SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING EARTHQUAKE GENERATED P-WAVES AND GENERATING A RESPONSIVE CONTROL SIGNAL

摘要

A P-wave sensing apparatus (10) including a printed circuit board (12) havingmounted thereon from one to three orthogonally disposed miniature sensors (16,18, 20) that function as inertia monitoring devices with respect to motion ofthe external supporting structures, a plurality of amplifying and filteringcircuits (42) for amplifying and filtering the outputs generated by thesensors, and a central processing unit (44) responsive to the amplified signaland operative to generate output signals which can be used to drive opticaland audible annunciators (46, 48), automated data recording systems, or otherdevice actuating systems. Each sensor is formed by a thin piezo-electric filmsandwiched between two metallization layers and is laminated to a smallrectangular sheet of polyester mounted in cantilever fashion with one edgethereof firmly affixed to a supporting circuit board or clamped between twoflat, solid layers (such as miniature circuit boards) and then firmly affixedto the main supporting circuit board.