Sains Malaysiana 45(11)(2016): 1655–1661

 

Performance Experiment and Numerical Prediction of the Copper based Hair Cell Sensor for Underwater Sensing

(Eksperimen Prestasi dan Ramalan Berangka Pengesan Sel Rambut berasaskan Kuprum untuk Penderiaan dalam Air)

 

MOHD NORZAIDI MAT NAWI¹*, ASRULNIZAM ABD MANAF², MOHD RIZAL ARSHAD²

& OTHMAN SIDEK²

 

¹Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris

35900 Tanjung Malim, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia

 

²School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

 

Received: 13 April 2013/Accepted: 30 January 2016

 

 

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates the performance experiment and numerical prediction of the copper based hair cell for underwater sensing. Generally, the hair cell consists of the single cantilever that attached perpendicular to the substrate and integrated with strain gage (Kyowa type: KFG-1N-120-C1-11). The hair cell sensor was simulated using different flow rates to study the pressure and the strain distribution acting on the sensor by using computational fluid dynamic and finite element analysis approach. High performance sensor can be achieved by increasing the length of the hair cell and also using low Young Modulus material. The hair cell has been fabricated for dimension of 8000 μm length, 2000 μm width and 100 μm thickness, where the copper was chosen due to its mechanical properties. The response time for a sensor to respond completely to a change in input is about 50 m/s and the sensitivity in terms of output voltage and input flow rate is 0.2 mV/ms-1. Also, the result obtained in the simulation is aligned with the experimental result. The experiment for moving object detection proved that this sensor is able to detect the moving object and it is necessary for underwater applications, especially for monitoring and surveillance.

 

Keywords: Hair cell; moving object detection; strain gage; underwater sensing

 

ABSTRAK

Kertas ini membincangkan eksperimen prestasi dan ramalan berangka untuk sel rambut berasaskan kuprum untuk pengesanan bawah air. Secara umumnya, sel rambut itu terdiri daripada julur tunggal yang tegak berserenjang dengan substrat dan disepadukan dengan tolok terikan (jenis Kyowa: KFG-1N-120-C1-11). Pengesan sel rambut telah disimulasi menggunakan kadar aliran yang berbeza untuk mengkaji tekanan dan taburan terikan yang bertindak ke atas pengesan dengan menggunakan pengiraan dinamik bendalir dan kaedah unsur terhingga. Pengesan berprestasi tinggi boleh dicapai dengan meningkatkan panjang sel rambut dan juga menggunakan bahan Young Modulus yang rendah. Sel rambut telah direka bagi ukuran panjang 8000 μm, lebar 2000 μm dan tebal 100 μm, dengan kuprum telah dipilih kerana sifat mekaniknya. Masa tindak balas untuk pengesan bertindak balas sepenuhnya kepada perubahan input adalah kira-kira 50 m/s dan sensitiviti daripada segi keluaran voltan dan kadar aliran masukan adalah 0.2 mV/ms-1. Keputusan yang diperoleh daripada simulasi juga adalah sejajar dengan keputusan eksperimen. Eksperimen untuk pengesanan objek bergerak membuktikan bahawa pengesan ini boleh mengesan objek yang bergerak dan ini adalah perlu bagi aplikasi bawah air, terutamanya untuk pemantauan dan pengawasan.

 

Kata kunci: Pengesan bawah air; pengesanan objek bergerak; sel rambut; tolok terikan

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*Corresponding author; email: norzaidi@fsmt.upsi.edu.my