Mechanical Measurement and

Metrology ME242

Resource Person: Faiza Rasheed

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 Recommended Books

• Mechanical Measurements and instrumentation by

R. K. Rajput
• Mechanical Measurements by Thomas G Beckwith
• Measurements and Instrumentation by Alan S.
Morris
• Instrumentation and Control by D. Patranabis
• The Metrology and handbook by Jay L. Bucher
• Engineering Metrology by J. F. w. Galyer and C. R.
Shotbolt, Cassell Publishers Ltd.

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3
 Text Books

• Instrumentation and Measurements by

Thomas G. Beckwith, Roy D. Marangoni and
John H. Lienhard V.

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 Mechanical Measurement

1. Length/displacement measurement
2. Weight/Force measurement
3. Temperature measurement
4. Pressure measurement
5. Flow level measurement
6. Torque measurement

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Length/Displacement
transducers

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CONTENTS
Contents
• INTRODUCTION
Definition
Needs of measurement
Types of displacement
Selection criteria
• DISPLACEMENT TRANSDUCER
Contact type
i. Resistive transducer
ii. Capacitive transducer
iii. Inductive transducer
Non contact type
i. Ultrasonic

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INTRODUCTION

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DEFINITION
Definition

Displacement is a vector representing a

change in position of a body or a point with
respect to a reference.

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NEEDS OF MEASUREMENT
Needs of measurement

Being a fundamental quantity, the basic sensing

device is widely adapted with suitable linkage for
the measurement of many derived quantities such
as force, stress, pressure, velocity and acceleration
etc.

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FOR EXAMPLE
For example

In the measurement of pressure

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 Types of Displacement

1. Linear Displacement
Linear motion measured in few microns to few
centimetres.

2. Angular Displacement
Rotational motion measured from a few seconds
to 360o

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 SELECTION CRITERIA
Selection criteria

For designing and selecting a displacement sensor

we must know the following questions:

 what is type of the displacement ?

 What resolution and accuracy is required ?
 What is required detection range ?
 What are the environmental conditions ?
 What is the power dissipation ?
 What is the cost of the conditioning circuit ?

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 A. Displacement Transducers
It converts physical quantity i.e. displacement into electrical quantity.
Transducer may be consisting of two important and closely related
parts:

1. Sensing element or primary transducer

The part of the transducer which respond to a physical phenomenon or
change in the physical phenomenon.

2. Transduction element or secondary transducer

It transform the output of the sensing element to an electrical output.

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 Types of displacement Transducers
Contact Type
1. Variable resistance
 Potentiometer
2. Variable inductance
 LVDT
 RVDT
3. Variable capacitance
Non Contact Type
Ultrasonic

A number of additional types are also designed, depending upon the

convenience and measurement accuracy required.
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 Contact type

1. Variable resistance/Resistive
transducers

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PRINCIPLE
Principle
•Sliding contact device utilizes variation in effective length of
wire for measurement.
•Mechanical displacement is input and electrical signal as
output (Voltage or current).
•Can also measure angular movement when resistance element
is formed into an arc.

SLIDING CONTACT VARIABLE RESISTANCE

POTENTIOMETER 17
 Principle
Since resistance of potentiometer is linearly distributed
along its length.
So there is a linear relationship between input
displacement and output voltage.

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 Potentiometer

Advantages
• Inexpensive
• Simple to operate
• High electrical efficiency

Disadvantages :
• Requires a large force to move the sliding contacts
• Sliding contacts can be contaminated and can wear
out.

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2. Inductive transducers

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3.Variable-inductance transducer elements

 Flux: Amount of magnetic field passing through a surface or

number of magnetic lines passing through an area is called
flux.

 Inductance: Property of a conductor by which a change in

current flowing through it induces an emf in both the
conductor itself and in any nearby conductor.

 Reluctance: Opposition of a circuit element to a change in

current/voltage, due to that element’s inductance or
capacitance.

