Shuwen Jiang

Preparation and evaluation of PdCr thin film resistive strain gauges

Thin film resistive strain gauges using PdCr alloy as sensing material were fabricated on nickel-based alloy substrate, and evaluated for strain response, apparent strain and drift strain over a temperature range to 800 °C. The results indicated that the PdCr thin film strain gauge showed an excellent linear response to applied strain and stable gauge factor at different temperatures. The apparent strain can be estimated and compensated due to its repeatability and low value. The drift strain can be neglected until 600 °C. Even at 800 °C the drift strain can also be corrected since it drifted slightly and linearly. The repeatability of PdCr thin film strain gauge was also evaluated. It showed that the repeatable measurement error was 6.4%.