Instrumentation Notes

JIGJIGA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
Introduction to Instrumentation
Chapter 1: The General Measurement System
1.1 Purpose and performance of measurement systems
We begin by dening a process as a system which generates information. Examples are a
chemical reactor, a jet ghter, a gas platform, a submarine, a car, a human heart, and a weather
system.
Table 1.1 lists information variables, which are commonly generated by processes: thus a car
generates displacement, velocity and acceleration variables, and a chemical reactor generates
temperature, pressure and composition variables.
Table 1.1 Common information/measured variables.
We then dene the observer as a person who needs this information from the process. This
could be the car driver, the plant operator or the nurse.
The purpose of the measurement system is to link the observer to the process, as shown in
Figure 1.1. Here the observer is presented with a number, which is the current value of the
information variable.
We can now refer to the information variable as a measured variable. The input to the
measurement system is the true value of the variable; the system output is the measured value of the
variable. In an ideal measurement system, the measured value would be equal to the true value.
Figure 1.1 Purpose of measurement system.
The accuracy of the system can be dened as the closeness of the measured value to the true value. A
perfectly accurate system is a theoretical ideal and the accuracy of a real system is quantied using
measurement system error E, where
E = measured value true value
Chapter 3: Signal Conditioning and Conversion
E = system output system input
Thus if the measured value of the ow rate of gas in a pipe is 11.0 m 3/h and the true value is 11.2
m3/h, then the error E = 0.2 m 3/h. If the measured value of the rotational speed of an engine is
3140 rpm and the true value is 3133 rpm, then E =+7 rpm. Error is the main performance
indicator for a measurement system.
1.2 Structure of measurement systems

The measurement system consists of several elements or blocks. It is possible to identify four
types of element, although in a given system one type of element may be missing or may occur more
than once. The four types are shown in Figure 1.2 and can be dened as follows.
Figure 1.2 General structure of measurement system.
Sensing element
This is in contact with the process and gives an output, which depends in some way on the variable
to be measured. Examples are:
Thermocouple where millivolt e.m.f. depends on temperature

Strain gauge where resistance depends on mechanical strain
Orice plate where pressure drop depends on ow rate.
If there is more than one sensing element in a system, the element in contact with the process is
termed the primary sensing element, the others secondary sensing elements.
Signal conditioning element
This takes the output of the sensing element and converts it into a form more suitable for further
processing, usually a d.c. voltage, d.c. current or frequency signal. Examples are:
Deection bridge, which converts an impedance change into a voltage change

Amplier which amplies millivolts to volts
Oscillator which converts an impedance change into a variable frequency voltage.
Signal processing element
This takes the output of the conditioning element and converts it into a form more suitable for
presentation. Examples are:
Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) which converts a voltage into a digital form for input
to a computer
Computer which calculates the measured value of the variable from the incoming
digital data.
Typical calculations are:
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Computation of total mass of product gas from ow rate and density data
Integration of chromatograph peaks to give the composition of a gas stream
Correction for sensing element non-linearity.
Data presentation element
This presents the measured value in a form which can be easily recognized by the observer.
Examples are:
Simple pointerscale indicator

Chart recorder
Alphanumeric display
Visual display unit (VDU).
1.3 Examples of measurement systems
Figure 1.3 shows some typical examples of measurement systems.

