UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND MINING ENGINEERING

CP499: FOURTH YEAR FINAL PROJECT

TITLE: DEVELOPMENT OF A SIMPLIFIED DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

FOR CME LABORATORY.

NAME OF STUDENT: MARO, ROLLAND D.

REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2013-04-01965.

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2016/2017.

DEGREE PROGRAMME: BSc. CHEMICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING

NAME OF SUPERVISOR: DR. RAPHAEL ISINGO.

SUBMISSIONS DATE: 04thJULY 2017

SIGNATURE:

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 DECLARATION
I, MARO,ROLLAND D, declare that this report is my own original work being a full description
of the fourth year project that I conducted as a partial fulfillment of the requirement of Bachelor
degree in Chemical and Processing Engineering at College of Engineering and Technology
in University of Dar Es Salaam and it has not been and will not be presented to any University
for award of a degree.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to JEHOVAH for good health, strength and the
ability to do this project.

A special gratitude goes to my supervisor Dr. R Isingo for his guidance and contribution in
stimulating suggestions which helped me especially during writing this report.

I would like to thank the laboratory technician Mr. Mwakasege for assistance for providing
information which is essential for this project.

Last appreciation goes to the department of Chemical and Mining Engineering and all my fellow
students for the encouragement and all the help they gave me, their opinions and suggestions are
worth noting.

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 ABSTRACT
Laboratory training is an important part of every program from the CME department. But the
equipment at the CME laboratory are old and can’t cope with the current technology. Therefore
this project focuses in improving methods of data collection by introducing a simplified data
acquisition system for collecting data form lab experiments.

In this project a choice of two experiments from the laboratory is made and a simple system is
developed according to required measurements. The developed system is to measure flow rate,
temperature and mass.

The report consist of five main parts: introduction which also consist of problem statement and
objectives, literature review, methodology, development of the system and experimentation.

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Contents  
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................ ii  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iii  

ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................... iv  

ABBREVIATION........................................................................................................................... 1  

1.0   INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 2  

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO CME LABORATORY. ................................................................... 2  

Current condition at CME lab ..................................................................................................... 2  

1.2 DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM ........................................................................................ 2  

1.2.1 DAQ SOFTWARE ........................................................................................................ 3  

1.2.2 DAQ HARDWARE ....................................................................................................... 3  

1.2.3 SENSORS ...................................................................................................................... 3  

1.2.4 SIGNAL CONDITIONING........................................................................................... 4  

1.2.5 DATA TRANSMISSION .............................................................................................. 4  

1.2.6 DATA STORAGE ......................................................................................................... 4  

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT ................................................................................................... 5  

1.4 MAIN OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................... 5  

1.5 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................... 5  

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT .................................................................................. 6  

2.0   LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................... 7  

2.2 THE SCOPE OF THIS PROJECT ..................................................................................... 10  

3.0 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................. 10  

3.1   INVESTIGATION OF BRIQUETTES ......................................................................... 11  

3.3 DRYING ............................................................................................................................. 12  

3.3.1 REQUIREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS. ............................................................... 12  

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 3.3.2 DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM ............................................................................... 12  

3.3.3 EXPERIMENTATION ................................................................................................ 12  

3.3.4 CALIBRATION .......................................................................................................... 13  

3.4   ERROR ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 13  

4.0   DAQ SYSTEM COMPONENTS ...................................................................................... 14  

4.1   SENSORS ...................................................................................................................... 14  

4.2   SIGNAL CONDITIONING ........................................................................................... 15  

4.3   DATA TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE ................................................................. 15  

5.0   DAQ SYTEM INTEGRATION ........................................................................................ 16  

5.1   Specifications of the system ........................................................................................... 17  

5.2   Operation of the system.................................................................................................. 17  

6.0   LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS.................................................................................... 18  

6.1   CALIBRATION OF THE EQUIPMENT ...................................................................... 18  

6.1.1   Temperature calibration .......................................................................................... 18  

6.1.2   Weight Sensor calibration ....................................................................................... 19  

6.2   INVESTIGATION OF BRIQUETTES ......................................................................... 20  

6.2.1   First briquettes samples........................................................................................... 20  

6.2.2   Second briquette samples ........................................................................................ 21  

6.3   DRYING EXPERIMENT .............................................................................................. 22  

