Tuned flexure accelerometer
OwnerRaymond Carroll, Charles R. Dauwalter +1inventors
InventorsRaymond Carroll, Charles R. Dauwalter, Donato Cardarelli
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Abstract
This invention relates to additional embodiments of the tuned flexure accelerometer (TFA) concept. The TFA reduces or eliminates the elastic restraint (also termed “spring stiffness”) of the reference mass support by means of oscillation to improve the ability to accurately measure distance, velocity or acceleration with the accelerometer. The invention also relates to tuning flexures in other applications such as mirrors so as to allow the mirror to hold rotation or translation position once moved, without additional torque or force.
Claims16
A planar tuned flexure accelerometer that is sensitive to accelerations in the plane of the accelerometer, comprising:
- a housing;
- a planar gimbal coupled to the housing for oscillation about a gimbal oscillation axis;
- a mass coupled by one or more flexures to the gimbal to allow motion of the mass relative to the gimbal, the one or more flexures having an effective elastic restraint;
- and
- means for oscillating the gimbal about the gimbal oscillation axis, to create a negative elastic restraint which reduces the effective elastic restraint of the one or more flexures.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.