The customary electrical circuit configuration for estimating mechanical loads with strain gauges uses Wheatstone full- or half-bridges. For each mechanical load to be estimated, a dedicated bridge with two or four gauges
has to be mounted, placing the strain gauges in specific configurations along the measured part. In this paper the
strain of individual gauges is measured by means of quarter-bridges and all the mechanical loads exerted on a
shaft are estimated jointly as different linear combinations of the strains of the gauges. The location of the gauges
on the shaft are determined optimally and the influence of apparent strain related to temperature variations is
avoided. Results show several configurations of reduced sets of gauges capable of optimally estimating the six
components of the mechanical loads exerted on a circular cross-section shaft. The validation of the approach in a
dedicated rig has shown the complexity of its experimental implementation.