 Permeance: Inverse of reluctance or alternatively measure

of the quantity of flux for a number of current turns in
magnetic circuit.
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3.Variable-inductance transducer elements

Working principle:
Inductive transducers are based on the voltage output of an
inductor (or coil) whose inductance changes in response to
changes in the measurand.
The inductive reactance may be expressed by the relation:
XL = 2πfL
XL = inductive reactance (Ω)
F = the frequency of applied voltage (Hz),
L = inductance (H)

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3.Variable-inductance transducer elements

Inductor
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3.Variable-inductance transducer elements

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3.Variable-inductance transducer elements

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 4.The differential transformer

The most broadly used of the variable inductance

transducers is the differential transformer.

Working principle:
It provides an ac voltage output proportional to the
displacement of a core passing through the windings.
It is a mutual-inductance device making use of three
coil generally arranged as shown.

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The differential transformer (Contd.)

Figure: The differential transformer; schematic

arrangement

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i. Linear Variable Differential Transformer
(LVDT)

Linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) are used

to measure displacement. LVDTs operate on the principle
of a transformer.
An LVDT consists of a coil assembly and a core. The coil
assembly is typically mounted to a stationary form, while
the core is attached to the object whose position is being
measured. The coil assembly consists of three coils of wire
wound on the hollow form. A core of permeable material
can slide freely through the center of the form. And
magnetic flux produced by the primary is coupled to the
two secondary coils, inducing a voltage in each coil.

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 Advantages of LVDT

1. High degree of robustness.

2. Because there is no physical
contact across the sensing
element, there is no wear in
the sensing element, thus
high sensitivity.
3. The transducers have low
hysteresis and hence
repeatability is excellent
under all conditions.
4. They are simple, light in
weight and easy to maintain.

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Disadvantages of LVDT

• They are sensitive to stray magnetic fields but

shielding is possible.

• Temperature affects the performance of

transducer.

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5.Variable reluctance transducers (VRT)

In transducers practice, the term variable reluctance

implies some form of inductance device incorporating a
permanent magnet. In its simple form, the variable
reluctance device consists of a coil wound on a permanent
magnet core. The varying reluctance causes changes in
flux. As the flux changes a voltage is induced in the coil,
according to Faraday’s law:

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Variable reluctance transducers (Contd.)

Figure: Simple variable reluctance transducer

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3. Capacitive transducers

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6.Capacitive transducers
The capacitive transducer works on the principle of variable
capacitances. The capacitance of the capacitive transducer
changes because of many reasons like overlapping of plates,
change in distance between the plates and dielectric constant.
The capacitive transducer contains two parallel metal plates.
These plates are separated by the dielectric medium which is
either air, material, gas or liquid. In the normal capacitor the
distance between the plates are fixed, but in capacitive
transducer the distance between them are varied.
The capacitive transducer uses the electrical quantity of
capacitance for converting the mechanical movement into an
electrical signal. The input quantity causes the change of the
capacitance which is directly measured by the capacitive
transducer.
6.Capacitive transducers

The schematic diagram of a parallel plate capacitive

transducer is shown in the figure below.
6.Capacitive transducers
Principle of Operation
The equations below express the capacitance between the plates of a
capacitor:

Where
A: overlapping area of plates in m2
d: the distance between two plates in meter
ε: permittivity of the medium in F/m
εr: relative permittivity
ε0 : the permittivity of free space
 Non-contact type

Ultrasonic

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Ultrasonic

An Ultrasonic sensor is a device that can measure the

distance to an object by using sound waves. It measures
distance by sending out a sound wave at a specific
frequency and listening for that sound wave to bounce
back. By recording the elapsed time between the sound
wave being generated and the sound wave bouncing
back, it is possible to calculate the distance between the
sonar sensor and the object.

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Ultrasonic

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B. Force measurement

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 Force

• Force is derived and defined as a quantity capable of

changing the size, shape, or motion of an object. It is a
vector quantity, thus has both direction and magnitude.
SI unit is Newton (N).
• If a body is in motion, the energy of that motion can be
quantified as the momentum of the object, the product of
its mass and its velocity. If a body is free to move, the
action of a force will change the velocity of the body.

