Lecture 5:

Temperature and Light

Measurement

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 Temperature Measurement
• Temperature is without doubt the most widely measured
variable.

• In the process control of chemical reactions, temperature

control is of major importance, since chemical reactions are
temperature-dependent.

• All physical parameters are temperature-dependent, making it

necessary in most cases to measure temperature along with
the physical parameter, so that temperature corrections can
be made to achieve accurate parameter measurements.

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 Temperature sensors
• There are many properties that change with temperature and can be used
as basis of temperature sensors.

• The following are some of the commonly used temperature sensors:

 Expansion thermometers;
 Resistor-temperature detectors (RTD);
 Thermistors;
 Thermocouples;
 Pyrometer; and
 Semiconductors.

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 Expansion Thermometers

Many materials expand when heated. This forms the basis for
expansion-based temperature sensors such as:

 Liquid in glass thermometer

 The bimetallic strip

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 Liquid in glass thermometers
• Liquid in glass thermometers using mercury were, by far, the most
common direct visual reading thermometer.

• Mercury has the advantage of not wetting the glass; that is, the mercury
cleanly traverses the glass tube without breaking into globules or coating
the tube.

• The operating range of the mercury thermometer is from −35° to +450°C.

and the freezing point of mercury −38°C.

• The toxicity of mercury, ease of breakage, the introduction of cost-

effective, accurate, and easily read digital thermometers, has brought
about the demise of the mercury thermometer for room and clinical
measurements.
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 Bimetallic strips
• A bimetallic strip consists of two different metal strips of the same length
bonded together.
• These devices operate on the principle that different metals have different
coefficients of expansion.
• It can be used to open or close electric circuits, as in the simple
thermostat commonly used with domestic heating systems.
• They are robust, relatively cheap, but are fairly slow.

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 Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs)
• The resistance of most metals increases in a reasonably linear way
with temperature and can be represented by the equation:
RT = R0(1+T)
• where RT is the resistance at a temperature T °C, R0 the resistance at
0°C and is constant for the metal, termed the temperature
coefficient of resistance.
• Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are simple resistive
elements in the form of coils of metal wire, e.g. platinum,
nickel or copper alloys.
• Resistance devices are normally measured using a Wheatstone
bridge, or supplied from a constant current source. Care should be
taken to prevent the electrical current from heating the device and
causing erroneous readings.
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 Example
• What is the resistance of a platinum resistor at
480°C, if its resistance at 16°C is 110Ω? The
temperature coefficient of resistance for the
platinum is 0.00385 /°C.

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 Thermistors
• Thermistors are semiconductor material that
typically has a high negative temperature coefficient
of resistance.
• They have high sensitivity, which can be up to a 10%
change per degree Celsius, making it the most
sensitive temperature element available.
• However, they have very nonlinear characteristics
which make the device difficult to use as an
accurate measuring device without compensation,
but its sensitivity and low cost makes it useful in
many applications.
• The device is normally used in a bridge circuit.
• The typical response time is from 0.5 to 5 seconds.
• When in use, care has to be taken to minimize the
effects of internal heating.
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 Thermocouple

• In 1821, the physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered

that when any conductor is subjected to a thermal gradient,
it will generate a voltage. This is now known as the
thermoelectric effect or Seebeck effect.

• This effect is the basis for the thermocouple device.

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 Thermocouple
• The thermocouple involves two
different metals.
• One of the ends of the two metals
are joined together and put at
temperature Th (the hot junction).
• The other end of both metals are
put at a temperature Tc (the cold
junction). The potential difference
is measured between these two
ends.
• This potential difference depends
on the two metals used and the
temperature difference between
the two junctions.

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 Thermocouple
• Usually, one junction (the cold junction) is held at
0 °C.
• To a reasonable extent, the potential difference V
is given by
V = at+bt2

