Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Oct 23;21(21):7017. doi: 10.3390/s21217017.
The authors have previously proposed corrugated soft elastomeric capacitors (cSEC) to create ultra compliant scalable strain gauges. The cSEC technology has been successfully demonstrated in engineering and biomechanical applications for in-plane strain measurements. This study extends work on the cSEC to evaluate its performance at measuring angular rotation when installed folded at the junction of two plates. The objective is to characterize the sensor's electromechanical behavior anticipating applications to the monitoring of welded connections in steel components. To do so, an electromechanical model that maps the cSEC signal to bending strain induced by angular rotation is derived and adjusted using a validated finite element model. Given the difficulty in mapping strain measurements to rotation, an algorithm termed angular rotation index (ARI) is formulated to link measurements to angular rotation directly. Experimental work is conducted on a hollow structural section (HSS) steel specimen equipped with cSECs subjected to compression to generate angular rotations at the corners within the cross-section. Results confirm that the cSEC is capable of tracking angular rotation-induced bending strain linearly, however with accuracy levels significantly lower than found over flat configurations. Nevertheless, measurements were mapped to angular rotations using the ARI, and it was found that the ARI mapped linearly to the angle of rotation, with an accuracy of 0.416∘.
作者先前提出了波纹软弹性体电容器 (cSEC)，以创建超顺应性可扩展应变计。cSEC 技术已成功应用于工程和生物力学领域，用于平面内应变测量。本研究将 cSEC 的工作扩展到评估其在安装于两个板的连接处折叠时测量角旋转的性能。目的是通过对传感器的机电行为进行特征描述，预期将其应用于监测钢构件中的焊接连接。为此，导出了一个机电模型，该模型将 cSEC 信号映射到由角旋转引起的弯曲应变，并使用经过验证的有限元模型进行调整。由于难以将应变测量映射到旋转，因此制定了一种称为角旋转指数 (ARI) 的算法，以直接将测量值与角旋转联系起来。在配备 cSEC 的空心结构截面 (HSS) 钢试件上进行了实验工作，该试件在受压时会在截面上的拐角处产生角旋转。结果证实，cSEC 能够线性跟踪角旋转引起的弯曲应变，但是精度水平明显低于平面配置。尽管如此，仍使用 ARI 将测量值映射到角旋转，发现 ARI 与旋转角度线性映射，精度为 0.416∘。