Figure 1.3(a) shows a temperature system with a thermocouple sensing element; this gives a
millivolt output. Signal conditioning consists of a circuit to compensate for changes in reference
junction temperature, and an amplier. The voltage signal is converted into digital form using an
analogue-to-digital converter, the computer corrects for sensor non-linearity, and the measured value
is displayed on a VDU.
In Figure 1.3(b) the speed of rotation of an engine is sensed by an electromagnetic
tachogenerator which gives an a.c. output signal with frequency proportional to speed. The Schmitt
trigger converts the sine wave into sharp-edged pulses which are then counted over a xed time
interval. The digital count is transferred to a computer which calculates frequency and speed, and the
speed is presented on a digital display.
The ow system of Figure 1.3(c) has an orice plate sensing element; this gives a differential
pressure output. The differential pressure transmitter converts this into a current signal and therefore
combines both sensing and signal conditioning stages. The ADC converts the current into digital
form and the computer calculates the ow rate, which is obtained as a permanent record on a chart
recorder.
The weight system of Figure 1.3(d) has two sensing elements: the primary element is a
cantilever which converts weight into strain; the strain gauge converts this into a change in electrical
resistance and acts as a secondary sensor. There are two signal conditioning elements: the deection
bridge converts the resistance change into millivolts and the amplier converts millivolts into volts.
The computer corrects for non-linearity in the cantilever and the weight is presented on a digital
display.
The word transducer is commonly used in connection with measurement and
instrumentation. This is a manufactured package which gives an output voltage (usually)
corresponding to an input variable such as pressure or acceleration. We see therefore that such a
transducer may incorporate both sensing and signal conditioning elements; for example a weight
transducer would incorporate the rst four elements shown in Figure 1.3(d).
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Figure 1.3 Examples of measurement systems.
Performance Characteristics
1.4 Static Characteristics are:
1.4.1 Accuracy: It is the degree of the closeness with which the instrument reading approaches the
true value of the quantity to be measured.
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1.4.2 Precision It is the measure of consistency or repeatability of measurements. It denotes the

closeness with which individual measurements are departed or distributed about the average of
number of measured values.
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1.6 Effects of noise and interference on measurement circuits
In the interconnection of two measurement system elements, e.g. a thermocouple and an amplier, or
a differential pressure transmitter and a recorder, could be represented by an equivalent circuit in
which either a Thevenin voltage source or a Norton current source is connected to a load. In
industrial installations, source and load may be typically 100 metres apart and noise and/or
interference voltages may also be present.
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Figure 1.8 Effects of interference on measurement circuit:

(a) Voltage transmission series mode interference
(b) Current transmission series mode interference
Figure 1.8(a) shows a voltage transmission system subject to series mode interference; here a noise
or interference voltage VSM is in series with the measurement signal voltage E Th. The current i
through the load is:
and the corresponding voltage across the load is:
Normally we make ZL>>RC + ZTh to obtain maximum voltage transfer to the load V L ETh + VSM.
This means that with a voltage transmission system all of V SM is across the load; this affects the next
element in the system and possibly results in a system measurement error. We dene signal-to-noise
or signal to interference ratio S/N in decibels by:
where ETh and VSM are the r.m.s. values of the voltages, and W S and WN are the corresponding
total signal and noise powers. Thus if E Th = 1 V and VSM = 0.1 V, S/N = 20 dB. Figure 1.8(b)
shows a current transmission system subject to the same series mode interference voltage V SM. The
Norton source current iN divides into two parts, one part through the source impedance ZN, the other
part through ZL. Using the current divider rule, the current through the load due to the source is:
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In addition there is an interference current through the load due to the interference voltage. The total
voltage across the load is therefore:
Normally we make RC + ZL = ZN to obtain maximum current transfer to the load; under these
conditions eqn becomes:
Since ZL/ZN = 1, this means that with a current transmission system only a small fraction of V SM is
across the load. Thus a current transmission system has far greater inherent immunity to series mode
interference than a voltage transmission system. In a thermocouple temperature measurement
system, therefore, it may be better to convert the thermocouple millivolt e.m.f. into a current signal
prior to transmission, rather than transmit the e.m.f. directly.
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2.1 Sensors & Transducer

