Program : B.

Tech
Subject Name: Instrumentation and Control
Subject Code: ME-402
Semester: 4th
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UNIT-4
Theory of strain gauge: The change in the value of resistance by straining the gauge may be
partly explained by the normal dimensional behavior of elastic material. If a strip material is
subjected to tension as shown in figure or in other words positively strained, its longitudinal
dimension will increase while there will be a reduction in the lateral dimension. So when a
gauge is subjected to a positive strain, its length increases while its area of cross section
decreases as shown in figure.
Since the resistance of a conductor is proportional to its length and inversely proportional to
its area of cross section, the resistance of the gauge increases with positive strain. The
change in the value of resistance of strained conductor is more than what can be accounted
for an increase in resistance due to dimensional changes. the extra change in the value of
resistivity of a change in the value of resistivity of a conductor when strained. This property,
as described earlier is known as piezoresistive effect.

Strain Defined: Strain is defined as relative elongation in a particular direction

Ԑa= dL/L (axial strain)
Ԑt= dD/D (transverse strain)
μ= Ԑt / Ԑa Poisso s atio

Strain gauges: The electrical resistance of a conductor changes when it is subjected to a

mechanical deformation

Resistance = f A…
Ele t i al ‘esista e ‘ is a fu tio of…
⍴ Resistivity of the material (Ohms*m)

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L the length of the conductor (m)

A the cross-sectional area of the conductor (m2)
R= ⍴* L/A

Note R increases with:

 Increased material resistivity
 Increased length of conductor (wire)
 Decreased cross-sectional area (or diameter)
 Increased the temperatures
Deriving the Gauge Factor (GF)
 We know that L and A both change as a wire is stretched it is reasonable to think
that we can rewrite the equation
R= ⍴* L/A
to relate strain to changes in resistance.
 Start with the differential: dR = d ⍴* (L/A ) + ⍴*d(L/A)
Expanding with the chain rule again one gets:
dR = d ⍴* (L/A ) + ⍴/A*d(L)+ ⍴*L*(-1/A2)*d(A)
 Divide left side by R and right side by equivalent (⍴* L/A) to get:

dR d dL dA
  
R  L A

Substituting into the equation

D D
A     , so dA   (2) dD , or 2  2 t
2
dA dD
2 2
dR d
A D
  a , so    a  2 t

dL
also,
L R

Nothi g the defi itio of Poisso s atio

d R  1  2  1 d
  a (1  2 )  or GF 
dR
 a a 
dR
,
R

Hence, we define the Gauge Factor GF as:

GF  1 2

Using Gauge Factors with Strain Gauges

GF  1 2

1 R
a 
GF R

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In most applications DR and e are very small and so we use sensitive circuitry (amplified and
filtered bridge circuit) contained within a strain-indicator box to read out directly in units of
micro-strain. Hence this strain-indicator will require R (gauge nominal resistance) and GF
(gauge factor)
Typical Strain Gauge:

Strain-relief wires

Solder terminals
for lead wires

Steps for Installing Stain Gauges:

 Clean specimen – degreaser
 This are Chemically prepare gauge – Wet abrading with M-Prep Conditioner and
Neutralizer
 Mount gauge and strain relief terminals on tape, align on specimen and apply
adhesive
 Solder wire connections
 Test
Beam Loading Example

x P
a
Displacement, v(x)

strain gage at Beam length, L

x=b

Measuring Strain with a Bridge Circuit:

 A quarter-bridge circuit is one in which a simple Wheatstone bridge is used and one
of the resistors is replaced with a strain guage.
 Vo may still be small such that amplification (Amp>1.0) is usually desirable


4 Vo 1
Amp Vex GF

 Note: Vo and Vex are also sometimes labeled as Eo and Ei (or Eex)

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Current (i) Limitations:

 In general gauges cannot handle large currents
 The current through the gage will be driven by the voltage potential across it.
Note: Text denotes the excitation voltage as Vi. It is also often labeled Ve or Vex.

iG  
VG VEx
RG RG  R3

Measuring Strain with a Strain-Indicator:

