Study of a steel strand tension sensor with difference single bypass excitation structure based on the magneto-elastic effect

• Published in: Smart materials and structures Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 025019 - 025019 (5)
• Main Authors: Tang, Dedong, Huang, Shanglian, Chen, Weimin, Jiang, Jianshan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.04.2008; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); General equipment and techniques; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Measurement and testing methods; Physics; Servo and control equipment; robots; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics; Metallic structure; Resistance strain gauge; Vibration; Measurement sensor; Temperature sensor; Metal; Steel; Experimental study; Traction; Hand; Modeling; Temperature measurement; Solenoid; Bypass; Magnetomechanical properties; Error correction; Safety; Strand; Magnetoelastic effect; Monitoring; Mechanical tension
• ISSN: 0964-1726; 1361-665X
• DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/17/2/025019

With many steel strands used in various important machines and architectural structures, health monitoring of strand tension becomes more and more important to ensure the equipment or structures'safety. Contrasted with the method of vibration frequency and strain gages, the method of measuring the steel strand tension based on the magneto-elastic effect is more capable of meeting the requirements of health monitoring. Yet the structure of the sensor is mainly a sleeve structure, and the steel strand to be measured serves as the core of primary and secondary solenoids. This structure is very difficult to fix and maintain. On the other hand, a change of temperature will strongly affect measurement results, and experiments prove that temperature error compensation by using a temperature compensation curve is not effective enough. Therefore in this paper the principle of a cable tension sensor based on the magneto-elastic effect is expounded, the theory of temperature influence is explored, a difference structure by single bypass excitation is devised, its magnetic loop is analyzed, an experiment is designed, and experiments on temperature compensation and pulling tension are carried out. The experiment results indicated that the structure of the sensor is feasible, temperature errors can be compensated for automatically, after which temperature errors become less than 0.012 MPa deg C-1, and repeating errors of tension are less than 0.15%, which meet the measurement requirements.