Stiffening effect of bolt-on transducers on strain measurements

The strain of a structural element is often measured indirectly by determining the strain of a transducer that is supposed to follow the deformation of the element perfectly, and with negligible interaction, around the mounting point. However, this assumption is not always true, and depends on the stiffness of the transducer relative to the local stiffness of the piece to which it is attached. This paper deals with the problem of evaluating the influence that a relatively rigid transducer (the HBM SLB-700A was chosen as an example) has on the strain field, studied from both the theoretical and the experimental points of view. The findings of the research have shown that, in order to interpret the measurements obtained from this kind of instruments correctly, the perturbation induced on the strain field cannot be disregarded. A corrective factor, obtained numerically by means of the FEM and discussed in the paper, can be used as a first approximation to evaluate the true strain, stress and forces in common structural steel elements.