Claims
- 1. An accelerator comprising a base and a first free-standing acceleration sensitive resonator affixed to said base, said resonator consisting of:
- a resonator mass;
- a first elongate piezoelectric quartz force transducer having one end rigidly fastened to said base and an opposed end rigidly fastened to said mass;
- a second substantially identical transducer having one end rigidly fastened to said base and an opposed end rigidly fastened to said mass, each of said ends being spaced from a respective end of said first transducer;
- each of said transducers comprising a rectangular beam having a length greater than its width and a width greater than its thickness, said first transducer having a face in the length-width plane which is spaced from and opposing an equivalent face of said second transducer.
- 2. The accelerometer of claim 1 wherein said first transducer is parallel to said second transducer.
- 3. The accelerometer of claim 1 wherein said opposing beams are aligned.
- 4. The accelerometer of claim 3 wherein said opposing beams are parallel.
- 5. The accelerometer of claim 4 wherein each of said beams comprises a double-ended tuning fork.
- 6. The accelerometer of claim 1 further comprising an identical free-standing acceleration sensitive resonator identical to said first resonator and affixed to said base, said second resonator extending in a direction perpendicular to the axis of said first resonator.
- 7. An accelerometer comprising a base and a first free-standing acceleration sensitive resonator affixed to said base, said resonator consisting of:
- a resonator mass;
- a first elongate resonating member having one end rigidly fastened to said base and an opposed end rigidly fastened to said mass;
- an inactive, substantially identical member having one end rigidly fastened to said base and an opposed end rigidily fastened to said mass, each of said ends being spaced from a respective end of said first member; and
- a second resonating member substantially identical to said first resonating member, said second resonating member having one end rigidly fastened to said base and an opposed end free-standing, said second resonating member providing a temperature compensation signal for said first resonating member.
Government Interests
The present invention relates generally to accelerometers and more particularly to a mass loaded cantilever accelerometer. The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC04-76DP00789 between the Department of Energy and Sandia Corporation.
US Referenced Citations (17)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
"Precision Digital Pressure Transducer", by Paros from ISA Transactions v 12, pp. 173-179, 1973. |