Sensitivity enhancement through geometry modification of 3D printed conductive PLA-based strain sensors
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 1 August 2023
Issue publication date: 18 October 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to increasing the gauge factor, reducing the hysteresis error and improving the stability over cyclic deformations of a conductive polylactic acid (CPLA)-based 3D-printed strain sensor by modifying the sensing element geometry.
Design/methodology/approach
Five different configurations, namely, linear, serpentine, square, triangular and trapezoidal, of CPLA sensing elements are printed on the thermoplastic polyurethane substrate material individually. The resistance change ratio of the printed sensors, when loaded to a predefined percentage of the maximum strain values over multiple cycles, is recorded. Finally, the thickness of substrate and CPLA and the included angle of the triangular strain sensor are evaluated for their influences on the sensitivity.
Findings
The triangular configuration yields the least hysteresis error with high accuracy over repeated loading conditions, because of its uniform stress distribution, whereas the conventional linear configuration produces the maximum sensitivity with low accuracy. The thickness of the substrate and sensing element has more influence over the included angle, in enhancing the sensitivity of the triangular configuration. The sensitivity of the triangular configuration exceeds the linear configuration when printed at ideal sensor dimensional values.
Research limitations/implications
The 3D printing parameters are kept constant for all the configurations; rather it can be varied for improving the performance of the sensor. Furthermore, the influences of stretching rate and nozzle temperature of the sensing material are not considered in this work.
Originality/value
The sensitivity and accuracy of CPLA-based strain sensor are evaluated for modification in its geometry, and the performance metrics are enhanced using the regression modelling.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to M/S Innovative Invaders Technologies, Coimbatore, for their technical assistance in the fabrication of the customized tensile testing machine. Additionally, the authors thank Dr P. Nagarajan, Assistant Professor of Mechatronics at Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, for his support in the fabrication and testing of the sensors.
Citation
S.K., D. and Kallippatti Lakshmanan, S.K. (2023), "Sensitivity enhancement through geometry modification of 3D printed conductive PLA-based strain sensors", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 29 No. 9, pp. 1969-1983. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-02-2023-0069
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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