The benefits of quartz resonant sensors can be applied to fluid properties characterization. Quartz tuning forks are incredibly sensitive and stable sensors that can be used to discover the fluid properties that surround the resonant element. By vibrating a tuning fork in a liquid, you can make a precision measurement of the fluid viscosity and density. Our LUVD1 QuartzMEMS density and viscosity sensor integrates a high-precision Lock-In Amplifier with a quartz tuning fork element. We package the quartz tuning fork in a 15,000psi capable high-pressure feed through with an integrated high precision temperature measurement.
The lock-in amplifier is located immediately beside the sensing element providing the best possible measurement of the quartz tuning fork resonant properties with very little introduced electrical noise from long electrical connections. Our density and viscosity sensor is the only one available world wide with such tightly integrated sensor element and analyzer electronics. Our software both provides the raw sweep data that shows exactly how the sensor is resonating at different frequencies and the processed data that used advanced curve fitting techniques to extract the resonant peak properties. We then use a detailed multi fluid calibration to ensure that each sensor responds within specification over a wide range of densities and viscosities ranging from 0.6g/mL to 1.0g/mL and from 0.2cP –30cP. We can provide other density viscosity ranges by specifically calibrating to any range of densities or viscosities of your application. We would work together to choose viscosity density standards that most closely match your fluid of interest.
In this graph below, it shows the same calibration and the sensor performance of the LUVD1 sensor when comparing the viscosity of these six fluids to the expected values. The guidelines show 5% of reading error bars which the sensor performs within over a significant viscosity range of 0.2cP to 20cP.
This plot shows a graph of typical LUVD1 sensor performance making measurements of six well characterized fluids over a range of temperatures from 30°C to 70°C. Over these six fluids all measurements provided results within 0.002g/mL of the expected readings. The outer guide shows 0.01g/mL and the inner guide shows 0.001g/mL.
Our sensor also provides beautiful raw data showing with very high resolution the resonant properties of the quartz sensing element. This access to the data behind the scenes allows for more detailed analysis of the experiment and faster identification of fouling effects and fluid phase change events.