Experimental Investigation of a Piezo-Optical Transducer for Highly Sensitive Strain Gauges

The characteristics of a piezo-optical transducer of a new design with high strain sensitivity at compact size have been studied.The original form of the photoelastic element provides a considerable increase in the stress in its working area at a given external force, resulting in an increase in the sensitivity of the transducer. The main characteristics of the transducer were measured using a specially designed device. The strain at a given applied force was calculated using a developed mathematical model of the transducer. As a result, the sensitivity to the relative strain was Δ x / x =3 · 10 −10 , the dynamic range was at least four orders of magnitude higher and the gauge factor three orders of magnitude higher than those of strain-resistive gauges.