Lecture Notes

Lecture 9
Force measurements
Force is a quantity capable of changing the size, shape, or motion of an object. It is a vector
quantity and, as such, it has both direction and magnitude. In the SI system, the magnitude of a
force is measured in units called Newton’s and in pounds in the British/American system. If a
body is in motion, the energy of that motion can be quantified as the momentum of the object,
the product of its mass and its velocity. If a body is free to move, the action of a force will
change the velocity of the body. 

Force with magnitude

A force measurement system is made up of a transducer and associated instrumentation. The
transducer is subjected to the force to be measured, and some resultant change in the element is
measured by the associated instrumentation. The instrumentation may power the transducer in
some way and also may process the output from the transducer before it is shown on an indicator
to be read by the user. Strictly a transducer is a device that receives a physical stimulus and
changes it into another measurable physical quantity through a known relationship. In practice a
force transducer is a chain of several transducers

Eg: Elastic transducer

 The fundamental nature of elastic devices is illustrated opposite where, in
this case, the elastic element is a circular cylinder made of a metal such as steel. The force is
applied to the end of the cylinder and the deformation is measured as the difference between the
uncompressed and compressed length. The cylinder also expands outwards as it is compressed,
the ratio of outward expansion to longitudinal compression being determined by the nature of the
material (through Poisson's ratio). The force may also be applied such that the device is in
tension, rather than compression, and in that case the distortion is simply reversed.
All elastic devices share this common basis, but the method of measuring the
distortion of the elastic element varies considerably. The most frequent method is to make
measurements of the longitudinal and lateral strain, and when this is undertaken by electrical
resistance strain gauges such a transducer is known as a strain gauge load cell.

Piezoelectric transducer
The Piezoelectric transducer is an electro acoustic transducer use for conversion of pressure or
mechanical stress into an alternating electrical force. It is used for measuring the physical
quantity like force, pressure, stress, etc. which is directly not possible to measure.

The piezo transducer converts the physical quantity into an electrical voltage which is easily
measured by analogue and digital meter.

The piezoelectric transducer uses the piezoelectric material which has a special property, i.e. the
material induces voltage when the pressure or stress applied to it. The material which shows such
property is known as the electro-resistive element
The force is a Point of Application

The point of application is the exact location at which a force is applied to a body.
This point is usually described by a set of coordinates and is represented graphically by the tip of
the arrowhead. The point of application is unique to each force. The point and the force cannot
move. If several forces of equal magnitude are present in a given situation, the forces are unique
based open the point of application, the line of action and their sense. It can happen that forces of
equal magnitude share the same point of application, in this case, the line of action and sense
determine their uniqueness.

The Basics of Torque Measurement

Torque can be divided into two major categories, either static or dynamic.
The methods used to measure torque can be further divided into two more categories, either
reaction or in-line. Understanding the type of torque to be measured, as well as the different
types of torque sensors that are available, will have a profound impact on the accuracy of the
resulting data, as well as the cost of the measurement.
Lecture 10
The Measurement System

Normally, the strains determined with strain gauges are very small. The change in resistance is
also minimal and direct measurement is not possible.
The strain gage must be included in a measurement system where accurate determination of the
strain gage's change of resistance is possible.
The components include a strain gauge, which converts mechanical strain into a change in
electrical resistance and a measuring circuit that is shown as the Wheatstone bridge having the
strain gage as one arm.
Both the measuring circuit and the strain gauge are passive components. When the strain gage's
resistance changes due to a strain, the bridge circuit loses its symmetry and loses its balance. A
bridge output voltage is obtained which is proportional to the bridge's unbalance.

Manometer
One of the earliest pressure measuring instruments is still in wide use today because of its
inherent accuracy and simplicity of operation. It's the U-tube manometer, which is a U-shaped
glass tube partially filled with liquid. This manometer has no moving parts and requires no

calibration. If the manometer is connected to same pressure source (P1

= P2) the level of the manometer will be same
 As seen in the figure, the U-shaped tube filled with liquid
measures the differential pressure, i.e, the difference in levels 'h' between the two limbs gives the
pressure difference (p1 - p2) between them. When pressure is applied at limb 1, the fluid recedes
in limb 1, and its level rises in limb 2. This rise continues till a balance is struck between the unit
weight of fluid and the pressure applied. If the pressure applied at one opening; say limb 1 of the
U-tube, is atmospheric pressure, the difference gives the gauge pressure at limb 2.

h = (p1 - p2) ρ g

where, ρ = density of the liquid used in manometer

Hence, ρg = specific weight of the liquid

Laminar Flow:
The flow of a fluid when each particle of the fluid follows a smooth path, paths which
never interfere with one another. One result of laminar flow is that the velocity of the fluid is
constant at any point in the fluid.

Turbulent Flow:

Irregular flow that is characterized by tiny whirlpool regions. The velocity of this
fluid is definitely not constant at every point
Electrical transducers
An electrical transducer is a device which is capable of converting the physical
quantity into a proportional electrical quantity such as voltage or electric current. Hence it
converts any quantity to be measured into usable electrical signal. This physical quantity which
is to be measured can be pressure, level, temperature, displacement etc. The output which is
obtained from the transducer is in the electrical form and is equivalent to the measured quantity.
For example, a temperature transducer will convert temperature to an equivalent electrical
potential. This output signal can be used to control the physical quantity or display it.

