MI 362

Measurement and Instrument

Lecture 19

24/2/2014

Principle of Transduction

Usually quantity to be measured

converted into electrical quantity
Sensor Technologies
Energy Conversion
Resistive transducers
Current transducers

Energy Conversion

Photovoltaic Cell: incident light into electric

energy
light falls on junction between dissimilar materials
create a potential difference between the materials.
potential difference is function of incident flux.
open circuit voltage saturates at low intensities
While, short-circuit current work linearly over large
ranges of incident light.

Silicon based devices:

provide large amounts of current
used as power source

Has large capacitance: slow response

Energy Conversion

Thermocouple: converts thermal energy

into electrical energy.

voltage difference between two wires

proportional to the temperature at the
junction-Seebeck effect

different metal combinations have

different voltage difference.

Energy Conversion

Electromagnetic:
conductor is moved in a magnetic field
Voltage induced in conductor proportional to
rate at which conductor moves
electrical generator, loudspeaker

Energy Conversion

Hall Effect:

current carrying conductor placed in a magnetic

field.
voltage develops perpendicular to the direction
of current and magnetic field.
output signal is a function of magnetic field
density
automotive systems: angular position of crank
shaft for firing angle of the spark plugs, position
of car seats and seat belts, air-bag control, wheel
speed detection for anti-lock braking system,

MI 362
Measurement and Instrument

Lecture 20

24/2/2014

Resistive

Change in the resistance of a device as

some physical parameter is changed:
R=L/A
Strain gauge, thermistor, photoconductive
transducer
thermistor and photoconductive
transducer rely on changing concentration
of charge carriers

Resistive

Thermistor:
based on semiconductors
concentration of charge
carriers changes with
change in temperature
rapid decrease in resistivity
as temperature increases
Excellent for highly
sensitive temperature
measurements (down to
k-10-4 K.
useful in the range of -100
0C through to +300 C

Resistive

Photo-conductive: or photoresistors
Light of right wavelength can change the carrier
concentration in a semiconductor by a large factor
incident light must have enough energy to promote
the electrons across the band-gap of the material.

Strain Gauge (Will discuss in detail later)

Piezo-electric

produce an output voltage when force is

applied to them
used as ultrasonic receivers and also
displacement transducers, acceleration, force
and pressure.
Piezoelectric transducers are made from
piezoelectric materials (Quartz)
asymmetrical lattice of molecules that distorts
when a mechanical force is applied
causes a reorientation of electric charges within the
material, resulting in a relative displacement of
positive and negative charges.

Measuring spark plug (Kistler)

world's smallest piezoelectric high-T
cylinder pressure sensor.

Piezo-Resistive

semiconductor material: p-type region

diffused into n-type base.
Resistance varies when the sensor is
compressed or stretched.
Used as strain gauge
higher gauge factor than metal wire or foil
gauges
reduced measurement uncertainty (0.1%)

pressure sensors, accelerometers.

Intake pressure Measurement (Kistler)

high accuracy, rugged pressure
sensor for the measurement of
absolute pressures

Optical Sensors

based on the modulation of light travelling between a light

source and a detector
Light sources: tungsten-filament, laser diodes and LEDs

Detector: photocells (cadmium sulphide or cadmium

selenide), phototransistors
and photodiodes.

Visible light: prone to interference from sun and other sources.

infrared LEDs or infrared laser diodes are usually preferred.

photoconductive devices, whose resistance is reduced according to

the intensity of light to which they are exposed.
Photocells and phototransistors are particularly sensitive in the
infrared region

commonly used to measure proximity, translational motion,

rotational motion and gas concentration (FTIRs).

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry for combustion analysis

Ultrasonic Trasnducers

Ultrasound: sound above 20 kHz

Transmitter and receiver of ultrasonic wave.
measuring the change in time taken for the ultrasound
wave to travel between the transmitter and receiver,
or, alternatively, by measuring the change in phase or
frequency of the transmitted wave.
The most common form of ultrasonic element is a
piezoelectric crystal contained in a casing

operate interchangeably as either a transmitter or receiver.

These are available with operating frequencies that vary
between 20 kHz and 15 MHz.

Ultrasound imaging, Non-destructive testing

proportion of energy reflected being a function of the
materials either side of the interface (water, fat,
muscle, bone, crack)

Temperature Measurement

Four of the most common methods to

measure temperature are:
Mechanical (liquid-in-glass
thermometers, bimetallic strips,
etc.)
Thermojunctive (thermocouples).
Thermoresistive (RTDs and
thermistors).
Radiative (infrared and optical
pyrometers).

Heat Transfer

Conduction, convection or radiation

Conduction
Loading error in conduction
Conductance and resistance, contact resistance
High conductance gel or oil for better heat transfer
Transient: lumped model, time constant, delays

Convection:
Low for gases and high for liquids
Dynamic heating due to viscous dissipation
Temperature read is basically the stagnation temp.
Encapsulation to protect the element from
environment: error due to lateral conduction

Heat Transfer

Radiation: instrument immersed into a

medium will loose heat to wall through
radiation
Would lead to measurement error
Radiation shields can decrease error
Elevating wall temperature by thermal
insulation

MI 362
Measurement and Instrument

Lecture 21

3/3/2014

Mechanical Temperature
Measurement

change in temperature => mechanical motion (thermal

expansion)

Liquid-in-glass thermometer :

mercury or some kind of alcohol is used for the liquid.

