Introduction to Electrical
measurement and Instrumentation
ECEG-4153
CHAPTER ONE
General principle of
Instrumentation
Measurement & Instrumentation
Measurement: It is the process of gathering
information from the physical world
Instrumentation: It is the collection of
instruments or functions or their applications
for the purpose of measuring, monitoring and
controlling
- it is science that deals about measurement
and control
System of Units and Standards
System of units
Fundamental(basic) SI units
Derived SI units
System of Units
Standards of Measurement
Standards: A standard of a measurement is
a physical representation of a unit of
measurement.
Standards of measurement
Standards of measurements can be classified
according to their function and type of
application as:
1.International standards
2.Primary standard
3.Secondary standard
4.Working standard
International standards
These standards are defined and maintained by
the international agreement at the international
bureau
For example, the International Prototype
kilogram, wavelength of Kr86 orange-red lamp
and cesium clock are the international standards
for mass, length and time, respectively.
However, these standards are not available to an
ordinary user for purposes of day-to-day
comparisons and calibrations.
Primary standards
Primary standards are maintained by the
national standards of laboratories in different
parts of the world
One of the main functions of maintaining
primary standards is to calibrate / check and
certify secondary reference standards.
These standards also are not easily available
to an ordinary user of instruments for
verification / calibration of working
standards.
Secondary standards
Secondary standards are basic reference
standards employed by industrial
measurement laboratories.
secondary standards are checked by primary
standards of the national standards laboratory
/ organization.
Secondary standards are freely available to
the ordinary user of instruments for checking
and calibration of working standards.
Working Standards
These are high-accuracy devices that are
commercially available and are duly checked
and certified against either the primary or
secondary standards.
For example, the most widely used industrial
working standard of length are the precision
gauge blocks made of steel. These gauge
blocks have two plane parallel surfaces a
specified distance apart, with accuracy
tolerances in the 0.25-0.5 micron range.
Working Standards
Similarly, a standard cell and a standard
resistor are the working standards of
voltage and resistance, respectively.
Working standards are very widely used
for calibrating general laboratory
instruments, for carrying out comparison
measurements or for checking the quality
(range of accuracy) of industrial products.
Functional blocks
of a measurement system
Functional blocks of a measurement system
Elements of Measurement
System
Input: it is a physical quantity or
phenomena which is under interest to be
measured
Examples: temperature, flow, speed, etc
Sensing element: it detects the change in
input
Example: temperature sensor, flow sensor,
speed sensor, etc
Sensing elements
Signal conditioning element
and interfacing circuits
signal conditioning element is used to
condition the output of sensing element in to
a convenient form, so that it can be further
processed or presented
Example: deflection bridges, Amplifiers,
Filters, Oscillator, etc
signal conversion elements: these convert
one form of signal to different form.
Examples: V/I,I/V,V/F,F/V
Interfacing and
Signal Processing Circuits
Interfacing circuits: are used to interface
two or more electrical units having different
electrical inputs
Examples: (DAC/ADC)
Signal processing circuits: these takes the
outputs of the signal conditioning elements
and make more comfortable to the data
presenting unit
Examples: Digital signal processing,
microprocessor, etc
Data/output presenting elements
This presents the measured quantity to the
observer and the data can be presented
numerically, graphically or simply recorded
Examples:
pointers (deflection pointers)
Digital indicators using displays (LCD, LED)
cathode ray oscilloscopes(CRO)
Recording variation of signal as function of
time
Examples of measurement system
Performance Characteristics
Static Characteristics
Dynamic Characteristics
– Time response
– Frequency response
General Models
– Static models and dynamic models
– Noise and interference in instrumentation
systems
Static characteristics
It is the relationship between the output and the
input when the input does not change(constant) or it
is changing at a slow rate
It is the steady state response of sensors or
transducers
Static characteristics
Systematic Statistic
quantified by mathematical or graphical analyzed by statistical means
Systematic characteristics
Examples systematic characteristics are:
Range
Span
Sensitivity
Threshold, Resolution, Hysteresis,
Linearity
input impedance or loading effect
Environmental effects
Definitions
Range : it is the maximum or the
minimum rating of the instrument. It can be
input or output value
Span: is the interval of the output/input
range of a measuring device
it is also the maximum variation of the
input or the output of the instrument
Sensitivity: it is the rate of change in
output to the rate of change in input. It is
also known as the gain
Definitions
Threshold: Threshold is defined as the
minimum value of the input that can be
detected by the sensing element
Resolution: The smallest change in
measured quantity that can be observed
Hysteresis : the delay phenomenon in the
output due to energy dissipation
The actual output is either smaller or greater
than the theoretical output depending on
increasing or decreasing of the input
Definitions
Dead Space: it is defined as the range of
different input values over which there is no
change in output value(no output response).
