Study on Miniaturized Tri-Axis Heat Convection Accelerometer with Experimental Validation

We present a study on tri-axis heat convective accelerometer, which is designed with the closed-loop type heat source and thermal sensing hotwire elements. The closed-loop heat source enhances the convective flow to the central part, where a hotwire is placed, to measure the vertical component of acceleration. The simulation was conducted using numerical analysis, and the device was prototyped by additive manufacturing. The device, functioning as a tilt sensor and an accelerometer, was tested up to acceleration of 10g. The experiments were successfully conducted and the experimental results agreed reasonably with those obtained by numerical analysis. The results demonstrated that the closed-loop heat source could reduce the cross effect between the acceleration components.