Comparison of the functional properties of selected multilayer systems

Electrodeposition of multilayers continues to grow and diversify. Research is still underway on the adaptation of multilayer systems to new applications in various industries. Cu/Ni multilayers are still very commonly used for practical purposes. In this work, the functional properties of selected multilayer systems with different layers quantity and thicknesses in nanoscale were investigated. The Cu and Ni layers were electrolytically deposited on a low carbon steel substrate and obtained systems were subjected to structural and anticorrosion properties study. The electrochemical parameters were determined by potentiodynamic method and the surface evaluation of the systems after corrosion tests was also carried out

Comparison of the functional properties of selected multilayer systems

Electrodeposition of multilayers continues to grow and diversify. Research is still underway on the adaptation of multilayer systems to new applications in various industries. Cu/Ni multilayers are still very commonly used for practical purposes. In this work, the functional properties of selected multilayer systems with different layers quantity and thicknesses in nanoscale were investigated. The Cu and Ni layers were electrolytically deposited on a low carbon steel substrate and obtained systems were subjected to structural and anticorrosion properties study. The electrochemical parameters were determined by potentiodynamic method and the surface evaluation of the systems after corrosion tests was also carried out

Didactic stand for temperature measurement with selected methods

W pracy przedstawiono stanowisko dydaktyczne służące do pomiaru temperatury z zastosowaniem metod zarówno stykowych jak i bezkontaktowych. Zakres metod stykowych obejmuje pomiary termoelementem, termistorem ale również z zastosowaniem ogniwa Peltiera. Metodą bezstykową jest pomiar termograficzny z zastosowaniem kamery termowizyjnej. Zwiększenie temperatury powyżej temperatury otoczenia zrealizowane zostało przy pomocy ogniwa Peltiera. Przedstawiono przykładowe wyniki pomiarów w postaci charakterystyk temperaturowych oraz ich analizę. Najciekawszym zagadnieniem w pracy jest zastosowanie ogniwa Peltiera do pomiaru temperatury. Jest to zagadnienie praktycznie nie znane studentom.Temperature is the most often measured physical quantity as in normal life as in industry. So, it is very important to teach students about methods and sensors for temperature measuring. The main goal of this paper is presenting didactic stand for temperature measurement. It enables to measure temperature with contact and contactless methods. General description of measurement is presented as well as example measurement results with discussion. The element which changes temperature is Peltier’s Cell which is supplied by Power Supply. The simple circuit is presented in fig. 2. The Peltier’s Cell is switched between Peltier’s effect and Seebec’s effect using 1-2 switch (see fig. 2). There are two thermocouple sensors: one on the hot size, second on cold one and thermistor on the hot size. The exact installation of the sensors is presented in fig. 1. The IR camera Flir A325 is applied as well for sensorless measurement, the example of thermogram is presented in fig. 5. Figures 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 present exemplary results for measurements. Fig. 4 presents temperature measurement for hot and cold size using thermocouples and IR camera. Fig. 6 presents thermocouple Seebeck’s voltage vs. temperature. Figs. 7 and 8 presents Peltier’s Cell Seebeck’s voltage and power vs. hot/cold difference of temperatures. Fig 9 presents thermistor resistance vs. temperature. The two electric circuits are presented in Fig. 3 for resistance-voltage conversion, the results for conversion are presented in fig. 10, there are used voltage divider and current mirror. The measurement stand enables to teach students variety methods of temperature measurement classical contact methods using thermocouples and thermistors, contactless method using IR camera and non popular method using Peltier’s Cell. The last possibility is surprising for students. It is used as example of “energy havesting” solution

Master-Slave measurement system, based on wireless Smart Sensor data acquisition modules with a voltage input

Artykuł przedstawia bezprzewodowy system pomiarowy, złożony z kart akwizycji danych o wejściu napięciowym, opracowany na potrzeby pracy magisterskiej. Zadaniem systemu jest akwizycja, archiwizacja, monitorowanie oraz przesyłanie danych pomiarowych z urządzenia Slave do Master. Urządzenia akwizycyjne zostały wykonane jako urządzenia typu SMART SENSOR. Opracowany system pomiarowy został zastosowany do akwizycji danych w systemie odzyskiwania energii z otwieranych i zamykanych drzwi.This paper presents wireless measurement system, consist of a data acquisition cards with voltage inputs, developed as the MSc thesis. The purpose of the system is acquisition, archiving, monitoring and transfer measurement data from the slave device to the master device (Fig. 1). Acquisition cards has been made as a SMART SENSOR device (Fig. 2). Data acquisition card is a slave module in the measurement system. It allows to acquire the measurement data with maximum 8 inputs with adjustable delay time between the measurements. The data can be saved to a SD card, and sent by radio in the ISM band (Fig. 3). DAQ card configuration is done by a terminal application located on PC (Fig. 4). The network gateway consists of a manager, a user interface module (Fig. 5), the power module and converter UART / USB. Developed measurement system has been used as the data acquisition system in recover energy from opening and closing door circuit. The short measurement series were done for acquiring voltage (Fig. 6) and current (Fig. 7) when movement of the door was forced. Long acquisition series were done as well (Fig. 8). The long series took four days during typical office use. The measurement system can be used for monitoring various types of physical quantities by means of appropriate sensors and output voltage. Applied Gateway may be part of the monitoring and control of data acquisition DAQ cards used in the measurements

