When talking about strain gauges, it is important to first comprehend what they measure. A sensor known as a strain gauge measures electrical resistance that changes in relation to variations in strain. Strain is the material’s displacement or deformation as a result of applied stress. are made to concentrate stress through beam elements where strain gauges are located. Stress is defined as the force applied to a material divided by the cross-sectional area of the material. Strain gauges turn the applied force, pressure, torque, etc. into a measurable electrical signal. Strain is caused by force, and the strain gauge measures it by detecting a change in electrical resistance. The voltage measurement is then collected using.
How is strain measured?
The next stage in employing strain gauges is obtaining relevant data now that the method of strain measurements has been developed. The strain gauge needs to be coupled to an electrical circuit that can precisely react to the minuscule resistance variations brought on by strain. In a divided bridge circuit, several strain gauges can be utilised to track minute variations in electrical resistance. A Wheatstone bridge is what you have here. An excitation voltage is delivered across the circuit in a Wheatstone bridge configuration, and the output voltage is measured across two points in the middle of the bridge.The Wheatstone bridge is balanced and has zero output voltage when there is no load on the load cell. As the strain gauge deforms together with the material under it, even the smallest change causes a change in resistance. The output voltage changes as a result of the bridge being knocked out of balance. As was previously said, the resistance change is minute, hence signal amplification is frequently required to accurately identify changes. The strain signal changes are strengthened by the amplification process, but extra undesired noise is also picked up in the signal as a side effect. Signal conditioning removes the extra noise to produce accurate and comprehensible data.