Multicriteria approach to design of strain gauge force transducers

Abstract

Force transducers based on strain gauges are ubiquitous in force measuring equipment. Manufacturers of force transducers have to strive for stronger, cheaper and more accurate force transducers in order to compete successfully on the global market. Transducers have to be designed as fast as possible and require as little experimental work as possible. To that end, a reliable design tool is required. In this paper, we propose a new approach to design of force transducers based on strain gauges. The approach is based on the Parameter Space Investigation method and methods of multicriteria optimization. The transducer's parameters used as design criteria (output signal at rated load, nonlinearity, etc.) are evaluated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The FEA results are used to find the optimal locations of strain gauges. This method was implemented in the software system for multicriteria design of force transducers based on strain gauges. The system was used to design a novel force transducer and can be used for developing new strain gauge-based force transducers and optimizing the existing ones.