Strain gauge
A strain gauge (also spelled strain gage) is a device used to measure strain on an object. Invented by Edward E. Simmons and Arthur C. Ruge in 1938, the most common type of strain gauge consists of an insulating flexible backing which supports a metallic foil pattern. The gauge is attached to the object by a suitable adhesive, such as cyanoacrylate. As the object is deformed, the foil is deformed, causing its electrical resistance to change. This resistance change, usually measured using a Wheatstone bridge, is related to the strain by the quantity known as the gauge factor . Physical operation. A strain gauge takes advantage of the physical property of electrical conductance and its dependence on the conductor's geometry. When an electrical conductor is stretched within the limits of its elasticity such that it does not break or permanently deform, it will become narrower and longer, which increases its electrical resistance end-to-end. Conversely, when a conductor is compressed such that it does not buckle, it will broaden and shorten, which decreases its electrical resistance end-to-end. From the measured electrical resistance of the strain gauge, the amount of induced stress may be inferred. A  typical strain gauge arranges a long, thin conductive strip in a zig-zag pattern of parallel lines. This does not increase the sensitivity, since the percentage change in resistance for a given strain for the entire zig-zag is the same as for any single trace. A single linear trace would have to be extremely thin, hence liable to overheating (which would change its resistance and cause it to expand), or would need to be operated at a much lower voltage, making it difficult to measure resistance changes accurately. Gauge factor. The gauge factor formula_1 is defined as: where For  common metallic foil gauges, the gauge factor is usually a little over 2. For a single active gauge and three dummy resistors of the same resistance about the active gauge in a balanced Wheatstone bridge configuration, the output sensor voltage formula_6 from the bridge is approximately: where Foil gauges typically have active areas of about 2–10 mm in size. With careful installation, the correct gauge, and the correct adhesive, strains up to at least 10% can be measured. In practice. An excitation voltage is applied to input leads of the gauge network, and a voltage reading is taken from the  output leads. Typical input voltages are 5 V or 12 V and typical output readings are in millivolts. Foil strain gauges are used in many situations. Different applications place different requirements on the gauge. In most cases the orientation of the strain gauge is significant. Gauges attached to a load cell would normally be expected to remain stable over a period of years, if not decades; while those used to measure response in a dynamic experiment may only need to remain attached to the object for a few days, be energized for less than an hour, and operate for less  than a second. Strain gauges are attached to the substrate with a special glue. The type of glue depends on the required lifetime of the measurement system. For short term measurements (up to some weeks) cyanoacrylate glue is appropriate, for long lasting installation epoxy glue is required. Usually epoxy glue requires high temperature curing (at about 80-100 °C). The preparation of the surface where the strain gauge is to be glued is of the utmost importance. The surface must be smoothed (e.g. with very fine sand paper), deoiled with solvents, the solvent traces must then be removed and  the strain gauge must be glued immediately after this to avoid oxidation or pollution of the prepared area. If these steps are not followed the strain gauge binding to the surface may be unreliable and unpredictable measurement errors may be generated. Strain gauge based technology is used commonly in the manufacture of pressure sensors. The gauges used in pressure sensors themselves are commonly made from silicon, polysilicon, metal film, thick film, and bonded foil. Variations in temperature. Variations in temperature will cause a multitude of effects. The object will change in size by thermal expansion, which will be detected as  a strain by the gauge. Resistance of the gauge will change, and resistance of the connecting wires will change. Most strain gauges are made from a constantan alloy. Various constantan alloys and Karma alloys have been designed so that the temperature effects on the resistance of the strain gauge itself largely cancel out the resistance change of the gauge due to the thermal expansion of the object under test. Because different materials have different amounts of thermal expansion, self-temperature compensation (STC) requires selecting a particular alloy matched to the material of the object under test. Strain gauges that are  not self-temperature-compensated (such as isoelastic alloy) can be temperature compensated by use of the dummy gauge technique. A dummy gauge (identical to the active strain gauge) is installed on an unstrained sample of the same material as the test specimen. The sample with the dummy gauge is placed in thermal contact with the test specimen, adjacent to the active gauge. The dummy gauge is wired into a Wheatstone bridge