A novel two-dimensional high SNR MEMS shear stress sensor for ocean turbulence

Abstract

Ocean turbulence observation is essentially important to the study of microscopic structure and macroscopic motion. The shear probe sensor is one of the effective ways for turbulence measurement. However, most of the shear probe sensors sensitive in a single direction and the observation of turbulence is short of directivity characteristics. In this work, a ciliated two-dimensional MEMS shear stress sensor with high signal to noise ratio is designed for ocean turbulence measurement. The MEMS sensor is composed of four silicon beams with varistors and a bionic cilium. To evaluate the performance of the sensor, comparisons with a PNS shear probe (PNS06) are made in a calibration water tank. The results reveal that the MEMS sensor performs similarly to the PNS shear probe in the same experimental condition and has high signal to noise ratio. Additionally, the MEMS sensor is highly sensitive to flow direction. The MEMS sensor is found to work well under the hydrostatic pressure of 40 MPa, which make it suitable for deep ocean turbulence measurements.