Development of Inertial Acceleration Measurement Device with Zero-Compliance Mechanism

Accelerometer using zero-compliance mechanism was studied both analytically and experimentally. In the originally conceived device, an inertial mass is suspended by zero-compliance mechanism that consists of a positive-stiffness suspension and a negative-stiffness suspension with same amplitude of stiffness. They are connected in series at the detection point. When the device is accelerated, the relative displacement of the inertial mass is kept zero while the detection point displaces. The amplitude of acceleration equals the product of the stiffness and the displacement of the detection point divided the inertial mass. A measurement device was fabricated to investigate basic characteristics of the proposed accelerometer. In this work, analytical studies supporting the validity of the acceleration measurement are shown. Several results of measuring fine acceleration are also presented.