Re: Accelerometers for >1000g measurements

On 5/09/2024 8:30 am, Phil Hobbs wrote:

So for this customer gig I need to measure the actual acceleration of a parallel-rod transmission line that's being pounded into the ground with a built-in slide hammer.  (It's for measuring soil moisture and salinity by TDR.)
 We're thinking about putting the TDR pulser and sampler in the part that gets pounded (in a potted module obviously), so knowing how bad the acceleration gets is going to be important.  I expect that it'll be several hundred g in volcanic soil, so a full-scale range of 1000-2000 g would be about right.
 None of the MEMS IC accelerometers go anywhere near that high. Measurement Specialties makes them, but they're $160 in onesies, e.g.
 <https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-measurement-specialties/830M1-2000/14118098>
 Anybody used them?

No. But there's a new kid on the accelerometer block.
https://singularityhub.com/2022/10/31/new-3d-quantum-accelerometer-leaves-classical-sensors-in-the-dust/
A recent edition of Review of Scientific Instruments had a bunch of papers on the subject. On the face of it a laser-cooled cloud of rubidium atoms in a vacuum under a corner cube reflector isn't something that you would want to put inside a pile driver, but apparently the actually measuring head is quite small.
The proximity fuse is a famous example of something ostensibly fragile that could be re-engineered to survive being fired out a  gun.
I actually met - and worked for - William S. Butement, who had the original idea for that, probably because he didn't have enough sense to realise how impractical it was.
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Bill Sloman, Sydney