Accelerometer Drift Study
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Accelerometers are energy transducers that convert mechanical energy into an electrical signal. That electrical signal is proportional to the amount of mechanical stress the accelerometer was subjected to. Knowing this proportionality allows the electrical signal to be interpreted as an acceleration. There are three types of sensing technologies utilized in capacitors: piezoelectric, piezoresistive and capacitive. In this study, all of the accelerometers utilized are of the piezoelectric type and purchased from one particular vendor, MEGGITT. The piezoelectric effect is the phenomena by which a material generates an electrical charge when subjected to a mechanical stress. A piezoelectric accelerometer will not generate an electrical charge when placed in a static acceleration field because no stress will be placed on the piezoelectric element. However if the acceleration field is dynamic, the piezoelectric element will generate an electrical charge. So the types of accelerations these accelerometers are measuring are dynamic in nature, such as vibrations. Knowledge of dynamic acceleration is useful in characterizing the structural response of some object. The sensitivity of an accelerometer is the ratio of its electrical output to mechanical input. The more sensitive an accelerometer is, the greater the value of the electrical output to a given mechanical input. An accelerometer’s sensitivity is known to drift over time. The objective of this study is to quantify this drift. Questions to answer are: Does the accelerometer become more or less sensitive over time and by how much. This is important to understand because this will establish a time frame of when readings from the accelerometer can be utilized. The larger this time frame is the better because that would preclude the need to purchase accelerometers frequently, which saves on costs. This would further bolster the relationship between MEGGITT and LANL if it is found that MEGGITT produces accelerometers that can be used for a relatively long period of time. This would create less uncertainty in picking a vendor for accelerometers.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- 89233218CNA000001
- OSTI ID:
- 1601376
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--20-21492
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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