In the name of Allah the most beneficent the most merciful

The development of strain gages has followed many different paths, and gages have been developed based on electrical, mechanical, optical, acoustical, and pneumatic principles. Yet in spite of the very wide variations in the strain-gages designs, there exist four basic characteristics which each gage exhibits.

Characteristics
Gauge length Gauge sensitivity Range Accuracy or reproducibility

Gauge length
Strains cannot be measured at a point with any type of
gage, and as a consequence nonlinear strain fields cannot be measured without some degree of error being introduced. In these cases, the error will definitely depend on the gage length and may also depend on the gage width .The gage size for a mechanical strain gage is characterized by the distance between the two knife edges in contact with the specimen and by the width of the moveable knife edge. The gage length of the metal film resistance strain gage is determined by the length of the straight portion of the grid, and the width is determined by the width of the grid. In selecting a gage for a given application, gage length is one of the most important considerations.

Gauge sensitivity
A second basic characteristic of a strain gage is its
sensitivity .Sensitivity is the smallest value of strain which can be read on the scale associated with the strain gage. The term sensitivity should not be mistaken for accuracy or reproducibility, since very large values of magnification can be designed into a gage to increase its sensitivity; but friction, wear, and deflection introduce large errors which limit the accuracy. In certain applications gages can be employed with sensitivities of less than 1 uin/in.if proper procedures are established. In other applications, where sensitivity is not important, 50 to 100 uin/in is often quite sufficient. The choice of a gage is dependent upon the degree of sensitivity required, and quite often the selection of a gage with a very high sensitivity ,which is not really necessary, needlessly increase the complexity of the measuring method

 Electrical Strain Gauge is a resistive elastic

unit whose change in resistance is a function of applied strain.

where R is the resistance, e is the strain,

and S is the strain sensitivity factor of the gage material (gage factor).

 Consider a wire strain gage. The wire is

composed of a uniform conductor of electric resistivity with length l and cross-section area. Its resistance R is a function of the geometry given by

The resistance change rate is a combination effect of changes in length, cross-section area, and resistivity.

 The resistance change rate becomes .

 For a given material, the sensitivity of

resistance versus strain can be calibrated by the following equation.

Range
A third basic characteristic of a strain gage is its
range. Range represents the maximum strain which can be recorded without resetting or replacing the strain gages. The range and sensitivity are interrelated since very sensitive gage respond to small strains with appreciable indicator deflections and the range is usually limited to the full scale deflection of the indicator. Often it is necessary to compromise between the range and sensitivity characteristics of gage to obtain reasonable performance for both of these categories.

 The final basic characteristic is the accuracy or

Accuracy or reproducibility
reproducibility. As was previously pointed out, sensitivity does not ensure accuracy. Usually the very sensitive instruments are quite prone to errors unless they are employed with the utmost care. In a mechanical strain gage, inaccuracies may result form lost motion such as backlash in gear train, friction, temperature changes, wear in the mechanism, slippage, or flexure or deflection of the components. On all strain gages there is a readout error whether the gage is manually recorded or the output is read on a digital printer.