6.3.1   Rectangular object drying ....................................................................................... 22  

6.3.2   Cubic object drying. ................................................................................................ 23  

7.0   DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................... 24  

7.1   Recalibration of temperature sensor ........................................................................... 24  

7.2   Sensitivity of weigh scale ........................................................................................... 25  

8.0   CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 26  

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 8.1   RECOMMENDATION ................................................................................................. 26  

References ..................................................................................................................................... 27  

APPENDIX A: DAQ system details............................................................................................. 28  

APPENDIX B: Experimentation raw data. ................................................................................... 29  

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: General setup of data acquisition system. ....................................................................... 9  

Figure 2: Drying experiment setup. .............................................................................................. 12  
Figure 3: Integration of daq components. ..................................................................................... 16  
Figure 4: A complete daq system hardware. ................................................................................. 17  
Figure 5: Fire, Water and room temperature for Mkombozi briquette sample ............................. 21  
Figure 6: Fire, Water and room temperature for Siga Enterprises briquettes. .............................. 21  
Figure 9: Drying experiment ......................................................................................................... 22  
Figure 10: The drying curve of rectangular object. ...................................................................... 22  
Figure 11: The drying curve of rectangular object. ...................................................................... 23  
Figure 7: Daq system versus the industrial thermocouple. ........................................................... 24  
Figure 8: The relationship of the variation of the two thermocouple used. .................................. 25  
Figure 12: A detailed integration of daq components ................................................................... 28  
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Measurement summary table. ......................................................................................... 10  

Table 2: Fire, Water and room temperature for Mkombozi briquette sample .............................. 29  
Table 3: Raw drying data for rectangular object .......................................................................... 30  
Table 4: Raw drying data for cubic object .................................................................................... 31  

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 ABBREVIATION

ADC - Analog to digital conversion.

CME - Chemical and Mining Engineering.

C++ - Programming language C plus plus.

DAQ - Data acquisition.

DC - Direct current.

I/O - Input/Output.

STHE - Shell and tube heat exchanger.

VI - Virtual Instrument.

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 1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO CME LABORATORY.

Chemical and Mining Engineering (CME) laboratory provides experience from theoretical
studies by conducting experiments. This experience is essential for students and other research
work. In order to prove a theory behind an experiment, accurate data must be collected from a
controlled experimental conditions. This involves understanding the experiment before carrying
it.

Current condition at CME lab

Equipment for practicing unit operations are available at the CME lab. Unit operations provides
a basic knowledge used in processing industries. But the equipment used in CME lab are old and
therefore can’t keep up with the current industrial technology. Thus the practice made in the lab
doesn’t satisfy the current requirements in experience needed by the industries.

Therefore the laboratory needs improvement of equipment. Data collection is one of the
important part that can be improved, and in this project data acquisition system will be
introduced to the lab. This will upgrade the technology of data collection in the lab.

A computer based data acquisition method will be introduced and incorporated to conduct
experiments in the CME lab. Three experiments from CME lab are used for application of data
acquisition system. These experiments are double pipe heat exchanger, drying and Falling film
Evaporator.

1.2 DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

Data acquisition (DAQ) is the process obtaining signals from sensors measuring real world
physical condition, digitizing the signals for storage, analysis and their presentation (Halvorsen,
2016). Therefore data acquisition system consists of sensors, signal conditioning circuit, DAQ
hardware for processing the signal and a computer with a software for analysis and presentation
of the result.

The analog to digital conversion function is included in the DAQ hardware and therefore there is
no need for another such hardware. Also the DAQ hardware serves as a bridge/ interface

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between sensor and computer because it has data transfer protocol for the computer port system.
Therefore it is an I/O device.

1.2.1 DAQ SOFTWARE

DAQ software is needed to integrate the hardware function with a pc. The different software are
classified due to their functions and specification such as configuring channels, logging and
displaying data.

Also there are programs that are general purpose like as c++, Visual c++ and basic. These
programs requires more programming skills.

Lastly there are programs that targets a certain area of application for example labview and
dasyab focuses on test, measurement, and control functions while matlab focuses on technical
computing and modelling.

(IDC Engineers, 2012).

1.2.2 DAQ HARDWARE

The function of this device is to digitize the incoming analog signals so that the computer can
interpret or store them. At the CME lab these device are currently not available. There are three
basic types of DAQ hardware

1) DAQ devices plugged on computer motherboard.

