Abstract
The authors have previously proposed corrugated soft elastomeric capacitors (cSEC) to create ultra compliant scalable strain gauges. The cSEC technology has been successfully demonstrated in engineering and biomechanical applications for in-plane strain measurements. This study extends work on the cSEC to evaluate its performance at measuring angular rotation when installed folded at the junction of two plates. The objective is to characterize the sensor’s electromechanical behavior anticipating applications to the monitoring of welded connections in steel components. To do so, an electromechanical model that maps the cSEC signal to bending strain induced by angular rotation is derived and adjusted using a validated finite element model. Given the difficulty in mapping strain measurements to rotation, an algorithm termed angular rotation index (ARI) is formulated to link measurements to angular rotation directly. Experimental work is conducted on a hollow structural section (HSS) steel specimen equipped with cSECs subjected to compression to generate angular rotations at the corners within the cross-section. Results confirm that the cSEC is capable of tracking angular rotation-induced bending strain linearly, however with accuracy levels significantly lower than found over flat configurations. Nevertheless, measurements were mapped to angular rotations using the ARI, and it was found that the ARI mapped linearly to the angle of rotation, with an accuracy of 0.416.
Highlights
The rapid growth of the electronics industry and advanced materials has enabled the development of flexible electronics, empowering new measurement capabilities over complex and highly deformable surfaces
This section validates the numerical model using experimental data and analyses experimental results demonstrating the capability of the corrugated soft elastomeric capacitor (cSEC) for monitoring both the rotation-induced bending strain and angular rotations
There is a close match between experimental tests and the finite element model (FEM), with a fitted root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 4.03% and
Summary
The rapid growth of the electronics industry and advanced materials has enabled the development of flexible electronics, empowering new measurement capabilities over complex and highly deformable surfaces. Of interest to this paper are thin-film based flexible devices capable of mechanical strain measurement, termed flexible strain sensors [1,2] These devices can function on different sensing principles, with mechanisms based on capacitance [3,4,5], resistance [6,7], piezoelectrics/triboelectrics [8,9], and transistors [10,11], and with example applications in the areas of biomechanical engineering [12,13], wearable sensors [14,15], and structural health monitoring [16,17]. A key advantage of flexible sensors is their capability to sustain large deformations, making them ideal candidates for applications to irregular or complex geometries. They can advantageously be applied over corners, welds, and curved and rugged surfaces. An extended electromechanical model suitable for measuring bending deformations and the ARI algorithm used to relate measurements to angular motions are presented
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