Design and Simulation of a Linear LVDT Sensor for Precise Measurement-based Applications

Kasra Pourang, Mina Asghari Heidarlou, Keivan Javadi Khasraghi

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Tabriz Tabriz, Iran

Manouchehr Bahrami
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Tabriz Tabriz, Iran

AbstractToday, LVDTs are among most conventional sensors which are used to convert rectilinear motion of an object to which is coupled into a corresponding electrical signal. In this paper, a linear high Q-factor LVDT sensor is presented. This sensor can measure 8cm displacements with accuracy of 100m. To increase Q-factor a ferrite body was used to steer magnetic field. First, a brief introduction and theory of operation are presented. Then, two test structures are introduced in order to straightforward simulation of the final sensor. Finally, inductance change depicted in the term of differential voltage change, so value of the displacement obtained. Keywords-displacement sensor; COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a linear inductive sensor;

measured. In operation, the LVDTs primary winding is energized by AC source of appropriate amplitude and frequency. The LVDTs electrical output signal is the differential AC voltage between the two secondary windings, which varies with the axial position of the core within the LVDT coil [2]. Usually this AC output voltage is converted by suitable electronic circuitry to high level DC voltage or current that is more convenient to use. II. THEORY

I. INTRODUCTION Measuring displacement in a specific direction is one of the most important operations in industry in the context of controlling specific system. Different sensors have been introduced to achieve this goal including inductive, ultrasonic and light sensors. Linear Variable Displacement Transducers (LVDTs) provide a simple and reliable means of converting a mechanical displacement into an electrical signal proportional to that displacement [1]. Figure 1 shows the components of a typical LVDT. The transformers internal structure consists of a primary winding centered between a pair of identically wound secondary windings. The coils are wound on a one-piece hollow form of thermally stable glass reinforced polymer, encapsulated against moisture, wrapped in a high permeability magnetic shield, and then secured in cylindrical stainless steel housing.

Figure 2 illustrates what happens when the LVDTs core is in different axial positions. The LVDTs primary winding, P, is energized by a constant amplitude AC source. The magnetic flux thus developed is coupled by the core to the adjacent secondary windings, S1 and S2. If the core is located midway between S1 and S2, equal flux is coupled to each secondary so the voltages, E1 and E2, induced in windings S1 and S2 respectively, are equal [2]. At this reference midway core position, known as the null point, the differential voltage output, (E1 - E2), is essentially zero.

Fig. 2. Different positions of the core of a LVDT sensor.

By approaching the core to the solenoid the inductance will be changed. The inductance in solenoid is calculated by the following formula [3]: L=(7qD


Fig. 1. Schematic of a typical LVDT.

The moving element of an LVDT is a separate tubular armature of magnetically permeable material called the core, which is free to move axially within the coils hollow bore, and mechanically coupled to the object whose position is being

In (1), B is electromagnetic field and I is current flowing in primary winding. As shown in Fig. 2, if the core was moved closer to S1 than to S2, more flux was coupled to S1 and less to S2, so the induced voltage E1 was increased while E2 was decreased, resulting in the differential voltage (E1 -E2). Conversely, if the core was moved closer to S2, more flux was coupled to S2 and less to S1, so E2 was increased as E1 was decreased, resulting in the differential voltage (E2 - E1).

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Design and Simulation of a Linear LVDT Sensor for Precise Measurement-based Applications

According to (2), if the core gets closed to the solenoid the influential quantity of the r will be increased which will result in the increase of magnetic field (B) and consequently the increase of inductance [2]. -( 0-1 r-1B)=J (2)

Figure 3 shows how the magnitude of the differential output voltage, EOUT, varies with core position. The value of EOUT at maximum core displacement from null depends upon the amplitude of the primary excitation voltage and the sensitivity factor of the particular LVDT, but is typically several volts RMS [4].

Fig. 4. Final design of the proposed LVDT sensor.

Fig. 3. Output characteristic of a typical LVDT sensor.

