Anti-Bourdon tube pressure gauge

A novel pressure transducer is investigated in this paper, which works on an anti-Bourdon tube (ABT) principle due to dual effect of differential expansion of the tube at various points and the end moment induced due to asymmetry of cross section. Different materials such as rubber, stainless steel, nickel, brass, copper etc. and different geometries of tubes and bellows are investigated experimentally and analysed using theoretical formulation and Finite Element Analysis. Prototypes of the pressure gauges using rubber, nickel and stainless steel bellow as sensing elements are fabricated and tested. The proposed sensing element will behave similar to the asymmetric metallic tubes but will have about three times higher flexibility and grater rate of expansion and deflection under internal pressure. Comparative results with the existing Bourdon pressure gauge show that the ABT pressure gauge is simple in construction, economical for fabrication, reliable and promising pressure gauge in future. At the end, various design configurations of the pressure sensing element are discussed. By proper selection of geometry, materials and manufacturing of the asymmetric metallic tubes or bellows as sensing element, an ABT pressure gauge can be fabricated to measure pressure ranging from low to high or very high pressures for various potential applications which is not possible using Bourdon tube pressure gauge.