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 Types of forces
There are four basic forces in nature:

i. Gravitational force
ii. Magnetic force
iii. Strong nuclear force
iv. Weak nuclear forces

The weakest of the four is the gravitational force. It is

also the easiest to observe, because it acts on all matter
and it is always attractive, while having an infinite range.
Its attraction decreases with distance, but is always
measurable.

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 i. Gravitational force

Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two

bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that
is directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them.

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 ii. Magnetic force

A magnetic field is the magnetic effect of electric currents and

magnetic materials. The magnetic force at any given point is
specified by both a direction and a magnitude (or strength); as
such it is a vector.

Magnetic force, attraction or repulsion that arises between

electrically charged particles because of their motion. It is the
basic force responsible for such effects as the action of
attraction of magnets for iron. Electric forces exist among
stationary electric charges; both electric and
magnetic forces exist among moving electric
charges.

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 iii. Strong nuclear force

The strong nuclear force is one of the four fundamental

forces in nature. As its name implies, the strong force is
the strongest force of the four. It is responsible for
binding together the fundamental particles of matter to
form larger particles. e.g. fusion process.

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 iv. Weak nuclear force

The weak nuclear force is the second weakest force, after

the force of gravity, and it is the force with the shortest
range. It was first devised to explain beta decay, which was
discovered by New Zealand-British physicist Ernest
Rutherford in 1899.
e.g. fission process; uranium decays into thorium.

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 Measuring methods

1. Direct Method
Involves a direct comparison with a known gravitational
force on a standard mass say by a balance.

2. Indirect methods
It involves the measurement of effect of force on a body,
such as acceleration of a body of known mass subjected
to force.

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 A. Force Measurement

1. Direct Method:
i. The analytical balance
ii. Pendulum Force Measuring System

2. Indirect Method:
i. Elastic transducers
ii. Strain-gage load cells
iii. Piezoelectric load cells
iv. Load cells
a. Hydraulic load cell
b. Pneumatic load cell
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 1. The analytical balance

Probably the simplest force measuring system with direct

method is the ordinary equal-arm beam balance. Basically this
device operates on the principle of moment comparison. The
moment produced by the unknown force is compared with that
produced by a known value. When null balance is obtained, the
two weights are equal, provided the two arm lengths are
identical. A check on arm equivalence may easily be made by
simply interchanging the two weights. If balance was initially
achieved and if it is maintained after exchanging the weights, it
can only be concluded that the weights are equal, as are the
arm lengths. This method for checking the true null of a system
is known as the method of symmetry.

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The analytical balance (Contd.)

Figure: Analytical balance

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 2. Pendulum Force Measuring System

• The pendulum scale is an instrument in which the

unknown weight is converted to a torque that is then
balanced by the torque of a fixed standard mass arranged
as pendulum.
• When the unknown force or force proportional to weight is
applied to the load rod, sectors tend to rotate due to
tension in loading tapes, and consequently the counter
weight swings out.
• The motion of the equilibrium is attained when the
moment due to counter weight becomes same as moment
due to applied load.

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Pendulum scale

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 Pendulum Force Measuring System
(Contd.)

• The motion of the equalizer bar is converted into an

angular movement of the indicator by a rack and pinion
arrangement.
• The deflection of the pointer is calibrated in terms of
applied force.

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 3. Elastic transducers

Many force-transducing systems make use of some

mechanical elastic member or combination of members.
Application of load to the member results in an analogous
deflection, usually linear. The deflection is then observed
directly and used as measure of force or load, or a secondary
transducer is used to convert displacement into another form
of output, often electrical.
Most force-resisting elastic members adhere to the relation:
F = Ky
Where
F = the applied load/force
K = the deflection constant
y = the resulting deflection at the location of F

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3. Elastic transducers

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 4. Strain-gage load cells

Instead of using total deflection as a measure of load,

the strain-gage load cell measures load in terms of unit
strain. Resistance gages are very suitable for this
purpose. One of the many possible forms of elastic
member is selected, and the gages are mounted to
provide maximum output.

