Study of Sensitive Parameters on the Sensor Performance of a Compression-Type Piezoelectric Accelerometer Based on the Meta-Model

Abstract

Through a numerical analytical approach based on piezoelectric analysis and meta-modeling, this study investigated the effect of the component design of an accelerometer sensor on sensitivity and resonance frequency. The results of the study confirmed that the resonance frequency obtained from the piezoelectric analysis was almost the same as the experimental value of the resonance frequency obtained from the fabricated sensing module and proved the validity of the piezoelectric analysis using a finite element method. Moreover, the results of examining the influence of the component design on the resonance frequency and electrical potential suggested that the diameter and height of the head (seismic mass) had the greatest influence. As the diameter and height of the head increased, the sensitivity increased, but the resonance frequency decreased, which indicates that it is necessary to select an appropriate mass to optimize the sensor performance. In addition, the increase in tail height and epoxy thickness had a positive effect on both the resonance frequency and electric potential, and the base diameter had a negative effect on both of them.

Simulation-Based Design and Optimization of Accelerometers Subject to High-Temperature and High-Impact Loads

“…The entire sensor structure needs a preload which is achieved by initial preloading. Considering all the internal components, compression-type piezoelectric accelerometers are rare [4].…”

“…After reviewing the literature, some papers relate to the simulation of bolt preloads and impacts [23,24,25,26]. Lee simulated a centrally compressed piezoelectric sensor, whose structure is similar to our accelerometer, but only sensitivity and resonance frequency are analyzed [4]. Choi simulated the drop of a haptic actuator, which possesses spring structure, with 2-step drop analysis of external impact and internal impact [27].…”

“…As an impact switch of a weapon system, the accelerometer must be designed to be precise and compact for a wide range of measurement. Our research object is a centrally compressed piezoelectric sensor (accelerometer) [4]. An inertial component is a basic sensing element that obtains the impact effect, and then a piezoelectric element is used as a transducer to transfer the impact loads into digital voltage signals.…”

“…The sensing system is assembled and debugged at the room temperature, stored in the warehouse at around 20 °C for a long time, and deployed in applications at extremely high or low temperature. As the piezoelectric materials possess intrinsic Curie temperature, accelerometers are typically targeted at temperatures of −70 °C, −55 °C, 260 °C, 482 °C, and 648 °C [3,4,5].…”

Experimental Study on Damage Identification of Nano-SiO2 Concrete Filled GFRP Tube Column Using Piezoceramic Transducers

“…Hence, it is of immense significance to monitor the health of concrete columns. In recent years, piezoceramic materials have been actively used in structural health monitoring (SHM) owing to their high sensitivity [26][27][28], fast response [29], dual functions of sensing and actuating [30], and energy harvesting [31], and piezoceramic transducers have the capacity to generate and sense stress waves. Since stress waves, including ultrasonic waves, are important tools in SHM such as active sensing methods [32][33][34], piezoceramics-based SHM and damage detection are receiving increasing attention [35][36][37].…”