 First install a strain gauge
 Connect the wires from the strain gauge to the strain indicator.
 Apply loading conditions
 Read strain from strain indicator
Note that the indicator always displays 4 digits and reads in microstrain
Thus, 0017 means 17 micro-inches / inch of strain.
Strain gauge bridge enhancements:
 3-wire combination addresses lead wire resistance
 Half-bridge– with a dummy gauge mounted transversely addresses gauge sensitivity
to surface temperature
 Half bridge – amplification through use of dual gauges

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Theoretical Determination of Strain in a Loaded Cantilever Beam:

 You must either know the load P or the displacement (v)
 Determine displacement (v) at x=a
 to Know beam dimensions and material (and hence EI) estimate the load P
 Px 2 (3a  x) EI
 , so P  3 3
6 EI a

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 Calculate stress at location of gauge

 Cal ulate e f o σ=ԐE
  , where h  beam thickness
My P * b * h / 2
I I

x P
a
Displacement, v(x)

strain gage at Beam length, L

Strain Gauge Vibration Experiment Notes:
Cantileverx =Beam
b Damping
When the a tile e ea is plu ked this will respond as a damped 2nd order system. The
amplitude of vibration has the general form:

Y (t ) Ce  nt sin  t 
Where the damped frequency (what you measure) is related to the natural frequency (ωn)
by:
d

d  n 1   2
The damping ratio (zeta) can be determined by plotting the natural log of the
Amplitude or magnitude (M) vs time:

M (t ) Ce  nt so, ln( M )  C 2  ( n )  t

So, the slope of the plot of ln(M) vs. t is (– z wn)

Additio al Co side atio s fo atu al f e ue y of plu ked ea s

 Note: Unless otherwise indicated, natural frequencies are expressed in terms of
radians/sec.
 The natural frequency of a uniform beam is given by:

n  (1.875) 2
EI


m' L4
E is the modulus of elasticity, I is the moment of intertia about the centroid of the
beam cross-section (bh3/ , is the ass per unit length of the beam (ie kg/m),
and L is the cantilevered beam length

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 If the ea is ot u ifo …
A mass at the end can be represented as an effective change in beam mass per unit length
A hole i the e d a e a ou ted fo i a si ila fashio …

Types of Strain Gauges

1. Unbonded metal strain gauges

2. Bonded metal wire strain gauges
3. Bonded metal foil strain gauges
4. Vacuum deposited thin metal film strain gauges
5. Sputter deposited thin metal strain gauges
6. Bonded Semiconductor strain gauges.
7. diffused metal strain gauges.

Unbonded Metal Strain Gauge: An unbonded metal strain gauge is shown in Fig.1. This
gauge consists of a wire stretched between two points in an insulating medium such as air.
The wires are of copper nickel, chrome nickel or nickel iron alloys. The flexture element is
connected via a rod to a diaphragm which is used for sensing of pressure. The wires are
tensioned to avoid buckling when they experience a compressive force

Fig.1

The unbonded metal wire gauges, used almost exclusively in transducer applications,
employ preloaded

Fig.2

Resistance wires connected in a Wheatstone bridge as shown in fig.2 At initial preload, the
strains and resistances of the four arms are nominally equal, with the result the output

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voltage of the bridge, eo = 0. Application of pressure produces a small displacement which is

about 0.004 mm (full scale), the displacement increases tension in two wires and decreases
it in the other two thereby increasing the resistance of two wires which are in tension and
decreasing the resistance of the remaining two wires. This causes an unbalance of the
bridge producing an output voltage which is proportional to the input displacement and
hence to the applied pressure. Electric resistance of each arm is 120 to 1000, the input
voltage to the bridge is 5 to 10 V, and the full scale output of the bridge I typically about 20
mV to 50 mV. Some of the unbonded metal wire gauges are shown in Fig. 3

