Sensors and Instrumentation

The Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Division will promote and encourage the exchange of nonproprietary information pertaining to theory, design and application of electronic systems and components used to measure structural dynamic behavior.

Officers
Chair	Gary Foss Boeing Commercial Airplane Group gary.c.foss@boeing.com
Vice Chair	Patrick L. Walter Texas Christian University Dept. of Engineering Fort Worth, TX p.walter@tcu.edu
Secretary	Michael D. Todd University of California, San Diego Dept. of Structural Engineering La Jolla, CA mdt@ucsd.edu
Annual Meeting Programming Chair	Miao Yu University of Maryland Department of Mechanical Engineering College Park, MD mmyu@eng.umd.edu

Bylaws

SENSORS & INSTRUMENTATION - - Updated Sept 2008

For IMAC 26, the Sensors & Instrumentation Technical Division organized two regular sessions with 12 papers presented.

To provide an IMAC conference forum for the exchange of practical instrumentation topics, we also organized two days of well-attended tutorial sessions, with eighteen presentations. Some of these presentations can be found at the links below.

The second annual meeting of this new division was held at IMAC on Feb. 4, 2008, with 25 people attending. We voted to retain the incumbent officers and discussed the success of the tutorial sessions. We looked at ways to improve them further, and increase our participation in other areas at the conference.

For IMAC 27, several regular sessions are planned. The Sensors & Instrumentation tutorials will be expanded to two and a half days. At our annual meeting, our special guest speaker will be Mr. Steve Arms, President of Microstrain, Inc. Mr. Arms will talk about the future of wireless sensor networks, and describe some his company’s wireless products.

One of our TD goals is to increase vendor participation at IMAC. At IMAC 26, we had 9 vendor presentations, including B&K, Endevco, HITEC, Kistler, Pacific Instruments, PCB, Precision Filters, and the Modal Shop. At IMAC 27, this list will be expanded to also include National Instruments, Dytran, Spectraquest,

Polytec, VXI Technologies, and Microstrain.

Some presentations from the Sensors & Instrumentation Tutorial, IMAC 26

Only the Transducer Should Limit the Dynamics of the Measurement Chain, B. Kriegbaum, Bruel & Kjaer Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S

Fiber Optic Sensor Technology, M. Yu, University of Maryland, College Park

Practical Considerations for Low Noise Measurement, J.M.W. Brownjohn, University of Sheffield

Selection of Accelerometers for Modal Analysis, John Kubler, Kistler

Sensor Performance, A (hopefully) Short Primer, M.D.Todd, University of California, San Diego

Strain Measurement in Hostile Environments, V. Wnuk, HPI - Hitec Products, Inc.

Transducer Mounting and Test Setup Considerations, R.W. Bono, The Modal Shop, Inc.

Understanding and Interpreting Data Sheet Noise Specifications of IEPE Accelerometers, J. Aram, Endevco Corporation

Understanding Variable Capacitance Accelerometers, J. Aram, Endevco Corporation

Presentations from IMAC 25