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Force and Torque Measurement
Force and Torque Measurement
Strain
Strain is defined as the change in a length L with respect to an initial length L0
(see graphic below):
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The change in length L is the difference between an original length L 0 and the
length L when the measurement is taken:
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If elongation occurs L is positive and if the length becomes shorter
(compression) the sign is negative.
The strain is a ratio of two lengths. Lengths are measured in metres. The unit of
strain is thus m/m but this can be disregarded although it may result in confusion.
The following are recommended for defining a numerical value for strain:
1 m/m or 10-6 m/m
1 mm/m or 10-3 m/m
1 cm/m or 10-2 m/m
Stress
Stress on a material refers its being acted on by forces. There is a distinction
between normal stresses () and transverse stresses ().
Stress occurs when forces of the same magnitude act in different directions on a
material. This causes there to be tension forces (z) or compression forces (d)
in certain directions (see graphic below).
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The stresses in a material become greater when the forces are large and the
cross section of the stressed material is small. is the ratio of the acting force to
the cross-sectional area:
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The unit of stress is therefore N/mm2.
Modulus of elasticity
Where a material under test is in its zone of elasticity, there is a proportional
relationship between stress and strain . The constant of proportionality is the
modulus of elasticity E. This is a measure of the stiffness of the material and is
the ratio of normal stress to strain:
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The unit is the same as that for stress N/mm2. The relationship
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is called Hooke's law.
Every material has a different modulus of elasticity. The modulus for steel is
approximately 20 104 N/mm2 and that for aluminium is 4 104 N/mm2.
The modulus of elasticity is only applicable within the so-called "zone of
elasticity", i.e. the region in the stress-strain diagram (see graphic below) where
the relationship is linear. It is only possible to draw conclusions on the stresses
within the material from the strain within this region.
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Stress-strain diagram: (1) Hooke's gradient, (2) Limit of proportionality
Bending stresses
Bending stresses are in the nature of normal stresses but they arise in a different
way. During bending, forces of tension and compression occer at the same time.
The following is an example of a beam with a force acting at one end. Positive
and negative stresses occur on either side of the block. Between these theere
are unstressed or neutral grains.
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The distribution of stress over the cross section at any given point along the
stressed beam is not constant. The stress actually rises linearly from zero in the
neutral grains towards a maximum value in the surface at the edges. The
following graphic shows that more clearly.
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Distribution of bending stress over a coross section, (1) Neutral grains
Consider a stressed beam of constant cross section with a force F acting at one
end. The force gives rise to a bending moment, that increases from the point
where the forces acts towards the anchoring point (see graphic below).
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A bending moment is the product of the force and the distance from the anchor. A
bending moment at a point x is thus
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and for the maximum bending moment at that point x = L
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For a known section modulus Wb of the beam cross section, the bending moment
can thus be used to calculate the stresses in the beam. For grains at the edge
where y = h/2 the bending moment is
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The section modulus depends on the nature of the cross section. For the cross
section shown it is
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The following graphic shows the arrangement of the individual strain gauges on
the bending rod and the corresponding full bridge for measurement.
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When the bridge is in use as a half bridge, the two strain gauges DMS2 and
DMS4 are replaced by fixed resistors R5 and R6. For a quarter bridge only
DMS1 is utilised. In this version of the circuit potentiometer P1 is used as the
second leg of the circuit. The tosion rod can only be used in a half-bridge
arrangement.
A range of different weights from 2g up to 200 g is provided for loading the beam
or the torsion rod (see the following photograph). The torsion rod has two
balance pans so that torques and moments of differing sign can be produced.
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where is the specific resistivity of the conductor, l the length of the conductor
and A its surface area. If a force of tension F is then applied, as in the the
following animation, this causes the conductor to increase in length (this is
exaggerated in the animation). At the same time the conductor becomes more
tapered, i.e. the cross sectional area of the conductor decreases.
It can be shown that the relative change in resistance of metallic strain gauges is
approximately given by the following equation:
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The constant k is called the k factor and is close to 2 for metal conductors. is
the extension of the conductor due to the force acting upon it.
under tension) increases in length and the bottom (the side under compression)
shortens by the same amount.
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The extension of the top of the beam is proportional to the magnitude of the force
acting on it as given in the following equation
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where E is the modulus of elasticity for the materialof the beam and WB is the
resisting moment of the beam. For a beam of rectangular cross section this
works out to be
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In order to measure the force two strain gauges are attached to the top of the
beam and two more to the bottom. The force causes the resistance of the strain
gauges at the top to increase and that of the two underneath to decrease by the
same amount. By connecting up the strain gauges in a full bridge, the force can
be measured directly. The following animation elucidates the relationships
involved.
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If we consider the bounding surface of a chaft under torque (the surface of a
cylinder), the following may be observed: The line along the surface runs parallel
to the central axis when there is no load but when a load is applied, it spirals
sharply. Taking an infinitesimal surface element on the outer surface, the same
deformation as in the above animation can be seen except that above the
vectors representing the force are horizontal whereas, in this case, they are
vertical. This is unimportant in terms of the actual effect. By turning either of the
diagrams 90, the similarity becomes obvious. The largest amount of torsional
deformation also occurs along the diagonals of the surface element, i.e. at +45
or -45 to the surface line parallel to the shaft axis.
Move the mouse over the info icons on the graphic to read the details
BENDING ROD 1
What is the shape of the characteristic? What is the gradient of the line in mV/g if
the gain of the amplifier is eliminated? Enter your answers in the box below.
BENDING ROD 2
What is the shape of the characteristic? What is the gradient of the line in mV/g if
the gain of the amplifier is eliminated? How do the results compare with those for
the full bridge? Enter your answers in the box below.
BENDING ROD 3
What is the shape of the characteristic? What is the gradient of the line in mV/g if
the gain of the amplifier is eliminated? How do the results compare with those for
the full bridge and half bridge? Enter your answers in the box below.
TORSION ROD
What is the shape of the characteristic? What is the gradient in mV/g when the
gain of the amplifier is eliminated? Enter your answers in the box below.