AC Equivalent Circuit Model of an Electrochemical Accelerometer for 3D Numerical Simulation in the Low-Frequency Range

Abstract

The electrochemical principles presented in this paper can be applied to the manufacture of vibration sensors for oil and gas exploration, as well as long-period vibration sensors for the observation of natural earthquakes. To facilitate the manufacture of high-volume electrochemical accelerometer (EAM), this paper presents an AC equivalent circuit model of an EAM in a low-frequency range. A 3D time-dependent numerical simulation based on finite element analysis was designed to combine a complex chemical reaction with electric circuit theory. A sensitive chip channel model was constructed by using partial differential equations and the problem caused by a designed mathematical model was solved by using multi-physics finite element analysis. When the electrochemical properties of an electrochemical vibration sensor and its design parameters as well as the parameters of the AC equivalent circuit model are considered, the abstract processing of the sensor on the equivalent circuit is better accomplished. The effectiveness of the proposed simulation model and the equivalent circuit model were verified by comparing the amplitude-frequency characteristic curve of the equivalent circuit with the amplitude-frequency characteristic curve of the single-channel simulation model of the sensitive chip. These model not only have great significance for the design guidance of an external conditioning circuit but also provide an effective method to decouple the output signal and noise of the sensor reaction cavity.