D. Phil. / Conventional internal wind tunnel balances are designed and constructed to accommodate foil strain gauges which measure the deformation (strain) of the material. Foil strain gauge balances are known to be affected by electromagnetic interference and temperature. These balances are expensive and their manufacture is time consuming. With an increasing demand for higher accuracy, stiffness, increased resolution and temperature compensation, current balance designs are becoming inadequate. To overcome identified balance deficiencies a research programme in the application of optical Bragg gratings to wind tunnel balances was initiated. In this programme a new concept of using optical fibre Bragg grating sensors, with the advantage of using mechanical amplification to increase sensitivity, and the implementation of temperature compensation techniques was demonstrated on a simulated two component balance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:2296 |
| Date | 04 June 2012 |
| Creators | Pieterse, Frederik Francois |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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