INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Meas. Sci. Technol. 12 (2001) 502506 www.iop.org/Journals/mt PII: S0957-0233(01)19197-6

A novel method for the simultaneous
measurement of temperature and strain
using a three-wire connection
Paolo Cappa
1
, Franco Marinozzi
1
and Salvatore Andrea Sciuto
2
1
Department of Mechanics and Aeronautics, Universit` a di Roma La Sapienza,
Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Roma, Italy
2
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Universit` a di Roma Roma Tre,
Via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Roma, Italy
E-mail: paolo.cappa@uniroma1.it, marinozz@dma.ing.uniroma1.it and sciuto@uniroma3.it
Received 20 November 2000, accepted for publication 17 January 2001
Abstract
A novel methodology to simultaneously measure strain and temperature by
means of an electrical resistance strain gauge powered by an ac signal and
connected to a strain indicator by means of thermocouple wires is proposed.
The experimental validation of the viability of this method is conducted by
means of a purely electrical simulation of both strain and temperature
signals, respectively from 2000 to 2000 m m
1
and 250 to 230

C. The
results obtained showed that strain measurement is affected by an error
always less than 2 m m
1
for the whole range of simulated strains, while
the error in temperature evaluation is always less than 0.6

C. The effect of
cross-talk between the two signals was determined to be insignicant.
Keywords: temperature and strain measurements, simultaneous temperature
and strain measurements, temperature and strain sensors
Nomenclature
T
m
mean value of the measured temperatures
T
s
temperature simulated electrically by means of a
digital thermocouple calibrator, i.e. a voltage source
unit controlled by a digital voltmeter
V
s
thermocouple output as a function of the simulated
temperature
|| absolute difference between simulated and measured
values of strain
|T | absolute difference between simulated and measured
values of temperature

m
mean value of the measured strains

s
strainsimulatedelectricallybymeans of a Wheatstone
bridge calibration unit

standard deviation of the measured strains

T
standard deviation of the measured temperatures
1. Introduction
Techniques for temperature compensation of the electrical
resistance strain gauge outputs in static and dynamic
measurements are more than established in various elds
of experimental mechanics and are commonly based on
the utilization of a Wheatstone bridge circuit (Wheatstone
1843) and properly connected dummy gauges or self-
temperature-compensated gauges (Hannah and Reed 1993).
However, when the experimentalist is not entirely sure of
the unnoticeability of temperature gradients in the area of
the test piece equipped with strain gauges, he or she is
forced to include temperature channels in the experimental set-
up. Otherwise, some experimental methods to overcome the
limitation due to the utilization of two independent sensors
and related signal-conditioning equipment for each desired
location have been proposed. Among these experimental
methods, some are particularly adequate when combinations
of supercial temperature and strain measurements have to
be conducted simultaneously by means of systems devoted
solely to the acquisition of strain gauge output. Among these
methods, for example, one is commercially available and
based on the utilization of bondable resistance temperature
sensors (Anonymous 1984), whereas another involves the use
of the duplex gauge (Cappa et al 1992, 1993, 1996). More
specically, the rst method for determining both temperature
and strain values (i.e. the one based on bondable resistance
temperature sensors) mentioned simply requires an interface
0957-0233/01/040502+05$30.00 2001 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 502
Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain
signal conditioning network to present a readout numerically
equal to the measured supercial temperature, whereas the
latter (i.e. that based on the duplex gauge) requires a plain
post-processing of the rawdata measured by two strain gauges,
one self-temperature compensated for the specimen material
and the latter highly mismatched.
Another methodology, instead, tries to combine the strain
gauge and the thermocouple to form one sensor and, by use of
an appropriate conditioning unit, to separate the two signals
that exist concurrently on the same wires. In fact, in a
recent paper Anderson (1992) proposed the adaptation of the
four-terminal resistance measurement based on the constant
current loop circuit. The method implies (i) utilization of two
thermocouple wires as the lead wires that sense the voltage
drop across the gauge resistance; (ii) reversing the constant
current excitation via a multiplexer unit so that the strain gauge
is powered in couples of successive half cycles identical in
duration; and, nally, (iii) use of a signal manipulation unit
that elaborates the voltage drops measured in two successive
half cycles to determine the strain gauge resistance and the
EMF due to thermoelectric effects. The scheme described
previously was further improved by Parker (1994) by using
four thermocouple wires to connect the strain gauge to signal
conditioning and the so-obtained transducer was called a
thermostrain gauge. The experimental verication conducted
in the range 20 000 m m
1
, by means of a resistor decade
box, and from 0 to 1260

