New method for measurement of surface pressure using magnetic tape
A new method of surface pressure measurement has been developed using magnetic tape as a sensor—instead of the usual strain gage, piezogage or semiconductor —within a diaphragm-type pressure transducer. The method is based on the idea that a pressure value applied to the diaphragm is related to the deflection of the diaphragm, and the deflection can be related to the value of magnetization strength sensed in the tape. The merit of the new method is that it can be easily applied for measurement of pressure distributions on model surfaces because many pressure transducers are contained in a single sheet only about 1-mm thickness. The proposed method can be used in the high-temperature, short-duration measurement conditions, and so it is well suited to hypersonic wind-tunnel use. The sheet can be bonded onto a model surface. In this study, experiments using the new pressure sensor were performed in a hypersonic gun tunnel at a Mach number of 10 for a duration time of 10 ~2 s. Pressure distributions around two models in hypersonic flow were measured successfully.