Instrument Society of America defines a sensor or transducer as a device which provides a usable
output in response to a specified measurand. Here the measured is a physical quantity and the output
may be an electrical quantity, mechanical and- optical.
(i) Sensor An element that senses a variation in input energy to produce a variation in another or
same form of energy is called a sensor.
(ii) Transducer It converts a specified measurand into usable output using transduction principle.
For example, a properly cut piezoelectric crystal can be called a sensor where as it becomes a
transducer with appropriate electrodes and input/output mechanisms attached to it. So the sensor is
the primary element of a transducer.
Transducers may be, classified based on source of energy into two types.
Active transducer
Passive transducer
(i) Passive transducer- A component whose output energy is supplied entirely or almost entirely by
external source is called a passive transducer.
Example
In strain gauge the energy extracted from the strained member is very small. The energy for the
output signal is supplied by an external power source.
(ii) Active Transducer- This transducer has its own power supply, It is self-generating type
transducer.
Example
A Thermocouple extracts heat energy from the input medium and converts it into electrical energy
(voltage).
2.2 Resistive Transducer
Basic Principle- It is generally seen that methods which involve the measurement of change in
resistance are preferred to those employing other principles. This is because both alternating as well
as direct currents and voltages are suitable for resistance 'measurements. The resistance of a metal
conductor is expressed by a simple equation that involves a few physical quantities. The relationship
is

2.2.1 STRAIN GAUGES

If a metal' conductor is stretched or compressed, its resistance changes on account of the fact that
both length and diameter of conductor change. Also there is a change in the value of resistivity of the
conductor when it is strained and this property is called piezoresistiveeffect. Therefore, resistance
strain gauges are also known as piezoresistive gauges. The strain gauges are used for measurement of
strain and associated stress in experimental stress analysis.
Secondly, many other detectors and transducers, notably-the load. cells, torque 'meters, diaphragm
type pressure gauges, temperature sensors, accelerometers and flow meters employ strain gauges as
secondary transducers.
Theory of Strain Gauges

The change in the value of resistance by straining the gauge may be partly explained by the normal
dimensional behaviour of elastic material. If a strip of elastic material is subjected to tension, as
shown in figure 2.1 or in other words positively strained, its longitudinal dimension will increase
while there will be a reduction in the lateral dimension. 80 when a gauge is subjected to a positive
strain, its length increases while, its areas of cross-section decreases 'as shown in Figure 2.1.
Fig. 2.1.Change in dimensions of a strain gauge element when .subjected to a tensile force
Since the resistance of a conductor is proportional to its length and inversely-proportional to its area of cross section the
resistance, of' the (gauge increases with positive strain. The change in the value of resistance of strained conductor more
than what can be accounted for an increase in resistance due to dimensional changes. The .extra change in the' value of
resistance is attributed to the change in the value of resistivity of a conductor when strained.

















Thermocouple Temperature Transducer (Active Sensor)
Thermoelectric sensing elements

Thermoelectric or thermocouple sensing elements are commonly used for measuring temperature. If
two different metals A and B are joined together, there is a difference in electrical potential across the
junction called the junction potential. This junction potential depends on the metals A and B and the
temperature T C of the junction, and is given by a power series of the form:
The values of constants a1, a2, etc., depend on the metals A and B.
A thermocouple is a closed circuit consisting of two junctions (Figure 8.16), at different

temperatures T1 and T2 C. If a high-impedance voltmeter is introduced into the circuit, so that
current ow is negligible, then the measured e.m.f. is, to a close approximation, the difference of the
junction potentials, i.e.

Thus the measured e.m.f. depends on the temperatures T1, T2 of both junctions. In the following
discussion T1 will be the temperature to be measured, i.e. the tem-perature of the measurement
junction, and T2 will be the temperature of the reference junction. In order to accurately infer T1
from the measured e.m.f., the reference junction temperature T2 must be known.
Piezoelectric sensing elements


Figure 9.1 Calculation of Thvenin equivalent circuit for a deection bridge.


Figure 9.5 (a) Bridge for capacitive level sensor (b) Bridge for inductive push-pull displacement
sensor.