C, by using a digital thermocouple

calibrator, showed that effects on strain measurements due to
temperature variations and vice versa were unappreciable.
To overcome the limitations due to the use of four
connecting wires and specialized instrumentation, a scheme
which appears simpler and innovative is proposed here. The
set-up is simply based on the utilization of thermocouple wires
instead of the lead wires to connect the strain gauge to the
usual system based on an ac Wheatstone bridge. Afterwards,
the system is capable of separating the two sensor output
signals by means of a simple post-processing. Therefore,
from a comparative analysis of the novel set-up and that
proposed by Parker (1994), the method examined here presents
the following advantages: (i) the reduction of the number
of connecting wires from four to three for each measuring
point; and (ii) the utilization of instrumentation commonly
available in laboratories. In fact, as described later, strains
or temperatures are respectively evaluated (i) by means of
a common digital strain meter and (ii) by means of a data
acquisition unit and a personal computer. Thus, strain values
are gathered from the analogue output provided by the digital
strain meter while the temperature ones are obtained by a post-
processing demodulation performed by means of analogue
or digital ltering instead of by using specically designed
hardware such as that proposed by Parker (1994), in which
the components utilized were current-reversing switches,
sampling switched capacitors and a signal manipulator to
isolate the strain and temperature signals. Therefore, the
relevant simplication of the methodology described here, that
is based on the utilization of off-the-shelf instrumentation,
clearly emerges.
The present paper discusses the preliminary experimental
validation of the viability of the method by means of a purely
electrical simulation of the electrical resistance strain gauge
and the thermocouple outputs. A full test verication of a real
measuring set-up will be examined in the on-going research
phase.
2. A method for simultaneous measurement of
strain and temperature
The methodology proposed here, that appears innovative,
involves the basic idea of combining the strain gauge
output, powered by a non-dc excitation waveform, and the
unconditioned thermocouple output into a single composite
signal. Thus, if the temperature and strain signals occupy
different frequency ranges, i.e. they are widely and clearly
separated, it is possible to discriminate between them in the
composite signal and recover both the original transducer
output signals for recording. Therefore, as is well known,
since the thermocouple provides a dc voltage whereas the strain
gauge output is modulated, simple analogue or digital ltering
can be utilized to perform the separation of signals. However,
the experimentalist has to focus on the ever-present causes of
error due to a zero shift of the system and noise induced by
electromagnetic effects that contaminate the composite signal
from dc to high frequency.
Moreover, with reference to the scheme represented in
gure 1, to further simplify the experimental set-up the
strain gauge is connected to the system utilizing, instead
of the usual lead wires, the thermocouple wires directly
soldered to the gauge terminals, similarly to the scheme
proposed for integrating the output of a resistive sensor
(such as an electrical resistance strain gauge (Anderson 1992,
Parker 1994) or a noise thermometer sensor (Brixy 1976)
with a temperature measurement conducted by means of
a thermocouple). In particular, due to the high electrical
resistance of the thermocouple wire in comparison with the
nominal resistance of the straingauge, it was necessarytoadopt
the three-wire connection in order to ensure that balancing
of the Wheatstone bridge could be achieved. The following
simplifying hypothesis is implicitly assumed: the two couples
of junctions formed by the insertion of the intermediate metal
at the strain gauge site (i.e. the measuring junction) and at
the instrument site (i.e. the reference junction) are at like
temperatures.
3. Experimental validation and test results
To experimentally verify the viability of the proposed method
and to evaluate the relative precision and accuracy in strain
and temperature evaluation, the scheme shown in gure 2 was
utilized. The simulation of the behaviour of a full bridge strain
gauge was carried out by means of a Wheatstone bridge cal-
ibration unit (model MM 1550A) characterized by an accu-
racy equal to (0.025% + 1 m m
1
) and a thermal stability
of (0.001% + 1 m m
1
C
1
). The thermocouple output
was simulated by utilizing a voltage source (HP 3245A) con-
trolled by a digital voltmeter (HP 3458A); in such a manner
the closed loop system realized ensures that the inaccuracy
associated with the simulated K-type thermocouple output al-
ways remains less than 0.02