2) DAQ devices plugged using usb port and the supporting software running on computer
and
3) DAQ devices in which the software is first developed on a computer and later
downloaded to the device.
Usb plugged device will be favoured in this project due to its portability. In order for any of
these devices to be recognised and function, a computer driver for the device is installed
accordingly.

1.2.3 SENSORS
Sensors converts the physical process parameter of interest into a voltage or current that can be
processed by the controller. At the CME laboratory there exists a number of equipment which
have sensors integrated to them. The following are the equipment and their integrated sensors:

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Falling film evaporator; this equipment has sensors integrated for temperature sensing, pressure
and flow rate measurement. The function of this equipment is concentrating of aqueous solution
by vaporizing excess water. During the experiment pressure, temperature, flow rate of feed and
condensing vapour are monitored and their values are collected at different runs.

Heat exchanger; it has temperature sensors and pressure differential flow sensors. In this
experiment overall heat transfer in a double pipe heat exchanger is investigated and the
parameters monitored are steady state temperature and flow rates.

Dryer has thermocouples for temperature measurement. Flow rate of drying air, wet and dry bulb
temperature and weight loss of the drying samples are recorded.

Also there is a pneumatic temperature control in which temperature control sensors are
incorporated and a pneumatic valve is used as a final control element.

1.2.4 SIGNAL CONDITIONING.

This is the process of manipulating an analog signal in a way that prepares it for the next stage of
processing (Lee, 2011). Signal conditioning is grouped in three; filtering, amplifying and
isolating.

In filtering the purpose to remove unwanted noise from the signal, low pass, high pass and band
filter circuits are used in this process. Amplification process involves increasing resolution of a
signal so that it can be better interpreted by increasing signal to noise ratio. And lastly Isolation
is useful when the signal needs to be transmitted without a physical connection. It involves
converting the signal into other forms like frequency.

1.2.5 DATA TRANSMISSION

There are two modes of communication through which a peripheral data acquisition hardware
can interact with a computer. These are serial port connection and parallel port connection. In
serial connection data is sent at one bit at a time while in parallel connection multiple bits of data
can be sent and received simultaneously.

1.2.6 DATA STORAGE

The obtained data can be stored in the computer hard drive or portable devices such as memory
cards; such function is achieved by using a data logger. This is a device that saves data from the

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data acquisition hardware to the inserted memory card in a text file. The text file can later be
exported to excel for further processing.

For further processing programs like labview, matlab and dasylab has an exporting feature in
which data can be exported to excel for further processing and analysing of data.

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

During the laboratory practical trainings plagiarism is a big problem among university students.
Students cheat by doing analysis of experiments using data from a different source and not the
conducted experiment. The presented reports reflects the problem. Most preferred sources are
reports from previous semesters, fellow students and internet. Therefore the objective of these
experiments is not realized as students do not acquire the necessary competence.

Difficulty in collecting accurate data in a controlled conditions is another contributing factor.

Thus mostly the collected data does not describe the investigated process correctly. This problem
is a primary cause of plagiarism. When the collected data doesn’t match the properties of the
investigated system, for the sake of grade students tend to find another source that is reliable and
matches the problem.

Not only at the educational sector but also the industrial sector Human errors causes the process
to run poorly and therefore the quality of products produced by this process are poor and thus are
the revenue obtained from such products.

1.4 MAIN OBJECTIVES

The objective of this project is to develop and a simple data acquisition system to improve data
collection at CME laboratory.

1.5 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

In order to achieve the main purpose the following specific object gives will be addressed.

1) To determine DAQ system components that are reliable.

2) To integrate the components so as to get a working system.
3) Incorporate the system for laboratory experiments measurement and analysis.
4) To compare data errors between physical method and data acquisition system.

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1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
This project exercises a part of data collection and analysis. The information collected from the
system can be used to control a process manually or using another control elements. Also it will
enhance the learning process in laboratory through accurate data collection and reflection of the
real system characteristics as they happen.

