MEMS Strain Sensors with High Linearity and Sensitivity with an Enhanced Strain Transfer Mechanism for Wind Turbine Blades

摘要

A new physical sensor design for strain measurement of wind turbine blades is presented. While the proposed structure is highly sensitive, it is based on simple operating principle of displacement amplification. The proposed microdevice converts even small amount of applied strains to measurable changes in capacitance. The device performance is validated both by analytical solution and also by finite element methods (FEM). Moreover, to address the influence of the adhesive layer used for bonding the sensor to wind turbine blades on strain transmission, the ratio of strain transmission is investigated through FEM simulation and finally a technique is proposed that increases this ratio by up to 30%.