University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

LabVIEW Strain Gage Sensor Integration

(This manual is extensively based on material in Reference 1)

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Introduction
Different types of sensors are commonly used in real life engineering applications to acquire real time
data. Strain gages are one of these examples which are used to measure the strain in structures. Output
signal from these sensors is the form of voltage or current signals which is calibrated against some known
values of input.
These output signals (Volt /Amp) are weak signals and mostly of the order of 10-3 or even less. Direct
measurement of these signals makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. Addition of noise makes
the task more cumbersome. In order to ease the task, these signals are amplified and filtered before
measurement. For any available equipment with some specified least count, amplification of signal
increases the sensitivity of the system. Filters are used to remove the un-wanted portion of signal (noise),
generated by surrounding or the circuit itself.
In this laboratory, you will build an analog circuit that will enable you to measure the voltage output of a
strain gage mounted on a cantilever beam (metal beam) to measure its deflection. You will then add a
non-inverting op-amp to amplify the voltage output from your circuit and an analog low-pass filter to
remove voltage fluctuations caused by high frequency noise. As an additional exercise, you will modify
the given LabVIEW program to configure another channel for simultaneous measurement of two input
signals.

Strain Gage Signal Measurement

DAQ
Vout V’out V’’out Device
Sensor Non-Inverting Low-Pass PC
Circuit Amplifier Filter

Figure 1: Strain Gage Sensor System

Note:
 Evaluate gain Av in Experiment 2 for Combination 3 before coming to class and include in your
prelab.

 Estimate the cutoff frequency ω0 of the filter both in rad/sec and Hz in Experiment 3 before coming
to class and include in your prelab.

 Evaluate the transfer function between the input voltage V’out and V”out as shown in Figure 8
Experiment 3 before coming to class and include in your prelab.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 1

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Experiment #1: Building an analog circuit to obtain deflection measurements using a strain gage
In this experiment, you will build an analog circuit for using a 120-Ω strain gage to measure the voltage
output of the strain gage on the metal beam. You will then observe the voltage output from your
deflection sensor circuit using LabVIEW and the program “voltage.vi”. The strain gage, which includes
two wire leads, has already been attached (glued) to a bendable beam.

Strain Gage Signal Measurement

DAQ
Vout Device
Sensor PC
Circuit

Figure 2: Strain Sensor

1. Build the analog circuit shown in Figure 3 on an electronic breadboard1. Remember to use red wire
for positive power connections and black wire for ground connections. Since the strain gage has a
resistance of (approximately) RSG = 120Ω, the resistors2 on the remaining three arms of the
Wheatstone Bridge should be matched such that RB1 = RB2 = RB3 = 120 Ω. Make sure you measure
with the multimeter all the components and verify their values before using them in the circuit.

Figure 3: Wheatstone Bridge Op-Amp Circuit

1
See the breadboard connectivity Figure 12 at the end of this manual
2
the RB resistors are known as “bridge completion resistors”

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 2

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

The voltage output from the Wheatstone bridge is amplified by the NTE 987 (Quad op-amp)3 operational
amplifier, shown on the right side of the dotted line in Figure 3. The NTE 987 contains four op-amps with
identical capabilities (see Figure 4); any one of these can be used. The pin numbering in Figure 3 is
according to op-amp number 1. Care must be taken while connecting the amplifier in the circuit.
Reversing the power (V+ connection 4) and ground (V- connection 11) connections will heat up the
amplifier and ultimately burn it.

