Study on Spatiotemporal Variation in Internal Temperature Field in Quartz Flexible Accelerometer

Quartz flexible accelerometers (QFAs) are a type of temperature-sensitive sensor, whereby a change in temperature will cause the key parameters of the accelerometer to drift and cause stability errors. Due to the absence of effective methods for sensing the temperature of internal accelerometer components, existing temperature error correction approaches primarily rely on shell temperature measurements to establish correction models. Consequently, most correction methods achieve higher accuracy during the steady-state heat conduction phase of the accelerometer, whereas the correction error markedly increases during the transient heat conduction phase. To elucidate the temperature discrepancy between the QFA shell and its internal components and to support the development of a temperature error correction method for QFAs based on the internal temperature as a reference, this paper investigated the heat exchange dynamics between the interior and exterior of a QFA. A thermal conduction simulation model of the QFA was established, from which the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of the internal temperature field were derived. The results indicate that the temperature of the QFA shell changes significantly faster than that of the internal meter head in the early stage of the temperature change. The temperature gradient between the shell and the meter head first increases and then decreases, and the rate of temperature change in the upper part of the accelerometer is faster than that in the lower part. Before thermal equilibrium is reached, the temperature distribution inside the accelerometer is uneven in terms of time and space. Inside the accelerometer, the yoke iron, swing plate assembly, servo circuit, and magnetic steel assembly are the main components that exhibit differences in the internal temperature change in the QFA. When developing the temperature error correction method, it was crucial to address and mitigate the impact of temperature variations among these components. The average RMSE between the predicted temperature from the heat transfer model established in this paper and the experimental results was 0.4 °C. This indicates that the model can accurately predict the temperature variation within the QFA, thereby providing robust support for investigating the temperature behavior inside the QFA and offering essential technical foundations for enhancing the accuracy of the temperature error correction method.