Seismic accelerometer

Author

García, Fernando ; Hixson, Elmer L. ; Huerta, Carlos I. ; Orozco, Horacio

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Texas Univ., Austin, TX, USA

Volume

3

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

1342

Abstract

The design, model, implementation, and test of a seismic accelerometer is presented in this paper. The sensing element is a flexural-type piezoelectric ceramic, known as bimorph. The analytical model of this transducer was developed and validated experimentally. The natural frequency (f₀), the useful flat range, sensitivity, and cutoff frequencies at the lower and upper end of the device are discussed. Experimental results shown that the frequency response of the prototype is from 4 to 120 Hz at ±3 dB with a sensitivity of 27 dB for 1 mV/m/sec². The electromechanical parameters, responsible for controlling the device characteristics, are presented and analyzed in great detail in order to demonstrate a simple technique to measure ground motion

Keywords

accelerometers; equivalent circuits; frequency response; piezoelectric transducers; seismometers; vibration measurement; bimorph; cantilever beam; cutoff frequencies; design; electromechanical parameters; energy conversion equations; equivalent circuit; flexural-type piezoelectric ceramic; frequency response; ground motion measurement; implementation; model; natural frequency; seismic accelerometer; sensitivity; testing; useful flat range; Accelerometers; Analytical models; Ceramics; Cutoff frequency; Frequency response; Motion control; Motion measurement; Piezoelectric transducers; Prototypes; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 1999. IMTC/99. Proceedings of the 16th IEEE

Conference_Location

Venice

ISSN

1091-5281

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5276-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IMTC.1999.776024

Filename

776024