Date of Award

2020-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Norman D. Love

Abstract

On this research, we are trying to demonstrate that a piezoelectric flow sensor made of PZT can produce a higher and fluctuating signal when exposed to elevated temperatures presented on the system. This type of application can be beneficial for systems that involve changes in temperature such as compressors and be able to predict certain situations presented on those systems that can be catastrophic, that is the case for surge and stall. Therefore, a system capable of going from 25â?°C-90â?°C was designed where a piezoelectric sensor was inserted at a specific location to analyze the signal produced by these changes in temperature. For this investigation, the mass flow rate in the system was kept the same, 0.07kg/s, and the only variable was the temperature. Compared to the previous phase, it was observed that at a lower velocity and same mass flow rate, the output signal of the sensor was higher when a higher temperature in involved. From this, we concluded that the signal of a PZT flow sensor is affected by the changes in temperature and it follows the trend of the temperature. Therefore, if the temperature increases, the signal from the sensor increases and this will be occurring until the curie temperature is reached. However, if this investigation wants to be used for applications where the temperatures are higher that the curie temperature of the PZT (around 250â?°C), then, different sensor materials capable of handling the specified temperature will have to be studied and analyzed to see how they behave under those circumstances.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

54 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Lyan Eduardo Gutierrez Hernandez

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