forward, I get epsilon xx as epsilon A,
epsilon yy as epsilon C, and a shear strain gamma xy as 2 epsilon B minus epsilon A
minus epsilon C. And you will have to note down, though I said in general there would
be a small sensitivity in the transverse direction, in the rosette analysis, which we have
seen we have not accounted for the transfer sensitivity effect, the moment I do it, the
equation becomes complex, and you also have such equations available, we will see
those equation later.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:26)

And another popular rosette is a delta rosette, and in this you have strain gauges aligned
at 120 degree each, and what you have here is theta A is 0 degree, theta B is 120 degree,
theta C is 240 degree. And I am not going to work this out, you plug in these values, and
find out what is the interrelation between epsilon A, epsilon x, epsilon y, gamma xy,
write for three values of theta, solve them, and get the expressions for epsilon x, epsilon
y and gamma xy.
Now, we move on to look at various aspects of the strain gauge system. I start from the
strain gauge foil- what are the alloys that are used- then we go the carrier, then we look
at the adhesive. See, we have earlier looked at what is hysteresis, what is 0 shift; and you
would find selection of the appropriate alloy, selection of the backing as well as selection
of the adhesive, they all influence this performance characteristic of a strain gauge.
So, depending on the kind of problem you handle, you need to make a selection.
Normally, one does selection of a strain gauge- design of a strain gauge, you do not do it
unless it is warranted- you have several standard strain gauges available from a
manufacturer. And in order to select the strain gauge, what these parameters are, how
they influence, you need to have an understanding, slightly descriptive in nature, and I
said this information is also equally important.
(Refer Slide Time: 05:27)

And we start with the metallic alloys. And we have already seen, advance or constantan
was the most commonly used strain gauge alloy, and this is a composition of 45 percent
nickel and 55 percent copper, and your strain sensitivity of the conductor is 2.1; then you
have a list nichrome V, isoelastic, karma, armour D and alloy 479, and these are for
various applications.
So, you need to know the basic difference between some of these alloys, why a particular
alloy is chosen for a particular application. You have reasons given by knowing the
properties of these alloys, the salient properties, from strain gauge instrumentation point
of you whatever that is important we will look at.
And when you look at the strain sensitivity of the conductor, it depends upon the degree
of cold working imparted to the conductor in its formation, the impurities in the alloy,
and range of strain over which the measurement of S A is to be made. So, what you will
have to look at is, the strain sensitivity is the function of cold working and impurities,
which is advantageously used later; when you want to develop self-temperature
compensated gauges, you play with these two parameters, and modify your strain gauge
properties so that you have a self-temperature compensation possible.
(Refer Slide Time: 07:31)

We have already seen in some detail what are all the properties of advance or constantan
alloy, and we will have a quick look at this. And what you find here is, the value is linear
over a wide range of strain, and hysteresis is extremely small, so that is the advantage;
we have to avoid hysteresis in your measurement- either minimize or avoid; and what
you find in the case of advance or constantan, the hysteresis is extremely small, so it is
very useful. And we have already seen, because S A is close to 2 it can be used for both
elastic and plastic strain, and we have also noted that advance has a very high specific
resistance; and what is the advantage of this? This is useful when constructing small
gauges with a relatively high resistance.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:52)

And another aspect what you look at it is, what is its thermal stability? And I have
already mentioned that, it is a relative term- in comparison to other strain gauge alloys, it
has better thermal stability- and from engineering point of view, you know, you find the
thermal response is highly non-linear; so, what you have here is, you have a temperature
in Fahrenheit on this axis, temperature as centigrade on this axis, and you have thermally
induced apparent strain in micro strain.
So, what you find is, the curve is non-linear. The moment I compare this with isoelastic,
you will find this is far better. If you look only this graph, you will only say it is highly
non-linear, and if you look at in this region which is more like a room temperature
application, you find that it is almost horizontal, so, that is where you have a adjective
that it has excellent thermal stability; at room temperature application, the thermally
induced apparent strain for small changes of temperature is almost close to 0, and if I
want to use it for higher temperature, then I have to be careful in accounting for this
thermal influence.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:38)