Use of a genetic algorithm to determine the gain of the input amplifier of the signal logger

W artykule przedstawiono projekt wzmacniacza nieodwracającego o zmiennym współczynniku wzmocnienia dla modułu pięciozakresowego miernika napięcia. Zadaniem wzmacniacza jest dopasowanie zakresu wejściowego urządzenia do wejścia przetwornika analogowo-cyfrowego. Przełączenie zakresu (wzmocnienia) odbywa się poprzez wybór odpowiedniej pary rezystorów odpowiedzialnych za wzmocnienie i podzielenie sygnału. Zestaw rezystorów przełączanych został dobrany za pomocą algorytmu genetycznego zaimplementowanego jako aplikacja napisana w środowisku LabVIEW. Program poszukuje rozwiązania w zadanej puli rezystorów zwanej populacją, poszukując wartości spełniające wszystkie zadane wzmocnienia sygnału.Goal of the paper is to find proper resisnace values for input amplifier of voltage measurement module – see fig. 2. The voltage measurement module is a part of a bigger device which is a signal logger presented in fig. 1. The structure of the amplifier is presented in fig. 3. A pairs of resistors set the amplifier gains, the gain factor is given by equation (1). One resistor from RA group (which contains R1-R3) and one resistor from RB group (which contains R4-R6) set the gain factor. The variable gain convertes signal from choosen input of the module into ADC converter input. The module need five measurement ranges which have to be converted into ADC input, so five gain factors are needed. The genetic algorithm was employed to find the resistance values. Group of six resistors called genes buid chromosome – fig. 4. The matching function compares nine gains given by pairs of resistors with five desirable gains, each mached gain increases matching factor, expected factor is equal to five. The maching function is presented in fig. 6. The software was implemented in LabVIEW environment. The code is presented in fig. 7, as well as GUI is presented in fig. 8. The software finds the solution in given range of resistor values. In result it try to find all five signal gains. Two series of resistances were taken into account, the first one is E96 (1%) serie with 318 elements, the second one was series available in local electronic shop with 72 elements. The solutions were found in both cases. The results are presented in fig. 9

Experimental measurements of shape memory alloys wires

Paper deals with examinations of properties of shape memory alloy actuators. Authors describe design of own laboratory stand for obtaining electro-thermo-mechanical characteristics of SMA wires (maximum length 900 mm). The stand allows for semi-automatic measurements of voltage and current (supplying the actuator), temperature of wire and its extension. Data acquisition and control signals are realized by PC computer. All elements of the measuring system are connected by GPIB network (IEEE 488.2 standard). Control program for static measurements was written in G language (LabVIEW environment). Temperature is measured using infrared camera Flir A325. Displacement measurement system contains optical sensor (converting piston movement into series of pulses), pulses counter, PWM signal generator (PWM signal fulfillment is proportional to number of pulses), lowpass filter and buffer conditioning external signal. For dynamic measurements data recording is performed using digital oscilloscope Tektronix MSO 2024 equipped with four separated channels and digital filter. Wide range of examinations of several SMA wires allowed for drawing its exploitative characteristic helpful for practical use. It shows length change of actuator as a function of mechanical load (Fig. 10). Finally some example static as well as dynamic characteristics are presented and short discussion is carried out

Experimental measurements of shape memory alloys wires

Paper deals with examinations of properties of shape memory alloy actuators. Authors describe design of own laboratory stand for obtaining electro-thermo-mechanical characteristics of SMA wires (maximum length 900 mm). The stand allows for semi-automatic measurements of voltage and current (supplying the actuator), temperature of wire and its extension. Data acquisition and control signals are realized by PC computer. All elements of the measuring system are connected by GPIB network (IEEE 488.2 standard). Control program for static measurements was written in G language (LabVIEW environment). Temperature is measured using infrared camera Flir A325. Displacement measurement system contains optical sensor (converting piston movement into series of pulses), pulses counter, PWM signal generator (PWM signal fulfillment is proportional to number of pulses), lowpass filter and buffer conditioning external signal. For dynamic measurements data recording is performed using digital oscilloscope Tektronix MSO 2024 equipped with four separated channels and digital filter. Wide range of examinations of several SMA wires allowed for drawing its exploitative characteristic helpful for practical use. It shows length change of actuator as a function of mechanical load (Fig. 10). Finally some example static as well as dynamic characteristics are presented and short discussion is carried out

