MCT-335: Instrumentation and Measurements

Lecture #2

Lecture Notes by

Dr. Ayisha Nayyar

Assistant professor
MCE, UET, LHR.
 Summary of the lecture #1

• Measurement system (Significance)

• History of Measurement
• Electronic Instrument system
• Stages of an Instrumentation system
• Main Components of I & M
• Areas of applications
Synergy between instrumentation and control
Types of Control Loop
Elements of Controlled system
 Categorization of Instruments
• Active and passive instruments
• In passive instruments the output is entirely produced by the quantity being
measured.
• In active instruments the quantity being measured simply modulates the magnitude
of some external power source.
 Categorization of Instruments
• Passive sensor • Active sensor
• Null-type and deflection-type instruments
• Pressure gauge shown in the previous category is an example of deflection-type
instrument.
• Certain manual changes have to be made such that the stimulation of the sensed
quantity is nullified.
Weights are added/
removed until datum is
achieved.
 Categorization of Instruments

• In comparison null-type instruments are more accurate than deflection-

type, but require cumbersome procedure of adding removing weights (as in
this example).
• Deflection-type instruments are more useful on the field as they represent
the measured quantity directly.
• For calibration purposes, null-type instruments are used.
 Analog & Digital Instruments
• Analogue and digital instruments
• An analogue instrument gives an output that varies continuously as the quantity
being measured changes.
• A digital instrument has an output that varies in discrete steps and so can only have a
finite number of values. It works on the principle of quantization. The quantization
is the process of converting the continuous input signal into a countable output
signal.
Example (Digital)
 Categorization of Instruments
• Use of microprocessors/controllers have encouraged the inclusion of digital
sensors.
• Analog sensors can still be used with computers by using A/D converters
but this sometimes seriously damages the integrity of the sensed data and
induces time delays.
• Indicating instruments and instruments with a signal output
• Indicating instruments give an audio or visual indication of the magnitude of the
physical quantity measured.
• Instruments with signal output give an output in the form of a measurement signal
whose magnitude is proportional to the measured quantity.
 Categorization of Instruments
• Indicating instruments normally includes all null-type instruments and
most passive ones.
• They may be analog (liquid-in-glass thermometer) or digital (digital
weighing scale) instruments.
• One major drawback with indicating devices is that human intervention is
required to read and record a measurement.
 Categorization of Instruments
• Instruments that have a signal-type output are commonly used as part of
automatic control systems.
• They can also be found in measurement systems where the output
measurement signal is recorded in some way for later use.
 Categorization of Instruments
• Smart and Non-smart Sensors
• Sensors and instrument packages that are microprocessor driven and include
features such as communication capability and on-board diagnostics that provide
information to a monitoring system and/or operator to increase operational
efficiency and reduce maintenance costs (Tom Griffiths, Product Manager,
Honeywell Industrial Measurement).
 Categorization of Instruments
• At a minimum, a smart sensor is
made of a sensor, a microprocessor
and communication technology of
some kind.
• The computing resources must
be an integral part of the
physical design - a sensor that
just sends its data along for
remote processing is not
considered a smart sensor!!!
 Static Characteristics of Instruments
• Characteristics related to the output of the instrument when the output has
settled to a certain steady-state value
• A thermometer having ± 0.5oC variation would suffice in a room
environment but not for monitoring some chemical reaction!!!
• When choosing an instrument certain considerations should be made:
• Accuracy
• Sensitivity
• Linearity
• Reaction to ambient temperature changes
• Etc.
 Static Characteristics of Instruments
1. Accuracy (measurement uncertainty)
• Measure of how close the output reading of the instrument is to the correct value.
• Instead of accuracy, usually inaccuracy is quoted.
• For example, a pressure gauge of range 0–10 bar has a quoted inaccuracy of ± 1%
f.s. (± 1% of full-scale reading), then the maximum error to be expected in any
reading is 0.1 bar.
• What will be the percentage error if the same pressure gauge is reading a pressure
of 1 bar? If we were measuring pressures with expected values between 0 and 1
bar, we would not use an instrument with a range of 0–10 bar.
 Static Characteristics of Instruments
2. Tolerance
The maximum error that is to be expected
in some value

• Sometimes the accuracy of

instruments is quoted as a tolerance
figure
• However correct use of tolerance is to
describes the maximum deviation of
a manufactured component from
some specified value.
 Static Characteristics of Instruments
3. Precision (repeatability/reproducibility)

• An instrument’s degree of freedom from random errors

• Accuracy is completely different characteristic than precision!!!
• Low accuracy measurements from a high precision instrument are normally
caused by a bias in the measurements, which is removable by recalibration.
 Static Characteristics of Instruments

• Precision (repeatability/reproducibility)
• Repeatability and reproducibility are alternative ways to express precision.
• Repeatability: The spread of output values for the same input being applied
in constant conditions.
• Reproducibility: The spread of output values for the same input being
applied in varying conditions.
4. Range & Span
Mind openers (Problems)
 Mind openers (Problems)
Example 2: A pressure gauge with a range between 0 - 10 bar is found to have an error of ± 0.15 bar when
calibrated by the manufacturer. Calculate :
a. The error percentage of the gauge.
b. The error percentage when the reading obtained is 2.0 bar.