And I have already mentioned that S A is controlled by the cold working of the material
as well as impurities, and you use this advantageously to develop self-temperature
compensated gages. For the time being, note down that you can make self-temperature
compensated gages. Once we discuss about thermal influence, we will look at what is the
meaning of temperature compensation, and what is self-temperature compensation, we
will look at those details later; right now you find that advanced or constantan is good for
making self-temperature compensated gages. And what you find here is, if you are able
to get a self-temperature compensated gages, the temperature induced delta R by R can
be as small as 1 micro strain per degree centigrade; it is very great achievement, when
you see isoelastic you will find a small change in temperature will have a very high value
of apparent strain, you know, you have to be very careful about them.
(Refer Slide Time: 12:09)

And we have been looking, that constantan is good for going from elastic to plastic
strain, and you have graph between strain and percentage change in resistance on the y
axis. So, what you find here is, the graph is linear from 0 to 8 percent, and you have
already noted when it reaches 0.2 percent the material has becomes plastics. And if you
look at, in initial stages of engineering development, people focused more on worrying
about plastic deformation, now, with advanced principle and fracture mechanics people
worry about normal strains, you know, they not worried about excessive plastic
deformation, because now we have optimized to the extent we want to make the
maximum of the material, and you also bring in inherent flask; now the strain
measurement domain is different. But when you are looking at the technology it is useful
for both elastic and plastic nature, that is the key point here; so, it varies from 0 to 8
percent.
(Refer Slide Time: 13:35)

The first advantage of isoelastic is its high sensitivity, S A is 3.6, and another advantage
is it has a high fatigue strength. So, if I have a high sensitivity, what is the advantage?
When I go for dynamic applications where the strain gauge output must be amplified to a
considerable degree before recording, the high value of S A helps, so, I have a better
signal.
And if you look at engineering, you know, one of the most important types of loading in
the field is fatigue loading, and if I have the fatigue strains exceed 1500 micro strain, use
of isoelastic alloy is recommended, because this has high fatigue strength, and such
applications are very important. You know, you have an application where you have to
certify for good fatigue life, and should have a high fatigue strength, and so on so forth.
One of the disadvantages of isoelastic alloy is poor thermal stability. If you mount it on
steel, you would find a 1 degree centigrade change would produce a strain of 300 to 400
micro strain, it is very very high; you know, just now we saw in advance, if I do self-
temperature compensation per degree centigrade, you will have a change of 1 micro
strain, where is 1 micro strain, and where is 300 to 400 micro strain; the curve is almost
asymptotic. We will have a look at it.
But the requirement here is, when I go for dynamic applications, when I go for high
fatigue strength, you going for isoelastic alloy. So, each of these base material has an
advantage and a disadvantage. Advance is more of a general purpose material; isoelastic
alloys for special applications.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:10)

And this what you see, the graph is, you do not have to draw this, you can draw in the
same graph the isoelastic also, it is almost asymptotic, so a very small change in
temperature will have a very high change in apparent strain, strain introduced because of
thermal effect is much larger in comparison to what is the strain that you are going to
measure, so, you have to be very careful. So, disadvantage of isoelastic alloy is a poor
thermal stability.
(Refer Slide Time: 16:56)

Because it is poor in temperature effects, the general recommendation is, it is useful for
dynamic applications where temperature is stable. These dynamic phenomena are very
very fast; so, even before you wink your eye, the phenomena is over. So, in such fast
application, isoelastic alloy is advantageous. So, that is what the advantage of using
isoelastic alloy.
And then, we move on to the next material, which is a karma alloy. The moment you
come to karma alloy the basic characteristic is, it has excellent stability with time. See, I
also said, in strain gauge instrumentations, you have a applications where you may need
to monitor the strain for long durations of time, you may be wanting to monitor a bridge,
how it is performing over the several months, and these are all call in situ applications
where you put it on the actual structures, and do a health monitoring of the structure.
And the advantage of karma alloy is its excellent stability with time. And what you find
here is temperature compensation achievable in karma alloy is better over a wide range
of temperature than advance alloy. And if you look at the fatigue limit, karma alloy is in
between advance and isoelastic. You know, some of this information is required for you
to reason out why you choose a particular strain gauge alloy for a given application. In
order to familiarize with that, yourself with strain gauge selection, you need this back
ground. And you also find that karma alloy can be used up to 260 degree centigrade in
static strain measurements; so, it is slightly shade better than advances, advance is
limited to 204 degree centigrade.
(Refer Slide Time: 19:38)

