Electrical Measurement & Instrumentation

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 Chapter 1

General Principles of
Measurement
 Basic concepts of measurement
 Elements of measurement system
 Instrument types
 Static characteristics of instruments
 Measurement errors

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 Basic concepts of measurement & Instrumentation

What is Instrumentation ?
Start

 Instrumentation is the design, construction, and provision of

instruments for measurement and control of a processes &
operations.

What is measurement ?
 Measurement is the processes of gathering information from the
physical world and comparing this information with agreed standards.

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 Contd…
What is Instrument ?
Start

 Instrument is a device that transforms a physical variable of interest

(the measurand ) into a form that is suitable for recording (the
measurement).

Physical signals
What is measurement
/quantity ?
Measured
value
Physical Instrument

process Measurand

Display

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Elements of general measurement system

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Sensing element
• Elements which generate variation of electrical quantities (EQ) in
response to variation of non-electrical quantities (NEQ)
Examples of EQ: - Temperature, displacement, humidity, fluid flow, speed, pressure,…

• The specific sensing element which is physically in contact with

the measurand is called primary sensing element.

• The output of this element is changed to electrical parameters by

secondary sensing element.

 Thermocouple where mill volt e.m.f. depends on temperature

 Strain gauge where resistance depends on mechanical strain
 Orifice plate where pressure drop depends on flow rate

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 Signal conditioning element:
This takes the output of the sensing element and
Makes the signal more suitable for further processing,
usually a D.C. voltage, D.C. current or frequency
signal;
Deflection Bridge which converts an impedance
change into a voltage change
 Amplifier which amplifies mill volts to volts
 Oscillator which converts an impedance change
into a variable frequency voltage
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Signal processing element

This takes the output of the signal conditioning element

and converts it into a form more suitable for
presentation.

 Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) which converts a

voltage into a digital form for input to a computer

 Computer which calculates the measured value of the

variable from the incoming digital data

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 Data presentation element
• The information or measurement is needed for monitoring,
control or analysis purposes.
• The information conveyed must be in a form suitable to the
personnel or human observer.
• This function is done by data presentation element.

 Simple pointer–scale indicator

 Chart recorder
 Seven Segment Display
 Liquid Crystal Display
 Light Emitting Diode Display 9
10
CRO displays the voltage
signal as a function of
time on its screen

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 Elements of complex measurement system

Signal Signal Signal

recording receiver transmission

Output display

https://www.engineeringtribe.com/generalized-measurement-system/

Measurand Measurement
Variable
System testing Signal output
Sensor conversion
Element Processing

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 Elements of complex measurement system

Sensor
Start

 It gives an output that is a function of the measurand (the input

applied to it)

Variable conversion element

 It is needed where the output variable of a transducer is in an
inconvenient form and has to be converted to a more convenient form.
 The displacement-measuring strain gauge has an output in the form of
a varying resistance.
 The resistance change cannot be easily measured and so it is
converted to a change in voltage by a Wheatstone bridge circuit,
which is a typical example of a variable conversion element.

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 Elements of complex measurement system

Variable conversion element

Start

 Strain gauge : It is variable resistor

element . Its resistance varies when
strain is induced .
 The output of strain gauge is change
in resistance , It has to be converted
into voltage by attaching strain
gauge to one arm of the bridge
circuit.

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 Elements of complex measurement system

Signal processing /Conditioning

Start

 Improve the quality of the output of a measurement system in some

way.
 Modification of a signal to make it more useful or appropriate.
 Example: Amplification filtering, multiplexing ,linearizing ,signal
conversion.
Signal transmitter

 Signal transmission is needed when the observation or application

point of the output of a measurement system is some distance away
from the site of the primary transducer.

