EEEE2201: Electrical and Electronic Measurement (3 CV)

Lecture notes

Chap 1: Concept of Measurement Systems

1- Introduction

Measurement is the act, or the result of a quantitive comparison between a given quantity and a quantity
of the same kind chosen as a unit. The result of measurement is expressed by a pointer deflection. The
device or instrument used for comparing the unknown quantity with the unit of measurement is called a
measuring instrument. There exist two ways of measurement

- Direct measurement method: The unknown quantity is measured directly instead of comparing
it with a standard. Some examples are measuring current by Ammeter, voltage by Voltmeter,
resistance by Ohmmeter, power by Wattmeter.
- Indirect measurement method: The value of the unknown quantity is determined by measuring
the functionally related quantity and calculating the desired quantity. Eg. the resistance R of a
conductor can be measured by Ohm’s law R= V/I

2- Fundamental and Derived Units

At the time of measuring a physical quantity, we must express the magnitude of that quantity in terms of a
unit and a numerical multiplier, i.e.

Magnitude of a physical quantity = (Numerical ratio) × (Unit)

Numerical ratio is the number of measures, it is also known as the numerical multiplier.

An absolute system of units is defined as a system in which the various units are all expressed in terms of
a small number of fundamental units. Absolute measurements do not compare the measured quantity with
arbitrary units of the same type but are made in terms of Fundamental Units.

In science and engineering, two kinds of units are used: Fundamental or Primary units and Derived
units.

There exist seven primary SI units, their names and symbols are given in Table 1.1.

All other units which can be expressed in terms of the fundamental units are called derived units. Every
derived unit originates from some physical law defining that unit. A derived unit is recognized by its
dimensions, which can be defined as the complete algebraic formula for the derived unit.
The Dimension of a quantity tells what the unit represents. The notation for the four primary dimensions
is as follows: mass [M], length [L], time [T] and temperature [ϴ]. Let Q be a certain physical quantity, its
dimension can be expressed as follows: Q  cM  L T  

where c is a proportional constant, and α, β, γ, τ are real numbers.

Example: Some examples of derived units and corresponding dimensions are given below

quantity units Dimensional symbols

Area m2 L2

Volume m3 L3

For convenience, some derived units have been given new names. For example, the derived unit of force
in the SI system is called the Newton (N), instead of the dimensionally correct kg-m/s2

Example: Some dimensions and units in electricity

- Electric charge = Electric current x time

Q   I   t   I 1T 1 , The unit is Coulomb (C)

- Electric potential = work/Electric charge

W   L M T 
2 1 2

V      L2 M 1T 3 I 1  , The unit is Volt (V)

Q   I T 
1 1

- Electric resistance = Electric potential / Electric current

V   L M T I 
2 1 3 1

 R     L2 M 1T 3 I 2  , The unit is Ohm (Ω)

I  I 
 3- Standards and their Classifications

A standard of measurement is a physical representation of a unit of measurement. A unit is realized

by reference to an arbitrary material standard or to natural phenomena including physical and atomic
constants. The classifications of standards are:

a- International standards:

They represent certain units of measurement to the closest possible accuracy that production and
measurement technology allow. They are periodically checked and evaluated by absolute measurements
in terms of the fundamental units.

b- Primary standards

The primary standards are maintained by national standards laboratories in different places of the
world. One of the main functions of primary standards is the verification and calibration of secondary
standards

c- Secondary standards

They are the basic reference standards used in the industrial measurement laboratories.

d- Working standards

They are used to check and calibrate general laboratory instruments for accuracy and performance or
to perform comparison measurements in industrial applications.

e- Current standards

f- Voltage standards

g- Resistance standards

i-Capacitance standards

h- Time and frequency standards

4- Methods of Measurement

The different methods of measurement are summarized with the help of a tree diagram as
Deflection methods: e.g. Measurement of current by an ammeter

Null methods: e.g. Measurement of weight by a balance, measurement of resistance, capacitance, and
inductance by bridge circuits

5- Measurement Systems and its Elements

A measurement system may be defined as a systematic arrangement for the measurement or

determination of an unknown quantity and analysis of instrumentation. The generalized measurement
system and its different components are shown in Figure below

Figure: Generalized measurement system

The physical quantity under measurement is called the measurand. Primary sensing elements may
have a non-electrical input and output such as a spring, manometer or may have an electrical input
and output such as a rectifier. The transducer converts the non-electrical input and output into an
electrical signal or in general one form of energy into another form. The signal conditioner is a process
which permits to remove interfering sources on the signal in order that the signal may not get distorted. If
the output is in analog form and the next step of the system accepts only in digital form then an
analog-to-digital converter will be employed using the variable conversion elements. The function
of the variable manipulation unit is to manipulate the signal presented to it while preserving
the original nature of the signal for amplification of a low voltage signal.

