Abstract
The sensor response has been reported to become highly nonlinear when the acceleration added to a thermal accelerator is very large, so the same response can be observed for two accelerations with different magnitudes and opposite signs. Some papers have reported the frequency response for the horizontal acceleration to be a first-order system, while others have reported it to be a second-order system. The response for the vertical acceleration has not been studied. In this study, computational experiments were performed to examine the step and frequency responses of a three-axis thermal accelerometer. The results showed that monitoring the temperatures at two positions and making use of cross-axis sensitivity allow a unique acceleration to be determined even when the range of the vertical acceleration is very large (e.g., −10,000–10,000 g). The frequency response was proven to be a second-order system for horizontal acceleration and a third-order system for vertical acceleration.
Highlights
Thermal accelerometers have recently attracted much attention and become the subject of theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies
Because thermal accelerometers do not have a proof mass, they can endure a higher shock than accelerometers that do have a proof mass
Two temperature sensors are positioned in parallel on a horizontal plane, and a heater is placed between them (Figure 1a)
Summary
Thermal accelerometers have recently attracted much attention and become the subject of theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies. A thermal accelerometer is based on the displacement of a hot air bubble generated by a heated wire in an enclosed chamber under acceleration. Two temperature sensors are positioned in parallel on a horizontal plane, and a heater is placed between them (Figure 1a). When no acceleration is applied to the accelerometer, the heater creates a symmetric heat bubble so that the same temperature is obtained by the two temperature sensors (Figure 1b). When a non-zero value of acceleration aX in the x-direction is applied to the accelerometer, the shape of the heat bubble is distorted by the buoyancy effect. By knowing the relation between aX and ∆TX in advance, the arbitrary value of the acceleration added to the accelerometer can be calculated from the measured temperature difference ∆TX. The acceleration in the y-direction can be measured in a similar manner
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