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 TYPES OF INSTRUMENTS
1. MECHANICAL INSTRUMENTS : These are very reliable under
static and stable conditions only. But unable to respond under
dynamic and transient conditions. Because these instruments have
moving parts which are rigid, heavy and bulky, and also having large
mass.
Disadvantages:- a) large mass b) produce noise pollution
Ex:- all machines
2. ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS : These are more rapid than
mechanical instruments. These instruments take a limited time to
respond as these are having mechanical meter movement.
The respond time is slow i.e. 0.2 sec to 0.5 sec
Ex:- all meters (Voltmeter,Ammeter,Ohmmeter etc.)
3. ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS : These instruments give fast
response. Its monitoring time is mille seconds to microseconds. It is
suitable for dynamic condtions.These instruments use semiconductor
devices.
Ex:-CRO 16
 FUNCTIONS OF INSTRUMENTS & MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

1. INDICATING(MONITORING) FUNCTION:
• simply indicates the value or condition of parameter under study.
• Instrument which only give an audio or visual indication of the current
magnitude of the physical variable(measurand);
 such as ammeter , volt meter, speedometer, water and electric
energy meter are only suitable for monitoring purpose.

2. RECORDING FUNCTION: Information of the quantity under

measurement is usually obtained on paper or chart in a written
form for future use and analysis.
Ex:- Potentiometric type of recorder – records room temperature.

3. CONTROLLING FUNCTION: information is used by the system

to control the original measurand quantity.
Contd…
• In the field of industrial process control, in order to control the process
and operation variable like current, voltage, power, temperature, pressure
etc, these quantities are required to be measured at appropriate points in
the individual plant.
• These are compared with the reference or desired signal and an error
signal is generated and amplified to operate the actuator in controlling
the process.

Figure: Typical block diagram representation of Automatic control

System
 Types of Instruments

Instruments can be Instruments into active and passive

Start
according to the consumption of
Active instruments power.

• "Active” means is that some

Passive Instruments component inside requires power,
either a battery or an external
voltage source for working.
Analog Instruments • “Passive” just means that no
components inside need to be
powered.
Digital Instruments

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 Types of Instruments

Passive Instrument
Start

 The instrument output is entirely produced by the quantity being

measured. Example: pressure-measuring device

 The pressure of the fluid is translated into a

movement of a pointer against a scale.
 The energy expended in moving the pointer is
derived entirely from the change in pressure
measured: there are no other energy inputs to the
system.

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 Types of Instruments

Active Instrument
Start

 The quantity being measured simply modulates the magnitude of

some external power source.
 Example: petrol tank level indicator

 The change in petrol level moves a potentiometer arm,

and the output signal consists of a proportion of the
external voltage source applied across the two ends of
the potentiometer.
 The energy in the output signal comes from the
external power source: the primary transducer float
system is merely modulating (changing )the value of
the voltage from this external power source.
 In active instruments, the external power source is
usually in electrical form.
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 Types of Instruments

Analog Instrument
Start

 An analogue instrument gives an output that varies continuously as the

quantity being measured changes.
 The output can have an infinite number of values within the range that the
instrument is designed to measure.
 Pressure measuring gauge discussed above is an example of
analogue device.
 As the input value changes, the pointer moves with a smooth continuous
motion.
 Whilst the pointer can therefore be in an infinite number of positions
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within its range of movement.
 Types of Instruments

Digital Instrument
Start

 A digital instrument has an output that varies in discrete steps and

so can only have a finite number of values.
 Example revolution counter device

 A cam is attached to the revolving body whose

motion is being measured, and on each revolution
the cam opens and closes a switch.
 The switching operations are counted by an electronic
counter.
 This system can only count whole revolutions and cannot
discriminate any motion that is less than a full revolution
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SI Units (International Systems of Unites): The most widely used
units of measurement.
Two different units are defined:
- Fundamental Units
- Derived Units

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 STANDARDS

• Standards: are fundamental reference for a system of measures.

• A known accurate measure of a physical quantity is termed as a
standard.
• Standards are used to determine the values of other physical
quantities by the comparison methods.

There are different standards

1. International standards
2. Primary standards
3. Secondary standards
4. Working standards
Examples of Standard Bodies

 International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

 International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
 American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
 Standards Council of Canada ( SCC)
 British Standards (BS)
 Institute of Turkish Standards (TSE)

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 International Standards
• Defined by international agreement.
• Maintained by IOS – International organization for standards,
Paris – France
• Periodically evaluated and checked by absolute
measurements in terms of fundamental units of Physics.

Primary standards
• Function : calibration and verification of secondary
standards.