6- Classification of Instruments

The measuring instruments may be classified as follows:

6-1- Absolute and Secondary Instruments

Absolute instruments give the value of the measurand in terms of instrument constant and its
deflection. An example of this type of instrument is tangent galvanometer, which gives the value of
the current to be measured in terms of tangent of the angle of deflection produced, the horizontal
component of the earth’s magnetic field, the radius and the number of turn of the wire used. Absolute
instruments are mostly used in standard laboratories and in similar institutions as standardizing.

Secondary instruments are so constructed that the deflection of such instruments gives the magnitude
of the electrical quantity to be measured directly. They are most commonly used. Secondary
instruments perform three main functions:
 - Indicating function
- Recording function
- Integrating function

Integrating instruments are those which measure the total amount of either quantity of electricity
(ampere-hours) or electrical energy supplied over a period of time. The summation, given by such an
instrument, is the product of time and an electrical quantity under measurement. The ampere-hour
meters and energy meters fall in this class.

Secondary instruments work in two modes: Analog and Digital. Analog signals are signals that vary in
a continuous fashion and take on infinity of values in any given range. The devices which produce these
signals· are called analog devices (e.g. Ammeter). In contrast, the signals which vary in discrete steps
and thus take up only finite different values in a given range are called digital signals. The devices that
produce such signals are called digital devices (e.g. digital multimeter). Digital instruments have
some advantages over analog meters, in that they have high accuracy and high speed of operation.

6-2 Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics Instruments

The history of development of instruments encompasses three phases of instruments

- Mechanical Instruments

Mechanical instruments are very reliable for static and stable conditions. They are unable to respond
rapidly to the measurement of dynamic and transient conditions due to the fact that they have moving
parts that are rigid, heavy and bulky and consequently have a large mass. Mass presents inertia problems
and mechanical instruments cause noise pollution.

- Electrical instruments

When the instrument pointer deflection is caused by the action of some electrical methods then it is
called an electrical instrument. The time of operation of an electrical instrument is more rapid than
that of a mechanical instrument. Unfortunately, an electrical system normally depends upon a
mechanical measurement as an indicating device. This mechanical movement has some inertia due to
which the frequency response of these instruments is poor.

- Electronic instruments

Electronic instruments use semiconductor devices. Most of the scientific and industrial
instrumentations require very fast responses. Such requirements cannot be met with by mechanical
and electrical instruments. In electronic devices, since the only movement involved is that of
electrons, the response time is extremely small owing to very small inertia of the electrons.

7- Definitions of Some Static Characteristics

The main static characteristics discussed here are:

- Accuracy
 Accuracy is the closeness with which the instrument reading approaches the true value of the variable
under measurement. Accuracy is determined as the maximum amount by which the result differs from
the true value.

- Precision

Precision is a measure of the reproducibility of the measurements, i.e., precision is a measure of the
degree to which successive measurements differ from one another.

- Resolution

The resolution of any instrument is the smallest change in the input signal (quantity under
measurement) which can be detected by the instrument. It may be expressed as an accrual value or as
a fraction or percentage of the full scale value. Resolution is sometimes referred as sensitivity. The largest
change of input quantity for which there is no output of the instrument is called the dead zone of that
instrument. The sensitivity is defined as the ratio of output signal or response of the instrument to
a change of input signal or the quantity under measurement.

Example: A moving coil voltmeter has a uniform scale with 100 divisions, the full scale reading is 200 V
and 1/10 of a scale division can be estimated with a fair degree of certainty. Determine the resolution of
the instrument in volt.

