Smart Structures and Systems

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A new reconfigurable liquid-metal-antenna-based sensor

  • Zhou, Xiaoping (School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University) ;
  • Fu, Yihui (School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University) ;
  • Zhu, Hantao (School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University) ;
  • Yu, Zihao (School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University) ;
  • Wang, Shanyong (Priority Research Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle)
  • Received : 2022.01.20
  • Accepted : 2022.07.06
  • Published : 2022.10.25
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Abstract

In this paper, a new sensor chip with frequency reconstruction range of 2.252 GHz ~ 2.450 GHz is designed and fabricated. On this basis, a self-designed "T-shaped" shell is added to overcome the disadvantage of uneven deformation of the traditional steel shell, and the range of the sensor chip is expanded to 0 kN ~ 96 kN. The liquid metal antenna is used to carry out a step-by-step loading test, and the relationship between the antenna resonance frequency and the pressure load is analyzed. The results show that there is a good linear relationship between the pressure load and the resonant frequency. Therefore, the liquid metal antenna can be regarded as a pressure sensor. The cyclic loading and unloading experiments of the sensor are carried out, and different loading rates are used to explore the influence on the performance of the sensor. The loading and unloading characteristic curves and the influence characteristic curves of loading rate are plotted. The experimental results show that the sensor has no residual deformation during the cycle of loading and unloading. Moreover, the influence of temperature on the performance of the sensor is studied, and the temperature correction formula is derived.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52027814, 51839009).

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