• Maintained at National Standards Laboratories in different

countries
 Secondary Standards
• Reference standards used by measurement and calibration
laboratories in industries.
• Maintained by particular industries
• Periodically calibrated and compared against Primary
standards.
Working standards
• Are Standards used in a measurement laboratories.
• These are used to check and calibrate general lab instruments
for accuracy and performance.
• A standard that is used routinely to calibrate or check
measuring instruments.
• Used to perform comparison measurements in industrial
 Static characteristics of instrument
Instruments performance can be evaluated by
Start

Static characteristics
 If the instrument is made to measure constant or slowly varying
quantities, its performance can be evaluated with only the static
characteristics.
 Accuracy, precision, range/span, linearity, sensitivity,
threshold ,resolution, hysteresis. dead space/zone .

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Accuracy

 The accuracy of an instrument is a measure of how close the output reading

of the instrument is to the correct value.
 In practice, it is more usual to quote the inaccuracy figure rather than the
accuracy figure for an instrument.
 Inaccuracy is the extent to which a reading might be wrong, and is often
quoted as a percentage of the full-scale (f.s.) reading of an instrument.

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 Accuracy

As a Percentage of true value = measured value – true value x 100

true value

As a Percentage of full-scale deflection = measured value – true value x

100
maximum scale value

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Precision

 The Precision is the closeness of output readings when the same input is applied
repetitively over a short period of time, with the same measurement conditions.
 The figure below shows the results of tests on three industrial robots that were
programmed to place components at center of the concentric circles.

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Range /Span

 The range or span of an instrument defines the minimum and maximum values of a quantity
that the instrument is designed to measure.
 Span is the algebraic difference between the maximum and minimum measurand value.
 Example:

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Linearity

 It is normally desirable that the output reading of an

instrument is linearly proportional to the quantity
being measured.
 The non-linearity is then defined as the maximum
deviation of any of the output readings marked X from
this straight line.
 Non-linearity is usually expressed as a percentage of
full-scale reading.

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 Contd…
• N(I)= O(I) – (KI+a), O(I) = KI + a + N(I)

• Non-Linearity(%fsd) = max. deviation of the o/p from the straight line X100
actual reading or output span

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Sensitivity

 It is a measure of the change in instrument output that occurs when

the quantity being measured changes by a given amount.

Threshold
Threshold

 The minimum value of input that can produce output.

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 Characteristics of instrument
Static characteristics of an instrument
Start

Dead zone

 Dead space is defined as the range of different

input values over which there is no change in
output value.
 Any instrument that exhibits hysteresis also
displays dead space, as marked on figure
above.
Resolution
 Resolution or discrimination: It is defined as the smallest increment in input which can be detected
with certainty by an instrument is its resolution.

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 hysteresis
The non-coincidence between loading and unloading curves is
known as hysteresis.

It is a phenomenon which depicts different output effects when loading and

unloading whether it is a mechanical system or an electrical system and for
that matter any system.

Figure: Instrument characteristics with hysteresis

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Problem 1

• A Wheatstone bridge requires a change of 7 ohms in the

unknown arm of the bridge to produce a change in deflection of
3mm of the galvanometer. Determine the sensitivity
Sol. Sensitivity = 3mm/7 Ω = 0.429 mm/ Ω
Problem 2
• The dead zone in a certain pyrometer is 0.125% of span. The
calibration is 4000 C to 10000 C .What temperature change might
occur before it is detected?
Sol. Span = 10000 - 4000 = 6000 C
Dead zone = (0125/100) x 6000C = 0.75oC
Hence a change of 0.75oC must occur before it is detected.
Problem 3
• A moving coil ammeter has a uniform scale with 50 divisions and
gives full scale reading of 5A.The instrument can read upto (¼)th
of a scale division with a fair degree of certainty?
Determine the resolution of the instrument in mA.

Sol. Full scale reading = 5A

Number of divisions on scale = 50
1 scale division = (5/50) = 0.1A

Resolution = (1/4) of a scale division = (1/4)x0.1 = 0.025A

or 25mA
Problem 4

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 Measurement errors
Errors in measurement systems can be divided into
Start

Errors that arise during the measurement process

Errors that arise later time due to corruption of the

measurement signal by induced noise during transmission

Errors that arise during the measurement process

Systematic Errors
Random errors

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 Measurement errors

Systematic Errors
Start

 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.
Source of systematic Errors:
 Noise /disturbance during measurement
 Environmental changes (Change in operating conditions )
 wear in instrument component
Remedy : Recalibration often provides a full solution to this problem.

