A new approach to strain gauge selection in outdoor stress analysis

Since from 50's, strain gauge measurement systems were largely employed for stress analysis, in laboratory and field testing. During all these years, electronic devices used for signal management were quite cumbersome and heavy. So strain gauge analysis was optimized for long term tests in "static" condition, without particular limits in terms of current or voltage. Considering short term field tests, carried out by light-weight portable measurement system, some of the "common" assumption about strain gauge selection criteria are wrong. Here we discuss a new approach to strain gauges selection for field test, and we show the system improvements obtained following these criteria.