• where a and b are constants for the metals

concerned and t is the temperature of the hot
junction.
• The Figure shows how the e.m.f varies with
temperature for a number of commonly used
pairs of metals.
• These commonly used thermocouples are
given reference letters.
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 Thermocouple
• Commonly used thermocouples are listed in
Table 2.1, with the temperature ranges over
which they are generally used and typical
sensitivities.
• The base-metal thermocouples, E, J, K and T, are
relatively cheap but deteriorate with age.
• Noble-metal thermocouples, e.g. R, are more
expensive but are more stable with longer life.
• Thermocouples are generally mounted in a
sheath to give them mechanical and chemical
protection.
• The response time of an unsheathed
thermocouple is very fast. With a sheath
this may be increased to as much as a few
seconds if a large sheath is used.
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 Thermocouple
• Standard tables are available for metals usually used for
thermocouples giving the e.m.fs at different temperatures
assuming that the reference (cold) junction is at 0°C.
• As the thermocouple can be used with the reference junction
at a temperature other than 0°C, a correction has to be applied
before the tables can be used.
• The correction is applied using what is known as the law of
intermediate temperatures, namely:
Et1,0 = Et1,t2 + Et2,0
• Where Et1,t2 is the emf between the two junction when the hot
junction is at temperature t1 and the cold junction is at
temperature t2.

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 Example
• Consider a type E thermocouple. The following is data from
standard tables.

• Thus, using the law of intermediate temperatures, the

thermoelectric e.m.f. at 200° C with the cold junction at 20°C is

• Note that this is not the e.m.f. given by the tables for a temperature
of 180T with a cold junction at 0°C, namely 11.949 mV.
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 Thermocouple
• To maintain one junction of a thermocouple at 0°C,
it needs to be immersed in a mixture of ice and water.
• This, however, is often not convenient and a
compensation circuit is used to provide an e.m.f.
which varies with the temperature of the 'cold'
junction in such a way that when it is added to the
thermocouple e.m.f. it generates a combined e.m.f
which is the same as would have been generated if
the cold junction had been at 0°C.
• Integrated circuits are available which combine
amplification with cold junction compensation for
thermocouples, e.g. the Analog Devices AD594.
When AD594 is used with a +5V supply and a
constantan-iron thermocouple, it gives an output of
10 mV/°C.
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 Pyrometers
• Pyrometers are used to measure the temperature using radiation.
• For example, optical pyrometers compare the incident radiation to the
radiation from an internal filament.
• The current through the filament is adjusted until the radiation colors
match. The current then can be directly related to the temperature of the
radiation source. Optical pyrometers can be used to measure
temperatures from 1,100° to 2,800°C.

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 Thermo-diodes and transistors

• When the temperature of doped semiconductors changes, the

mobility of their charge carriers change. As a consequence, when a
p-n junction has a potential difference across it, the current
through the junction is a function of the temperature. These
junctions can be used as temperature sensors such as LM3911
which gives an output voltage proportional to temperature.

• In a similar manner, transistors can be used as temperature

sensors. An integrated circuit temperature sensor using transistors
is LM35. This gives an output, which is a linear function of
temperature, of 10 mV/°C when the supply voltage is 5 V.

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 Light Measurement

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 Photocells
• Photocells are used for the detection and conversion of light
intensity into electrical signals.

• Photocells can be classified as:

 photovoltaic,
 photoconductive,
 photo-emissive, and
 semiconductor.

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 Photovoltaic cells
• Photovoltaic cells develop an EMF in the presence of light.
Copper oxide and selenium are examples of photovoltaic
materials.

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 Photoconductive devices
• Photoconductive devices change their resistance with light
intensity. As the light intensity increases, their resistance
decreases.
• Examples of these materials are selenium, zirconium oxide,
and cadmium sulfide.

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 Photoemissive materials
• Photoemissive materials, such as mixtures of rare Earth
elements (e.g., cesium oxide), liberate electrons in the
presence of light.

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 Semiconductors
• Semiconductors are photosensitive, and are commercially available as
photodiodes and phototransistors.

• Light generates hole-electron pairs, which cause leakage in reversed

biased diodes, and base current in phototransistors.

• Commercial optical sensors are available giving a linear voltage output

with incident light intensity such as visible light intensity to voltage
converters (TSL 250), Infrared (IR) light to voltage converters (TSL 260),
and light to frequency converters (TSL 230).

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 Light Sources
• Incandescent light is produced by electrically heating a
resistive filament, or by the burning of certain combustible
materials. A large portion of the energy emitted is in the
infrared spectrum, as well as the visible spectrum.
• Atomic type sources cover gas discharge devices, such as
neon and fluorescent lights.
• Laser emissions are obtained by excitation of the atoms of
certain elements.
• Semiconductor diodes, such as LEDs, are the most common
commercially available light sources used in industry. When
forward biased, the diodes emit light in the visible or IR
region.
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