THE USAGE OF EXTENSOMETRY TO MEASURE TENSIONS IN MECHANICAL STRUCTURES – CASE STUDY IN AN INDUSTRY AT ARARAQUARA-SP REGION

Abstract

Stensters are transducers used to measure mechanical deformations in a test body. This sensor is a bipole that has a known nominal resistance, and is glued on the test body, and when this test body suffers some mechanical deformation, its resistance is changed, this variation of resistance is read and processed by a data acquisition system, providing a real data and with good accuracy. The objective of this work was to perform the instrumentation of an electro-hydraulic pump with strain sensors (Strain Gages). A bibliographic research was carried out, using the Wheatstone Bridge technique to measure axial forces during the operation of this component. These sensors were submitted to a direct calibration, in a calibration laboratory of an industry in the region of Araraquara-SP, in order to obtain the relations of resistance changes with the force units related to the deformations of the part. As a result of the study, a good linearity was verified in the calibration curves of the sensors under study and it was concluded that the choice of sensor type and the techniques used reached the proposed objects.