DESIGN OF LOW COST AND INNOVATIVE DATA ACQUSITION IN SOIL MECHANICS TESTING USING OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE

Yıl 2017, Sayı: 1, 104 - 110, 09.11.2017

Nihat Dipova

Öz

Sensors are increasingly in our lives, microprocessor
technology is evolving and open source hardware is becoming widespread.
Preparation of experimental setups using open-source hardware reduces research
costs. Arduino is an open source development platform which is operated with an
open source software. It consists Atmel AVR microcontroller, circuit elements
for interfacing, a 5 volt regulated power and a 16MHz crystal oscillator. With
10 bit ADC, it can read 0-5V voltages in 1024 steps. There are at least six
analog inputs and 13 digital input-output pins, which can meet the channel
requirements of a soil mechanics laboratory. Together with the
"do-it-yourself" civil movement, the use of these platforms by young
engineers in particular will gain experience that can be helpful in different
applications. This study explains design and development of a low cost and open
source data acquisition system for soil mechanics laboratories. The main
advantage of making laboratory scientific equipment by using open source
hardware is that, shared design promotes a better design as the scientific
community can contribute to its design. In modern geotechnical laboratories
sensor readings are essential for many setups such as consolidation, uniaxial
compression, triaxial compression and shear box tests. Moreover, some tests
need temperature and humidity conditioning. In the setup, Arduino Uno model was
used as a microcontroller. Sensors with a 5 volt supply can be connected
directly, and a booster circuit is added to the circuit for sensors requiring a
10 volt supply. The data of sensors having 0-5 volt input signal can be directly
digitized. For sensors with millivolt output such as load cells, a driver
circuit is added. The code is written in the C ++ language. The acquired data
are tabled on an Excel sheet and it is possible to process the data for
specific needs. 

Anahtar Kelimeler

DAQ, open source hardware, soil mechanics laboratory

Kaynakça

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