The Performance of Three-Dimensional Strain Rosettes Evaluated when Embedded into a Sphere

摘要

Two spheres were manufactured, each containing planes of embedded strain gauges that were arranged so that individual gauge readings could be combined in a variety of ways to calculate the least squares strain tensor. Each sphere was tested by loading along its axis of symmetry. It was found that the particular pattern of rosette chosen produced satisfactory predictions of the orthogonal strains but minor off-axis gauge misalignments combined with the matrix operations in the least squares strain tensor led to misleading forecasts of the shearing strains. The method of manufacture used to embed the gauges was largely responsible for these errors. The investigation confirmed that three-dimensional strain rosettes should be made from square plugs and the direction cosines measured on the plug prior to embedment in the model.