Talk:Vibrating wire

Strain, not force

vibrating wire sensors do not measure force. This can only be done if all of the force is transferred through the sensor. While theoretically possible, this would not be a practical load sensor for several reasons.

These sensors are installed with both ends attached to the same object and measure the stretch (strain) between the two attachment points. They have negligible load carrying capacity. Meters (talk) 16:32, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

There may be some specialized applications where vibrating wire sensors are used to measure force, but these would have to be restricted to very low loads. Certainly the common vibrating wire sensors used in structural and geotechnical engineering measure strain, not load. I'll see if I can find any examples of force measuring vibrating wires before I rewrite this. Meters (talk) 16:43, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Some tipping bucket rain gauges do use a vibrating wire to measure loads. Meters (talk) 21:44, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

how do you cope with cable stretch over time ? Surely this would create a significant error. Presumably these need regular re-calibration to compensate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Effgee123 (talk • contribs) 23:51, 13 June 2016 (UTC)