See, all these information helps you to arrive at how do you go for selecting a particular
alloy for a given application. And now, you have a comparison between advance and
karma, both are non-linear, and what we saw was, at room temperature your advance is
good, at room temperature karma is not good, I have to do some kind of temperature
compensation, but the temperature compensation if I adopt, it can be done for a wide
range than what you have in advance.
And for every alloy there is an advantage and there is a disadvantage. The moment you
have a strain gauge made of karma alloy, it is difficult to solder the lead wires to the tabs.
So, what the manufacture does is, he also sells lead wire connector strain gauges, so, he
would solder it in the manufacturing shop itself, and then give it to you. So, you have
such strain gauges also available; so, that makes your life lot more simpler.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:00)

And here, the repetition of the graphs, where in you have in one graph, you have the
thermally induced apparent strain for a isoelastic alloy, karma alloy as well as advance;
and your first observation is, all these individual graphs are highly non-linear, and your
adjective excellent thermal stability is really a relative terminology. So, for room
temperature application, advance is good; for dynamic application, isoelastic is selected;
for in situ measurements, you go for karma alloy for long periods of time.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:54)

Then, you have the special alloy nichrome V, armour D and platinum tungsten alloy. If
you look at, these are suitable for high temperature application in excess of 260 degree
centigrade; they are metallurgically more stable at high temperature, and also oxidation
resistant at higher temperatures. See, measurement of strain at a high temperature is
becoming an important issue, you have requirement in that, you also have a requirement
at very low temperatures; when you have cryogenic engines, you need to make
measurements on structure, which are at very low temperature, many applications you
have a room temperature, fine, but you also have special applications both at high
temperature and at low temperatures. Now, what we have looked at is, we have looked at
first the various alloys available for the fabrication of the strain gauge grid, but this grid
needs to be supported by a carrier.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:04)

And we will look at why you need these carriers? Though we use metal film, they are
very very thin and are very fragile, so, they are easy to distort, and you need to have a
supportive backing. And what you find is, metal film is usually bonded to a thin plastic
sheet, which serves as a backing before photo etching. And what is the role of the carrier
material? It provides electrical insulation between the gauge and the component. And we
have already noted, you have markings for the center line of the gauge length and width,
are also displayed on the carrier. You have already looked at, because when you are
doing any strain gauge instrumentation, alignment of the strain gauge at the point of
interest is very crucial, because even small misalignment, you will be a measuring a
different component of strain- so, alignment is very important; so, you need to have
alignment marking, and these alignment markings are very clearly put on the carrier
material.
And if you look at, very thin paper was the first carrier material, now, paper is replaced,
but if you look at the earliest strain gauges they had a paper, and you have a quite variety
of them available now, for different applications.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:01)

So, I have types of carrier: polyimide sheet of 0.025 millimeter has replaced paper, and
you also have carrier made of thin high modulus epoxy, which is used for transducer
applications- see, special application require special preparations. And what is the
advantage of epoxy carrier? It has high precision and linearity. And for general purpose
it is not suitable, why it is not suitable? Because epoxy is brittle, and if we do not know
how to handle it properly, it can be broken during installation. See, I said general
purpose strain gauge, you use a 3 millimeter gauge length, advance or constantan alloy
with a polyimide backing; this is the most general strain gauge available for variety of
common applications, and polyimide being a plastic it is easy to handle.
The moment I go for transducer application, I need to have the strain gauge working for
very long length of time, so I need a good backing, and a good adhesive to bond. And
since the accuracy involved in transducer application is very high, you need to go for
better carrier and better material; and the person also will be trained to handle it, so he
will know how to handle an epoxy carrier and bond it.
In general purpose application, you do not expect that, and it also expensive. See, any
special requirement you have, it is expensive. We have seen simply epoxy being used,
you also have situation where you need to go in for glass fiber reinforced epoxies and
phenolic carriers. And we will take upon example later, how the choice of the carrier and
the material for making the strain gauge has an influence on stability- these are not trivial
things, though it is a list of facts, sometimes boring, you need to know them- and it is
also surprising you have a polyimide sheet, you have an epoxy, and you also have glass
fiber reinforced epoxy; so, that means it is for high level cyclic strains and fatigue life,
you go in for very special carrier, and this is useful for temperature up to 400 degree
centigrade.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:18)