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 Measurement errors

Random Errors
Start

 Random errors in measurements are caused by unpredictable variations in the

measurement system.
 They are usually observed as small perturbations of the measurement either side of the
correct value, i.e. positive errors and negative errors.

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 DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS
Some measurements are concerned with rapidly varying quantities and
therefore performance criteria based upon dynamic relations constitute
the Dynamic characteristics.

1. Speed of response
2. Fidelity
3. Dynamic error
4. Measuring lag

Speed of response: It is defined as the rapidity with which a

measurement system responds to changes in the measured
quantity.
Fidelity: It is defined as the degree to which a measurement
system indicates changes in the measured quantity
without dynamic error.

Dynamic Error/Measurement Error: It is the difference between

the true value of the quantity (under measurement) changing
with time and the value indicated by the measurement
system if no static error is assumed.

Measuring lag : It is the retardation or delay in the response of a

measurement system to changes in the measured quantity.
 Error in Measurements
 Error in measurement (e) is defined as the algebraic difference
between the true value of the variable (or expected value) and the
measured value.
 Error in measurement in others words is the uncertainty of
measured values.

Figure 1.7: Illustration of the error Bands

 Error may be expressed either as absolute error or as a percent of error
Absolute error
Percent of error   100 %
True value
True value − Measured value
Percent of error = ×100 %
True value

It is frequently more desirable to express measurements in terms of relative

accuracy rather than error, or:

Relative accuracy = 1− |
Absolute error
True value |
Precision can be expressed in a mathematical sense, or quantitatively, as:
Precision = 1− |
Xn− X n
Xn |
Where: Xn = the value of nth measurement.

Xn = the average of the set of n measurements

 Nosie and Interference
• under real time conditions the performance of the
measuring elements are influenced by undesirable
environmental effects (temperature, pressure, humidity, etc)
• besides the measurement is significantly affected by the
general random behavior of system such as;
 random variation in the input (Signal)
 random variation in the system (white noise)
 deterministic disturbances in the system (Ex. Power
interference and frequency interference)
 switching circuit (sparking)
 RF generating circuit (inductor).
 Ways of Reducing the Effects of Noise and Interference
 Shielding (isolation):this is usually done either by isolating the
instrument from these environmental effects or shielding the instrument
with specially fabricated material having the property of
isolating the instrument from any interfering or modifying input.

 Environmental insensitivity: another important technique is making the

instrument to be insensitive to any modifying or interfering input (i.e. K
= 0)

 Methods of opposing input: this is one of the most commonly applied

technique in which instruments make use a technique or means to
cancel the effects of undesired signals.
• Filtering: filtering is a technique applied to signals so as to pass or
reject frequency of desire.

• Modulation: modulation can be thought of as a technique used

change the frequency content of the original signal so to
transmit or reduce the effect of undesired inputs.

• Averaging : As noise signals are unpredictable averaging

them may reduce the magnitude.
 FACTORS TO SELECT INSTRUMENTS
1. Performance Requirements
 Range /Span
 Speed
 Power consumption
 Efficiency
 Size & Weight
 Test levels (Electromagnetic Interference, Vibration & Shock)

2. Sensitivity : It must be sensitive enough to produce detectable o/p.

3. Accuracy: Instrument should have high degree of accuracy

4. Errors : The instrument should maintain the expected input-output

relation ship as described by its transfer function so as to avoid errors
5. Electrical Aspects : Length & type of cable required for instruments,
6. Loading Effects: Instrument should have high input impedance and low
output impedance to avoid loading effect.
7. Static Characteristics:
• Low non-linearity
• Low hysteresis
• High resolution
• High degree of repeatability
8. Insensitivity to unwanted signals: The instrument should be minimally
sensitive to unwanted signals and highly sensitive to desired signals
9. Transient & Frequency response : The instrument should meet the time-
domain specifications like rise time ,settling time, small dynamic error.
It should have flat frequency response curve and should have wide
bandwidth.
10. Stability & Reliability : The instrument should have a high degree of
stability to be operative during its operation and storage life.