Abstract
Accelerometer using zero-compliance mechanism is purposed in this paper. This accelerometer is invented to measure long-period and small oscillations such as ground motions and building vibrations with a high resolution. The zero-compliance mechanism is composed of two suspensions with positive stiffness and negative stiffness. Force acting on the inertial mass at the point of force is proportional to the displacement of the connection point of two suspensions, which is referred to as detection point. Acceleration is estimated by dividing the force by the inertial mass. An experimental apparatus according to the principle is fabricated to study basic characteristics of the proposed accelerometer. To achieve the zero-compliance property, a linear actuator is incorporated into the mechanism. The experimental static acceleration is given to the apparatus by gravity. The static acceleration measurements show that the displacement of the detection point is proportional to the acceleration. It is confirmed that the displacement of the point of force is virtually zero. The dynamic measurement results show that the experimental apparatus and a conventional servo-type accelerometer have mostly same output. These results demonstrate that zero-compliance mechanism can be applied to acceleration measurement.
