Strain-based non-intrusive approaches for measuring the pressure of pipes have attracted widespread attention due to their great convenience and ability to avoid destroying the integrity of structures. However, the mentioned method usually measures the dynamic pressure based only on the static strain–pressure sensitivity coefficients (SSSCs) instead of the dynamic strain–pressure sensitivity coefficients (DSSCs) due to its complicated calibration, which will inevitably affect the accuracy significantly. To address this issue, a model-driven scheme with dual stages is proposed in the present study to compensate the dynamic pressure measurement. The DSSCs are analytically derived for the first time from the axial governing equations of the pipe, considering the general boundary conditions for the thin-walled and thick-walled pipes simultaneously. In the first stage, the physical parameters involved in the DSSCs are calibrated by minimizing the residual of the experimental results and the theoretical counterparts. In the second stage, the DSSCs calculated from the calibrated analytical model are utilized to compensate the dynamic pressure based on the relationship between the DSSCs and the SSSCs. The proposed method is applied to an industrial hydraulic pipe system, and the experimental results show that the relative error is reduced greatly after the compensation is implemented, demonstrating the validity of the proposed compensation method.
For the purpose of improving the sensitivity of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based strain sensor. A novel FBG-based strain sensor with high sensibility was designed by means of a flexible hinge bridge displacement magnification structure. This sensor can be used to accurately measure the strain of a mechanical structure surface. In this paper, the strain sensitization amplification factor of the sensor was calculated by using the flexible matrix method and the strain energy theory. The magnification had been verified by using simulation analysis and experimental results, and the error between theoretical calculation and simulation analysis was less than 7%. The result shows that the strain sensitivity of the sensor is 10.84 pm/με, which is about 10 times to that of the bare FBG sensor. This sensor is sensitive to micro-strain, so it can be well applied to health monitoring of a mechanical system.
1 September 2015 in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Combining fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors and finite element simulation analysis, an online monitoring method for non-invasive distributed flow velocity in pipelines has been proposed. A placement strategy has been proposed for the deployment of these FBG sensors to ensure effective sensing of strain. The cross-sensitivity problem of FBG sensors can be solved by differential FBG measurements. The principle of online monitoring of flow velocity based on the flow velocity function and finite element analysis is described and derived. Finite element analysis results show the $\boldsymbol {\varepsilon }_{1}- \boldsymbol {\varepsilon }_{2}$ at 45° of the elbow of the bend is quadratically proportional to the flow velocity. Meanwhile, the feasibility of the method is verified by experiments. The calibration results show a fitted correlation coefficient R 2 = 0.9982 in the velocity range of 4.25-10.62m/s, fitted by least squares to the wavelength data. The repeatability error of the flow measurement of the proposed sensor is no more than 5.06%FS. Compared with the existing literature, the method proposed in this paper has a wider range of flow velocity measurement and applications, especially suitable for applications with strong electromagnetic interference capability and harsher environment, showing great potential for engineering applications, especially in the distributed detection of long-distance pipeline networks.
Effective fault detection techniques are needed to reduce the maintenance and downtime costs of induction motors. This article presents an approach for stator end-winding inter-turn short-circuit fault detection using a metal-coated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor with 0.5-mm diameter and 10-mm length to monitor the temperature and magnetic field around the end winding. The sensing theory, design, manufacturing, and installation of the sensor are detailed in this article. The nickel coating on the surface of the sensor is formed by electroless plating and electroplating, which makes the sensor sensitive to both temperature and magnetic field. The feasibility of the presented approach has been supported by both simulation and experimental results. The temperature and magnetic field signals are decoupled by filtering, and the experimental data are analyzed in the time-frequency domain. The results show that the inter-turn short-circuit fault can be detected at an incipient stage with 5% shorted turns.
The deformation of the gantry structure in heavy-duty machine tools is an important factor that affects machining accuracy. In order to realize real-time monitoring of the deformation of the gantry structure, which is statically indeterminate and complex in shape, the reconstruction algorithm based on inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM) is proposed and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are used to measure strain data. The elements of the gantry structure are divided and the displacement functions of each element are determined. The shape function is obtained by substituting degree of freedoms (DOF) of element nodes into displacement functions. Through a differential method, the relation between strain and DOF of element nodes is established by the strain matrices. Subsequently, the DOF of element nodes are obtained by minimizing an error functional defined as the least-squares error between the analytic strain data and the corresponding experimental strains. Considering coordinate transformation and problem-specific displacement boundary conditions, the total deformation of the gantry structure is obtained. Following this, the experiment was carried out. The deformation simulated by ANSYS was used to replace the experimentally measured deformation and then compared with the deformation reconstructed by iFEM under the same loading condition. The accuracy of iFEM for reconstructing deformation of the gantry structure in heavy-duty machine tools is verified. It provides a new view for improving the machining precision of heavy-duty machine tools.