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 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
Project title Project details Findings
Real-Time Data Equipment. In this project
Acquisition for Shell and tube heat exchanger system is constructed using the method of
Shell and Tube 32 copper tubes and a carbon steel shell, single pass, tube data acquisition
Heat Exchanger length 750 mm and shell diameter 150mm. using labview
(Paul, Shreesha, Sensors and DAQ hardware. is successfully
& Shinde, Differential Pressure Transmitters, resistance temperature presented.
2015) detector.
What was done in this project.
In this project the process of interfacing Shell and Tube
Heat exchanger (STHE) with a PC through DAQ card is
presented. Data acquisition system consists of analog to
digital converter (ADC), digital to analog converter (DAC)
and a microcontroller. A LabVIEW program has been
developed to run the hardware as well as to capture the data.
LabVIEW platform has been used to produce a graphical
view of the user interface. A serial communication channel
is used to interface the PC with the DAQ card and the
signals from the plant are acquired to the PC. The
STHE VTPA-H-353 is a versatile and reliable computer
based temperature process controller. A graphical program
has been developed for the real time data acquisition from
the experiment using microcontroller based data acquisition
hardware unit.
Proposed Improvement
Improved DAQ hardware with integrated analog to digital
and digital to analog converters should be used to increase
portability of the system.
Instrumentation In this project three experiments using data acquisition are Data
and Data done. The experiments done are: Dc motor drive system, a acquisition

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Acquisition liquid level control system and environmental automation techniques
Projects system. were
by Sophomore- Equipment implemented in
Level EET A DAQ board model 6024E, signal conditioning element all three
Students Model SC-2075 all from national instruments and a desktop projects and
(Colosimo, signal breakout board. Virtual
Kehoe, & Dc motor drive. Instrumentation
Naylor, 2004) Performance evaluation of the DC motor was conducted in programs were
this experiment. The motor was connected to a variable presented.
frequency supply drive to get different torques.
What was done in this project
The lab View plots were obtained and from it can be seen
that for a given load, the relationship between speed drop
and loading is approximately linear and efficiency of the
motor is increasing with increasing load since the no-load
loss is significant for this ¼ hp
motor
Liquid level control system project.
Equipment used for this project were: A submersible pump,
and a level sensor made by a float hooked up to a
potentiometer
DAQ card receives two inputs (flow sensor
output and current sensor output) and provided two
outputs (light indicator and buzzer).
Block diagram

Environmental automation system project

The objective was implement a computer controlled
environmental automation system where by temperature and
lighting inside an enclosed chamber were controlled. This is
applicable in zoo and green houses.

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 Equipment used
Lab View VIs was used for the end user interface, an
amplifier, DAQ card, thermocouples, light sensors, heater.
What was done in this experiment
The DAQ card altogether receives five analog input signals:
two amplified thermocouple signals, two light sensor
signals, and one reference temperature signal

From the projects reviewed the basic setup of can be concluded. The setup includes sensors,
signal conditioning circuit, and a controller. A computer or a data logger can be used for
presentation of the acquired data but most of the reviewed experiments used a computer system.

Figure 1: General setup of data acquisition system.

What will be done

Because of the nature of experiments carried out in the lab an option of using a data logger will
be favored so as to ease the process of commissioning and starting an experiment. Therefore the
use of a computer and a software is not necessary.

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2.2 THE SCOPE OF THIS PROJECT
In this project the DAQ system will be developed within the provided budget. The system will
then be used to perform selected experiments in the laboratory. Process control will not be done
in this project but only acquiring data.

3.0 METHODOLOGY
On this section what will be done in order to achieve the objectives will be presented. This
section is divided in to three experiments that will be performed.

The following table shows the parameters to be measured and the sensors used to measure them.

Table 1: Measurement summary table.

S/N Measurement variable Sensor Range

1 Temperature Thermocouple(K-type) -250°C-1250°C

2 Mass Electronic load cell 0 – 1 Kg

3 Flow rate Hall Effect Flow meter 1 – 30 Litres/min

A controller used is Arduino UNO microcontroller which has 13 digital pins which can be used
as inputs or outputs, 5 analog inputs and 6 analog outputs. The microcontroller is famous for
development project because of its low cost and easy to program.

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3.1 INVESTIGATION OF BRIQUETTES

In this experiment the aim was to investigate the composition of briquettes and determining the
efficiency of stove.

3.1.1 REQUIREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS

The requirements of this experiment is a stove, weighing scale, a pan for boiling water,
thermocouples for measuring temperature and a reference industrial thermocouple.