And in the earlier class, we have also noted when we looked at the strain gauge, it had an
encapsulation, and why you do this encapsulation? The grid is encapsulated by the
carrier for high level cyclic strain applications, so, it provides more firmness to the metal
foil when I have a fatigue repeated loading, it gives more firmness to the metal foil
because it is very thin, and it is going to be expensive, and you will also have to worry
about heat dissipation, because you are enclosing by a film, you are preventing the
natural convention to take place very easily; that is why I said in strain gauge
instrumentation, keep looking at how you handle thermal effects.
So, when I go for a encapsulation, I must make special provision for dissipating the heat
also, so, you use this for high level cyclic strain application, ensure that undue thermal
strains are not developed. And if I go for very high temperature applications, none of the
carriers what we have discussed there useful, I cannot use plastic, I cannot use epoxy, I
cannot use glass reinforced plastic, I have to go for ceramic adhesive, which serves to
maintain the grid configuration. So, when I talk a very high temperature application, you
have to take special steps in bonding the strain gauge, and also selecting high
temperature strain gauge material. We will see that a little while later.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:24)

Now, what we have looked at is, we have looked at the strain gauge material, then we
looked at the backing. Now, we will look at what are the adhesives. You have a variety
of them, and some of these adhesives are meant for quick application, and you know
anything fast has a short life. You go to the fast food restaurant, and you get the food
fast, your dietician say, that this food is not good for your health; if you have a food
which is cooked very slowly it is good for your health. The same thing you will see in
strain gauge application also; I have cyanoacrylate cement, it cures with in second, but
good for short term applications.
Suppose I want to make a transducer, I cannot use cyanoacrylate to bond the strain gauge
to a transducer. For transducer application, I need to go for epoxies, this is for long term,
and if you look at, epoxy will take at least 24 hours to cure whereas, cyanoacrylate cures
within seconds. And you have polyester, which is similar to epoxy many of the
characteristic, and polyester cement is recommended for low temperature applications; I
said you have cryogenic engines, and you have low temperature requirement, for such
applications it is better to go for polyester cement. And I said you also have very high
temperature, and you need to go for ceramic cements, which will also replace the
backing, because the backing made of plastic or epoxy, they will all evaporate at the
temperature, so, you need to have a ceramic backing. And we will see some of the detail
of these cements, in some detail in the slides to follow.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:42)

So, for general purpose strain gauge applications, you go for a cyanoacrylate cement.
And we will also have a look at this animation, and what you find here is, you have a
strain gauge on the cellphone tape, you had that m bond adhesive here, and you finally
press it by a thump, and keep it for a minute or 2, your curing is done; as simple as that.
So, what you find is, thin film of the adhesive is placed between the gauge and the
specimen, and a gentle pressure is applied for 1 to 2 minutes to induce polymerization,
so, strain gauge bonding is done. So, what you find is, you have it, go and press it, and
hold it for minute or 2, your bonding is done, but the polymerization continues at room
temperature without maintaining the pressure; the moment the cyanoacrylate cement
comes in with moisture that is available in air, that itself is cures it.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:09)

And what is the recommendation is, once I use cyanoacrylate cement, strain gauge can
be employed 10 minutes after bonding, that is the recommendation, and definitely not
suitable for extended life operations. See, if I have to use a transducer, I will be using it
repeatedly; I will have a load cell, I will use it for few years, and for such applications
strain gauge need to be bonded by a more elaborate processes.
Nevertheless, there are very many applications where you want quick result, general
purpose, you just want at that point in time, you find out what is the strain, and you are
not interested in monitoring the strain over period of time, you just want to you know for
a design calculation, what is the strain developed, if application is of that nature,
cyanoacrylate is very advantageous and simple to use. And after the putting these
cement, it is also recommended to put coating such as polyurethane or microcrystalline
wax or silicon rubber can be used to protect from moisture, and marginally extend the
life of an installation.
See, the moisture has a very negative effect on strain gauge installation, you need to
protect your strain gauge installation from the moisture, the humidity, whatever the
humidity available can affect the strain gauge installation, so you need to protect it- only
then the measurement will be reliable. And what you see here, the example is also good,
you have a nice strain gauge installation, where I have a strain gauge these are connected
by a thin special type of wire, and these are all the connecters, you know, it is easy for
soldering, and this is the lead wire, and lead wire is also anchored, so, anything, if you
pull the lead wire that load will be taken care of by this anchoring, and it will not be
sensed by the soldering contacts. And what you see as light yellow, what is put on the
strain gauge is the polyurethane coating, so it prevents moisture observation in the strain
gauge system, and it makes your measurement more meaningful.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:58)

