Abstract

We analyzed the off-center force effect on quartz pressure sensor performances aiming at oil and gas industry monitoring applications. As pressure sensors work based on the force-frequency effect, we investigated the effect on the frequency shift of AT-Cut resonator by the off-center force, using an improved three-dimensional nonlinear Finite Element Model (FEM). The Finite Element Model is implemented based on Lagrangian equation originally proposed by Lee and Yong. The anisotropy and nonlinear governing equation of an AT-Cut quartz disk are adopted in our simulation. Finally, the model has been compared and validated by previous experimental results. The proposed nonlinear FEM predicted the double-sinusoidal (second harmonic mode) behavior of AT-cut quartz resonator. The effect of azimuthal angel, temperature and off-center force are investigated and the optimal azimuthal angel for variant temperature applications is calculated.