Digital-to-analogue converters (DACs)

A DAC gives an analogue output voltage which is proportional to an input parallel digital signal, e.g.
an 8-bit binary signal b7b6 ... b1b0. In Figure 10.6 an operational amplier is used to sum a number of
currents which are either zero or non-zero depending on whether the corresponding bit is 0 or 1. The
current corresponding to the most signicant bit is twice that corresponding to the next signicant bit
and so on. This is achieved in Figure 10.6(a) by using a network of binary-weighted resistors 2 0 R,
21R, 22R,..., 27R. The problem with this arrangement is that a very large range of resistance values is
required. A better alternative is the ladder network shown in Figure 10.6(b); the advantage of this
circuit is that the required current distribution can be obtained with only two values of resistance, R
and 2R.

Figure 10.6 Summing amplier DACs: (a) Binary weighted resistor network
(b) R2R ladder network.
Analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs)

One commonly used type of analogue to digital converter is the dual-slope converter. Here the input
is a continuous voltage VIN rather than sample values; dual slope converters are used in digital
voltmeters and indicators. Figures 10.7(a) and (b) show a schematic diagram of the system and the
principle of operation.
Firstly the control logic switches VIN onto the integrator input for a xed time inter-val. During this
time interval the integrator output VI is a positive ramp with a slope proportional to V IN (Figure
10.7(b)) so that the output VC of the comparator is 0. At the end of the xed time interval V I is
proportional to VIN (voltages V1, V2, V3). At this point the control logic switches the reference voltage
VREF onto the integrator and resets the counter to zero. The integrator output is then a negative ramp
with a xed rate of decrease. This means that the time taken for VI to decrease to zero is proportional
to VIN. During this time the control logic routes clock pulses to the counter and the counter
increments. When VI falls to zero the comparator output V C changes to 1 and the count is stopped.
The count is proportional to the fall time and therefore to VIN: the parallel digital output signal is
proportional to the count. This method has the advantage that integration tends to average out the
effects of mains interference voltages.

Figure 10.7(c) shows a schematic diagram of a successive approximation analogue-to-digital

converter. This method involves making successive guesses at the binary code corresponding to the
input voltage yi. The trial code is converted into an analogue voltage using a DAC, and a comparator
is used to decide whether the guess is too high or too low. On the basis of this result another guess is
made, and the process is repeated until Vq is within half a quantisation interval of yi.
(c)

Figure 10.7 Analogue-to-digital converters: (a) Dual slope system

(b) Dual slope principle
(c) Successive approximation.
Table 10.2 Typical sequence of guesses in successive approximation ADC
Table 10.2 shows a series of guesses for an 8-bit binary converter with an input range of 0 to 2.55 V.
The rst guess is always 01111111 corresponding to (127)10, i.e. approximately half full scale: this
guess is high so that b7 is set to 0; if the guess had been low b 7 would be set to 1. The next guess is
00111111 corresponding to (63)10, i.e. approximately one-quarter full scale; this guess is also high so
that b6 is con-rmed as 0. The process continues until all the remaining bits have been conrmed; the
DATA VALID signal then changes state. Successive approximation converters (SAC) can be used for
sample rates up to over 106 samples/s; even 16-bit types can be used up to over 105 samples/s. For the
fastest applications up to 109 samples/s, such as video digitisation, ash converters are used. SAC
converters can be linked to microcontrollers using two-way serial communication over a pair of
wires. Here the successive approximation logic is provided by the microcontroller; the SAC consists
only of a DAC and a comparator. The micro-controller sends out clock pulses to operate the DAC
switches and receives the digital code in serial form.

