GEOMETRICAL GAUGE FACTOR OF DIRECTIONAL ELECTRIC POTENTIAL DROP SENSORS FOR CREEP MONITORING

摘要

Directional electric potential drop measurements can be exploited for in-situ monitoring of creep in metals. The sensor monitors the variation in the ratio of the resistances measured simultaneously in the axial and lateral directions using a square-electrode configuration. This technique can efficiently separate the mostly isotropic common part of the resistivity variation caused by reversible temperature variations from the mostly anisotropic differential part caused by direct geometrical and indirect material effects of creep. Initially, this ratio is roughly proportional to the axial creep strain, while at later stages, the resistance ratio increases even faster with creep strain because of the formation of directional discontinuities such as preferentially oriented grain boundary cavities and multiple-site cracks in the material. Similarly to ordinary strain gauges, the relative sensitivity of the sensor is defined as a gauge factor that can be approximated as a sum of geometrical and material parts. This work investigated the geometrical gauge factor by analytical and experimental means. We found that under uniaxial stress square-electrode sensors exhibit geometrical gauge factors of about 4 and 5 in the elastic and plastic regimes, respectively, i.e., more than twice those of conventional strain gauges. Experimental results obtained on 304 stainless steel using a square-electrode electric potential drop creep sensor agree well with our theoretical predictions.