Then, we come to epoxy cements. The epoxy cement exhibit higher bond strength and
higher level of strain at failure. And it is a two component mixture; so, I have an epoxy
resin mixed with hardener to induce polymerization. On the other hand, when you looked
at cyanoacrylate, you just take that cyanoacrylate, put it, and then press it, press it for a
minute, your job is done. The moment you come to epoxy, the bonding procedure is very
elaborate.
And you have two types of curing agents: amine type curing agent- they produce
exothermic reaction, and cure at room temperature- and in most of the transducer
application, they use anhydride type curing agents, which require application of heat of
the order of 120 degree centigrade for several hours- typically 24 hours is what I have
seen- not only this, you also need to apply suitable clamping pressures.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:28)

And you have to be very careful when you choose the hardener- the proportion needs to
be maintained properly. See, any one of the epoxy resin, you will have a resin and
hardener- 1 is to 10 ratio- hardener will be only one-tenth of the resin, and you have to
mix this appropriately, and there is also recommendation, if you change it, even the
curing, its final properties, everything will change.
So, whatever the manufacture gives the recommendation, you are expected to follow.
And what you find is, the relative proportions of hardener has to be maintained as per
manufacturer recommendations, small deviation can affect the curing temperature, and
the residual stresses produced during polymerization. And you know, in certain
applications, in order to ensure that strain of the specimen is faithfully transferred to the
strain gauge, you may want to have a higher bond strength, and this can be increased by
adding micrometer sized particles of pure silica- it is about 5 to 10 percent by weight.
This is done. You have a, in photoelastic coating also you have that kind of adhesive,
so, which permits smooth transfer of strain from the base material to the strain gauge,
you need to have a high bond strength; for high strain applications it is better that strain
transfer is done without loss. But if I add the silica, what happens? Temperature
coefficient of expansion of epoxy is reduced.
So, you have to pay attention on the thermal influence. So, this what I said, in strain
gauge instrumentation, you do one thing, it is advantages for doing one aspect, it
introduces another problem, so, you have to look at your recommendation holistically,
piecemeal, you should not employ any one of this recommendation.
So, keep looking at, if you want to have a encapsulation go for encapsulation, but also
ensure that you provide dissipation of heat adequately taken care of, if dissipation of heat
is not adequately taken care of, at least provide another strain gauge, and make a half
brush, and do temperature compensation. You have to do this in conjunction with your
other decisions, that you have to always keep a watch, and thermal influence is a very
great nuisance in strain gauge instrumentation. So, what you find here is, I go for
increasing bond strength, and I find the thermal coefficient of expansion of epoxy is
reduced, so, this needs to be properly accounted for.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:38)

And you have to be very careful in arriving at very thin bond lines. And why do you go
for thin bond lines? This minimizes creep hysteresis and deviation from linearity. And
how do you ensure thin bond lines? You have to provide a clamping pressure of 35 to
140 kilo Pascal; and if I go for transducer applications, you are expected to make even
thinner bond lines.
So, in order to make it thinner, what they do is, they add a dilutent to epoxy so that-
epoxy is very thick, it is highly viscous- so, you add a dilutent, thin it, and also apply a
higher pressure- you want to apply a pressure of the order of, 350 kP a is recommended-
and by doing this you get an extremely thin, void free bond lines of the order of 0.005
millimeter.
See, I have being saying, that strain gauge technology is so well developed that you can
measure 0.5 micro strain reliably now; so, when I want to do that I need to follow all this
procedure. See, when we looked at cyanoacrylate cement, what was the advantage? You
simply apply a thump pressure, that is good enough for curing the adhesive. The moment
that you come epoxy you find, you need to go for higher temperatures, and also you need
to maintain appropriate clamping pressure, and even the application of clamping pressure
is simplified by the strain gauge manufactures.
So, what you find is, you have such special clips available- they are very hard to press-
and you use this to clamp the strain gauge installation; you will have a sort of a wood
piece, and then gauss, so that whatever the pressure developed, that is evenly transmitted
to the strain gauge, and you have this as, available with the readymade spring whose
stiffness is suitably adjusted to give the desire pressure; and this is for applying some
pressure, and when I go for higher pressures, you also have bigger systems-it is very hard
to press, I am really trying hard to press it- so you can imagine, I clamp it, and put the
whole thing in the furnaces, so that you will maintain that pressure for polymerization to
be complete.
So, it is very detailed, you know, strain gauge pasting it not a simple task; a person needs
to be trained in strain gauge installation, and only when you make the installation as
good as possible you are guaranteed of final measurement. So, what you find is, we want
to have thin bond lines, you can also have extremely thin bond lines, both are possible by
increasing the pressure, and also thinning the epoxies appropriately.
(Refer Slide Time: 45:30)

