The Strain-Gauge Thermocouple: A novel device for simultaneous strain

and temperature measurement

Paolo Cappa, Franco Marinozzi, and Salvatore Andrea Sciuto

Citation: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 193 (2001); doi: 10.1063/1.1329903
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1329903
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The Strain-Gauge Thermocouple: A novel device for simultaneous strain
and temperature measurement
Paolo Cappa and Franco Marinozzi
Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, University of Rome La Sapienza, Via Eudossiana 18,
00184 Rome, Italy
Salvatore Andrea Sciuto
a)
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale
79, 00146 Rome, Italy
Received 2 August 2000; accepted for publication 9 October 2000
A novel methodology for simultaneous strain and temperature measurements by means of an ac
powered electrical resistance strain gauge connected to a strain conditioner using thermocouple
wires is proposed and validated. To this aim a specic device has been designed and implemented;
the characteristics of the electronic circuit for signal conditioning have then been tested in order to
determine the overall performances in temperature and strain measurements. The eld verication
of the method is conducted by imposing strain elds in the range from 0 to about 700 m/m and
temperature variations in the range from 10 to 100 C. The difference between the strain measured
by the proposed device and the one evaluated by a conventional digital strain meter was always less
than 4 m/m while the mean temperature discrepancy was 0.5 C with respect to the reference
temperature measured with a K-type thermocouple. Finally, compensation of temperature effects on
the actual strain value has been performed while the temperature ranges from ambient to 100 C
with a residual error value of 1.41 m/m. 2001 American Institute of Physics.
DOI: 10.1063/1.1329903
I. INTRODUCTION
In order to avoid dedicated temperature channels, tech-
niques for temperature compensation of the electrical resis-
tance strain gauge output in static and dynamic measure-
ments have been established in experimental mechanics and
are commonly based on the utilization of a Wheatstone
Bridge WB circuit
1
and properly connected dummy gauges
or self temperature compensated gauges.
2
However, when
the experimentalist is not entirely sure of the lack of tem-
perature gradients in the test piece area equipped with strain
gauges, he must include temperature channels in the experi-
mental setup. Moreover, the use of two independent sensors
and related signal-conditioning equipment for each test point
can cause the measuring system to get particularly burden-
some, especially in the case of multipoint measurements.
Some experimental methods were proposed to overcome the
limitation due to the utilization of two independent sensors
and related signal-conditioning equipment for each measur-
ing site. Some of these experimental methods are particularly
adequate when the combination of supercial temperature
and strain measurements have to be conducted simulta-
neously by means of systems only devoted to strain gauge
output acquisition. Among these measuring systems, for ex-
ample, one is commercially available and based on the utili-
zation of bondable resistance temperature sensors,
3
whereas
another lies in the use of the duplex gauge.
46
More spe-
cically, to determine both temperature and strain values, the
rst mentioned method, i.e., the one based on bondable re-
sistance temperature sensors, simply requires an interface
signal-conditioning network to prevent a readout in m/m,
numerically equal to the measured supercial temperature,
while the latter, i.e., those based on the duplex gauge,
requires a plain postprocessing of the raw data measured by
two strain gauges, one self-temperature compensated for the
specimen material and the other one highly mismatched. An-
other methodology, instead, tries to combine the strain gauge
and the thermocouple to form one sensor and, by an appro-
priate conditioning unit, to separate the two signals that con-
currently exist on the same wires. In fact, in a recent article
7
the adaptation of the four terminal voltage difference mea-
surement based on the constant current loop circuit is pro-
posed and actualized by means of two thermocouple pairs, a
multiplexed conditioning system and a signal manipulation
unit for the processing of the voltage drops measured in two
successive half cycles and the following determination of the
strain gauge resistance value and the electromotive force
emf due to thermoelectric effects. This scheme was further
improved
8
by using two thermocouple pairs, i.e., four ther-
mocouple wires, to connect the strain gauge to the signal
conditioning and the so obtained transducer was called the
thermostrain gauge. Moreover, in another scheme, two
different circuits utilizing a thermocouple to directly offset
the temperature effect on the active strain gauge are
adopted.
9
The analysis of the examined scientic literature con-
rms the necessity for developing an innovative device
based on a simple method able to overcome limitations due
a
Electronic mail: sciuto@uniroma3.it
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS VOLUME 72, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2001
193 0034-6748/2001/72(1)/193/5/$18.00 2001 American Institute of Physics
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to the use of four connecting wires and specialized instru-
mentation.
II. INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION
The here proposed methodology for simultaneous mea-
surement of strain and temperature lies in the basic idea of
combining the outputs of a strain gauge, powered by an ac
zero-centered excitation wave form, and an unconditioned
thermocouple in a single composite signal. In other terms, if
a zero-centered sinusoidal excitation system is adopted to
supply the strain gauge, the nonself-generated information
associated with the strain gauge along the frequency spec-
trum can be extracted, while the self-generated signal, i.e.,
the thermocouple signal, continues to lie in the dc spectra.
Therefore, if the dc components related to the thermoelectric
effects and the ac strain signals occupy a different frequency
range, i.e., they are widely and clearly separated, it is pos-
sible to discriminate the composite signal and recover both
the original transducer output signals for recording. There-
fore, since the thermocouple provides dc voltage whereas the
strain gauge output is modulated, simple analog or digital
ltering can be utilized to perform the signal separation.
With regard to the practical realization of the proposed
method, that will be addressed as SGTC, it was achieved by
adopting a classical WB circuit instead of the constant cur-
rent four wires Kelvin connection.
7,8
The reasons for this
particular choice lies upon the consideration that the main
application elds for which the device is intended to operate
are rugged hostile environment operating conditions, i.e.,
when dummy gauges or self-temperature compensated
gauges are not usable. Moreover, such a conguration allows
the use of traditional carrier supply and zeroing network,
while only the subsequent buffering, amplifying, and condi-
tioning circuitry have to be added after the bridge output.
This simplication outlines the feasibility of the method for
those who need to achieve high temperature effects compen-
sation without redesigning the whole measuring scheme.
Furthermore, only three wires are required for temperature
gradients compensation, which represents a great advantage
in applications where several hundreds measuring points
are necessary, such as structural analysis in aeronautics or
aerospace sciences. These applications usually adopt multi-
element foil strain-gauge rosettes where each strain gauge is
a separate measuring point and, therefore, needs a separate
measuring quarter bridge channel. Therefore, assuming a
constant temperature value in the reduced measuring area
where the rosette is bonded, the experimental setup could be
realized: a using one of the strain gauges of each rosette for
the SGTC in order to measure strain and local temperature
values and b conditioning the remaining gauges by means
of common ac powered Wheatstone Bridges.
With reference to Fig. 1, the application of this method
was implemented by using thermocouple wires as lead wires
directly soldered to the gauge terminals to connect the strain
gauge to a common ac WB-based conditioning system. In
particular, due to the high value of the thermocouple wire
electrical resistance in comparison with the nominal strain
gauge resistance value, a three-wire connection was adopted
to allow complete WB balancing.
Figure 2 shows a scheme of the implemented device: the
WB is supplied with an 8 kHz sinusoidal oscillator
10
buff-
ered with a current booster. The mentioned supply voltage
frequency was adopted according to main Wheatstone
FIG. 1. Scheme of the SGTC measurement method. Cu, copper, and Con,
constantan, thermocouple materials; ACV, excitation voltage; R, circuit
dummy resistors; SG, active electrical resistance strain gauge; T, measuring
junction temperature; T
0
, reference junction temperature; LPF, low pass
lter; HPF, high pass lter; V(TT
0
), thermocouple signal; V

