• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.346-350
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• 2001

We present a surface-micromachined polysilicon capacitive accelerometer using unevenly distributed comb electrodes. The unique features of the accelerometer include a perforated proof-mass and the inner and outer comb electrodes with uneven electrode gaps. The perforated proof-mass reduces stiction between the structure and the substrate and the unevenly distributed electrodes shorten the electrode length required for a given sensitivity. The polysilicon accelerometer has been fabricated by the conventional 6-mask surface-micromachining process and showes a sensitivity of 1.03mV/g with a hybrid detection circuitry.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.520-528
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• 2001

This paper investigates a resonant microaccelerometer that measures acceleration using a built-in micromechanical resonator, whose resonant frequency is changed by the acceleration-induced axial force. A set of design equations for the resonant microaccelerometer has been developed, including analytic formulae for resonant frequency, sensitivity, nonlinearity and maximum stress. On this basis, the sizes of the accelerometer are designed for the sensitivity of 10$^3$Hz/g in the detection range of 5g, while satisfying the conditions for the maximum nonlinearity of 5%, the minimum shock endurance of 100g and the size constraints placed by microfabrication process. A set of the resonant accelerometers has been fabricated by the combined use of bulk-micromachining and surface-micromachining techniques. From a static test of the cantilever beam resonant accelerometer, a frequency shift of 860Hz has been measured for the proof-mass deflection of 4.3${\pm}$0.5$\mu\textrm{m}$; thereby resulting in the detection sensitivity of 1.10${\times}$10$^3$Hz/g. Uncertainty analysis of the resonant frequency output has been performed to identify important issues involved in the design, fabrication and testing of the resonant accelerometer.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.85-94
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• 2016

In this study, an acceleration sensor that has optical fibers to measure the inclination and acceleration of a structure through contradictory changes in two-component FBG sensors was examined. The proposed method was to ensure precise measurement through the unification of the deformation rate sensor and the angular displacement sensor. A high sensitivity three-axis accelerometer was designed and prepared using this method. To verify the accuracy of the accelerometer, the change in wavelength according to temperature and tension was tested. Then, the change in wavelength of the prepared accelerometer according to the sensor angle, and that of the sensor according to the change in ambient temperature were measured. According to the test results on the FBG-based vibration sensor that was developed using a high-speed vibrator, the range in measurement was 0.7 g or more, wavelength sensitivity, 2150 pm/g or more, and the change in wavelength change, $9.5pm/^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.115-122
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• 2011

This study is to propose an in-process monitoring system for micro resistance spot welding processes using minute accelerometer. A minute accelerometer is mounted on the upper moving electrode tip holder. With its high sensitivity and frequency response characteristics, accelerometer output signal has been successfully recorded and integrated twice to reflect electrode expansion during micro spot welding processes. The analysis of electrode expansion pattern was attempted to find its correlation with spot weld quality. Major previous findings1-6) regarding spot weld quality assessment with the electrode expansion signal in large scale resistance spot welding processes were proved to be true in this in-process monitoring system.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.345-355
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• 2009

This article describes the development of a fiber optic accelerometer based on Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG). The accelerometer utilizes the stiffness of the optical fiber and a lumped mass in the design. Acceleration is measured by the FBG in response to the vibration of the fiber optic mass system. The wavelength shift of FBG is proportional to the change in acceleration, and the gauge factor pertains to the shift in wavelength as a function of acceleration. Low frequency version of the accelerometer was developed for applications in monitoring bridges. The accelerometer was first evaluated in laboratory settings and then employed in a demonstration project for condition assessment of a bridge. Laboratory experiments involved evaluation of the sensitivity and resolution of measurements under a series of low frequency low amplitude conditions. The main feature of this accelerometer is single channel multiplexing capability rendering the system highly practical for application in condition assessment of bridges. This feature of the accelerometer was evaluated by using the system during ambient vibration tests of a bridge. The Frequency Domain Decomposition method was employed to identify the mode shapes and natural frequencies of the bridge. Results were compared with the data acquired from the conventional accelerometers.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1551-1558
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• 2001