Any instrument that exhibits hysteresis also
displays dead Space
Backlash in gears is a typical cause of dead
space
Definitions
Linearity: it is an ideal relationship
between the input and the outputs.
Often it is described in terms of
percentage of non-linearity
Non-linearity: is a measure of the
deviation of the actual transducer response
from the ideal straight line behavior
Definitions
Input impedance /loading effect: A
transducer used in any measurement may
normally extract some energy from the
measuring medium, there by disturbing the
value of the measured quantity. This effect is
called as loading effect.
Environmental effects: are external
influences that causes additional non ideal
characteristics to the sensor outputs
Environmental Effects
There are two types of environment input :
Modifying input: are undesired
parameters that affect the output of the
instrument by changing the I/O relations
Interfering input: are parameters that
unintentionally affect the instrument due to
the principles/methods used to get and
process the desired input
Definitions
Sensitivity to disturbance: All calibrations
and specifications of an instrument are only
valid under controlled conditions of
temperature, pressure etc
Environmental changes affect instruments
in two main ways, known as zero drift and
sensitivity drift
Definitions
Zero drift or bias describes the effect where
the zero reading of an instrument is
modified by a change in ambient conditions.
This causes a constant error that exists
over the full range of measurement of the
instrument
Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor
drift) defines the amount by which an
instrument’s sensitivity of measurement varies
as ambient conditions change
Statistic Characteristics
Examples statistic characteristics are:
Accuracy
precision
describing precision of measurements
To describe precision of measurements
mathematically a number of repeated
measurements should be taken
Describing accuracy of measurements
Most often accuracy of measurements are
described in terms of relative accuracy. That is
Accuracy also can be described as percentage
% accuracy = 100% - % error
Statistical Analysis
Arithmetic mean
Deviation from mean
Average deviation
Standard deviation
Errors in measurements
Error: it is the deviation of the true value
from the desired value
Errors may be expressed either as absolute
or percentage of error
Absolute error = true value –
measured value
Errors in measurements
Types of measurement errors:
(a)Gross error:
(b)Systematic errors:
Instruments errors:
Environmental errors:
Observational errors:
(c) Random errors:
(d) Limiting error:
Types of measurement errors
(a)Gross error: This error is:
Due to human mistakes in reading or
using instrument
Due to incorrect adjustment of
instruments
And computational mistakes
Due to improper use of an instrument
can not be treated mathematically
We can minimize, but can’t eliminate
them
Types of measurement errors
(b)Systematic errors: These errors occur
due to short coming of instruments, such as
defective, worn parts or ageing of the
instrument. They are of three types:
Instruments errors:
Environmental errors:
Observational errors:
Types of systematic errors
Instruments errors: are inherent in
measuring instruments because of their
mechanical structure
They can be avoided by:
Selecting suitable instrument for
particular measurement application
Applying correction factors after knowing
amount of instrumental error
Calibrating the instrument against a
standard
Types of systematic errors
Environmental errors: these errors are due
to conditions external to the measuring device
such as : Effect of change in temperature,
humidity, barometric pressure, magnetic or
electrostatic field
Can be avoided by
Air conditioning
Magnetic shielding, etc
Types of systematic errors
Observational errors: are errors introduced
by the observer
Example: parallax error introduced in
reading a meter scale and the error of
estimation when obtaining a reading from a
meter scale
Systematic errors can also be classified as:
static errors and
dynamic errors
Types of measurement errors
(c) random errors: these are errors that
remain after gross and systematic errors have
been substantially reduced
These errors are due to unknown causes
and hence they can be analyzed statistically
(d)limiting error: most manufacturers of
measuring instruments specify accuracy
within a certain % of full scale reading this
specification is called a limiting error
Dynamic Characteristics
The dynamic characteristic of a transducer
refers to the performance of the transducer
when it is subjected to time varying input
The general differential equation describing
the dynamic behavior is given by
Dynamic Characteristics
According to the value of n, transducers are
categorized as:
Zero order(n=zero)
First order(n= one)
Second order(n=two)
Higher order(n> two)
Response of transducers
(1) Time response of transducers
Zero order instruments
Response of transducers
First order instruments
Response of transducers
Second order instruments
Second order instruments
Second order instruments
Frequency response of transducers
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