This paper discusses a noninvasive sensing technique for the direct measurement of low-magnitude shear stresses in laminar and turbulent air flows. The sensing scheme detects the flow-induced in-plane displacement of a microfabricated floating-element structure (500 μm×500 μm×7 μm), using integrated photodiodes. The wall-mounted floating-element sensors were fabricated using a wafer-bonding technology. The sensors were calibrated in a custom-designed laminar flow cell and subsequently shown to be able to transduce shear stresses of 0.01 Pa during tests in a low-speed wind tunnel
Published in:
Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of
(Volume:5
,
Issue:
4
)
Date of Publication: Dec 1996