UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Development of a Bio-Inspired Magnetostrictive Flow and Tactile Sensor
    (2012) Marana, Michael Adam; Flatau, Alison; Aerospace Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    A magnetostrictive sensor was designed, constructed, and evaluated for use as flow or tactile sensor. Vibrissa-like beams (whiskers) were cut from sheets of the magnetostrictive iron-gallium alloy, Galfenol. These beams were cantilevered, with the fixed end of the whisker attached to a permanent magnet to provide the whisker with a magnetic bias. The free portion of the whisker was quasi-statically loaded, causing the whisker-like sensor to bend. The bending-induced strain caused the magnetization of the whisker to change, resulting in a changing magnetic field in the area surrounding the whisker. The change in magnetic field was detected by a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor placed in proximity to the whisker. Therefore, the electrical resistance change of the GMR sensor was a function of the bending in the whisker due to external forces. Prototype design was aided using a bidirectionally coupled magnetoelastic model for computer simulation. The prototype was tested and evaluated under tactile loading and low speed flow conditions.