Bimetallic strip thermometer

can use liquids, solids, or even gases

Two dissimilar metals are bonded together into what is called a

bimetallic strip:
Different thermal expansion => strip curls
home thermostats, arm of a switch between electrical contacts.
In oven temperature control: bimetallic strip attached to a dial
that is calibrated into a temperature scale

Thermo-junctive Temperature
Measurement

Thermocouple: Is a thermoelectric device

that converts thermal energy into
electrical energy
Seebeck effect
two metal wires joined together to form a
bead
This bead can be made by welding using an
arc
Connecting wires create undesired junctions
Due to weak signal=> sensitive to electrical
noise

EMF vs Temperature
Characteristic

Types of Thermocouples

Standard thermocouples have been assigned both a

letter and a color

J Type: black, iron and constantan (an alloy of 45%

nickel and 55% copper.)
T-Type: blue, copper and constantan
K-Type: yellow, chromel (alloy of 10% chromium and
90% nickel.) and alumel

Type K thermocouples are the most popular variety

in use today.
digital multimeters (DMMs) can measure
temperature by plugging in type K thermocouple
with standard connections
Tables for T-mV for each thermocouple are available
and interpreted

Practical Consideration

Should not be mounted to pick

mechanical strain

Encapsulated and sheathed thermocouples have

large time constant and slow response
Due to weak signal=> sensitive to
electrical noise

Thermopile

several thermocouples connected in

series
output voltage increases significantly.
increased sensitivity.
With enough sensing junctions, thermopile can
generate useful voltages

Thermo-Resistive
Temperature Measurement

change in temperature causes the

electrical resistance of material to
change.

resistance temperature detectors (RTD)

Thermistors

RTD:
long thin metal wire (usually platinum)
wound in a coil or an etched grid on a
substrate, much like a strain gage

Notice there are three wires

Thermo-Resistive Temperature
Measurement

The resistance of the most common

RTD is 100 at 0oC.
For small temperature differences and
better precision: wheat stone bridge
circuit

2-wire, 3-wire

Thermo-Resistive
Temperature Measurement

two-wire RTD bridge circuit:

Lead wires can cause errors

two lead wires in RTD bridge circuit this doubles
the error

three-wire RTD bridge Circuit:

and Arm-3 are same, lead

resistances cancel each other out, eliminating the
error.
Example:
If lead wire resistance in Arm-2

Thermo-Resistive Temperature
Measurement

Since V is measured using a device with

large input impedance, no current flows
in the middle lead wire: its resistance
does not affect.

Thermo-Resistive Temperature
Measurement

Thermistor:

similar to an RTD, but a semiconductor

material
Unlike RTDs, the resistance decreases with
increasing temperature.
larger sensitivity than RTD
Nonlinear
More accurate than RTD and thermocouple
Not for very high temperatures

labelled by their resistance at 25 0C.

type 2252 (2252 at 25 0C),
type 5000 (5000 at 25 0C).

Thermo-Resistive Temperature
Measurement

Thermistor:

MI 362
Measurement and Instrument

Lecture 22

4/3/2014

Semi-Invasive and Non-Invasive

Temperature Measurement

Heat sensitive paints and coatings

Radiative pyrometry :
Radiative properties of object change with
temperature
Very high temperatures can be measured
infrared pyrometers and optical pyrometers

Pyrometers

Infrared pyrometer:

radiation detector detects the amount of infrared

radiation
temperature of a hot surface by measuring temperature
of detector
detector itself is usually a thermopile.
emissivity of object must be known for accurate
temperature measurement
displayed temperature, Tind, is the temperature of a
radiating object with an emissivity of 0.95.

Pyrometers

Optical pyrometer :
An optical pyrometer is useful for
measuring very high temperatures of
things that glow
internal wire through which electrical current
is passed until it glows
The temperature of the glowing wire is
calibrated as a function of the supplied current
Inference: comparing the glowing wire to the
glow (optical radiation) from a hot object
Same temperature: glow are of same colour.

Liquid Thermo chromic Crystals

exhibit brilliant changes in colour over

discrete temperature bands
liquid crystal material selectively reflects
incident light within a certain band of
wavelengths

Radiometer

measures a source temperature by

measuring the voltage output from a
thermopile detector
Also used in measurement of total solar
radiation incident upon a surface.

Infrared Thermometry

Temperature and perceived colour

Types:
spectral band thermometers
total radiation thermometers
thermal imagers
scanning an infrared radiation detector across an object
temperature distribution across the object is produced.

Infrared Thermometry

Spectral band thermometers:

measure radiant energy across a narrow waveband

devices which use silicon or germanium detectors.
short-wavelength thermometers, 0.5 and 2 m.
short wavelengths (highly sensitive): rate of
change of radiant energy with temperature is high
(up to 23%/C)

Total radiation thermometers:

measure radiant energy over a broad waveband

(several micrometres).
used for low-temperature measurements where
the energy emitted is relatively low.

Thermal Imaging

Array of infrared detectors

Absorption/Emission
Spectroscopy

Temperature distribution in flames and gases at

high temperatures
atoms emit electromagnetic radiation
band of wavelengths emitted from a particular
species or substance is known as the emission
spectrum
atoms with electrons in their ground state can absorb
electromagnetic radiation: absorption spectrum
Temperature is evaluated by fitting the observed
spectrum to a theoretical model
Temperature is calculated from ratio of heights of two
spectral lines utilizing Boltzmann distribution
The typical uncertainty for these

Heat Flux Measurement

Temperature difference

Heat flux is proportional to difference in Temperature at

discrete points

Calorimetric methods
heat balance applied to region of the sensor
temporal measurement of temperature related to heat flux

Energy supply or removal

heater or cooler to supply or remove energy from a system
heat balance to relate temperature measured to heat flux

Mass transfer:
Measuring mass transfer in place of heat transfer
Heat and mass transfer analogy to infer the heat transfer.