Figure 4: NTE 987 Connection Diagram

Choose the op-amp resistors such that R1 = R3 = 1 MΩ and R2 = R4 = 100 kΩ. Then, the voltage gain
AV of your op-amp circuit will be AV = R1 / R2 = 10. Power up the op-amp and Wheatstone bridge to 5
Volts (measure this with a multimeter).
2. Run the Voltage VI on the desktop of your PC. Connect the voltage output VOUT and ground (GND)
from your circuit to AI0 (analog input channel 0, white cable). Connect the black cable to the ground
on your breadboard. See Figure 14 in the appendix for the wiring connections to the USB DAQ
device.
3. Take the beam and deflect it upward and downward. Observe the resulting voltage output VOUT on the
graph. The vertical scale of your graphical output will be automatically adjusted according to the
range of input signal. VOUT is the sum of two voltage components given by VOUT = VDC + Vdefl
where VDC is a roughly constant DC bias voltage and it depends upon the unbalance of Wheatstone bridge
when the beam is not deflected. Vdefl is the meaningful component because it depends on the deflection of
the metal beam. Theoretically, when the beam is not deflected, and if all four resistors in the Wheatstone
bridge are perfectly matched (equal to one another), the DC bias VDC should be zero. In practice,
however, the resistors are not exactly matched, so the circuit may have a nonzero DC bias even when the
beam is not deflected.
4. Deflect the beam with your hand and observe the sensitivity of system. The whole deflection of
approximately one inch could be divided into 3 or 4 steps on output. If the system is unable to sense
the deflection of less than 1/4 inch of beam deflection we can conclude that system sensitivity or least
count is ¼ inch.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 3

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

5. In order to make the system more sensitive there are two ways.
a. Use a more sensitive DAQ system
b. Amplify the signal
You will use option (b) and amplify the Vout available from the first circuit in the next experiment.

Once you are successful in obtaining a meaningful signal inform the GTAs or the instructor. You will be
given a short introduction to LabVIEW by setting up your own virtual instrument (VI) to acquire all the
three signals for this set of experiments. This step will also address Experiment 4.

Experiment #2: Amplifying voltage output from strain gage circuit

In this experiment, you will amplify the voltage output from your strain gage circuit using a non-inverting
operational amplifier.

Strain Gage Signal Measurement

DAQ
Vout V’out Device
Sensor Non-Inverting PC
Amplifier
Ci it

Figure 5: Strain Gage with Voltage Amplification

One way to amplify the voltage output is to increase the resistance of both R1 and R3 or to decrease the
resistance of both R2 and R4. We will assume that the circuit you built in Experiment # 1 cannot be
modified, which is usually the case with many circuit boards you may encounter in industrial
applications. Instead, amplification of the existing voltage output VOUT could be performed quite easily
using a non-inverting operational amplifier.
 Add the circuit shown in Figure 6 to the circuit you built in Experiment #1. Use op-amp number three
(pin numbers 8, 9, and 10) on the NTE 987 (Figure 4). Choose the source resistor RS and the feedback
resistor RF according to one of the combinations below (ask GTA which combination to use)
Combination 1: RS = 10 kΩ RF = 150 kΩ
Combination 2: RS = 20 kΩ RF = 100 kΩ
Combination 3: RS = 10 kΩ RF = 75 kΩ

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 4

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Figure 6: Amplification Circuit

V / out R
The voltage gain AV for the non-inverting op-amp is given by AV   1  F . Evaluate Av for
Vout RS
Combination 3 before coming to class and include in your prelab.
 Connect the amplified voltage output V’OUT and ground (GND) from your circuit to the DAQ card. In
this step you will need to connect the amplified signal (V’out) to AI1 (analog input channel 1, red
cable). Leave the black cable connected to the ground on your breadboard. See Figure 14 in the
appendix for the wiring connections to the USB DAQ device. This will allow you to observe both the
initial or raw signal and the amplified signal on the same scope.
 Deflect the beam upward and downward. Verify that the amplified voltage output V’OUT on the
LabVIEW graph is similar to what you observed at the end of Experiment #1. While deflecting the
beam, observe the increased sensitivity of the system. Theoretically, the system should be x-times
more sensitive to deflection than before, i.e. if the least count of the previous system was 1/3 or ¼
inch, it should be 1/x times the previous value, where x is the amplification value.
 Evaluate the amplification ratio and compare with the expected one based on the resistors used.
 Observe that you also amplify the noise of the measured voltage signal which is an undesirable effect.
The effect of the noise could be reduced by developing a filter, either a digital or an analog filter. In
the next step, you will add an analog filter to minimize this noise.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 5

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Experiment #3: Adding an analog low‐pass filter to the strain gage circuit
In this experiment, you will add an analog low-pass filter to your circuit to reduce the voltage fluctuations
caused by high-frequency noise.