Sound measurements
A sound unit is any acoustic unit of sound measurement.

 dB, decibel - noise of sound measurement is called decibels (dB). Ratio of the sound
pressure to reference pressure to something.
 Sone - a unit of perceived loudness equal to the loudness of a 1000-hertz tone at 40 dB
above threshold, starting with 1 sone.
 Phon - a unit of subjective loudness.
 Hz, hertz = unit of sound frequency is called hertz (Hz)
Condenser Microphone
Condenser means capacitor, an electronic component which stores energy in the form of
an electrostatic field. The term condenser is actually obsolete but has stuck as the name for this
type of microphone, which uses a capacitor to convert acoustical energy into electrical energy.

Condenser microphones require power from a battery or external source. The resulting
audio signal is stronger signal than that from a dynamic. Condensers also tend to be more
sensitive and responsive than dynamics, making them well-suited to capturing subtle nuances in
a sound. They are not ideal for high-volume work, as their sensitivity makes them prone to
distort.

A capacitor has two plates with a voltage between them. In the condenser mic, one of
these plates is made of very light material and acts as the diaphragm. The diaphragm vibrates
when struck by sound waves, changing the distance between the two plates and therefore
changing the capacitance. Specifically, when the plates are closer together, capacitance increases
and a charge current occurs. When the plates are further apart, capacitance decreases and a
discharge current occurs.

A voltage is required across the capacitor for this to work. This voltage is supplied either
by a battery in the mic
Lecture 11

Microphone

A microphone is a device that translates sound vibrations in the air into

electronic signals or scribes them to a recording medium. Microphones enable many types
of audio recording devices for purposes including communications of many kinds, as well as
music and speech recording.

Flow measurements
Flow visualization
The majority of flow visualization scheme are based on one of two basic principles.
The introduction of tracer particles or the detection of flow related changes in fluid optical
properties. In liquids, colored dyes and gas bubbles are common tracers.

In liquids colored dyes and gas bubble are common tracers. the gas flows, smoke,
helium-filled soap bubbles or gas molecules made luminous by an ionizing spark have served as
tracers.
Velocity magnitude from pilot- static tube.
The pitot-static system of instruments uses the principle of air pressure gradient. It
works by measuring pressures or pressure differences and using these values to assess the speed
and altitude. These pressures can be measured either from the static port (static pressure) or
the pitot tube (pitot pressure).

For no flow = uniform pattern with flow = light dark pattern this method usually used
in the plane to measure the outside pressure. It is possible to find the velocity of plane using this
method.

Mach number = 𝑁m = 𝑉/ 𝐶
Here V = Speed of the sound
C = Speed of the fluid
If mach no is 1, then it is a supersonic fluid.
𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 = 𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 − 𝑃𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑔 = 𝑉𝑐2/ 2𝑔
∴ 𝑃𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 𝑃𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑔 + 𝑉𝑐2/ 2
Hot-wire and hot-film anemometers

The hot-wire anemometer, which is used to measure the instantaneous velocities

of fluid flows, is based on the dependence of the sensor (gauge) heat transfer on the fluid
velocity, temperature, and composition. This method came into use for measuring turbulence
characteristics following the development of a technique for compensation of the gauge's thermal
lag.
Thermal expansion
 Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in shape, area, and volume in response to
a change in temperature

1. Bimetallic

These thermometers use the following two principles:

All metals change in dimension, that is expand or contract when there is

a change in temperature. The rate at which this expansion or contraction takes place
depend on the temperature co-efficient of expansion of the metal and this temperature
coefficient of expansion is different for different metals. Hence the difference in thermal
expansion rates is used to produce deflections which are proportional to temperature
changes.
The bimetallic thermometer consists of a bimetallic strip. A bimetallic strip is made of
two thin strips of metals which have different coefficients of expansion. The two metal
strips are joined together by brazing, welding or reveting so that the relative motion
between them is arrested.

The bimetallic strip is in the form of a cantilever beam. An increase in temperature will
result in the deflection of the free end of the strip as shown in diagram. This deflection is
linear and can be related to temperature changes.
 2. Liquid-in-glass thermometer
Liquid-in-glass thermometers, In particular mercury thermometers.Thermometer relies
on the expansion of a liquid with temperature. Liquid is contained in a sealed glass bulb and it
expands into the fine bore in the thermometer stem. Temperature is read using a scale etched
along the stem.

3. Thermoelectric sensors- thermocouples

Thermoelectric sensors react to temperature changes by changing the

thermoelectric force of the thermocouple built into them. Thermocouple – two conductors
made of different materials, connected to each other at one end and forming part of a
system that uses a thermoelectric effect to measure temperature (the Seebeck effect).The
thermoelectric effect consists in creating a thermoelectric force due to the temperature
difference between two welds: the measuring (combined ends of the thermocouple),
which it acts in the measured temperature and reference (free ends of thermocouples),
which is at a known temperature (usually 0°C)
Suggestions and improvements.

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