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4/15/12

Differential Temperature Transducer<br />An Iterative Method of Evaluating the Signal Delta-T Comp

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Differential Temperature Transducer


An Iterative Method of Evaluating the
Signal
The Differential Temperature Transducer has been
used for a number of years to measure the change
in temperature of closed fluid-streams.
The instrument is based on the thermopile, which
is inherently a differential device; even when used
as an absolute-temperature detector, a
thermocouple or thermopile does so only by virtue
of a reference temperature made available to it.
One junction (the cold junction) serves as the "reference" for the other
junction (the hot junction). Where "absolute" temperature is being
measured, a standard reference cold-junction of 0C (ice bath
temperature) is used.
A difficulty, however, is that thermocouple characteristics are nonlinear.
Figure 1 shows a typical E(mV) vs T(temperature) curve. The National
Bureau of Standards (now NIST) has published tables of thermocouple
characteristics which define the nonlinearities, and various linearizing
schemes are used to translate the millivolt thermocouple signal into an
accurate temperature reading.

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4/15/12

Differential Temperature Transducer<br />An Iterative Method of Evaluating the Signal Delta-T Comp

In the Differential Temperature Transducer, another difficulty arises: the


reference temperature is not a fixed value. If the low-temperature side is
the "reference," then the sensitivity (mV/C) can vary considerably,
depending on the value of that low-temperature point. Another way to
describe the problem is by recognizing that, depending on where on the
thermocouple characteristic curve one is operating, the conversion factor
(slope) for signal strength to differential temperature is a variable; the
curve of E (output) vs Temperature (T) is not linear.
Some information must be available, in addition to the DeltaT signal itself,
to define the correct sensitivity (S):

Note that S, the Seebeck coefficient for the particular thermocouple


materials, is a function of both T and Tch,where Tch is a characteristic
temperature, such as Tlow, Thigh, or Tavg.
The temperature difference to be determined (T) is:

where E is the measured signal, in millivolts, and S is an average, or


effective, sensitivity over the range Tlow to Thigh.
Equations (1) and (2) indicate the problem: S, in general, is a stronger
function of Tch than of T.

THE ITERATIVE METHOD


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Differential Temperature Transducer<br />An Iterative Method of Evaluating the Signal Delta-T Comp

To implement the linearization method herein, we assume an approximate


value of Tlow (or better yet, a measured value). Figure 1 depicts a
thermocouple characteristic, taken from published data.
We wish to linearize the curve between two points, Tlow and Thigh. On
Figure 1, Tlow is point 1; Thigh is point 2. The millivolt signal to be
linearized (E) corresponds to Thigh - Tlow.
The sensitivity, the slope of the characteristic curve, is evaluated at Tlow
by drawing a tangent to the curve at the point. Let us call this dE/dT1.
Using this sensitivity at point 1 and E, the measured signal, we compute
the first approximation (Ti) to T:

Clearly, Ti exceeds Ttrue because of the increasing slope of the


characteristic curve with increasing temperature. If, then, a new
characteristic temperature is computed, an average between Tlow and an
apparent Thigh, using Ti, is:

Point 3 on the curve corresponds to Tavi and, if a new tangent is drawn at


point 3, a still better value of effective sensitivity is found:

The result of the computation is re-inserted into (4), giving yet another
(and better) point of the curve. With each iteration, the slope (sensitivity)
lies closer and closer to the chord 1-2, whose slope is the correct value.
This procedure is nothing more than a graphical version of the familiar
Newton-Raphson iteration procedure used to solve for zeroes of a
polynomial.
Conveniently, the NBS has provided curve-fitting information in the form of
coefficients of an 8th-order polynomial that closely approximates the
thermocouple characteristic curve for copper-Constantan (type T) over a
range of 0 to 400C (see Table 1):

It is a simple matter to differentiate (6) to arrive at a polynomial


expression for dE/dT:

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Differential Temperature Transducer<br />An Iterative Method of Evaluating the Signal Delta-T Comp

The following simple algorithm can quickly, within one or two iterations
(depending on the accuracy required and the magnitude of T), yield a
satisfactory result:

For the first pass, let T1 = Tlow; then return to (8) with Tavi until T
converges to a stable value.
Note: The Delta-T Differential Temperature Transducer's thermopile
consists of 10 pairs of junctions. Hence the sensitivity coefficients (a1 ...
a8) used in the computation exceed the published values in NBS 125 by a
factor of 10.

RESULTS
For a typical case where Tlow = 20C is erroneously estimated at 25C,
then the error in T is found to be 0.1C after two iterations. At that
portion of the curve, for small errors in Tlow, the error in T is given by:

The more accurate the knowledge of the reference, or low temperature, the
more accurate will be the calculated T that we measure. Fortunately, the
results are not very sensitive to this estimate.
If the value of Tlow is known to vary considerably, it might be convenient
to provide a simple, inexpensive temperature probe at the fluid inlet to the
Differential Temperature Transducer to measure the actual temperature.
The Delta-T transducer can be provided with such probe incorporated
within the housing if desired.

TYPICAL CALCULATION

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Differential Temperature Transducer<br />An Iterative Method of Evaluating the Signal Delta-T Comp

Copyright 1963-2012 Delta-T Company

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