Design of a new type three-axis acceleration sensor

A new type of three-axis full shearing strain acceleration sensor has been developed. It uses strain gauge as sensing element for the detection of acceleration. The sensor consists of an elastic body and inertial mass. The elastic body is a thin cylinder on which four holes are opened evenly in two levels. There are three Wheatstone bridges on the beams to detect the acceleration in three directions. The sensor was designed from the results of finite element method (FEM) simulation. As indicated by the calculations and experiments, this sensor is not only of high sensitivity and adequate rigidity in the three directions, but also of fairly small cross sensitivities and low hysteresis.