on an adjacent arm to the active gauge so that the temperature effects on the active and dummy gauges cancel each other. (Murphy's law was originally coined in  response to a set of gauges being incorrectly wired into a Wheatstone bridge.) Every material reacts when it heats up or when it cools down. This will cause strain gauges to register a deformation in the material which will make it change signal. To prevent this from happening strain gauges are made so they will compensate this change due to temperature. Dependent on the material of the surface where the strain gauge is assembled on, a different expansion can be measured. Temperature effects on the lead wires can be cancelled by using a "3-wire bridge" or a "4-wire  ohm circuit" (also called a "4-wire Kelvin connection"). In any case it is a good engineering practice to keep the Wheatstone bridge voltage drive low enough to avoid the self heating of the strain gauge. The self heating of the strain gauge depends on its mechanical characteristic (large strain gauges are less prone to self heating). Low voltage drive levels of the bridge reduce the sensitivity of the overall system. Errors and compensations. In some applications, strain gauges add mass and damping to the vibration profiles of the hardware they are intended to measure. In the turbomachinery industry, one  used alternative to strain gauge technology in the measurement of vibrations on rotating hardware is the non-intrusive stress measurement system, which allows measurement of blade vibrations without any blade or disc-mounted hardware... Geometries of strain gauges. The following different kind of strain gauges are available in the market: Other types. For measurements of small strain, semiconductor strain gauges, so called piezoresistors, are often preferred over foil gauges. A semiconductor gauge usually has a larger gauge factor than a foil gauge. Semiconductor gauges tend to be more expensive, more sensitive to temperature changes, and are more fragile than foil  gauges. Nanoparticle-based strain gauges emerge as a new promising technology. These resistive sensors whose active area is made by an assembly of conductive nanoparticles, such as gold or carbon, combine a high gauge factor, a large deformation range and a small electrical consumption due to their high impedance. In biological measurements, especially blood flow and tissue swelling, a variant called mercury-in-rubber strain gauge is used. This kind of strain gauge consists of a small amount of liquid mercury enclosed in a small rubber tube, which is applied around e.g., a toe or leg. Swelling of the body  part results in stretching of the tube, making it both longer and thinner, which increases electrical resistance. Fiber optic sensing can be employed to measure strain along an optical fiber. Measurements can be distributed along the fiber, or taken at predetermined points on the fiber. The 2010 America's Cup boats Alinghi 5 and USA-17 both employ embedded sensors of this type. Other optical measuring techniques can be used to measure strains like electronic speckle pattern interferometry or digital image correlation. Microscale strain gauges are widely used in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to measure strains such as those induced by force , acceleration, pressure or sound. As example, airbags in cars are often triggered with MEMS accelerometers. As alternative to piezo-resistant strain gauges, integrated optical ring resonators may be used to measure strain in microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS). Capacitive strain gauges use a variable capacitor to indicate the level of mechanical deformation. Vibrating wire strain gauges are used in geotechnical and civil engineering applications. The gauge consists of a vibrating, tensioned wire. The strain is calculated by measuring the resonant frequency of the wire (an increase in tension increases the resonant frequency). Quartz crystal strain gauges are also used in geotechnical applications . A pressure sensor, a resonant quartz crystal strain gauge with a bourdon tube force collector is the critical sensor of DART. DART detects tsunami waves from the bottom of the open ocean. It has a pressure resolution of approximately 1mm of water when measuring pressure at a depth of several kilometers. Non-contact strain measurements. Strain can also be measured using digital image correlation (DIC). With this technique one or two cameras are used in conjunction with a DIC software to track features on the surface of components to detect small motion. The full strain map of the tested  sample can be calculated, providing similar display as a finite-element analysis. This technique is used in many industries to replace traditional strain gauges or other sensors like extensometers, string pots, LVDT, accelerometers... The accuracy of commercially available DIC software typically ranges around 1/100 to 1/30 of a pixels for displacements measurements which result in strain sensitivity between 20 and 100 μm/m. The DIC technique allows to quickly measure shape, displacements and strain non-contact, avoiding some issues of traditional contacting methods, especially with impacts, high strain, high-temperature or high cycle fatigue testing.