Fig.3
Force: Force is a measure of the interaction between bodies. Force takes a number of forms
including short-range atomic forces, electromagnetic, and gravitational forces. Force is a
vector quantity, with both direction and magnitude. If the forces acting on a body in
equilibrium are summed around the periphery of the body then they add to zero. If there is
any resultant force acting then the body is not in equilibrium and it will accelerate such that
the ate of ha ge of the ody s o e tu elo ity ti es ass is e ual to the fo e. If
the body is held stationary in some way, then there will be reaction acting on the body from
the support structure that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force
imposed. Although the definition of force units (as given below) is based on acceleration of
a free body, most force measurements are made on bodies in equilibrium, and are therefore
measures of forces within a structure. Conceptually a st u tu e a e ut a oss a y
section and the forces acting within the body at that section are those which would act at
the free surfaces if such a cut were made. This property is the basis of most force
measurements – a physical support or link in a structure is replaced with a device that
measures the forces acting at that point.
A force measurement system is made up of a transducer and associated instrumentation.
The transducer is subjected to the force to be measured, and some resultant change in the
element is measured by the associated instrumentation. The instrumentation may power
the transducer in some way and also may process the output from the transducer before it
is shown on an indicator to be read by the user. Strictly a transducer is a device that receives
a physical stimulus and changes it into another measurable physical quantity through a

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known relationship. In practice a force transducer is a chain of several transducers, for

example the force may act upon a metal cylinder which is compressed by the force, the
change in size alters the electrical resistance of a strain gauge bonded to the surface of the
cylinder, and the instrumentation measures this change in resistance. In this guide the term
force transducer will be used loosely to describe the part of the force measurement system
which converts the applied force into an output which is measured by some associated
instrumentation. For many types of force measurement system the term load cell is in
common usage in place of force transducer. Also, the term device is from time to time used
in place of transducer within the text of this guide to avoid distracting repetition of the word
transducer. For the same reasons, the term measuring instrument will occasionally be used
with the same meaning as force measurement system. As will be seen in the following
sections, the instrumentation may be as simple as a dial gauge or as complex as a computer
with associated analogue to digital converters and excitation circuitry. The indicated value is
the output of the force measurement system, which may be in units of force or other units
such as volts. If the indicated value is not in units of force, then the user may need to
perform a calculation based on a calibration to obtain the calculated value.
Strain gauge load cells the most common type of force transducer, and one which is a clear
example of an elastic device, is the strain gauge load cell,
The elastic element the shape of the elastic element used in load cells depends on a number
of factors including the range of force to be measured, dimensional limits, and required
performance and production costs. Figure 4 shows a selection of different elastic elements
and gives their typical rated capacities. Each element is designed to measure the force
acting along its principal axis, and not to be affected by other forces such as side loads. The
arrows in the figure indicate the principal axis of each element.
The material used for the elastic element is usually tool steel, stainless steel, aluminium or
beryllium copper, the aim being a material which exhibits a linear relationship between the
stress (force applied) and strain (output) with low hysteresis and low creep in the working
range. There also has to be high level of repeatability between force cycles to ensure that
the load cell is a reliable measuring device. To achieve these characteristics it is usual to
subject the material to a special heat treatment.

Fig. 4 Typical elastic elements and their usual rated capacities

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The electrical resistance strain gauge

In electrical terms, all electrical resistance strain gauges may be considered as a length of
conducting material, like a wire, when a length of wire is subjected to a tension within its
elastic limit, its length increases with corresponding decrease in its diameter and increase of
its electrical resistance. If the conducting material is bonded to an elastic element under
strain then the change in resistance may be measured, and used to calculate the force from
the calibration of the device.
The most common materials used for the manufacture of strain gauges are copper-nickel,
nickel-chromium, nickel-chromium-molybdenum and platinum-tungsten alloys. There are a
variety of resistance strain gauges available for various applications, some of which are
described below. Each strain gauge is designed to measure the strain along a clearly defined
axis so that it can be properly aligned with the strain field.
The foil strain gauge is the most widely used type and several examples are shown in Figure
5. It has significant advantages over all other types of strain gauge and is employed in the
majority of precision load cells.

Fig 5 Typical metal foil strain gauges

Measuring force through pressure

Hydraulic load cell
The hydraulic load cell is a device filled with a liquid (usually oil), which has a pre-load
pressure. Application of the force to the loading member increases the fluid pressure, which
is measured by a pressure transducer or displayed on a pressure gauge dial via a Bourdon
tube.
When used with a pressure transducer, hydraulic load cells are inherently very stiff,
deflecting only about 0.05 mm under full force conditions. Although capacities of up to 5
MN are available, most devices fall in to the range of 500 N to 200 kN. The pressure gauge
used to monitor the force can be located several metres away from the device by the use of
a special fluid-filled hose. In systems where more than one load cell is used a specially
designed totaliser unit has to be employed.

