IMTC 2003 -Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Vail, CO, USA, 20-22 May 2003

Custom Made Automated System for Determination of Humidity and Temperature Gradients in Climatic Chambers
Jovan Bojkovski, Domen Hudoklin, Janko DrnovSek, Igor PuSnik, DuSan Agrei
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Laboratory of Metrology and Quality, Trzaska 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Tel: +386 1 4768 224, Fax: +386 1 4264 633, Email: jovan.bojkovski@fe.uni-lj.si, http://lmk.fe.uni-lj.si

Absfrocl -The

objective O J lhis paper is to present method for determination o f humidity and temperature gradients in climntic chambers, independent O J the size o f the chamber. In the paper custom made automated system is discussed as well. The system is developed to satisfi all the requirements concerning determination o f humidity and temperature gradients in climatic chambers. Data acquired with this sysfem can be afierwards used for calibration J the climatic chamber itser or as a basis for the cerfii/icate O uncertainty contribution oJthe climatic chamber in the process o f calibration O J the relative humidity sensors inside the chamber. The system itself can be used under the laboratory conditions, as well as forthe calibration on-site.

I. INTRODUCTION
The objective of this paper is to present method for determination of humidity and temperature gradients in climatic chambers, independent of the size of the chamber. Climatic conditions have a great impact on product characteristics during the transport, storage and use. It is therefore in many cases necessary to perform climatic tests on the product. This is typically done in climatic chambers either according to the relevant standard covering certain product or according to the empirical procedures developed by the producers. Climatic chambers are widely used for various purposes in industry, research and development, calibration and testing laboratories etc. The usual temperature range of climatic chambers is from -100 "C up to 300 "C, easily covered by the platinum resistance thermometers for temperature measurements as well as for evaluation of such chambers. The size of these chambers is typically up to 1000 liters but they can also he larger custom made spaces for special purposes like storage of the drugs in pharmaceutical industry (climatic rooms). In a case that a chamber is too small or that a required level of uncertainty is not so high, thermocouples can also be used. The automated system developed in our laboratory can be used both with the standard types of thermocouples and platinum resistance thermometers, [l]. On the other hand, usual humidity range of such climatic chambers, in the temperature range from 10 "C up to 95 "C, is between I O % r.h. and 98 % r.h. Humidity profile inside such chambers can be measured with appropriate number of calibrated relative humidity sensors. Namely, before performing any test, climatic chamber needs

to be evaluated, therefore depending on the size of the chamber, tipically 9 sensors (in each comer of the chamber and one in the geometrical center) are used. In addition, two other principles of measwement of humidity can be used. First method requires dew point meter as a reference instrument, second method requires psychrometer as a reference instrument, as described in details in [2]. In our case we use dew point meter at the reference point (the geometrical center of the chamber), which enables the measurement of the dew point inside the climatic chamber. Since we can assume that the pressure inside the climatic chamber is the same across all the test space, relative humidity distribution inside the test space can be calculated from the dew point measured at the reference point and from the measured temperature distribution, using Sonntag formula as described in details in [3]. In addition to measurement of temperature and humidity gradients inside the chamber, stability in time of both properties is investigated. The position of sensors is shown in Fig. 1.

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Fig. 1. The position of sensors For measurement of temperature and humidity

reference senMr.

properties of climatic chamber with dew-point sensor as a

11. MEASUREMENT SET-UP AND EVALUATION PROCEDURES

The measurement set-up consists of computer, which controls all the measurement equipment connected to it either with serial or GPIB communication interface. The controlling program is designed in LabView, which also enables us to connect to central database. The database among other data holds necessary information about all the equipment and history of measurements performed, enabling us to perform traceable measurements and better analysis afterwards. All the changes of the database are password protected and recorded to the special log file. Thus the integrity of the database is assured. In the case that the evaluation system is taken for work on-site, only the part of the central database, which has information about instruments used for on-site evaluation, is exported and then nm locally on the laptop computer on site. The software is developed and tested according to the software standards for accredited laboratories, as described in [4]. The objectives for automation of such systems are primarily the reliability of measurements, repeatability, consistency, and minimization of various influences causing gross measurement errors. Temperature probes are attached to Keithley 7001 automatic scanner with two plug-in cards, which alternately connects all the sensors to the volt/ohm-meter. The selection of the scanner card depends on the required uncertainty (selection of the type of the sensor), size of the chamber (number of sensors) and other parameters. For the voltagehesistance measurements a precision Hewlett Packard 34420A nanovoltimicroohm meter is used. Both instruments are connected to a PC via the IEEE-488 bus. The HP 34420A meter is chosen because it enables accurate measurement of thermal voltage as well as resistance. The ultimate solution in precision would be a combination of a resistance bridge and a nanovoltmeter. This solution is applicable only to the