, strain
gauge signal.
FIG. 2. Scheme of the SGTC circuit. SO, sinusoidal
oscillator; CB, current booster; Vcc, Vcc, supply
voltages; RZ, resistive zeroing network Co, coarse; Fi,
ne; CZ, capacitive zeroing network; R, 120 preci-
sion resistors; SG, active strain gauge; CPR, calibration
precision resistance; TC, T-type thermocouple Cu,
copper, Con, constantan; V
, T
, strain and temperature
composite signal; V
T,
, thermoelectric voltage signal
with spurious ac components.
194 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 72, No. 1, January 2001 Cappa, Marinozzi, and Sciuto
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Bridge ac carrier amplier manufacturer in order to obtain a
measuring frequency range from 0 to about 250 Hz at 1
dB. Modulus and phase balance is achieved, respectively, by
means of resistive and capacitive CZ zeroing networks.
The strain gauge SG is three wire connected by means of
two copper Cu and one constantan Con leads, forming a
T-type thermocouple junction TC. The choice for a T-type
thermocouple was made to allow easy soldering of the leads
to the SG base tabs with usual techniques.
As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, strain and temperature volt-
age signals, addressed respectively as V
, T
and V
T,
, are
available between points A and B and between C and B, that
are assumed at like temperatures. With reference to Fig. 3,
the signal V
, T
, i.e., the 8 kHz carrier amplitude modulated
strain signal, is differentially amplied and high pass ltered
to remove offsets and thermoelectric signals. The carrier ref-
erence CR, after a proper phase shift, drives the synchro-
nous demodulator SD
11
to extract the strain voltage V

