Deformation Analysis and Optimal Design of Membrane for Differential Pressure Capacitance Sensor

Abstract

The compression deformation of the measuring membrane of the differential pressure capacitance sensor is studied. The classical von Kármán thin plate theory is applied to the elastic circular thin plate subjected to pretension, and the approximate analytical solution is given by adopting the homotopy analysis method. The results are compared with the simulation results of the finite element software ANSYS, which shows that they have a high degree of agreement. The magnitude of pretension has a great influence on the deformation of the membrane under compression, thus affecting the capacitance output characteristics of the sensor. The effect of pretension on the nonlinear characteristic of the sensor is verified by the sensor performance test. The results suggest that the linearity of the sensor can be effectively improved by selecting the appropriate pretension, and the sensitivity of the output can be improved by appropriately reducing the membrane thickness. The analysis results have an important reference value for the design of membrane of differential pressure capacitance sensors.

Keywords

• sensor membrane
• pretension
• deformation analysis
• homotopy analysis
• nonlinearity