Example 3: Two pressure gauges (pressure gauge A and B) have a full scale accuracy of ± 5%. Sensor A has a
range of 0-1 bar and Sensor B 0-10 bar. Which gauge is more suitable to be used if the reading is 0.9 bar?

Example 4: A temperature sensor has a span of 20-250°C. A measurement results in a value of 55°C for the
temperature. Specify the error if the accuracy is (a) ±0.5% FS, (b)±0.75% span, and (c)±0.8% of reading.
What is the possible temperature in each case.
 5. Linearity

• It is normally desirable that the

output reading of an instrument
is linearly proportional to the
quantity being measured

• Non-linearity is usually expressed

as a percentage of full-scale
reading.
 6. Sensitivity of measurement
Measure of the change in
instrument output that occurs
when the quantity being
measured changes by a given
amount.

• For example, a pressure of 2 bar

produces a deflection of 10
degrees in a pressure transducer,
the sensitivity of the instrument is
5 degrees/bar.
6. Sensitivity of measurement
 7. Threshold
• When the reading of an input is increased from zero, the input reading will
reach a certain value before change occurs in the output.
• The minimum limit of the input reading is ‘threshold’.

• If the input to an instrument is gradually increased from zero, the input will
have to reach a certain minimum level before the change in the instrument
output reading is of a large enough magnitude to be detectable
• For example, car’s speedometer normally have a threshold of 15 km/h
• Sometimes absolute value is quoted instead of %age of full-scale readings.
 8. Resolution

• When an instrument is showing a particular output reading, there is a lower

limit on the magnitude of the change in the input that produces an
observable change in the instrument output
• It depends on the divisions of the scale also!!!
• It is the smallest observable change in the output.
• For example, car’s speed can be estimated nearest to 5 km/h by observing
the speedometer.
8. Resolution
 9. Sensitivity to disturbance
• All calibrations and specifications of an instrument are only valid under
controlled conditions of temperature, pressure etc.
• As ambient conditions change, certain static characteristics change, and the
sensitivity to disturbance is a measure of the magnitude of this change.
• Such environmental changes affect
instruments in two main ways,
known as zero drift (bias) and
sensitivity drift.
 9. Sensitivity to disturbance
• Zero drift or bias describes the effect where the zero reading of an
instrument is modified by a change in ambient conditions.
• This induces a constant error over the full
range of measurement, but is mostly
rectifiable through re-calibration.
• Typically zero-drift coefficient related to
all environmental factors are given in the
data sheet.
 9. Sensitivity to disturbance
• Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor drift) defines the amount by
which an instrument’s sensitivity of measurement varies as ambient
conditions change
For easy way of understanding
Sensitivity Drift: It is the zero-drift in
the sensitivity of measurements!!!
10. Hysteresis Effects
• If the input to the instrument
is steadily increased from a
negative value, the output
reading varies in the manner
shown in curve (a).
• If the input variable is then
steadily decreased, the output
varies in the manner shown
in curve (b).
• Hysteresis is commonly
observed in instruments
having springs and/or
electrical coils etc.
 11. Dead Space
• Dead Space
• The range of different input values over which there is no change in output
value.
• Backlash in gears is a typical cause of dead space.
 Interpretation

• Explains the behavior system of

instruments system when the input
signal is changed.
• Depends on a few standard input
signals such as ‘step input’, ‘ramp
input’ and ‘sine-wave input’.
Interpretation
Interpretation
 Interpretation
• Behavior between the time a measured quantity changes value and the time
when the instrument output attains a steady value in response
• In any linear, time-invariant measuring system, the following general
relation can be written between input and output for time t > 0:

Where qi is the measured

quantity, q0 is the output
reading, ‘a’ and ‘b’ are
constants
 Interpretation
• We will consider only special cases that encompasses almost all types of
instruments. So we will work with simplified version of the equation shown
in the last slide.
• Zero-Order Instrument
• Suppose that only step changes in the input are allowed, then all b’s except b0 will
become zero.
• Also suppose all a’s are zero except a0.

• K = sensitivity of measurement = b0/a0

 Interpretation

• Any system behaving in this

fashion is called zero-order system.
• Output immediately moves to its
final value when input is
applied/changed.
• Potentiometer is a good example
of such a system.
First-Order Instruments
Example:
• The liquid-in-glass thermometer is a
good example of a first order instrument.
• It is well known that, if a thermometer at
room temperature is plunged into
boiling water, the liquid column does not
rise instantaneously to a level indicating
100°C, but instead approaches a reading
indicating 100°C in a manner similar to
that shown in the figure on the previous
slide.
• A large number of instruments belong
to this first-order class.
• This time lag must be carefully dealt
with in context of control systems.
Second-Order Instruments
Second-Order Instruments
 Necessity of calibration
• An instrument only conforms to stated static and dynamic patterns of
behaviour after it has been calibrated
• During use, however, its behaviour will gradually diverge from the stated
specification for a variety of reasons.
• Hence it will be necessary to recalibrate the instrument to the standard
specifications
• Such calibration requires adjustment of each output value so that it matches
the output of another (safely kept) instrument whose specifications are
accurately known.
 References
• Measurement and Instrumentation Principles,
3rd Edition, by Alan S Morris
• Chapter 2 (Section 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 & 2.4)

And some MORE……………