While it is possible to read a displacement by monitoring just E1 or E2, there are some significant drawbacks in doing so. Any stray noise coupled to the E2 lines will be read by the E2 monitoring circuit and mistakenly interpreted as displacement information. Also, any fluctuations in the primarys driving amplitude will be directly coupled to E2 and will also negatively affect accuracy. The simple solution is to use both the E1 and E2 signals and perform a ratiometric measurement as follow: EOUT=(E1-E2)/(E1+E2) III. SIMULATION (3)

This assumption was tested by the means of two structures; one without spaces and the other with spaces between wires [3]. In fact, we tried to hypothesize that loops of the solenoids are so tight and the wires are so thick that we could suppose the whole solenoid as a coherent structure without any spaces between wires. The results from [3] showed that inductance in the first structure, one without spaces between wires, started from 362nH when the core moved toward the winding while in the second structure, with spaces considered between the wires, inductance started from 370nH. This means that there was a 8nH difference between two structures which could be neglected, as we did in our model. Back to our main sensor design, measurement accuracy was designed to be 100m, and a total displacement of 8cm was introduced to the core while the body was fixed to achieve a more realistic response. Figure 5 shows simulation results of the final design. As illustrated below, almost all of the magnetic field was focused inside the body. So, as discussed in the previous section, the body could orient the field successfully.

This LVDT sensor consists of a body, a core and a coil. The ferrite body is used to thoroughly orient the magnetic field, so Q-factor will be increased. The relative permeability which is applied to this body is 50000 as like as metal relative permeability. The movable core has the same r of body and moves through the body. The meander coil stretches out between two appendixes of the body and core move within it and between the two appendixes. The length of sensors body is 30cm with thickness of 2cm for this simulation. The thickness of wire that is applied in this sensor is 5mm. Simulation was done in COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a. Figure 4 shows final design of the senor. In this figure the leftsided and right-sided blocks are representative of secondary windings (S1 and S2 in Fig. 2) while the middle block is a model of primary winding (P in Fig. 2), and the red block shows the core. A (10V, 50Hz) sinusoidal voltage (V1) was applied to the primary winding, and output voltage was measured in the term of (V3 - V2). Note that windings were supposed to be coherent (Fig. 4), i.e. there were no spaces between the wires of the solenoids.

Fig. 5. Simulation results of proposed LVDT sensor. (a) 3D view, and (b) top view.

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Design and Simulation of a Linear LVDT Sensor for Precise Measurement-based Applications

Figure 6 illustrates inductance change in output; as the core leaved the first secondary winding, magnitude of the output inductance was decreased; when the core approached the second secondary winding magnitude of the output inductance was increased. Obviously, special design of the body to orient magnetic field beside the novel design of the core and windings were among most important factors which caused to reach a totally linear sensor.

Ease of use and low fabrication cost make LVDTs one of the frequently used displacement sensors in researches and industries. Linearity is one of the important parameters (maybe the most important one) for a LVDT sensor because a nonlinear sensor neither has high accuracy nor high speed. In this paper, a novel design for LVDT sensors was introduced and simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics 3.5a. As above results showed earlier, the output inductance was totally linear in the given displacement of 8cm. Magnitude of the applied voltage signal was 10V with a 50Hz frequency to simulate a realistic model of the sensor which currently is used in industry. Besides, two test structures were simulated to make the final simulation easier. Also, a special designed body was considered for the sensor to orient magnetic field inside the body, so amount of waste currents was decreased significantly. REFERENCES
[1] S. Fericean and R. Droxler, New noncontacting inductive analog proximity and inductive linear displacement sensors for industrial automation, IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, vol. 7, no. 11, November 2007. D. K. Cheng, Field and Wave Electromagnetics, 2nd ed. M. R. Mousavi, R. P. Zangabad, S. Chamanian, and M. Bahrami, Simulation of novel linear inductive displacement sensor. Las Vegas, USA: 21st IEEE International Conference on System Engineering, August 1618 2011. M. S. Damnjanovic, L. D. Zivanov, L. F. Nagy, S. M. Djuric, and B. N. Biberdzic, A novel approach to extending the linearity range of displacement inductive sensor, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, vol. 44, no. 11, November 2008.

[2] [3]

Fig. 6. Response of the proposed LVDT sensor (x-axis: displacement; yaxis: inductance change in output).

[4]

IV.

CONCLUSION

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