.
Temperature signal V
T,
is buffered B
12
and low pass l-
tered to eliminate little residual carrier components origi-
nated along the thermocouple copper wire resistance. Before
differential amplication,
13
an electronic cold junction com-
pensation ECJ is performed
14
in order to provide the volt-
age V
T
corresponding to the T-type thermocouple self-
generated voltage between 0 C and the SGTC temperature.
Furthermore, as indicated in Fig. 2, a calibration preci-
sion resistance
15
CPR was introduced into the WB in order
to allow the determination of measuring system sensitivity in
practical applications.
Finally, the proposed scheme can be easily adapted to
feed multiple SGTC parallel channels and minimize the ex-
perimental complexity on large-scale tests. To this aim, there
would be no need for scheme modication but only an ad-
equate choice and dimensioning of the supply electronic
components would be necessary.
III. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
For the experimental verication of the viability of the
proposed method and the evaluation of the proposed device
metrological performances, the SGTC has been applied on a
steel specimen 150 mm30 mm2.5 mm mounted on a
specically designed device, similar to that described in Ref.
5, in order to a apply strain variations, b verify its perfor-
mances in actual installation resembling a eld situation, i.e.,
with environmental uctuations, and c estimate actual ac-
curacy in strain and temperature evaluation. In order to have
strain and temperature reference values disposable, another
strain gauge and a K-type foil thermocouple FTC were
bonded in the same reduced test area of the cited steel speci-
men, see Fig. 4. In particular, the 120 nominal resistance
strain gauge and the SGTC were placed at the same section
in order to submit them at the same bending moment. The
strain gauge was connected by means of a classic three wires
connection to a static digital strain meter,
16
able to provide
analog output signal proportional to the measured reference
strain value
r
, to be compared to that measured by the
SGTC
SGTC
. Actual test area temperature T
r
, taken as a
reference, was measured by means of the electronically
compensated
17
FTC bonded near the measurement spot.
All voltage signals, i.e., reference strain provided by the
digital strain meter
r
, the SGTC output and the test tem-
perature area T
r
, were picked up by a 16 bit analog to digital
converter
18
and an antialiasing lter controlled via a personal
computer and processed by a specic software able to evalu-
ate strain and temperature actual values.
Preliminary tests were performed to point out the depen-
dence of the apparent strain on the circuitry environment
temperature. Test results outlined an overall temperature co-
efcient of about 0.3 m/m/C mainly due to the WB bal-
FIG. 3. Scheme of SGTC conditioning circuit. SG, ac-
tive strain gauge; V
, T
, strain and temperature compos-
ite signal; V
T,
, thermoelectric voltage signal with spu-
rious ac components; PS, phase shifter; IA,
instrumentation amplier; B, buffer amplier; HPF,
high pass lter; LPF, low pass lter; ECJ, electronic
cold junction compensation; CR, carrier reference; In,
input modulated strain signal; SD, synchronous de-
modulator; V

, strain output signal; V

T
, temperature
output signal.
FIG. 4. Picture of the measurement spot. S, steel specimen; FTC, K-type foil
thermocouple; SG
r
, reference strain gauge; SGTC, the proposed sensor;
TCJ, T-type thermocouple measuring junction as a part of the SGTC.
195 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 72, No. 1, January 2001 Strain-gauge thermocouple
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ance potentiometer. Furthermore, the effect of the sinusoidal
oscillator amplitude drift was also investigated and a value of
1.510
4 m/m
/m/mC, which can be considered negli-
gible for the present application, was measured. In fact, this
drift level corresponds to only 0.15 m/m/C when the
bridge output is 1000 m/m. As this effect is denitely due
to the oscillator power supply thermal drift, a high-accuracy
stable supply unit is strongly recommended in order to keep
this effect low.
19
In order to determine the actual SGTC performance
evaluation in strain measurement, as widely accepted in
strain gauge system utilization, a linear behavior of the
whole measuring system is assumed. This assumption was
conrmed by preliminary analysis for proper strain gauge
installation verication; the cited tests were conducted by
applying four strain cycles to 125% of the maximum test
strain, i.e., up to about 900 m/m, and verifying that the
hysteresis and zero shift were less than 0.2% of the maxi-
mum strain. Therefore, it was decided to carry out separate
tests for the evaluation of the SGTC accuracy in strain and
temperature measurements. The rst test session devoted to
the investigation of SGTC performance in strain measure-
ment was carried out by applying thirty sequences of increas-
ing strain values from 0 to 700 m/m at laboratory tempera-
ture and gathering the absolute difference values
between
r
and
SGTC
as a function of the applied strain.
Then, the recorded data were postprocessed by hypothesiz-
ing a normal distribution of any set of collected data, in order
to determine
m
, i.e., mean value, and its standard
deviation