C (Cappa and Sciuto 1994). In

particular, in order (i) to have the advantage that two of the
three lead wires are copper and (ii) to consequently simplify
503
P Cappa et al
Figure 1. The proposed strain and temperature measurement circuit. A and B, thermocouple materials; ACV, excitation voltage; R, circuit
completion resistors; SG, electrical resistance strain gauge; SW, implemented software for post-processing of data; T , measuring junction
temperature; T
0
, reference junction temperature; V(T T
0
), thermocouple signal; and V(), strain gauge signal.
Pt-100
S W
PC
GPI B
DMM
US
DVM
MUX IV
Spare
slots
DAQ
I
E
E
E
-
4
8
8
WBCU
DSM
Figure 2. The experimental set-up. DAQ: data acquisition control unit; DMM, digital multimeter; DSM, digital strain meter; DVM, digital
voltmeter; GPIB, general purpose interface board; IEEE-488, interface protocol; IV, integrating voltmeter; MUX, multiplexer; PC, computer
for instrument control and post-processing and recording of data; Pt-100, platinum resistance thermometer; SW, implemented software for
post-processing of data; US, universal source; and WBCU, Wheatstone bridge calibration unit.
the soldering of the wires at strain gauge terminals in actual
utilization, it was decided to adopt a T-type thermocouple, i.e.
a copperconstantan couple. Therefore, the software of the
temperature signal simulation system was specically imple-
mented with the appropriate polynomial coefcients (Burns
et al 1993). Furthermore, due to the fact that the sensitivities
of type K and T thermocouples are similar, the global accu-
racy of the simulation system remained comparable. Thus,
the approach chosen guarantees that strain gauge output and
thermoelectric effects are controlled independently and, con-
sequently, evaluation of the magnitude of cross-talking is also
feasible. It is necessary to outline that the Wheatstone bridge
calibration unit is manually operated while the voltage gener-
ation can be easily implemented in an automatic closed-loop
procedure and, consequently, the experimental procedure re-
alized cannot be completely automated.
In order to separate the two components of the composite
signal, it is chosen to power the Wheatstone bridge with a
static digital strain meter (HBM DMD20A) (the frequency
of the carrier amplier is 225 Hz 3%, the bandwidth is
015 Hz at 1 dB attenuation and there is a calibration error
of 0.02% at a gauge factor of two) capable of providing an
analogue output signal numerically equal to the measured
strain. Thus, in the rst simplied approach reported here,
it was chosen (i) to demand from the digital strain meter
the identication and measurement of the strain signal and
(ii) to determine the thermocouple output by means of an
integrating digital voltmeter with a proper choice of the
integration time and to evaluate the temperature by means
of the data acquisition control unit. In fact, once the
frequency of the zero-centred ac excitation has been measured
precisely, it is possible to isolate the thermocouple signal
by means of a plain integration of the composite signal
for a duration equal to a multiple of the excitation period.
The composite strain and temperature signal was gathered
by means of an integrating digital voltmeter (HP 44701A)
via a relay multiplexer (HP 44708A). The integration time,
expressed as a multiple of the number of power line cycles,
was chosen as a number times the period of the Wheatstone
bridge ac supply voltage in order to balance the trade-off
between the resolution of the voltmeter and the sampling
frequency. To accurately adjust the voltmeter integration time
504
Simultaneous measurement of temperature and strain
Figure 3. Maximum || values for any set of the collected data for the whole range of T
s
as a function of
s
.
Figure 4. Maximum |T | values for any set of the collected data for the whole range of
s
as a function of T
s
.
to determine the dc component of the unconditioned output of
the thermocouple, the frequency of the carrier amplier was
preliminarily evaluated to be equal to 223.30 0.02 Hz.
The data obtained are compared with those simulated,
taken as a reference; namely
s
i.e. the strain value electrically
simulated by the Wheatstone bridge calibration unit (selected
by the experimentalist), and T
s
, the temperature simulated by
the voltage source (imposed and controlled by the automatic
procedure implemented). The temperature of the test area
during the test is monitored by means of a Pt-100 resistance
thermometer and the data are gathered by the automatic data
acquisition system.
Strain measurements are conducted over the strain range
from2000 to 2000 m m
1
and increments of 100 m m
1
were applied. Then, it was chosen to simulate a typical
strain gauge installation based on a cement, such as MM
M-BOND 610, that provides a wide operating temperature
range, from 250 to 230