3.1.2 DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

I-5

S-4

S-2

T
I-4

I-2

E-1
S-1

I-1

S-3

I-3

E-1: Stove and pot

I-1: Fire thermocouple
I-2: Water thermocouple
I-3: Sorrounding temperature
thermocouple
I-4,5: Micro controller, computer

Figure 2: Briquettes investigation experiment setup

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3.3 DRYING
In this experiment relationship between drying rate and moisture content is investigated.
Parameters monitored during the experiment are velocity and temperature of air, weight and
temperature of sample.

3.3.1 REQUIREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTS.

The temperature sensors used in this experiment are thermocouples, therefore the signal
conditioning is the same as in heat exchanger, anemometer for air velocity and electronic scale
for weight measurement.

3.3.2 DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

The following is the block diagram for the system.
S-3
S-2

T W
P-1 P-2
I-2 I-1 anemometer
S-1 S-4
I-2 thermocouple
E-2
I-4 I-5 I-4 data acquisition
I-1 S-5 hardware
I-5 computer
E-1 I-6 data logger.
I-6
P-12 Electronic
balance

Figure 3: Drying experiment setup.

3.3.3 EXPERIMENTATION
The procedures for obtaining data are as follows: (Raphael L, 1992)

1. The sample is initially weighed while dry and when soaked.

2. At a certain air velocity, weight and temperature of the sample is recorded at equal
intervals of time in the range of 5-10 minutes.
3. The acquired data is logged into the data logger or computer for analysis.

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3.3.4 CALIBRATION
The process of establishing mapping a scale in temperature measurement is done in the heat
exchanger experiment. The calibration of a weighing digital scale is done using standard mass
whose weight value is known.

The following table shows the summary of all variables that will be measured for all
experiments, their corresponding measurement sensors and their range of measurement.

3.4 ERROR ANALYSIS

To determine the best method of data collection between the physical method and the data
acquisition system error analysis must be done.

The experiments will be done with four replications and ANOVA will be used to analyse the
errors. The sum of square from the Anova table shows the total variation that is caused by
variation of factors. The software that will be used for error analysis is Minitab version 17.

In the double pipe heat exchanger the varying factor is flow rate of cold and hot streams and the
observed response is temperatures. Several runs for the experiments will be done in order to get
the replication.

In the falling film evaporator the varying factor is temperature of feed and the response is flow
rate of concentrate.

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 4.0 DAQ SYSTEM COMPONENTS

4.1 SENSORS

The following are the sensors that are used in the daq system
Sensor Specification Image
Temperature It is a K type thermocouple with a Chromel
thermocouple.
{90% nickel and 10% chromium} Alumel {95%
nickel, 2% manganese, 2% aluminium and 1%
silicon} junction.

It is has a temperature range of 0 to 800°C. It

resistive to oxidation at higher temperatures but
vulnerable to sulphur attacks.

Weighing The load cell used has two strain gauges. Strain
Load cell
(a planar resistor) deforms/stretches/contracts
when the material of the load cells deforms
appropriately. The limit for the strain gauge used
is 5 Kg.
Exceeding this limit will cause the load cell to
deform permanently
Flow sensor
Hall effect flow The hall-effect flow sensor outputs
meter approximately 4.5 pulses per second per
litre/minute of flow.

The pulses increases with an increase in the flow

rate and the maximum flow rate is 30 L/min.

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4.2 SIGNAL CONDITIONING

Conditioning Description Image

circuitry
Thermocouple The MAX6675 performs cold-junction
MAX6675
compensation and digitizes the signal from a
type-K thermocouple. The data is output in a 12-
bit resolution.
It resolves temperatures to 0.25°C, allows
readings as high as +1024°C. The chip can alos
detect an open thermocouple.
Load cell By connecting the amplifier to the
HX711
microcontroller the changes in the resistance of
the load cell can be read, and with some
calibration very accurate weight measurements
are obtained.