. From an analysis of the test results, a maxi-

mum
m
value less than 4 m/m in correspondence to a
maximum standard deviation

of 1.1 m/m was ob-

served. Then, in order to determine the SGTC performance
in temperature measurement, it was chosen to evaluate the
maximum value of T, i.e., the difference between T
r
and
the temperature measured by the SGTC T
SGTC
, while the test
area was submitted to temperature variation from 10 to
100 C by means of a freezer and the subsequent application
of an infrared lamp, without strain eld applied. T
SGTC
value
was evaluated after the conversion of the measured emf by
means of the inverse polynomial which describes the
temperaturevoltage relationship according to the polyno-
mial indicated in Refs. 20 and 21 which is affected by an
accuracy less than 0.5 C within the examined range.
22
Figure 5 shows the SGTC performance in temperature mea-
surement: in this graph T
r
and T
SGTC
, as well as their dif-
ference T, are depicted as a function of time. In particular,
T value, expressed by means of the mean value and the
associated standard deviation, is equal to 0.50.4 C while,
as already mentioned, T
r
ranges from 10 to 100 C. This
result suggests that the output temperature signal can be uti-
lized not only for compensation purposes but also for accu-
rate temperature measurements. From a global examination
of the graph, the unnoticeability of T values, always less
than 1.4 C, emerges as a direct consequence of the error
limits due to material tolerances. In fact, for instance with
reference to T-type thermocouple in the range from 59 to
93 C, the error limits are 1.0 and 0.5 C, respectively,
for standard and special grade thermocouples.
20
Therefore,
the evaluated global error always lies in the range of varia-
tions of the uncertainty in actual thermocouple utilization.
During this test, apparent strains detected by both the
transducers were also evaluated, keeping in account the
strain gauge sensitivity change with temperature. In Fig. 6
their value graphs are depicted as a function of time as well
as their difference, whose mean value with the associated
standard deviation is equal to 21.7 m/m. The reduced
value of this difference conrms the good attitude of SGTC
in detecting strain variations. However, divergences with
time can be observed in apparent strain values: this phenom-
enon can be ascribed to a large temperature gradient across
the test specimen due to the inability of the experimental
equipment to control temperature variations. From the data
made available by this test it was possible to determine the
coefcients of the best tting fth order polynomial, speci-
cally representative of the used SGTG apparent strain trend
as a function of the measured temperature, see Fig. 7. The
collected data dispersion relative to the polynomial tting is
about 0.95 m/m. In case of high accuracy applications, the
calculated function can be adopted instead of the one pro-
vided by the manufacturer, i.e., the one statistically evaluated
for the whole SG lot, in order to compensate temperature
effects induced on that particular sensor bonded on that
FIG. 5. Temperature measurement test. T
r
, reference temperature measured
by the K-type foil thermocouple; T
SGTC
, temperature measured by the
SGTC; T, measured temperature difference. The point p indicates the
change from freezer to infrared lamp use.
FIG. 6. Apparent strain measurement test.
r
, reference strain measure by
means of a traditional strain gauge system;
SGTC
, strain measured by the
SGTC; , measured strain difference. The point p indicates the change
from freezer to infrared lamp use.
196 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 72, No. 1, January 2001 Cappa, Marinozzi, and Sciuto
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particular specimen. As an example, some days later, a fur-
ther test was performed applying temperature variation from
ambient to 100 C to the unloaded specimen and real time
apparent strain compensation was accomplished by means of
the previously calculated polynomial. In Fig. 8 the uncom-
pensated apparent strain signal, which reaches values up to
about 40 m/m, is shown together with the corrected strain
residual value
r
, equal to 1.41 m/m. The observed error
can be considered more than satisfactory for actual strain
gauge applications.
IV. DISCUSSION
