Load cell measures small forces in deep water
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Novatech Measurements product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jul 1, 2009
Novatech Measurements and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has enabled the development of a 1kg rated low-range load cell for underwater use.
The load cell can function in the high-pressure environment found on the ocean floor at a depth of 6km, performing measurements to within one per cent of its rated load of just 1kg.
The company said that this is a major step forward for load cell technology operating under high fluid pressures, where existing high-pressure casings for force sensors were only suitable for high force measurements above 20 tonnes or 200kN.
Novatech's design enables lower-rated load cells down to just 100g or 1N rated load to operate in high-pressure underwater environments.
Novatech offered a sale or return prototype of its low-force load cell to NOAA, which used its state-of-the-art environmental test facility to explore the capabilities of the load cell.
The prototype design was successful with just the raw data, without correction curves, showing that the load cell could repeatedly measure a 440g test weight between atmospheric pressure and 600 bar to within 9g (or approximately 0.1N).
NOAA is monitoring a suite of oceanographic processes, including ocean currents and temperature, using ocean bed sensor arrays sited 6km below the ocean surface, which are coupled to surface buoys via high-performance mooring lines.
The buoys relay data to space satellites, which otherwise would be unable to communicate with the sensor arrays through the deep oceans.
Over the 6km depth, the mooring lines are subjected to self weight, fluid flow and buoyancy forces.
The high-pressure environment effects the mooring line buoyancy through fluid density changes and volumetric changes in the mooring lines jacket material.
Using the Novatech low-force load cell, NOAA is now able to measure the change in buoyancy forces as a function of water depth within a recreation of the oceanic pressure environment in high-pressure test chambers.
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