European EMPIR project MicroProbes aims to use large-cale tactile microprobes for contact resonance applications, an established measurement mode of atomic force microscopes (AFMs). Because of the size of these probes, some of the simplifications made for AFM probes are not applicable. This study presents a guide on how to systematically create a model that replicates the dynamic behavior of microprobes. The finished model is then verified by analyzing a series of measurements.

Distributed fiber optic strain measurement based on Rayleigh scattering enables the monitoring of strain along the entire fiber length and the possibility of integration into material matrices. In this article, optical fibers were integrated into the concrete matrix of small prisms to measure the deformation by drying. In comparison with a reference measuring method, the losses of strain transfer were measured. The analysis shows a high correlation between the reference method and the fiber.

A completely new evaluation method for optical sensors is investigated in this paper. It originates from research that integrates optical sensors into radio-over-fibre networks. The laboratory-based experimental set-up is explained, and the findings are validated by a comparison to the conventional evaluation scheme. Finally, the work provides a detailed mathematical model to understand the implications of this new read-out method for practical applications.

Photoelasticity is considered a useful measurement tool for non-destructive and contactless determination of mechanical stresses or strains in the production of silicon wafers. In this work, a detailed derivation for the anisotropic stress-optic law is presented, and the corresponding stress-optical parameters are measured.

This paper introduces a new method to drastically reduce the anisotropic strain sensitivity of granular thin film strain gauges. As a result, these improved strain gauges produce a much higher sensor signal when used for force transducers with biaxial strain fields. This gauge type is also more advantageous for uniaxial stress measurements. The method is based on the creation of a certain topographic structure of the strain gauges; in our case, this was realized by a picosecond laser system.

To improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes, such as continuous steel casting, lab-scale experiments with liquid metals are performed. We present an ultrasound Doppler signal process for multiplane, high-frame-rate flow imaging. We achieve real-time operations with an efficient implementation in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). We analyze the contributions to the uncertainty of the velocity measurement and relate it to its fundamental limit.