Meirong Zhao

Highly sensitive, precise, and traceable measurement of force

ABSTRACT Force in the micronewton range may be traced to the International System of Units by an electrostatic force balance weight system. However, there is a conflict between range and sensitivity. To solve this problem, a lever-type force metrology system based on the null-balance method is reported. The force is loaded on one end of the lever, causing elastic torsion of the central rod, and an electrostatic force is applied to the other end. With a variety of mass loading positions and standard weights, a wide range of moments may be produced to calibrate the system. The electrostatic force was generated by a pair of coaxial cylindrical capacitors where the applied voltage was converted into electrode displacement. The design of the inner and outer cylindrical capacitors was deduced considering the material and miniaturization requirements, and concentric alignment was ensured by a vision system. The null balance was achieved by a proportion-integration-differentiation control system, so that the external force was compensated by the electrostatic force. A method to increase the center of gravity was used to improve the resolution. The mechanism was analyzed based on stiffness, strength, stability, and frequency. Furthermore, the impact on the capacitance gradient due to the capacitor tilt caused by the applied force was estimated. Standard weights were utilized to evaluate the system performance. The results showed that a stiffness of 0.8 N/m and a force resolution of 10−8 N were achieved.

Improving environmental noise suppression for micronewton force sensing based on electrostatic by injecting air damping.

A micro/nano force can be traced to the International System of Units by means of an electrostatic force balance weight system. However, the micro/nano force measurement system is susceptible to environmental disturbances. Various methods have been proposed to reduce the effect of environmental disturbances and obtain high resolution and fast response. In this paper, we introduce a combination of air damping and inherent damping from the internal molecular friction of spring suspension. This will optimize system stability and improve environmental noise suppression. Results from the air damping model show that the damping ratio increases from 0.0005 to 0.1, which improves the vibration resistance. We found that the system with air damping has the advantages of fast response and low scatter.

Low cost, high performance white-light fiber-optic hydrophone system with a trackable working point.

A working-point trackable fiber-optic hydrophone with high acoustic resolution is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor is based on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cavity molded at the end of a single-mode fiber, acting as a low-finesse Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer. The working point tracking is achieved by using a low cost white-light interferometric system with a simple tunable FP filter. By real-time adjusting the optical path difference of the FP filter, the sensor working point can be kept at its highest sensitivity point. This helps address the sensor working point drift due to hydrostatic pressure, water absorption, and/or temperature changes. It is demonstrated that the sensor system has a high resolution with a minimum detectable acoustic pressure of 148 Pa and superior stability compared to a system using a tunable laser.

The multi-position calibration of the stiffness for atomic-force microscope cantilevers based on vibration

Calibration of the stiffness of atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers is critical for industry and academic research. The multi-position calibration method for AFM cantilevers based on vibration is investigated. The position providing minimum uncertainty is deduced. The validity of the multi-position approach is shown via theoretical and experimental means. We applied it to the recently developed vibration method using an AFM cantilever with a normal stiffness of 0.1 N m−1. The standard deviation of the measured stiffness is 0.002 N m−1 with a mean value of 0.189 N m−1 and the relative combined uncertainty is approximately 7%, which is better than the approach using the single position at the tip of the cantilever.

The Differential Method for Force Measurement Based on Electrostatic Force

The small force measurement is very important with development of the technology. The electrostatic force is adopted, in which a pair of coaxial cylindrical capacitors generate the electrostatic force when a voltage is applied across the inner and outer electrodes. However, the measured force will be covered by noise (creep, ground vibration, and air flow) and could not be measured accurately. In this paper, we introduce the differential method to reduce the effect of noise. Two identical parallelogram mechanisms (PM) serve as the mechanical spring. One of the PM serves as the reference and another serves as the force sensor. The common signal will be offset, and the difference signal will serve as output. In this way, the effect of the creep will be reduced. The measurement system of the electrostatic force was characterized by applying mechanical forces of known magnitude via loading weights of calibrated masses. The uncertainty from voltage, laser interferometer, and capacitance gradient was estimated. For the measured force, the relative uncertainty is less than 4% .

