A Guide to Accelerometer Selection

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A Guide to Accelerometer Selection

The selection of an optimum accelerometer depends on having a reasonable knowledge of the acceleration levels, and the range of frequencies, which are to be measured. An awareness of the environmental conditions, in which the accelerometer is expected to deliver accurate results, is also necessary. Most sensors including accelerometers have sensitivity to other environments as well as acceleration. Sensitivity to temperature variations is the most apparent. Some accelerometer designs have significantly better performance in changing thermal environments than others. Alternate designs are very rugged and can handle severe shock and vibration without damage. CFX supplies accelerometers using both Micromachined and Force Balance designs. Micromachined devices are referred to as MEMS and the Force Balance accelerometer has a nickname of Servo accelerometer. For the purpose of selecting an accelerometer, applications can be divided into two categories. These categories are Linear Acceleration (static) and vibration / shock (dynamic). Linear acceleration sometimes referred to as DC or static acceleration consists of prolonged acceleration often in one direction. Examples would be the acceleration of vehicles, elevators, falling objects or measurement of gravity. These events take place for relatively long periods of time so one demand placed on the accelerometer is that it have response at 0 frequency (DC) and a stable zero g bias. If the environment has wide temperature fluctuations, the accelerometer must also have a stable zero g bias over the anticipated operating temperature range. Bias stability therefore, is very important A change in the bias can be misinterpreted as variations in the measurand Many applications are best filled by the force balance accelerometer because of its inherently stable design. The CFX US4, US5, UM1 and UM3 are examples of accelerometers using the Force Balance Design. Inclinometers are a special case of a DC accelerometer, being used to measure tilt. Gravity is a constant acceleration, away from the center of the earth. An accelerometer with DC response can be used to measure this acceleration. Gravity is the most dependable source of acceleration for use in the calibration of accelerometers. As the accelerometer's sensitive axis is tilted from pointing horizontal to vertical, the influence of gravity varies as a function of the Sine of the angle between the horizon and the accelerometer's sensitive axis, thus the inclinometer application. The CFX series UITS are examples of DC accelerometers optimized for tilt measurements. Vibration and Shock fall under the category of dynamic acceleration: Examples include: acceleration, which is changing amplitude rapidly, polarity (direction) or is of a transitory nature. Traditionally these measurements have been the realm of the piezo-electric accelerometer; however newer micromachined accelerometers are rapidly replacing the piezo-electric type in many applications. The piezo-electric accelerometer does not respond to DC acceleration but in contrast has a very wide frequency response ranging from 1 or 2 Hz to beyond 5000Hz. Piezo-Electric accelerometers are self-generating but have a very high output impedance and therefore require some additional buffering and amplification. They also have an undamped resonant frequency, which must be avoided in order to maintain the integrity of the more relevant low frequency data. The CFX models USCA, USCA-TX, and UATS using micromachined or MEMS technology can be used in most vibration applications formerly filled by the Piezo-electric type. MEMS accelerometers have several advantages. Aside from having response extending down to DC, they are completely self-contained, thus require no secondary electronics. They also do not have an undamped natural frequency. As a result they are much easier to use and lower in cost. Shock Shock is a sudden impact, usually consisting of very high levels of high frequency components. Typical shock pulses have duration in the milli-seconds and amplitudes in the hundreds of gs and beyond. CFX micromachined accelerometers can be used for shock measurements when levels of 100 g and lower are anticipated. The Piezo-electric accelerometer is still the best choice for applications requiring measurements above 50 g Linear Acceleration As previously mentioned a DC application is one in which the accelerometer is used to measure an event, which is essentially static or has the same polarity over a given period of time. The acceleration of a vehicle may be constant over a period of seconds or minutes in the case of a satellite launch vehicle. The tilt (gravitational acceleration) of a surface may be static indefinitely. It is the job of the DC accelerometer to measure this acceleration within certain accuracy independent of time or other environments. Both Force Balance and MEMS accelerometers can be used to measure linear acceleration and low frequency vibration. The final choice would depend on accuracy, size, cost and environmental requirements. The Force Balance accelerometer is best for accuracy, stability and low noise. MEMS accelerometers are very rugged, low cost and small in size. If wide thermal variations are expected either a force balance or thermally stabilized MEMS accelerometer should be used. Inclination

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A Guide to Accelerometer Selection