The use of DMA in serial data transmission systems

W artykule przedstawiono projekt układu wykorzystującego w transmisji danych kontroler DMA. Głównym zadaniem kontrolera jest odciążenie jednostki centralnej użytego mikrokontrolera przez bezpośredni dostęp do jego pamięci. Badanie transmisji przeprowadzono za pomocą analizatora stanów logicznych LOGIC8 wraz z dedykowanym do niego oprogramowaniem producenta. Analiza otrzymanych wyników potwierdza, iż uzyskana szybkość transmisji danych przy zastosowaniu kontrolera DMA jest o 16% większa niż w przypadku klasycznej obsługi procesu komunikacji z zastosowaniem procesora.In this paper authors proved that DMA controller have positive effect on the serial transmission process. Firstly, was presented a scheme with principles of the device using DMA controller. The stream of data sent from sensor can use one of four modes, it means: without DMA, with DMA on sensor side, with DMA on PC side and with DMA on both sides. The main device was assembled with following modules: LSM9DS0 sensor as a data generator, STM32F4 ARM microcontroller for data transmssion, USART-USB converter and PC computer as a data reader. The main module is the ARM microcontroller which controls whole process. Additionally, authors present used transmission interfaces working between the modules. In research 18 kB of data is send from the sensor to the computer and time of data transmission is measured. There are different structures of data frame in range of 3000 buffers containing 6b of data to 6 buffers containing 3000b. The speed for the SPI and UART amounted to 5.25 Mb/s. The times for the case: 1018 executed delay loops are presented in Table 2 and are given in milliseconds. In result transmission fully controlled by DMA is 16,6% faster than CPU controlled one (pulling mode) and 5,2% faster than CPU utilizing interrupts. Transmission controlled by CPU utilizing interrupts is 12,1% faster than CPU controlled one (in pulling mode). The fastest transmission achieved 60% of theoretical transmission speed

Analytical Description of SMA Actuator Dynamics based on Fermi-Dirac Function

The paper deals with possible application of the very promising SMART material - shape memory alloy. At the beginning the laboratory stand for investigation on dynamic behaviour of a SMA linear actuator is presented and results of measurements for the chosen SMA actuator F2000 are depicted and discussed. In the next stage the authors propose to use the so-called Fermi-Dirac function for description of SMA linear actuator dynamics. Applying this function for determining basic performance curve: shortening Δ L versus time t for different loads F requires proper modification of the Fermi-Dirac function and its conversion in the one-parameter family (with parameter F). Coefficients of this family are determined with the help of Hooke-Jeeves optimization algorithm and on the basis of experimental findings separately for activation and deactivation process. The both derived expressions were validated by additional laboratory investigations. Finally, the elaborated descriptions was employed in design procedure of a robot gripper. It was shown that the results of measurements for the gripper prototype are in satisfactory agreement with the results of calculations

Ambient temperature acquisition module for measurement system

W artykule przedstawiono projekt i wykonanie modułu rejestrującego warunki środowiskowe w pomieszczeniu laboratoryjnym. Układ został zaprojektowany do współpracy ze stanowiskiem pomiarowym wyznaczającym charakterystyki elektromechaniczne elektrycznie aktywowanych aktuatorów SMA. Współpracuje ze stanowiskiem laboratoryjnym komunikując się w strukturze pytanie – odpowiedź. Urządzenie rozszerza zakres prowadzonych badań umożliwiając automatyczną rejestrację temperatury, wilgotności oraz ciśnienia atmosferycznego w trakcie pomiarów. Zmiana temperatury otoczenia w trakcie długotrwałych pomiarów wprowadza dodatkowe błędy pomiarowe, które do tej pory nie mogły być uwzględnione, pozostałe parametry ciśnienie i wilgotność mogą mieć wpływ na warunki oddawania ciepła od aktuatora do otoczenia. Komunikacja z zastosowaniem standardu USB i wirtualnego portu COM zapewnia uniwersalność urządzenia. Praca została zrealizowana jako projekt inżynierski.The article presents ambient environment acquisition module. The module acquires temperature humidity and pressure in the laboratory room. The task was done as a BsC Thesis. The module must be universal module, which develop abilities of measurement system. The module was designed as a addiction for Shape Memory Alloy Actuators measurement systems. The SMA actuators are driven by current, so ambient temperature is a starting point for increasing SMA internal temperature causes by flowing current. The module exchanges data with measurement system in question-answer structure. Virtual COM port emulated on USB enables to use the module in wide range of measurement systems