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Fig. 6 An example of a hydraulic load cell

Hydraulic load cells are self-contained and need no external power. They are inherently
suitable for use in potentially explosive atmospheres and can be tension or compression
devices. Uncertainties of around 0.25 % can be achieved with careful design and favourable
application conditions. Uncertainties for total systems are more realistically 0.5 % - 1 %. The
cells are sensitive to temperature changes and usually have facilities to adjust the zero
output reading, the temperature coefficients are of the order of 0.02 % to 0.1 % per °C.
Pneumatic load cell
The operating principles of the pneumatic load cell are similar to those of the hydraulic load
cell. The force is applied to one side of a piston or a diaphragm of flexible material and
balanced by pneumatic pressure on the other side. This counteracting pressure is
proportional to the force and is displayed on a pressure dial.
The sensing device consists of a chamber with a close-fitting cap. The air pressure is applied
to the chamber and builds up until it is equal to the force on the cap. Any further increase in
pressure will lift up the cap allowing the air to bleed around the edge until pressure
equilibrium is achieved. At this equilibrium position the pressure in the chamber is an
indication of the force on the cap and can be read by the pneumatic pressure dial gauge.

Measurement of torque on rotating shafts

For rotating motion, power is the product of torque and angular velocity
P = M ⋅ω = M ⋅ π ⋅ n
Thus, to determine the power of the rotating motion the torque (M) and the revolution
number (n) must be measured.
Measurement of the revolution number from the point of view of the measuring concept
the instruments measuring the revolution number can be divided into three groups:
• speed i di ato s easu i g the a e age e olutio u e ,
• Ta ho ete s easu i g the o e ta y e olutio u e a d
• “t o os opes o ki g o the p i iple of o pa iso .

a) Measurement of small revolution number can be performed simply with stopwatch and
by counting revolutions with naked eye. When the mark on the rotating machine part gets
to the marked position, we start the stopwatch and begin counting (with 0). Having
measured the time (T) and the number of revolutions (N) the revolution number is simply
n=N/T.

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b) For higher speed of rotation a special counting device must be used. One of the simplest
of these is the so-called jumping-figure speed counter. The rotating shaft of this device turns
gears. One of them completes one revolution while the other rotates only 1/10, and so on.
Reading the numbers uniformly painted from 0-9 on the cylinder jacket we get the number
of revolutions. Such a device is used in kilowatt-hour meters, water consumption, tape
recorders, speedometers of cars etc.
c) Mechanical tachometers count the revolutions only for a fixed time, generally for 6
seconds. The time measuring device of the instrument connects its pointer for 6 seconds
with that shaft of the instrument which joints the rotating machine part. After these six
seconds there is no more connection which means at the same time the end of the
measurement. A widely used example of this device is the Jacquet indicator. With pressing
the starting button the instrument is zeroed and after releasing it the counting and the
clockwork starts.
d) Electric tachometers operate with the same principle (counting the number of
revolutions during some period of time), but the number of revolutions is measured in an
optical way.
e) A stroboscope, also known as a strobe, is an instrument used to make a cyclically moving
object appear to be slow-moving, or stationary. In its simplest form, a marker is placed to
the rotating shaft and a lamp capable of emitting brief and rapid flashes of light is used. The
f e ue y of the flash is adjusted so that it e uals to the shaft s y li speed, at hi h poi t
the object is seen to be either stationary or moving backward or forward, depending on the
flash frequency.

Measurement of torque There are many ways of measuring torque, out of which the two
most important ones are
• “t ai gauges a d
• ala i g oto s
a A st ai gauge is a s all ele t i al ele e t p i ted o a o -conductive substrate. The
pattern of the element is arranged so that if the gauge is stretched (or compressed) in one
direction (along operating axis of the gauge), the resistance of the element increases (or
decreases) in relation to that stretch. A stretch perpendicular to the axis of the strain gauge
has little effect on the resistance of the element. If a gauge is bonded to the shaft, with its
axis aligned with the direction in which the shaft material stretches when a torque is
applied, the strain gauge will also stretch and therefore the element will increase in
resistance. By measuring the change of resistance, after appropriate calibration, one can
measure the torque applied to the shaft.

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b) Balancing machines (motor or generator) are special machines, whose housing is free to
rotate and arms are mounted onto it.

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