The analysis of the reported results outlines the effec-
tiveness of the proposed measuring system for simultaneous
strain and temperature evaluation with more than satisfactory
accuracy for usual applications. Particularly, data relative to
temperature tests suggest that the output temperature signal
provided by the proposed device can be utilized not only for
apparent strain compensation purposes but also for accurate
temperature measurements. Moreover, it is conrmed that
the uncertainty in temperature measurement becomes unno-
ticeable whether the temperature measurement is conducted
with the main aim of correcting strain gauge output from
temperature induced effects and the mean residual error in
strain evaluation is equal to 1.4 m/m.
Furthermore, from a comparative analysis of the novel
setup with those previously proposed,
7,8
the here examined
method presents the following advantages: a the reduction
of the connecting wires from four to three for each measur-
ing point, b there is no need for a specially conceived cir-
cuit power supply, and c the use of a classical quarter-
bridge Wheatstone conguration, which allows the proposed
device to be easily adopted by traditional strain gauge users.
Finally, from a comparative examination of the whole
result, it was observed that the two signals relative to strain
and temperature are sensed without mutual appreciable ef-
fects and, therefore, the cross talking results are unremark-
able.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank F. Rapanotti of the Me-
chanical and Thermal Measurement Laboratory of the Uni-
versity of Rome La Sapienza for the assistance provided.
1
C. Wheatstone, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London 133, 303 1843.
2
R. L. Hannah and S. E. Reed, Strain Gauge, Users Handbook Elsevier,
Essex, UK, 1992.
3
Measurements Group, Inc., Technical Note TN-506-1, Raleigh, NC, 1984.
4
P. Cappa, G. De Rita, K. G. McConnell, and L. W. Zachary, Exp. Mech.
49, 230 1992.
5
P. Cappa, S. A. Sciuto, K. G. McConnell, and L. W. Zachary, Strain May,
39 1996.
6
P. Cappa, K. G. McConnell, and L. W. Zachary, Strain November, 135
1993.
7
K. F. Anderson, NASA Tech. Memo. 104260, 1992.
8
A. R. Parker, Sensors 11, 32 1994; NASA Tech. Memo. 104271, 1
1993.
9
L. C. Schull, Basic circuits, in Stain Gauge, Users Handbook, edited
by R. L. Hannah and S. E. Reed Elsevier, Essex, UK, 1992, Chap. 2, pp.
79131.
10
Intersil ICL8038 Precision Wave Form Generator/Voltage Controlled Os-
cillator. Sinusoidal output amplitude typically is 0.22 times the power
supply voltage.
11
Analog Devices AD630 Synchronous Modulator/Demodulator.
12
Analog Devices OP177 Ultraprecision Operational Amplier. Typical off-
set value of 20 V corresponding to about 0.5 C T thermocouple signal
and a drift of 0.1 V/C that is about 0.0025 C/C.
13
Analog Devices AD524. Precision Instrumentation Amplier. Typical
value of 50 V, corresponding to about 1 C T thermocouple signal and a
drift of 0.5 V/C, i.e., 0.01 C/C.
14
Linear Technology LT1025 Micropower Thermocouple Cold Junction
Compensator 0.5 C initial accuracy.
15
Nominal resistance value equal to 240 k0.01%.
16
HBM DMD20A bandwidth 015 Hz at 1 dB attenuation, calibration
error of 0.02% at gauge factor of 2.
17
80 TK Fluke electronic reference junction accuracy equal to 0.5%2 C,
capable of providing a voltage signal numerically equal to the measured
temperature in celsius degree sensitivity equal to 0.1 V/C.
18
National Instrument PCI-MIO-16XE-10.
19
Hewlett Packard E3631A Dual Power Supply has been adopted.
20
ANSI MC 96.1 American National Standard for Temperature measuring
thermocouples, American National Standard Institute and Instrument So-
ciety of America, 1975.
21
P. B. Coates and A. C. K. Smith, NPL Report QU36, 1977.
22
W. W. Wildhack, R. C. Powell, and H. L. Mason, Technical Note TN 262,
National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, June 1965.
FIG. 7. Apparent strain as a function of temperature from 10 to 100 C.
The continuous line represents the fth order polynomial t.
FIG. 8. Real time compensation of the thermal drift during a 2 h test.
T
SGTC
, temperature measured by the SGTC;
SGTC
, apparent strain mea-
sured by the SGTC;
c
, corrected strain residual value.
197 Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 72, No. 1, January 2001 Strain-gauge thermocouple
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