4.3 DATA TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE

Device Description Image
Shift register This device is used to convert a parallel input to
CD4021BE
a serial output and thus it enables use of less
input pins in the micro controller.
It a 8 bit static shift register and therefore
converts 8 parallel input to serial transfer.
Micro Controller
Arduino Uno The microcontroller is used to link all
components, get the digital data from all ADCs,
process them and store them in the memory
card.
It also distributes power to all of the sensors

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Micro SD memory The communication between the
card shield module.
microcontroller and the SD card uses SPI. The
functions of the module is:
Formatting and preparing the memory card.
File naming.
Opening and closing files

5.0 DAQ SYTEM INTEGRATION

The integration of the system is done using the above chosen parts. Integration is done first using
simulation by Proteus Isis design suite for configuring the arrangement of electronic components
and developing a program that will be used for the device. The following block diagram shows
the general method used in the integration of the daq system.

A more detailed drawing showing how to connect the components is shown in the appendix
under

Figure 4: Integration of daq components.

Temperature
ADC

Temperature
SD card Micro ADC
Register

module controller
Temperature
ADC

Temperature
ADC

Weight Flow sensor

ADC

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The detailed integration of the components and program used is shown in the appendices 2.
The complete device is shown in the following pictures.

8
4
3
5
9
7 6
1 2

Figure 5: A complete daq system hardware.

5.1 Specifications of the system

• The system has 2 buttons a reset button denoted by number 1 on the image and a
start/stop button (6).
• The device can be powered in three ways: first is through a usb cable (2), second is
through a 9Volts dc battery, and lastly is through a 6 to 12 volts adapter (3).
• The system has 4 temperature channels but can be expended to 8 channels (there are free
slots for temperature ADC inside on number 9).
• The minimum time between sampling of data is 4 seconds.
• The device will tear the weighing scale each time it is stopped, reset or powered up.
• The tearing scale has an ability to accommodate a 3 bridge load cell which is more
accurate.
• The can only accommodate type K thermocouple and has an ability to measure
temperature at scale of 0 t0 1024°C.

5.2 Operation of the system

• A memory card is inserted into a memory card slot denoted by number 4 before starting
the device.
• Power is then turned on using a switch denoted by number 8.

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 • After 5 seconds a led indicator should turn on showing the device is initialized correctly
and every component is connected ready to start sampling.
• To start taking data button number 6 is pressed briefly and once. Th led indicator will
start to pulsing showing data is taken. The time between pulses is the rate of sampling.
• To stop taking data the same button is again pressed once.

6.0 LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

6.1 CALIBRATION OF THE EQUIPMENT

Parameters that are calibrated in the daq system are temperature and weight. The flow sensor has
a pre calibrated library and therefore doesn’t need calibration.

6.1.1 Temperature calibration

The process of calibrating the thermocouple (type K) sensor was done using a liquid in glass
thermometer with a range of 0 to 200°C. A linear curve is fitted to the data to obtain the best
approximation as shown in the figure below.

250  

y  =  0.2493x  
200  
R²  =  0.99627  
Thermometer  reading  °C  

150  

100  

50  

0  
0   100   200   300   400   500   600   700   800   900  
Instrument  reading    

Thus the calibrating equation used to convert the instrument value to approximate temperature is
T ℃ = 0.2493x    where  x = instrument  reading.

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6.1.2 Weight Sensor calibration

The calibration of weight scale is done using 4 standard masses: 100 g, 200g, 500g and 1000g. A
linear curve is fitted to the data to obtain the best approximation as shown in the figure below.

1200  

1000   y  =  0.3245x  -­‐  29,615.8707  

800  
Mass  (grams)  

600  

400  

200  

0  
91000   91500   92000   92500   93000   93500   94000   94500  
Raw  instrument  reading  

Thus the calibrating equation used to convert the instrument value to approximate temperature is
Mass(g) = 0.3245x − 29615.8707  where  x = instrument  reading.

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6.2 INVESTIGATION OF BRIQUETTES

The investigation of briquettes is done by starting with a fixed amount of water 2 litre. Burning
was done until all briquettes was converted into ashes. The following graphs represents the
burning of briquettes.

6.2.1 First briquettes samples

This briquette sample was from Mkombozi. The highest temperature obtained here was 700°C
for fire temperature.

800  

700  
Temperature  (CenJgrade)  

600  

500  

400  

300  

200  

100  

0  
0   20   40   60   80   100   120   140   160  
Time  (mins)  
day  1  fire  temperature   waater  temp   sorrounding  temperature  

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 Figure 6: Fire, Water and room temperature for Mkombozi briquette sample

6.2.2 Second briquette samples

This briquette sample was from Siga. The highest temperature obtained here was 575°C for fire
temperature.