laboratory work and is not suitable for the on-site work, because of the size of a 'resistance bridge and specific environmental conditions demanded. On the other hand, the typical performance of a chamber is not so good that we would need to perform measurements with platinum resistance thermometers and a resistance bridge. For the reference dew point meter we can use two different meters, Michell S4020 or General Eastern RHB-2. Two main characteristics of chamber are variations in space and fluctuations in time. In a steady-state condition some areas inside a chamber are warmer or colder than others. This is due to the temperature variations (gadients) inside a chamber. It is well known that relative humidity depends on absolute water content and air temperature. Usually, the largest gradients are near the climatic chamber door and near the ventilating fan. The system automatically finds the largest gradient compared to the reference point and records the information about the reference temperature, the value of a gradient and the position of the other thermometer with the largest gradient from the reference point into a measurement report. Usually the temperature fluctuations i n time are small compared to the temperature variations inside a chamber. The system continuously measures all the points for a required time (usually more than 15 minutes, the measurement time as well as the time period between samples can be set l?om the program) and then records a reference temperature, a reference relative humidity, the largest fluctuation in time and the position of the largest fluctuation.
111. RESULTS

The automated system was tested on the Voetsch climatic chamber (volume of the chamber is 1000 liters; temperature range is -70 "C to 180 "C; climatic operation: 10 "C to 95 "C, humidity range IO O h r.h. to 98 O h r.h.). For the temperature measurements 9 small platinum resistance thermometers

were used. They were calibrated by comparison in our secondary laboratory together with nanovolthicroohm meter and scanner.

Table 1. Ust of typical uncertainbf contributions to the total uncertainty of a measuring system Measuring Scanner Sensor used with expanded Total uncertainty Instrument uncertainty 0.02 "C 0.001 "C PRT 0.01 "C 0.03 O C 0.02 O C 0.001 "C Small PRT 0.05 "C 0.07 "C 0.05"C 0.01 "C Thermocouple K type 0.09 O C 0.1 "C Eight sensors were placed in each comer of the climatic chamber and ninth was placed in the geometrical center of the chamber, reference point. For the dew point temperature measurement we used Michell 4020 dew point meter. As explained above, as measuring instrument the Hewlett Packard HP 34420A nanovolthicroohm meter in combination with Keithley 7001 scanner and 7067 4-wire IO channel scanner card. The list of uncertainties for used equipment is presented in Table 1. The measurements were performed with Voetsch climatic chamber set up point 20 "C and 90 % r.h. In the Fig. 2 the behavior of the dew poini temperature during one hour of the stable state can he seen. The arithmetic mean value of the dew point temperature is 19,12 "C with the standard deviation 0,035 O C . Fig. 3 shows temperature variation inside the chamber during one hour of the stable state. The sensor with serial number 1.081.199 was placed in a reference point inside the chamber, very close to the dew point sensor. The arithmetic mean value of the reference point temperature was 20,53 "C with the standard deviation 0,06 O C . The largest difference of any two sensors inside the chamber was 0,243
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Dew point uncertainty

0,15 "C 0,15 "C 0,15 O C

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Fig.3. Measurement of the temperature variation From these two sets of measurement data, the relative humidity distribution inside the chamber was calculated. This distribution is presented on the Fig. 4.
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Fig.4. Calculated relative humidity distribution inside the chamber

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Fig.2. Measurement of the dew paint

The average relative humidity at the reference point was 91,6 % r.h. with the standard deviation of 0,5 % r.h. The calculated largest difference of any two sensors was 2 YOof r.h. Based on our own procedure, which was developed from
[5] and our own experience in evaluating climatic chambers,

the automated system was developed. The system can he used io the laboratory as well as for on-site calibrartions. It is applicable for the temperature and humidity range, which is most used in industry, and it can be used for evaluations of large climatic test spaces. In this cases also the uncertainty

due to thermometer cables shall be taken into account. Compared to other avaliable systems, the automated system for evaluation of the climatic chambers enables measurements at more points inside the chamber. The number of points can be easily expanded with additional scanner cards. Furthermore, it is completely automated and connected to the database. The uncertainty of the used equipment represents the optimal combination in both cases, no matter if we want to evaluate the chamber with thermocouples or platinum resistance thermometers, and dew-point meter. REFERENCES
[I]

[2]

[3]
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IS]

Bojkovaki Jovan, .PuSnik Igor, DmovSek Janko, Hudoklin Domen, lEEE irons. imlmm. meas., vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1599-1603,200l C. R a u q F. Helgesen, T. Magnusen, "Investigation of the Measurement Uncertainty in a Climatic Chamber Used for Calibration of the RH Sensors:, Proceedings of 8" TEMPMEKO 2001, Berlin, pp. 917-922,2001 Sonntag, D., Meborologico Zeitschrfl, voI3, pp 51 -66, 1994 TasiC Tanasko, Bojkovski lovan, PuSnik Igor, DmovSek Janko, Reliability design s f a colibrorion laboraiory mlomalion so/hwre, Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, CPEM 2000, Sydney, Australia, May 2000 Society of Environmental Engineers, "A Guide to Calculating the Uncertainty of the Performance of the Environmental Chambers". public daft, 1999 ,