The study of dynamic force acted on water strider leg departing from water surface

Water-walking insects such as water striders can skate on the water surface easily with the help of the hierarchical structure on legs. Numerous theoretical and experimental studies show that the hierarchical structure would help water strider in quasi-static case such as load-bearing capacity. However, the advantage of the hierarchical structure in the dynamic stage has not been reported yet. In this paper, the function of super hydrophobicity and the hierarchical structure was investigated by measuring the adhesion force of legs departing from the water surface at different lifting speed by a dynamic force sensor. The results show that the adhesion force decreased with the increase of lifting speed from 0.02 m/s to 0.4 m/s, whose mechanic is investigated by Energy analysis. In addition, it can be found that the needle shape setae on water strider leg can help them depart from water surface easily. Thus, it can serve as a starting point to understand how the hierarchical structure on the legs help water-...

Measurement of interaction between water droplets and curved super-hydrophobic substrates in the air

The interaction force is very important in the study of the contact process of droplets and super-hydrophobic substrates. Accurate interaction force measurement in the air has far-reaching impact on industrial production and biomimetic field. However, limited by the evaporation of small droplets, interaction force can only be measured in the liquid by AFM and other devices. A millimetric cantilever was used to make it possible to measure the interaction between droplets and super-hydrophobic substrates in the air. The optical lever was calibrated with the electrostatic force. The super- hydrophobic substrates were fabricated using nano particles and copper grids. We finally acquired the interaction force and wetting time between the droplet and super- hydrophobic substrates with different grid fractions and similar contact angle. The results showed that the interaction force decreased with the increase of the grid fraction. These would open a new way of understanding the mechanism of hydrophobic.

Liquid Viscosity Measurement Using a Vibrating Flexure Hinged Structure and a Fiber-Optic Sensor

A novel viscosity measurement system based on a miniature 3D printed parallelogram flexure hinge structure and a fiber-optic sensor is developed. Lorentz forces are applied to excite the structure vibration at various frequencies, and the fiber-optic sensor is used to measure the amplitude and phase responses without the electromagnetic interference. The system is modeled as a single oscillator by taking into account the liquid-induced mass and damping as well as the additive stiffness due to the liquid viscoelasticity. By curve fitting of the experimentally obtained amplitude and phase responses based on the analytical model, the viscosity and the additive stiffness can be obtained. This method can help differentiate the effect of the viscosity and elasticity on the response of the sensing structure. By implementing this method, accurate viscosity measurements over a large range of 1-1045 mPa·s are demonstrated with the errors of <;3.7% for all the test samples. It is also confirmed in the experiment that the liquid-induced additive stiffness is strongly related to the liquid storage modulus.

Optimization of Electrostatic Force System Based on Newton Interpolation Method

The measurements of micro/nanoforces are of great importance in both science and engineering. We developed a traceable system for micro/nanoforces based on electrostatic force using two electrodes. Noises (creep, ground vibration, and airflow) are one of the limitations for force resolution. The forces are distorted by noise and cannot be measured accurately. Although ABA method can be used to eliminate linear creep, it is invalid for nonlinear noise. In this paper, a new method known as the Newton interpolation method (NIM) has been adopted in capacitance gradient and the calibration of cantilever stiffness to reduce the effect of nonlinear noise. The results show that the capacitance gradient, with a relative standard deviation of 0.004%, is stable and has good repeatability. The stiffness of cantilever was measured using electrostatic force. The typical value of stiffness ranged from 5.1 to 48 N/m. The relative standard deviation was small, i.e., less than 0.6% owing to Newton interpolation method. These results show that our system is very stable and repeatable. This research may assist in the designing of force measurement systems based on electrostatic force.

Novel non-contact torque measurement using the magnetomechanical effect

Abstract With the recent developments in science and technology, torque measurements have been widely used in many fields. However, present torque measurement methods have limitations for long-term applications. Therefore, a new method of non-contact torque measurement based on the magnetomachanical effect is reported that may be used in reducing fatigue for long-term measurements. The theory of the changes in magnetization with torque are analyzed to construct a model. Hence, an experiment platform was constructed that includes an excitation coils, shaft, and Gauss meter. The relationship between the magnetic induction and the torque was measured using this apparatus. The results show that the experimental measurements are in agreement with mathematical models obtained using magnetomechanical concepts. The results also show that the maximum nonlinearity error of the system is 0.6% and the maximum repetitive error is 3.125%. Additionally, this proposed method meets the requirements for long-term torque measurements and may also be used for the non-contact characterization of the torque of watercraft and airplanes.