C. So, the selected temperature

range simulated by the automatic procedure implemented
was equal to the previously indicated one with increments of
10

C. Temperature was evaluated after the conversion of the

measured EMF by means of the inverse polynomial indicated
byBurns et al (1993), whichdescribes the temperaturevoltage
relationships with an inaccuracy ranging from 0.02 to
0.04

C within the range from 200 to 0

C and equal to
0.03

C from 0 to 400

C.
After a warm-up period of about 30 minutes, the measure-
ments take place. All the data detected by the data acquisition
control unit (measured strain and temperature) and by the dig-
ital multimeter (temperature of the test area) are passed via a
standard IEEE-488 interface to a computer, that acts as a bus
controller, and stored together with the simulated strain,
s
, and
temperature, T
s
, the acquisition time and other descriptive data.
Duringthe tests, the ambient temperature always remained
inthe range from20.1to24.8

C. One hundreddata points were

taken for every combination of
s
and T
s
and, by hypothesizing
a normal distribution of any set, the collected data, mean
values,
m
and T
m
, and standard deviations,

and
T
, were
evaluated. The hypothesis on the limiting distribution was
veried by means of a
2
test with a 5% boundary.
505
P Cappa et al
The obtained values || = |
m

s
| and |T | =
|T
m
T
s
| are represented in gures 3 and 4, respectively. From
an analysis of gure 3, in which the maximum|| values for
any set of the collected data for the whole range of T
s
are
represented as a function of
s
, it emerges that the error in
strain evaluation is always less than 2 m m
1
for the whole
range of simulated strains and comparable to the overall global
error of the strain measuring set-up. In particular, sudden saw-
tooth variations seem to be due to the change in thousand
range of the Wheatstone bridge calibration unit.
The uncertainty interval relative to the measured temper-
ature is summarized in gure 4, in which the maximum |T |
values for any set of the collected data for the whole range of
s
are represented as a function of T
s
. Froma global examination
of the graph, the unnoticeability of |T | emerges. In fact, the
maximum observed value, which is always less than 0.6

C,
can be assumed satisfactory given the consideration that T-
type thermocouples exhibit error limits in the range from59
to 93

C equal to 1 and 0.5

C, respectively for standard

and special grade thermocouples (ANSI 1975). Therefore, the
evaluated global error always lies within the range of variations
of the uncertainty in actual utilization of thermocouples. How-
ever, it also emerges that, as a general tendency, the spread of
collected data becomes more conspicuous for simulated tem-
peratures in the range below 200

C. This singularity may

be ascribed to the temperature conversion equation that fails
for the lower simulated values: in fact, the inverse coefcients
provided in the range from 200 to 0

C have been adopted

also at lower temperatures, for which the error associated with
the conversion polynomial is not dened.
The evaluated standard deviations,

and
T
, were
always less than 0.4 m m
1
and 0.7

C, respectively. The
difference between the observed values seems to be due to
the already noticed metrological performances of the digital
strain meter conditioning unit and to the rough temperature
ltering method chosen. In fact, the standard deviation for
high temperatures strongly depends on the inaccuracy in the
mismatch between the set number of power line cycles for
the integrating voltmeter, that ought to be an exact multiple
of the period of the supplying carrier, and the actual value
affected by random uctuation. However, if the main aim
of conducting temperature measurements is correction of
the strain gauge output for temperature-induced effects, the
previously indicated inaccuracies in temperature evaluation are
denitely more than satisfactory.
Finally, from a comparative examination of the whole
results, it was observed that the two signals are sensed without
appreciable mutual effects and, therefore, the cross-talk could
be neglected.
4. Conclusions
An innovative method for simultaneous measurement of
temperature and strain has been proposed. It was
experimentally demonstrated that the strain gauge and
thermocouple signals can be measured simultaneously by
using thermocouple wires to connect ac-powered electrical
resistance strain gauges to a signal conditioning unit.
The proposed system is able to evaluate strain and
temperature with more than satisfactory accuracy for the usual
applications. Furthermore, the inaccuracy of temperature
measurement becomes unnoticeable if the temperature
measurement is conducted with the main aim of correcting the
strain gauge output for temperature-induced effects. Finally,
the cross-talk between the two signals was found to be
unremarkable.
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