Piezoresistive Pressure Transmitters for Soil Investigation Systems

What is Soil liquefaction?

Soil liquefaction happens when water in the earth, in most instances groundwater, can't drain off speedy enough. This ends in a widespread growth in hydrostatic pressure in the ground, which in turn makes the earth move, and in lots of instances the systems upon it as well.

This phenomenon can occur due to earthquakes and the existence of land slopes along rivers and lakes, and can damage networks for wastewater, water, electricity, natural gas and telecommunication services in addition to structures on the ground.

Cone penetration test:

To prevent such incidents as described above, the land at construction sites must be thoroughly analyzed prior to any construction. The Cone penetration test method was invented in 1950 and is used globally for soil investigation.

Along with soil resistance, the cone sensors used in the test estimate the inclination of the cone, the friction ratio, soil temperature, conductivity and water tension.

The latter parameter is measured by use of some special piezoresistive pressure transmitters recently designed.

Piezoresistive pressure transmitters:

These transmitters have a very low temperature error that’s gained via an additional circuit with a temperature sensor that subdivides the temperature range into fields of 1.5 Kelvin (K) each. These transmitters always work at calibration temperature.

These sensors have a very high resistance to electromagnetic fields.

In fact, these devices display values that fall below the limits of the CE standard by as much as a factor of ten in the case of conducted and radiated fields. Furthermore, the transmitters are significantly immune to external voltages between the housing and the electrical connection, that's especially essential while they are used with frequency converters. An excessive insulation voltage of 300 V additionally makes this product perfect for use in the most hostile environments.