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Strain-gage load cells (Contd.)

Figure: Tension-compression
resistance strain-gage load cell
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 5. Piezoelectric load cells

• Certain materials can generate an electrical charge when

subjected to mechanical strain or, conversely, can
change dimensions when subjected to voltage. This is
known as piezoelectric effect.
• A piezoelectric sensor is a device that uses the
piezoelectric effect, to measure changes in pressure,
acceleration, displacement, temperature, strain, or force
by converting them to an electrical charge. The
prefix piezo- is Greek; for 'press' or 'squeeze'.
• Applied field: Measure surface roughness, force and
torque, pressure, motion etc.
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 Piezoelectric load cells (Contd.)

Load cells that employ piezoelectric secondary

transducers are particularly useful for measuring
dynamic loading, especially of an impact or
abruptly applied nature. The transducer produces
an electrostatic charge which is generally
conditioned through use of a charge amplifier.

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Piezoelectric load cells (Contd.)

Figure: Piezoelectric transducer

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6. Hydraulic load cell

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Basic Principle of Hydraulic Load cell

• When a force is applied on a liquid medium contained in a

confined space, the pressure of the liquid increases.
• This increase in pressure of the liquid is proportional to the
applied force.
• Hence a measure of the increase in pressure of the liquid
becomes a measure of the applied force when calibrated.

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Operation of Hydraulic Load Cell

• The force to be measured is applied to the piston.

• The applied force moves the piston downwards and deflects the
diaphragm and this deflection of the diaphragm increases the
pressure in the liquid medium (oil).
• This increase in pressure of the liquid medium is proportional
to the applied force.
• The increase in pressure is measured by the pressure gauge
which is connected to the liquid medium.
• The pressure is calibrated in force units and hence the
indication in the pressure gauge becomes a measure of force
applied on the piston.

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7. Pneumatic load cell

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Operation of pneumatic load cell

• The force to be measured is applied to the top side of the

diaphragm. Due to this force, the diaphragm deflects and causes
the flapper to shut-off the nozzle opening.
• Now an air supply is provided at the bottom of the diaphragm.
• As the flapper closes the nozzle opening, a back pressure results.
• This back pressure acts on the diaphragm producing an upward
force.
• Air pressure is regulated until the diaphragm returns to the pre-
loaded position which is indicated by air which comes out of the
nozzle.
• At this stage, the corresponding pressure indicated by the
pressure gauge becomes a measure of the applied force when
calibrated.
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66
C. Temperature Measurement

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 C. Temperature Measurement

i. Use of bimaterials:
 Liquid in glass thermometers
 Bimetal temperature sensing elements
ii. Pressure thermometers
iii. Thermoresistive elements:
 Resistance thermometers (RTDs)
 Thermistors
iv. Thermocouples
v. Pyrometry

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 1. Use of bimaterials

i. Liquid in glass thermometers

ii. Bimetal temperature sensing elements

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 i. Liquid in glass thermometers

• The ordinary thermometer is an example of the liquid-in-

glass type.
• Essential elements consist of a relatively large bulb at the
lower end, a capillary tube with scale, and a liquid filling
both the bulb and a portion of the capillary.
• In addition, a smaller bulb (expansion chamber) is
generally incorporated at the upper end to serve as a safety
reservoir when the intended temperature range is exceeded.
• As the temperature is raised, the greater expansion of the
liquid compared with that of the glass causes it to rise in the
capillary or stem of the thermometer, and the height of rise
is used as a measure of the temperature.

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 Liquid in glass thermometers (Contd.)

The volume enclosed in the

stem above the liquid may
either contain a vacuum or
be filled with air or another
gas.

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 ii. Bimetal temperature sensing elements

When two metal strips having different temperature

coefficients of expansion are brazed together, a change
in temperature will cause a free deflection of the
assembly. Such strips form the basis for control devices
such as the common home heating system thermostat.

Advantages:
• Thermometers with bimetallic temperature-sensitive
elements are often used because of their ruggedness,
their ease of reading, their low cost, and the convenience
of their particular form.
• They can also be used as overload cutoff switches.