And another caution, you know, you cannot go- I have read in the class that epoxies can
be used- you cannot go and buy m-seal, and then say that is also an epoxy, I have a putty,
why do not I mix together, and then put it, you will have a thickness of maybe 0.5
millimeter, that is not good for your strain gauge instrumentation; because, you know,
any of this hardware store variety, two-tube epoxy systems in corporate modifiers or
plastisizers to improve the toughness, they cause large amount of creep and hysteresis
and hence undesirable.
So, the strain gauge manufacturer certifies a particular cement, whatever the cement that
is available is not good for, because I said you do not want to have hysteresis problems
in strain gauge installation, and you cannot wake up after completing the strain gauge
installation, how to handle hysteresis; while you install the strain gauge itself the
selection of your adhesives, selection of your backing, selection of your strain gauge
alloy, everything contributes to the final performance of the strain gauge in a given
environment.
So, you should know for which application you are selecting the strain gauge system. So,
it is like a system, you have to worry about the adhesive, backing as well as the alloy
suitable for a given application. And how do I ensure that the installation is properly
cured?- because after installing the strain gauge, you must verify before you go for
strain measurement, whether the installation has been successful- and the
recommendation is, if the adhesive is properly cured, a resistance to ground will exceed
10000 mega ohms, very high resistance.
If the resistance is low, it is an indication that you have minute traces of either solvent or
water in the adhesive system. So, this is the check, after installing the strain gauge you
also ensure before you make the measurement, whether the resistance to ground is very
high it should be (( )) of 10 meg ohms, and in fact, you need special meters to measure
this; that is also supplied by the strain gauge manufacture, you cannot use it with your
multimeter, you cannot measure this, you have to have a special meter to measure this,
because this has to be measured with sufficient accuracy, and that kinds of meters are
also available from strain gauge manufacturer.
(Refer Slide Time: 48:40)

And polyester adhesives are very similar to epoxies, they are also two component
adhesive. And the advantage of polyester is, its ability to polymerize at low temperature,
about 5 degree centigrade; so, it permits gauge installations at temperatures only
modestly above freezing temperature. And what you find is, its peel strength is low, and
are less resistant to solvents than epoxies, it exhibits higher shear strength and modulus
compared to epoxies, and is very similar to epoxy at this, but it is useful for low
temperature application.
So, in this class what we looked at was, we looked at strain gauge as a system, we looked
at what are the various alloys that are used for making the strain gauge metal foil or the
strain gauge grid, then we looked at why you need a carrier, what are the different
carriers available, then we looked at what are the different adhesives that you can use to
bond the strain gauge, and we have looked at selection of each one of this has an
influence on the final performance; so, if we want to go in for high fatigue strength, you
go for selecting isoelastic alloy, on the other hand, if you have to make measurement for
long durations, you go for a karma alloy, for room temperature application, advance
good enough.
And if you want to go for a transducer application, you need to have a very thin bond
lines, so that repeatability is fully ensured; because when you are going to use the
transducer, you will use it for load measurement for a very long time where it will be
subjected to repeated loading, and you want good stability, and you need to maintain thin
bond lines, and we also saw, to make thin bond lines we need to apply appropriate
pressure, and even the application of pressure is simplified by the strain gauge
manufacturer by supplying suitable clips, you do not have to hunt for how to apply the
pressure, you just take the transducer and appropriately use these clips, your job is done;
you maintain that pressure, and keep it at that temperature, and allow the epoxy to cure
completely.