DESIGN, SIMULATION OF CAPACITOR TYPE CYLINDRICAL SENSOR TO MEASURE TWO-DIMENSIONAL TILT ANGLE

Abstract

This paper presents the design and simulation of a two-axis tilt sensor based on the principle of capacitor type. These two pairs of symmetric electrodes are placed symmetrically. cylindrical plastic tube filled part of the dielectric fluid used is petrol having a dielectric constant of 2. The proposed sensor can detect tilt angles in x and y axes. When the cylindrical plastic tube is rotated at any angle, the dielectric fluid covers a portion of the induction electrodes that will move, thereby changing the differential capacitance value of the capacitor corresponding to the angle tilte and so can defined angle tilte. Sensor activity was investigated by finite element method (FEM) using Comsol Multiphysics simulation software. Simulation results show the variation in capacitance with respect to the variation of each angle. Based on this simulation result, the size of the electrodes was found to have a sensor configuration with x, y two axis sensitivity and a suitable working range. Optimal size of the sensor with parameters W₁ = 10.47 mm, L₂ = 3 mm và L₃ = 5 mm, D₂ = 17.45 mm. The sensor work optimally in [-90⁰, +90⁰] range with sensitivity of 0.426 fF /⁰ on the x-axis and in [-30⁰, +30⁰] range with a sensitivity of 1.54 fF /⁰ on the y-axis.