Solution: 1 scale division = 200/100 = 2V

1 1
Resolution = scale division=  2  0.2V
10 10

- Speed of response

The quickness of an instrument to read the measurand variable is called the speed of response.
Alternately, speed of response is defined as the time elapsed between the start of the measurement to the
reading taken. This time depends upon the mechanical moving system, friction, etc.

8- Measurement of Errors

In practice, it is impossible to measure the exact value of the measurand. There is always some
difference between the measured value and the absolute or true value of the unknown quantity
(measurand), which may be very small or may be large. The difference between the true or exact
value and the measured value of the unknown quantity is known as the absolute error of the
measurement.

Let  A, A and Am be respectively the absolute error, the measured and absolute value of the unknown
quantity then:  A  Am  A

The relative error  r is the ratio of absolute error to the true value of the unknown quantity to be
A
measured: r 
A

It is generally expressed in percentage value as % error   r 100

 A
If the absolute error  A is very small or negligible then the relative error may be expressed as  r 
Am
The magnitude of a given quantity having a specified magnitude Am and a maximum or a limiting
error ±δA must have a magnitude between the limits Am   A and Am   A or A  Am   A

Example 1: the measured value of a resistance of 100 Ω has a limiting error of ±0.5Ω. Then the
true value of the resistance is between the limits 100 ± 0.5, i.e., 100.5 and 99.5Ω.

Example 2: A 0 - 150 V voltmeter has a guaranteed accuracy of 1% of full scale reading. The voltage
measured by this instrument is 75 V. Calculate the limiting error in percent.

Solution: The magnitude of limiting error of instrument is

 A  r A
 A  0.01150  1.5

The magnitude of the voltage being measured is75 V, the relative error at this voltage is

 A 1.5
r    0.02
Am 75

The percentage limiting error is: % r  0.02 100  2percent

Errors are categorized in three main types:

- Gross Errors

These errors occur because of mistakes in observed readings, or using instruments and in recording
and calculating measurement results. These errors usually occur because of human mistakes and these
may be of any magnitude and cannot be subjected to mathematical treatment. One common gross
error is frequently committed during improper use of the measuring instrument.

- Systematic errors

These are the errors that remain constant or change according to a definite law on repeated
measurement of the given quantity. There are two types of systematic e errors: Instrumental
errors which are inherent in the measuring instruments and Environmental errors which are introduced
due to using an instrument in different conditions than in which it was assembled and calibrated.

- Random errors

These errors are of variable magnitude and sign and do not maintain any known law. The presence of
random errors becomes evident when different results are obtained on repeated measurements of one
and the same quantity. The effect of random errors is minimized by measuring the given quantity many
times under the same conditions and calculating the arithmetical mean of the results obtained.
 Exercises on chap1 Concept of measurement systems

Exercise 1

1. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of electrical and mechanical measurement systems.

2. Differentiate clearly between absolute and secondary instruments.

3. Explain analog and digital modes of operation. Why are the digital instruments becoming popular
now? What is meant by ADC and DAC?

4. Briefly define and explainall the static characteristics of measuring instruments.

5. What are the different types of errors in a measuring instrument? Describe their source briefly.

6. What are fundamental and derived units?Briefly explain them.

7. What are the differences between primary and secondary standards?

Exercise 2

(a) What is measurement? What is meant by the term measurand? What is a measuring instrument?

(b) What is the necessity of units in measurements? What are various SI units?

(c) Define the terms units, absolute units, fundamental units and derived units with suitable examples.

Exercise 3

1- A 0 – 25 A ammeter has a guaranteed accuracy of 1 percent of full scale reading. The current
measured by this instrument is 10 A. Determine the limiting error in percentage.
2- The measurand value of a resistance is 10.25 Ω, whereas its value is 10.22 Ω. Determine the
absolute error of the measurement.
3- The measured value of a capacitor is 205.3 μF, whereas its true value is 201.4 μF. Determine the
relative error.
4- A wattmeter reads 25.34 watts. The absolute error in the measurement is –0.11 watt. Determine
the true value of power.
Exercise 4

1- A moving coil ammeter has a uniform scale with 50 divisions and gives a full-scale reading
of 5 A. The instrument can read up to V th of a scale division with a fair degree of certainty
Determine the resolution of the instrument in mA.
2- A digital voltmeter bas a read-out range from 0 to 9999 counts. Determine the resolution of
the instrument in volt when the full scale reading is 9.999 V.