Strain Gage Signal Measurement

DAQ
Vout V’out V’’out Device
Sensor Non-Inverting Low-Pass PC
Amplifier
Ci it Filt

Figure 7: Strain Gage Sensor with Voltage Amplification and Analog Low-Pass Filter
Add the RC low-pass filter shown in Figure 8 to the circuit you built in Experiment #2. Choose the
resistor RLP and the capacitor CLP such that RLP = 100 kΩ and CLP = 0.1 μF. Estimate the cutoff frequency
ω0 of the filter if ωo =1/RC both in rad/sec and Hz.

Figure 8: RLC Low-Pass Filter

1. Connect the filtered voltage output V”OUT and ground (GND) from your circuit to AI2 (analog input
channel 2, yellow cable). Leave the black cable connected to the ground on your breadboard. See
Figure 14 in the appendix for the wiring connections to the USB DAQ device. This will allow you to
observe all the signals on the same scope.
2. Deflect the beam upward and downward. The screen will show all the signals from the circuit.
Observe the difference between the unfiltered signal (V’out ) and filtered one (V”out).
3. At home you are required to find the transfer function V”out(s)/V’out(s) and evaluate the DC gain based
on the resistor and capacitor and compare with the experimentally obtained results.
4. You can experiment with different resistors to modify the cutoff frequency and observe the effects on
the filtered signal.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 6

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Experiment #4: Adding another channel to the USB DAQ setup to acquire two or more signals
simultaneously

Figure 9: Block Diagram of VI

1. Open the block diagram of this VI by using the “Window” pull down menu. The first option is “Show
Block Diagram”. It will appear as in Figure 9
2. Double clicking the “DAQ Assistant” in this VI will open “DAQ Assistant” dialogue box.
3. At the top select “Add Channels” and select voltage from the available selections. “Add channel to
the Task” menu will appear. It will show the connected DAQ devices with the available channel for
voltage measurement. “ai0” is already used. Select the desired channel from the remaining ones based
on the hardware connectivity and click “ok”.
4. Change the settings appropriately based on the range of values you will be acquiring, the termination
characteristics, the number of samples and the acquisition rate. For this experiment, set the Max value
to “5”, Min to “0”, RSE termination, 1000 samples, 1 kHz rate and N-samples. Also, the connection
diagram to the DAQ device could be accessed at the bottom of the dialogue box. Then, you click on
the OK button to accept these settings and add the channel to the VI.
5. Go to the “Front Panel” and Run the VI. Graph will display two signals instead of one. When
connected, the difference between filtered and un-filtered signal can be observed. The effect of the
low-pass filter should be clear. The voltage fluctuations due to noise should be significantly less after
filtering.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 7

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Figure 10: Second Channel Added to the DAQ System

References
1. Lab Manual “Strain Gage Sensors” Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering.
University of California Santa Barbra.
2. LabVIEW User Manual

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 8

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Figure 11: Resistor Color Coding (Courtesy: Electronix Express)

Figure 12: Breadboard Electrical Connectivity

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 9

University of Texas at Arlington MAE 3183 Measurements II Laboratory

Reference Mark

Power
Supply Ground

Figure 13: NTE 987 Top View

Figure 14: NI USB 6008 DAQ Pinouts

Note the labels for Analog and Digital signals on the actual hardware device.

LabVIEW Strain Gage Integration 10