DEVELOPMENT OF ANGULAR ACCELEROMETER

A RESEARCH EFFORT COMPLETED RECENTLY FOR THE AIR FORCE IDENTIFIED NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR ANGULAR MOTION MEASUREMENT. TWO CONCEPTS WERE FOUND WHICH APPEAR TO OFFER POTENTIAL FOR AN EXCELLENT COMBINATION OF SMALL SIZE, WIDE DYNAMIC RANGE, WIDE BANDWIDTH AND EASE OF FABRICATION AND UTILIZATION. ONE DEVICE, CALLED A FLUID-FILLED BENDER BEAM, USES PIEZOCERAMICELEMENTS TO PRODUCE A SIGNAL PROPORTIONAL TO ANGULAR ACCELERATION. THE SECOND DEVICE IS BASED ON THE MAGNETOHYDRODRODYNAMIC (MHD) PHENOMENA AND IS CALLED A MGD ANGULAR RATE SENSOR. BOTH DEVICES UTILIZE COMMON MATERIALS AND STANDARD FABRICATION PROCESSES. DETAILED DESIGN ANALYSIS MODELS ARE AVAILABLE THAT WILL ALLOW SCALING OF SPECIFIC DESIGN CON- FIGURATION SUITABLE FOR USE IN AUTOMOTIVE CRASH TESTING WITH ANTHROPOMORPHIC TEST SYSTEMS. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED WORK INCLUDE ANALYSES TO PERMIT SELECTION OF THE BEST SENSOR CONCEPT FROM THE TWO CANDIDATES, COMPLETION OF CONFIRMING EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE THAT REQUIREMENTS WILL BE FULFILLED AND DOCUMENTATION OF DESIGN DETAILS. THE APPLICATION DICTATES REQUIREMENTS REGARDING ACCURACY, BANDWIDTH SIZE, DURABILITY, AND COST. THE STUDY OF BRAIN INJURIES IN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS IS AN IMPORTANT CASE WHERE ANGULAR ACCELERATION IS OF DIRECT INTEREST AND IS ADDRESSED IN THIS PROPOSAL.