Errors during the measurement process

Lecture 3

1
2 Introduction

 It is extremely important in any measurement system to reduce

errors to the minimum possible level.
 The starting point in the quest to reduce the incidence of errors
arising during the measurement process is to carry out a detailed
analysis of all sources in the system.
3 Introduction

 Errors arising during the measurement process can be divided

into two groups, known as systematic errors and Random errors
4 Systematic errors

 Systematic errors describe errors in the output readings of a

measurement system that are consistently on one side of the correct
reading, i.e. either all the errors are positive or they are all negative.
 The two major sources of systematic errors:
 System disturbance during measurement
 The effect of environmental changes (modifying inputs)
Other sources of systematic error include bent meter needles, the
use of uncalibrated instruments, drift in instrument characteristics
and poor cabling practices.
5 Random errors
 Random errors are perturbations of the measurement either side of the true
value caused by random and unpredictable effects.

Random errors often arise when measurements are taken by human

observation of an analogue meter, especially where this involves interpolation
between scale points.
 Electrical noise can also be a source of random errors. System disturbance
during measurement
6 Sources of systematic error

 There are multiple source of systematic error some are given

below.
 System disturbance due to measurement
 Errors due to environmental inputs
 Wear in instrument components
 Connecting leads
7 System disturbance due to measurement

 Disturbance of the measured system by the act of measurement is

a common source of the systematic error.
 For Example:
 Thermometer in a beaker
 Orifice plate
System disturbance due to measurement

 Orifice plate
 An orifice plate is a device used for measuring flow
rate, for reducing pressure or for restricting flow (in
the latter two cases it is often called a restriction
plate).
9 Measurements in electric circuits

 In analysing system disturbance during measurement in electric

circuits ,Thevenin's theorem is of great assistance.
 Voltage across the resistor R5 is to be measured by a voltmeter
with resistance Rm.
 Thevenin theorem allows to convert a circuit consisting of
multiple resistances and voltage sources into a single equivalent
voltage source and resistance.
10 Measurements in electric circuits
11 System disturbance due to measurement
12 Measurements in electric circuits

Defining I as the current flowing in the circuit when the measuring

instrument is connected to it .

Voltage measured by the meter is given by :

13 Example 3.1: suppose that the components of the circuit
shown in the figure below has following values.

The voltage across AB is measured by a voltmeter whose internal resistance

is 9500 ohm. What is the measurement error caused by the resistance of the
measuring instrument
14 Measurements in electric circuits
15 Errors due to environmental inputs
 An environmental input is defined as an apparently real input to a
measurement system.
 The magnitude of this environment induced variation is quantified by
sensitivity drift and zero drift.
 For example :
 We have a small box with a rat in it and box weights 0.1 kg when empty.
 When placed on a weight balance shows a reading of 1 kg.
 Reasons :
1) 0.9 kg rat in the box (real input)
2) An empty box with 0.9 kg bias value due to temperature change.
(environmental)
3) A 0.4 kg rat in box with 0.5 kg bias value (real +environmental)
16 Wear in instrument components

 Systematic errors can frequently develop over a period of time

because of wear in instrument components.
17 Connecting leads

In connecting together the components of a measurement system, a common

source of error is the failure to take proper account of the resistance of
connecting leads (or pipes in the case of pneumatically or hydraulically
actuated measurement systems).
For example
 Resistance thermometer
18 Reduction of systematic error

1. Careful instrument design

2. Method of opposing inputs
3. Calibration
4. Manual correction of output reading
5. Intelligent instruments
19 Careful instrument design

 Careful instrument design is the most useful weapon in the battle against
environmental inputs, by reducing the sensitivity of an instrument to
environmental inputs to as low a level as possible.
 For instance, in the design of strain gauges, the element should be
constructed from a material whose resistance has a very low temperature
coefficient (i.e. the variation of the resistance with temperature is very
small).
20 Method of opposing inputs

The method of opposing inputs compensates for the effect of an environmental

input in a measurement system by introducing an equal and opposite

environmental input that cancels it out.