Recently, a number of underground pipelines have been drastically increased. The integrity of these buried pipelines, especially gas transmitting pipelines, is of importance due to an explosive characteristic of natural gas. The third party damage is known as one of the most critical factor which causes fatal accidents. For this reason, a number of systems detecting third party damage are under development. The major concern in the development of third party damage detection system is to transmit vibration signals out of accelerometer to signal conditioner and data acquisition system without any interference caused by noise. The objective of this paper is to develope a fiber optic accelerometer applicable to third party damage detection system. A fiber optic accelerometer was developed by use of combining principles of one degree of freedom vibration model and an extrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer. The developed fiber optic accelerometer was designed to perform with a sensitivity of 0.06mVg, a frequency range of less than 6kHz and an amplitude range of -200g to 200g. The developed, accelerometer was compared with a piezoelectric accelerometer and calibrated. In order to verify the developed accelerometer, the field experiment was performed. From the field experiment, vibration signals and the location of impact were successfully detected. The developed accelerometer is expected to be used for the third party damage detection system which requires long distance transmission of signals.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.251-258
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• 2014

While the feasibility of vertical velocity as a threshold parameter for pre-impact fall detection has been verified, effects of sensor attachment locations and methods calculating vertical acceleration and velocity on the detection performance have not been studied yet. Regarding the vertical velocity-based pre-impact fall detection, this paper investigates detection accuracies of eight different cases depending on sensor locations (waist vs. sternum), vertical accelerations (accurate acceleration based on both accelerometer and gyroscope vs. approximated acceleration based on only accelerometer), and vertical velocities (velocity with attenuation vs. velocity difference). Test results show that the selection of waist-attached sensor, accurate acceleration, and velocity with attenuation based on accelerometer and gyroscope signals is the best in overall in terms of sensitivity and specificity of the detection as well as lead time.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2007

This paper presents an INS(Inertial Navigation System) grade, surface micro-machined differential resonant accelerometer(DRXL) manufactured by an epitaxially grown thick poly silicon process. The proposed DRXL system generates a differential digital output upon an applied acceleration, in which frequency transition is measured due to gap dependent electrical stiffness change. To facilitate the resonance dynamics of the electromechanical system, the micromachined DRXL device is packaged by using the wafer level vacuum sealing process. To test the DRXL performance, a nonlinear self-oscillation loop is designed based on the extended describing function technique. The oscillation loop is implemented using discrete electronic elements including precision charge amplifier and hard feedback nonlinearity. The performance test of the DRXL system shows that the sensitivity of the accelerometer is 24 Hz/g and its long term bias stability is about 2 mg($1{\sigma}$) with dynamic range of ${\sigma}70g$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.93-99
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• 2011

This paper presents a new type of optical silicon accelerometer using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) and micro-stereolithography technology. Optical silicon accelerometer is based on a mass suspended by four vertical beams. A vertical shutter at the end of the mass can only moves along the sensing axis in the optical path between two single-mode optical fibers. The shutter modulates intensity of light from a laser diode reaching a photo detector. With the DRIE technique for (100) silicon, it is possible to etch a vertical shutter and beam. This ensures low sensitivity to accelerations that are not along the sensing axis. The microstructure for sensor packaging and optical fiber fixing was fabricated using micro stereolithography technology. Designed sensors are two types and each resonant frequency is about 15 kHz and 5 kHz.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.629-640
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• 2008

A new algorithm is proposed to determine optimal accelerometer locations (OAL) when a structure is identified by frequency domain system identification (SI) method. As a result, a guideline is presented for selecting OAL which can reflect modal response of a structure properly. The guideline is to provide a minimum number of necessary accelerometers with the variation in the number of measurable target modes. To determine OAL for SI applications effectively, the modal sensitivity effective independence distribution vector (MS-EIDV) is developed with the likelihood function of measurements. By maximizing the likelihood of the occurrence of the measurements relative to the predictions, Fisher Information Matrix (FIM) is derived as a function of mode shape sensitivity. This paper also proposes a statistical approach in determining the structural parameters with a presumed parameter error which reflects the epistemic paradox between the determination of OAL and the application of a SI scheme. Numerical simulations have been carried out to examine the proposed OAL algorithm. A two-span multi-girder bridge and a two-span truss bridge were used for the simulation studies. To overcome a rank deficiency frequently occurred in inverting a FIM, the singular value decomposition scheme has been applied.