Strain Guages: Bounded and Unbounded Strain Gauges

STRAIN GUAGES
Bounded and unbounded strain gauges

Biomedical Instrumentation
Submitted to: Dr Asim Waris
Submitted by: Sania Rahman

273836
STRAIN GAUGES
Resistive element that changes resistance proportional to an applied mechanical
strain. The principle of a strain gauge can easily understood by following figure;
shows a cylindrical resistor element which has length, L, and cross-sectional area, A.
If it is made of material having a resistivity of r ohm-cm, its resistance is
R= r.L/A ohmsΩ
If an axial force is applied to element to cause it to stretch, its length increases by an

amount, ∆L. This stretching on the other hand causes the cross sectional area of the
cylinder to decrease by an amount ∆A. either an increase in L or decrease in A results
in an increase in resistance. The ratio of resulting resistance change ∆R/R to change
in length <l/L is called gauge factor, GF. Thus
∆R ∆L
GF = ÷
R L
The gauge factor for metal is about 2, whereas the gauge factor for silicon is about
120.
PAGE 1
TYPES OF STRAIN GAUGE
UNBONDED STRAIN GAUGE: An unbounded metal strain gauge is shown in fig
(a). This gauge consist of a wire stretched between two points in an insulating
medium such as air. The wires may be made of various copper, nickel or nickel iron
alloys. In order to obtain a convenient resistance (120 ohm is common value), several
turns of wire of must be used. The moving part of the transducer is connected to
stationary frame by four unbounded strain gauges, R1 through R4. If the moving
member is forced to the right, R2 and R3 are stretched and their resistance increases
while the stress in R1 and R4 is reduced, thus decreasing the resistance of these strain
gauge wires. By connecting the four strain gauges into bridge circuit as shown in fig
(b), all change influence the output voltage in the same direction, increasing the
sensitivity of the transducer by a factor of 4. At the same time, resistance changes of
the strain gauge due to changing temperatures tend to compensate each other. The
unbounded strain gauge is basically a force transducer. The same principle is also
utilized in blood pressure transducer.
Figure (a) Figure (b)
PAGE 2
BOUNDED STRAIN GAUGE: Bonded strain gauge will be either a wire type or a foil
type.
BONDED METAL WIRE STRAIN GAUGE: The bonded metal wire strain gauge are
used for both stress analysis and for construction of transducer. A resistance wire strain
gauge consist of a grid of fine resistance wire. The grid is cemented to carrier which may
be a thin sheet of paper Bakelite or Teflon. The wire is covered on top with a thin sheet of
material so as to prevent it from any mechanical damage. The carrier is bonded with an
adhesive material to the specimen which permit a good transfer of strain from carrier to
grid of wires.
BONDED METAL FOIL STRAIN GAUGE: It consist of following parts
Base (carrier) Materials: several types of base material are used to support the wires.
Impregnated paper is used for room temperature applications.
Adhesive: The adhesive acts as bonding materials. Like other bonding operation,
successful strain gauge bonding depends upon careful surface preparation and use of the
correct bonding agent. In order that the strain be faithfully transferred on to the strain
gauge, the bond has to be formed between the surface to be strained and the plastic
backing material on which the gauge is mounted. It is important that the adhesive should
be suited to this backing and adhesive material should be quick drying type and also
insensitive to moisture.
Leads: The leads should be of such materials which have low and stable resistivity and
also a low resistance temperature coefficient. This class of strain gauge is only an
extension of the bonded metal wire strain gauges. The bonded metal wire strain gauge
have been completely superseded by bonded metal foil strain gauges. Metal foil strain
gauge use identical material to wire strain gauge and are used for most general purpose
stress analysis application and for many transducers.
PAGE 3
References
https://www.scribd.com/doc/288004431/Biomedical-Instrumentation-and-
Measurements
http://www.instrumentationtoday.com/strain-gauge/2011/08/
http://instrumentationandcontrollers.blogspot.com/2010/11/bonded-strain-
gauges.html
PAGE 4

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STRAIN GUAGES

Bounded and unbounded strain gauges

Submitted by: Sania Rahman

If an axial force is applied to element to cause it to stretch, its length increases by an

Figure (a) Figure (b)

BONDED METAL FOIL STRAIN GAUGE: It consist of following parts

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