600  
Temperature (centigrade)

500  

400  

300  

200  

100  

0  
0   50   100   150   200   250   300  
Time  (mins)  
heaJng  data  day  2   water  temperature   sorrounding  temperature  

Figure 7: Fire, Water and room temperature for Siga Enterprises briquettes.

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6.3 DRYING EXPERIMENT

Figure 8: Drying experiment

In the drying experiment the variables that were measured were dry and wet bulb temperature of
the income air, temperature of outgoing air and weight of the dried solid.

6.3.1 Rectangular object drying

105  

95  

85  
Moisture  content  %  

75  

65  

55  

45  

35  

25  
0.00   5.00   10.00   15.00   20.00   25.00   30.00   35.00  
Time  (minutes)  

Figure 9: The drying curve of rectangular object.

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6.3.2 Cubic object drying.

29  

27  
Moisture  content  %  

25  

23  

21  

19  

17  
0.00   5.00   10.00   15.00   20.00   25.00   30.00   35.00  
Time  (mins)  

Figure 10: The drying curve of rectangular object.

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 7.0 DISCUSSION
Temperature sensors shows a deviation at higher temperature which decreases when the
temperature is low. Therefore a correction factor was to be added.

7.1 Recalibration of temperature sensor

A briquette investigation was done by using the daq system and an industrial grade daq
hardware. The purpose of this experiment was to compare the reading of the device and that of
the industrial thermocouple. The following graph shows the trend of the two thermocouples; the
red line shows industrial thermocouple and the blue line shows the daq device.

1000  
900  
800  
700  
600  
500  
400  
300  
200  
100  
0  
0   50   100   150   200   250  

Figure 11: Daq system versus the industrial thermocouple.

The following diagram shows the relationship between the two temperatures. The obtained
equation can be used to recalibrate the temperature by adding a correction factor at higher
temperatures.

From the figure below the equation obtained is

y  =  3E-­‐10x5  -­‐  8E-­‐07x4  +  0.0007x3  -­‐  0.002435x2  +  1.023x  

Substituting the calibrated equation without the correction factor 𝑦 = 0.2493  𝑥

𝑦 = 7.5  𝑥  10!! 𝑥 ! − 2𝑥10!! 𝑥 ! + 0.000175𝑥 ! − 0.002435𝑥 ! + 0.25𝑥

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Where y =temperature in °C and X is the instrument reading

1200  
y  =  3E-­‐10x5  -­‐  8E-­‐07x4  +  0.0007x3  -­‐  0.002435x2  +  1.023x    
1000  

800  

600  

400  

200  

0  
0   100   200   300   400   500   600   700   800  

Figure 12: The relationship of the variation of the two thermocouple used.
7.2 Sensitivity of weigh scale

The weighing scale has shown a high variation during weight measuring. The variation can be
caused by the following factors:

• Variation of the voltage on the power source causing electrical noises.

• Air disturbances.
In order to reduce the sensitivity of the sensor an average of ten readings is taken. This has a
disadvantage of delaying the response of the sensor but the reading becomes more stable.

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 8.0 CONCLUSION
The main objective of this project was successfully fulfilled. This report has covered all the
important steps that were done during the development, construction and testing of the data
acquisition device. The system developed has an ability to measure 4 temperature channels, 1
weight measurement and 1 flow rate.

Information obtained in this part can be used in improving the system if needed.

8.1 RECOMMENDATION

A more sophisticated daq device should be developed that has more functionalities like display
and more sensing elements. The deficiency of tools in the CME laboratory can be solved by
making our own instruments and in turn our technology and skills grows.

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References
Colosimo, M., Kehoe, G., & Naylor, B. (2004). Instrumentation and Data Acquisition Projects
by Sophomore-Level EET Students. Pennsylvania: American Society for Engineering
Education .
Halvorsen, H. P. (2016). Data Acquisition in LabView. Norway: University College of Southeast
Norway.
Lee, M. J. (2011). Signal Conditioning Circuit Design. Michigan: Michigan State University .
Paul, R., Shreesha, D., & Shinde, S. (2015). Real-Time Data Acquisition Using LabVIEW for
Shell and Tube . Singapore: ICFCT.
Raphael L, M. (1992). Chemical and Process Engineering Laboratory Manual. Dar Es Salaam:
University Of Dar Es Salaam.

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