21 Calibration

Instrument calibration is a very important consideration in

measurement systems.
All instruments suffer drift in their characteristics, and the rate at
which this happens depends on many factors, such as the
environmental conditions in which instruments are used and the
frequency of their use.
Thus, errors due to instruments being out of calibration can usually
be rectified by increasing the frequency of recalibration.
22 Manual correction of output reading

In the case of errors that are due either to system disturbance during
the act of measurement or due to environmental changes, a good
measurement technician can substantially reduce errors at the output
of a measurement system by calculating the effect of such systematic
errors and making appropriate correction to the instrument readings.
23 Intelligent instruments

Intelligent instruments contain extra sensors that measure the value of

environmental inputs and automatically compensate the value of the
output reading.
They have the ability to deal very effectively with systematic errors in
measurement systems.
24 Quantification of systematic error

Once all practical steps have been taken to eliminate or reduce the
magnitude of systematic errors, the final action required is to estimate
the maximum remaining error that may exist in a measurement due to
systematic errors.
The usual course of action is to assume mid-point environmental
conditions and specify the maximum measurement error as+/- x% of
the output reading to allow for the maximum expected deviation in
environmental conditions away from this mid-point.
25 Random errors

 Random errors are present in the system due to unknown or

unpredictable reasons.
 Random error can largely be eliminated by calculating the
average of a number of repeated measurements, provided that the
measured quantity remains constant during the process of taking
the repeated measurements.
26 Statistical analysis of measurements
subject to random errors
 Mean and median values
 The average value of a set of measurements of a constant quantity
can be expressed as either the mean value or the median value.
27 Statistical analysis of measurements
subject to random errors
 Mean and median values
 Thus for a set of 9 measurements arranged in order of
magnitude ,the median value is .
 For even numbers ,median is given by
 ()
28 Statistical analysis of measurements
subject to random errors
 Mean and median values
 Suppose that the length of a steel bar is measured by a number of different
observers and the following set of 11 measurements are recorded.
Measurement 1 are given below
 398 420 394 416 404 408 400 420 396 413 430
 Mean =409.0 median=408
 Measurement 1 are given below
 409 406 402 407 405 404 407 404 407 407 408
 Mean =406.0 median=407

 Thus smaller the spread of measurements ,the more confidence we have in

mean or median value calculated.
29 Statistical analysis of measurements
subject to random errors
 Mean and median values
Let us now see what happens if we increase the number of measurements by
extending measurement set B to 23 measurements. We will call this measurement
set C.
409 406 402 407 405 404 407 404 407 407 408 406 410 406 405 408
406 409 406 405 409 406 407
Now, mean=406 .5 and median=406.

This confirms our earlier statement that the median value tends towards the mean
value as the number of measurements increases.
30 Standard deviation and variance

 Expressing the spread of measurements simply as the range

between the largest and smallest value is not in fact a very good
way of examining how the measurement values are distributed
about the mean value.
 The starting point is to calculate the deviation(error) of each
measurement from the mean value.

 Variance standard deviation=

31
32 Standard deviation and variance

 Thus, as V and sigma decrease for a measurement set, we

are able to express greater confidence that the calculated
mean or median value is close to the true value, i.e. that
the averaging process has reduced the random error value
close to zero.
 Graphical data analysis techniques

 Graphical techniques are a very

useful way of analyzing the way in
which random measurement errors
are distributed. The simplest way of
doing this is to draw a histogram, in
which bands of equal width across
the range of measurement values
are defined and the number of
measurements within each band is
counted.

33
34 Graphical data analysis techniques
35 Aggregation of measurement system errors

 Errors in measurement systems often arise from two or more

different sources, and these must be aggregated in the correct way
in order to obtain a prediction of the total likely error in output
readings from the measurement system.
 Two different forms of aggregation are required.
 Firstly, a single measurement component may have both
systematic and random errors.
 Secondly, a measurement system may consist of several
measurement components that each have separate errors.
36 Combined effect of systematic and random errors

 If a measurement is affected by both systematic and random errors that are

quantified as +/- x (systematic errors) and +/- y (random errors).
 One way of expressing the combined error would be to sum the two
separate components of error, i.e. to say that the total possible error is
e =+/-(x + y).
 However, a more usual course of action is to express the likely maximum
error as follows:

 It can be shown (ANSI/ASME, 1985) that this is the best expression for
the error statistically.
37 Aggregation of errors from separate measurement
system components

 A measurement system often consists of several separate

components, each of which is subject to errors.
 Therefore, what remains to be investigated is how the errors
associated with each measurement system component combine
together, so that a total error calculation can be made for the
complete measurement system.
 All four mathematical operations of addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division may be performed on measurements
derived from different instruments.
38 Error in a sum
 If the two outputs y and z of separate measurement system
components are to be added together, we can write the sum as

 If the maximum errors in y and z are +/- y and +/- z respectively.

 we can express the maximum and minimum possible values of S as:
39 Error in a sum
40 Error in a difference

 If the two outputs y and z of separate measurement systems are to be

subtracted from one another, and the possible errors are +/- ay and +/- bz,
 then the difference S can be expressed as:
41 Error in a difference