Types of Accelerometers
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Theory of Operation
Types of Accelerometers
Primary Transducers
Types of primary transducers, which describe the internal mechanism of the
accelerometer, include:
-
- In most accelerometers, acceleration forces a seismic mass, that is damped, and restrained by a spring, so that it moves relative to the casing along a single axis. The secondary transducer then responds to the displacement and/or force associated with the seismic mass. The displacement of the mass and the
extension of the spring are proportional to the acceleration only when the
oscillation is below the natural frequency.
Other accelerometers use a double-cantilever beam as a primary transducer.
However, since the dual-cantilever beam can be modeled as a
spring-mass-dashpot, only the seismic mass primary transducer will be
discussed.
Last Updated: January 16, 2000, beam@bits.me.berkeley.edu
Copyright © 1993-1995, 2000, Pamela A. Eibeck and Brandon Muramatsu
Original WWW Conversion by Winston Wang, 1994
WWW ReConversion by Brandon Muramtasu, 2000
Spring-Retained Seismic Mass