Christian John Mare C.
Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
OBJECTIVE To know how the change in resistance of a material, caused by a
change in its physical dimension, can be used to measure the strain
in the material.
CONTENT the application of a variable length transducer principle to strain
gauge transducers is investigated.
EQUIPTMENT
REQUIRED Qty Designation Description
1 TK2941A Instrumentation module
1 TK294 Linear Transducers Test Rig
1 TK294G Strain Gauge Sub-unit
1 - Power Supply, ±15 dc (feedback PS446)
1 - *DC Voltmeter 10V
*Alternatively a multimeter maybe be used.
BASIC STRAIN GAUGE
Assemble the TK294E to the TK294 and connect the gauge No. 1,
nearest the operating rod, (see fig. 1 for details) into the circuit of fig. 2
Figure 1
Christian John Mare C. Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
Figure 2
We are going to use this arrangement to measure the change in resistance of the
gauge. In its resting state, the gauge has a resistance about 120Ω which we
measure by balancing the bridge, as was done in Assignment 2. When we bend
the beam, the actual changes in the transducer will be very small, such that its
resistance will change by only about 0.2Ω. it would be very difficult to measure
this change by normal bridge methods as the contact resistances of any plugs,
switches or potentiometers may change by a similar small amount. However, such
Christian John Mare C. Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
a small change means that the bridge is only just out of balance, and we can
amplify the out of balance voltage appearing across the detector and use this to
indicate on our meter.
However, it will still be necessary to obtain an amplifier output of zero for the
starting condition and to do this we shall use the variable resistor R s on the
Wheatstone Bridge module to obtain a rough bridge balance; R s is too coarse to
give an accurate zero output though, so we use a different method for the fine
control. This is to offset the amplifier deliberately so that it produces zero output
for a small non-zero input, being the residual bridge unbalance. The
potentiometer on the Operational Amplifier, R49, is used for this purpose, as
shown in fig. 2.
To set up the bridge and amplifier, proceed as follows:
▪ Set the micrometer to 10mm
▪ Use the slide to push the gauge operating rod against its lefthand stop and
note the slide scale reading ( about 35mm).
▪ Move the slide to the right until there is just no pressure on the operating
rod and again note the scale reading ( say 30mm).
▪ Set the slide to the midway point of your two readings (26.5mm typically)
and lock the slide. The strain gauge should now be in about the middle of
its operating range.
▪ On the Wheatstone Bridge set R1 = R2 = 1kΩ.
▪ Switch on the power supply.
▪ Select a 10V range on the meter ( or the nearest available) and set a gain of
100 on the Operational Amplifier. Set the potentiometer, R49, to mid-scale
and adjust Rs on the Wheatstone Bridge until the meter reads as near to
zero as you can manage.
Christian John Mare C. Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
▪ Now adjust R49 to give an exact zero, increasing the meter sensitivity and
readjusting R49 alternately until you have a five minutes for the system to
settle and finally reset to zero with R49.
If you followed through the above procedure carefully you should now find that
small movements of the operating rod by the micrometer adjustment will cause
the meter reading to change by a small amount. In fact ±1.5mm motion should
cause approximately ±75mV output.
Take a set of output readings for 0.5mm steps of position, starting at 10.0mm,
increasing to 12.5mm, reducing to 7.5mm and finally increasing again to 10.0mm.
record your results in your own copy of fig. 3.
Table 1.
Micrometer setting (mm) Output Voltage (mV)
10.0 +3
10.5 +25
11.0 +48
11.5 +64
12.0 +88
12.5 +108
12.0 +82
11.5 +62
11.0 +44
10.5 +20
10.0 -2
9.5 -23
9.0 -46
Christian John Mare C. Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
8.5 -67
8.0 -86
7.5 -105
8.0 -85
8.5 -62
9.0 -41
9.5 -19
10.0 +2
Figure 3
Plot your results of micrometer setting against output voltage on linear graph
paper.
Christian John Mare C. Espanol
BSICE-CEIT-08-302A
Question 1 Is the plot linear? If so, what is its slope in volts/mm?
The plot is indeed linear. About 40 mV/mm is the slope.
Question 2 Do the results for increasing displacement lie exactly over those for
decreasing displacement?
No, increasing displacement does not necessarily lead to decreasing displacement, but it
can.
Question 3 In particular does the last reading for 10.00mm equal that of the
initial reading for 10.0mm ( i.e approximately zero output)?
No
If the answer to either question 1 or 2 was no it is probably due to the
effect of small temperature changes which occurred during the time you
were taking your readings.
Question 4 Can you suggest how this difficulty could be overcome or lessened?
In the formula: Gɛ = δR / R
where: δR = change in gauge resistance
G = gauge factor
R = nominal gauge resistance
ɛ = strain in test material
EXERCISE 1 Knowing the amplifier gain and the bridge supply voltage and given
that G = 2.2 for the gauge in use and R = 120 ohm, estimate the
factor relating the change in output voltage to the change in strain ɛ
(i.e. volts output per unit change in strain).
You may have suggested in answer to question 4 that if a second, similar, gauge
wire mounted on the other side of the test specimen and used to form the
balancing arm of the bridge in place of RS temperature change would affect both
gauges equally, leaving the bridge balance unaffected.
EXERCISE 2 Can you see another advantage in this arrangement?
To increase the circuit's resistivity by two times, a twin-gauge arrangement is used.
