Study of a simple sensor for stress history measurements of a structural member using a piezoelectric element

This paper describes a stress sensor using a piezoelectric element which was developed to monitor features of the stress history of a structural member. The sensor is 90 mm long, 60 mm wide, and 25 mm thick. A stress-level meter can turn on and off different colored light-emitting diodes (LED) according to the changes in a stress level. A stress-level cross counter can display the number of cycles which exceeds a specified stress level during a monitoring period. The sensor is bonded onto a structural member using an adhesive agent. In order to see the performance of the prototype sensor, experiments were carried out using a fatigue-testing machine. The sensor was bonded onto a smooth specimen and multiple repeated stresses were applied to that specimen. There were three main findings. (1) The sensor can operate under a stress range from −150 MPa to 150 MPa, and a frequency from 0.05 Hz to 5 Hz. (2) The stress-level meter can turn the lights of the LED on and off accurately under any stress amplitude and frequency. (3) When the stress frequency is 1 Hz or less, the stress-level cross counter can count accurately the number of cycles which exceed the predetermined stress levels. Received: February 25, 2000 / Accepted: April 11, 2000