Investigation of the influence of disturbing components on a piezoelectric force transducer

For the measurement of the physical quantity force with conventional transducers it is assumed that the preferred direction of the force transducer is the same as that of the vector of the force. In practice this case is rarely being observed. Due to insufficient alignment of the transducer or of the measurement facility mechanically disturbing components such as bending moments, shear forces or additional axial forces occur which may influence the measurement result significantly. This paper deals with the investigation of the influence of static mechanical disturbing components on a piezoelectric force transducer. To determine a disturbing sensitivity of a piezoelectric force transducer different kinds of experimental setups are discussed. The measurement results show a characteristic direction depending disturbing sensitivity of piezoelectric force transducers, which is well known of piezoelectric accelerometers. The investigations point out that the influence of mechanical disturbing components on piezoelectric force transducers cannot be neglected for precision measurements.