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ii. Bimetal temperature sensing elements

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2. Pressure thermometers

Figure: Constant volume gas thermometer

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 2. Pressure thermometers

Gas Laws:

• Boyle’s law: P α 1/V

• Charles’ s law: V α T
• Gay Lussac’s law: P α T
 Pressure thermometers (Contd.)

The figure illustrates a simple constant-volume gas

thermometer. Gas, usually hydrogen or helium is
contained in bulb A. A mercury column B is adjusted
so that reference point C is maintained. In this
manner, a constant volume of gas is held in the bulb
and adjoining capillary. Mercury column h is a
measure of the gas pressure and can be calibrated in
terms of temperature.

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 3. Thermoresistive elements

Traditionally, resistance elements sensitive to

temperature are made of materials generally considered
to be good conductors of electricity. Examples are nickel,
copper, platinum and silver and polymer. A
temperature-measuring device using an element of this
type is commonly referred to as a resistance
thermometer, resistance temperature detector (RTD) or
thermistors.
Types:
i. Resistance thermometers
ii. Thermistors

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 i. Resistance thermometers

• Resistance thermometers, also called resistance

temperature detectors (RTDs), are sensors used to measure
temperature by correlating the resistance of the RTD
element with temperature.
• Most RTD elements consist of a length of fine coiled wire
wrapped around a ceramic or glass core. The element is
usually quite fragile, so it is often placed inside a protective
casing to protect it. The RTD element is made from a pure
material, typically platinum, nickel or copper.
• The material has a predictable change in resistance as the
temperature changes and it is this predictable change that
is used to determine temperature.
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Resistance thermometers (Contd.)

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 ii. Thermistors

• A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance is dependent

on temperature. Thermistors differ from resistance
temperature detectors (RTDs) in that the material used in a
thermistor is generally a ceramic or polymer, while RTDs use
pure metals.
• The temperature response is also different; unlike most other
resistive devices, the resistance of a thermistor decreases with
increasing temperature. That's due to the properties of the
semiconductor material that the thermistor is made from.
• RTDs are useful over larger temperature ranges, while
thermistors typically achieve a greater precision within a
limited temperature range, typically −90 °C to 130 °C.

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 Thermistors (Contd.)

Thermistor, bead type, insulated wires

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 4. Thermocouples
• A thermocouple is a junction formed from two dissimilar
metals. Actually, it is a pair of junctions. One at a reference
temperature (like 0 oC) and the other junction at the
temperature to be measured. A temperature difference will
cause a voltage to be developed that is temperature
dependent. (That voltage is caused by something called the
Seebeck effect.)

• Thermocouples are widely used for temperature measurement

because they are inexpensive, rugged and reliable, and they can
be used over a wide temperature range. In particular, other
temperature sensors (like thermistors and LM35 sensors) are
useful around room temperature, but the thermocouple can
measure in thousands.
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Thermocouples (Contd.)

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 5. Pyrometry

• Pyrometry is a technique for measuring temperature

without physical contact. It depends upon the
relationship between the temperature of hot body and
eletromagnetic radiation emitted by the body.

• It is a technique for determining a body’s temperature

by measuring its eletromagnetic radiation .

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 Pyrometry (Contd.)

The term pyrometry is derived from the Greek words pyros,

meaning “fire” and metron, means “to measure”. Literally,
the term means general temperature measurement.
However, in engineering usage, the word normally refers to
temperature measurement in the range extending above
5000C. Pyrometry generally implies thermal-radiation
measurement of temperature.

Types:

i. Thermal detectors
ii. Photon detectors

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 Pyrometry (Contd.)

i. Thermal detectors:
They are based on the temperature rise produced when
the energy radiated from a body is focused onto a
target, heating it. The target temperature may be
sensed with a thermopile, a thermistor or RTD, or a
pyroelectric element.

ii. Photon detectors:

In these devices, the sensor responds directly to the
intensity of radiated light by a corresponding change in
its resistance or in its junction current or voltage.

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Pyrometry (Contd.)

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