http://www.cfxtech.com/rhow.htm

Users of inclinometers do not want the inclination data to be contaminated by vibration data. Even worse, since an inclinometer is typically a very sensitive accelerometer, it can easily be overloaded by ambient vibration. Under overload conditions the laws of superimposition do not apply and no amount of post filtering can recover the tilt data. The conclusion is that a well-designed inclinometer is sensitive only to DC and near DC accelerations and does not respond at all to the vibration in the environment. . . Seismic Applications A seismic application is one in which the user intends to measure a low frequency, low level vibration propagating through a structure or the earth. Accelerometers used for this application need DC or near DC response, high sensitivity, low noise and a range typically less than 1 g. The highest frequency of interest is often no greater than 20 Hz. The force balance accelerometer is the best choice because of its exceptionally low drift and noise, This design allows measurements in the micro g range. The accelerometer, when mounted with its sensitive axis oriented vertically must contend with the 1 g acceleration of gravity. This is frequently accomplished by an internal counter-bias which cancels out the effect of gravity. Machinery Vibration The monitoring of manufacturing machinery vibration is a growing application for accelerometers. Preventative maintenance is accomplished by periodically monitoring key positions in a piece of equipment and looking for increasing vibration levels as the equipment ages. The increase of vibration levels relates to enlargement of bearing clearances, which ultimately lead to failure. Electric motors usually run at 3600 rpm or less. Precedents set dictate that velocity or displacement measurements are more desirable than acceleration. Acceleration measurements tend to emphasize the higher frequencies which normally are not of much concern in a large slowly rotating piece of equipment. Conversion from acceleration to velocity to displacement is a relatively simple task using analog integrator circuits. Assuming a frequency range from 0.5 Hz to 50 Hz, accelerometer / integrator combinations can be configured to measure velocities from 0.005 ips to 2 ips and displacements from 0.001 inches to 0.010 inches. These values cover a good range of machinery monitoring applications. MEMS accelerometers will cover most of these applications. People Movers Most elevators, trams and public rail transportation systems are totally or have some degree of automation. Measuring the acceleration of these vehicles is often part of the automation process. Acceleration is an important parameter in maintaining safety and schedules under varying conditions of traffic and passenger load. Many Hi tech amusement rides require acceleration measurements as part of the safety considerations. A low cost Force Balance or Thermally stabilized MEMS accelerometer would perform equally well in these applications. Angular Acceleration The angular accelerometer should not be confused with the inclinometer. The inclinometer measures the linear acceleration of gravity and translates into an angle of tilt between it's own axis of sensitivity and the horizon. The angular accelerometer, ignores linear acceleration completely and measures only rotational acceleration. The angular accelerometer does not need gravity to function. Angular acceleration, with associated angular velocity and displacement are very important measurements to be made in the analysis of structural behavior in wind or the process of pointing camera platforms, gun sights, and laser mounts. One classical application of an angular accelerometer is that of short term correction required to compensate for roll on large ships attempting to target something in heavy seas. Angular motion measurements are best made using gyro based sensors such as the CFX model UDG angular accelerometer or UG series Rate gyros. Other Rotational Sensors. Most users are familiar with the methods of making measurements of linear motion using accelerometers. Rotational motion measurements are not made as frequently. The devices and knowledge for making these measurements are often not familiar. This section discusses the choices and applications of CFX sensors which are used for rotational or angular measurements. First a word concerning zero output bias stability. The measurement of low frequency, low level motion requires a sensor with excellent bias stability. A change in the bias can be misinterpreted as a variation in the measurand. Rate Gyros The model UGL-1 is intended for low level rate measurements. It responds to Dc rates and has excellent bias stability with variations in temperature. Full ranges as low as +/- 25 dps are available. The model UGH-1 should be chosen when measurements above 250 dps are expected. The UGH-1 also will measure DC rates however the bias temperature sensitivity is larger than that of the UGL-1. The low cost UGA-1 is available with full ranges from +/- 50 to 1000 dps. The frequency range is from 0.001 Hz to 50 Hz.

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A Guide to Accelerometer Selection

http://www.cfxtech.com/rhow.htm

Angular Accelerometers Angular accelerometers are used to measure angular vibration and periodic motion. They are often used on pivoting beams, eccentric mechanisms or continual rotating shafts. These shafts may not run true or fluctuate in speed. The latter applications require that the maximum rate of the shaft not overload the accelerometer. The accelerometer specification should define any rate limitations. The model USCR accelerometer is designed for high level measurements. Full ranges from 500 to 5000 radians /sec ^2 are available and the accelerometer can function accurately on shafts rotating at up to 300 RPM. The model UDG is a very sensitive angular accelerometer. Full range of +/- 20 radians / sec ^2, but limited to 20 RPM continous rotation.

Summary The Force Balance accelerometer is the most accurate and has the lowest bias drift and noise in the presence of wide temperature variations. It is best suited for DC and low frequency measurements. Force Balance accelerometers are capable of measurements from 5 g down tens of micro-gs. The CFX models US4,US5, UM1 and UM3 are accelerometers using the Force Balance Design. The various models differ in size, accuracy, output characteristics and input power configurations. The CFX models UITS-2B,UITS-XL,UITS-2BI, and UITS-BIXL are MEMS based miniature inclinometers employing special circuitry to stabilize zero bias over temperature. The are available in single or dual axis configurations. The BI suffix indicates a 4-20 mA output configuration MEMS based accelerometers, CFX models USCA, USCA-TX ,UATS and UCDV are recommended for dynamic applications (vibration and shock). Aside from being very rugged and they also are the lowest in cost. The USCA is a low cost, easy to use, single axis accelerometer. The USCA-TX is a tri-axial configuration of the USCA.

The UATS is a dual axis MEMS accelerometer with thermally stabilized scale factor and bias intended for a applications requiring DC response and stability with more durability then can be provided by Force Balance accelerometers The UCDV uses very rugged construction, and is intended for use in high vibration applications. The model UDG is an angular accelerometer, designed for low level measurements of less than 25 rad/ sec^2. Higher level angular acceleration measurements are made with the model USCR. CFX rate gyros are the models UGL, UGH and the UGA. The UGL has response extending down to DC, has excellent bias stability with temperature variations and is available in ranges between +/- 25 and 300 dps. The UGH Can measure rates up to 1000 dps but has somewhat less DC bias stability than the UGL. The model UGA is intended primarily for data gathering applications, is low cost and has low end response extending down to 0.001 Hz. .

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