Hysteresis and drift in a carbon-polymer composite strain sensor

Rowan F. Cumming; Matthew Solomon; Jason P. Hayes; Erol C. Harvey; Alan Wilson

doi:10.1117/12.638481

13 January 2006 Hysteresis and drift in a carbon-polymer composite strain sensor

Rowan F. Cumming, Matthew Solomon, Jason P. Hayes, Erol C. Harvey, Alan Wilson

Proceedings Volume 6039, Complex Systems; 60390H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.638481
Event: Microelectronics, MEMS, and Nanotechnology, 2005, Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

A conductive polymer strain gauge was screen printed to produce an active area of 3mm × 4mm. The graphite and titanium dioxide loaded thermoplastic device was found to have a resistance of 4.3kΩ and a gauge factor of up to 20. The higher resistivity and gauge factor result in a lower power consumption and higher sensitivity when directly compared to metal foil strain gauges. However, a substantial hysteresis of approximately 80με was identified in a complete strain cycle from 0me to 730με. The source of this hysteresis was considered to be the thermoplastic matrix. Subsequently the viscoelastic nature of the polymer matrix was analysed using the gauge's resistive signal as it changed under applied strains, and this output was then compared to the standard linear solid (or Zener) model from linear viscoelastic theory. This model was applied to the data and with some limitations was found to make an improvement to the reported hysteresis.

Citation Download Citation

Rowan F. Cumming, Matthew Solomon, Jason P. Hayes, Erol C. Harvey, and Alan Wilson "Hysteresis and drift in a carbon-polymer composite strain sensor", Proc. SPIE 6039, Complex Systems, 60390H (13 January 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.638481

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