Pointerscale indicators
These are analogue display devices. Figure 11.2(a) shows simplied diagrams and an equivalent
circuit for a moving coil indicator connected to a Thvenin signal source E Th, RTh. The coil is situated
in a radial magnetic eld of ux density B, so that a current i through the coil produces a deecting
torque:
TD = BnAi
where A is the cross-sectional area of the coil and n the number of turns. This deect-ing torque is
opposed by the spring restoring torque:
TR = c
where c is the spring stiffness and the angular deection. Assuming negligible frictional torque, the
resultant unbalanced torque on the coil is TD TR.
Figure 11.2 Pointerscale indicators: principle and recommended scale format:

(a) Mechanical arrangement and circuit
Character displays
These are used to display the numerals 0 to 9, the letters of the alphabet A to Z in either upper or
lower case format, and a few other symbols such as punctuation marks. Displays showing
alphabetical and numerical information are often referred to as alphanumeric.
Figure 11.3 shows two character formats in widespread use: seven-segment and 7 5 dot-matrix.
Figure 11.3(a) shows seven segments a to g arranged in a gure-of-eight conguration and the
corresponding character set. This is limited to the ten numerals and nine upper case letters. The 7 5
dot-matrix format enables a far larger set of typically 192 characters to be obtained; this includes all
the numerals, upper and lower case letters (Figure 11.3(b)), together with Greek letters and other
symbols. A 9 7 dot-matrix format gives a better representation of lower case letters.
Figure 11.3 Character formats for displays: (a) Seven-segment character format

Figure 11.4 Display of numerals using seven-segment format.
Cathode ray tube (CRT) displays

Cathode ray tubes are used to create large-scale displays. These devices are often referred to as
monitors.A visual display unit (VDU) is a combination of a CRT display and a keyboard.
Figure 11.7 shows a basic CRT: electrons are emitted at the cathode and acceler-ated towards the
anode. A third electrode, called a grid or modulator, is placed between cathode and anode: by
altering the potential of the modulator the number of electrons in the beam, i.e. the beam current, can
be adjusted. The beam then passes through a focusing system followed by X and Y deection
systems: the focusing and deection systems can be electromagnetic (EM), or electrostatic (ES) as
shown in the diagram. The electron beam is brought to a focus on the inside surface of the
screen,which is coated with a large number of phosphor dots. These dots form the pixels.
Phosphors are semiconductor materials which emit visible radiation in response to the impact of
electrons: a spot of light therefore appears on the screen. In response to a pulse change in beam
current, i.e. a sudden increase followed by a sudden decrease, the light emission does not fall
instantaneously but there is a gradual reduction called phosphorescence decay (Figure 11.7). The

corresponding decay time is called the persistence of the phosphor; phosphors with a wide range of
persistences are available, ranging from less than 1 s (very short) to greater than 1 s (very long).
In refresh displays the phosphors must be refreshed or re-energised every time the phosphorescence
decays to a certain level: this is necessary to obtain a stationary pattern on the screen with minimum
icker. In the more expensive storage displays, the display is retained on the screen and refreshment
is not necessary.
Figure 11.7 Cathode ray construction and waveforms.



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JIGJIGA UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Table 1.1 Common information/measured variables.

Figure 1.1 Purpose of measurement system.

E = system output system input

1.2 Structure of measurement systems

Figure 1.2 General structure of measurement system.

Thermocouple where millivolt e.m.f. depends on temperature

Signal conditioning element

Deection bridge, which converts an impedance change into a voltage change

Signal processing element

Typical calculations are:

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Data presentation element

Simple pointerscale indicator

1.3 Examples of measurement systems

Figure 1.3 shows some typical examples of measurement systems.

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Figure 1.3 Examples of measurement systems.

1.4 Static Characteristics are:

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1.4.2 Precision It is the measure of consistency or repeatability of measurements. It denotes the

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1.6 Effects of noise and interference on measurement circuits

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Figure 1.8 Effects of interference on measurement circuit:

and the corresponding voltage across the load is:

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2.1 Sensors & Transducer

2.2 Resistive Transducer

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2.2.1 STRAIN GAUGES

Theory of Strain Gauges

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Thermocouple Temperature Transducer (Active Sensor)

Thermoelectric sensing elements

A thermocouple is a closed circuit consisting of two junctions (Figure 8.16), at different

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Piezoelectric sensing elements

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Figure 9.1 Calculation of Thvenin equivalent circuit for a deection bridge.

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