Objective

Calibrating pressure gauges is required knowledge for engineers

need to have, and because of this, though a simple lab, it was
important one. The objective of this lab was to become familiar
with calibrating pressure gauges by measuring the pressure
exerted on a cylinder by a piston with different weights added
on it, then determining the calibration. To determine the
calibration, the gauge pressure, pressure inside the cylinder,
absolute error, and percent relative error had to be obtained, then
compared in order to better understand the calibration of the
pressure gauge.

Apparatus
Safety

1. Do not tamper measuring instruments.

2. Do not open the casing of equipment.
3. Read carefully the lab manual before performing
experiments.
4. Do not touch anything without the permission of
instructor/lab assistant.
5. Use safety goggles wherever necessary.
6. To guard against the piston sticking into cylinder,rotate the
piston gently while the pressure gauge is being used.
7. If due to slight leakage, piston reaches the cylinder bottom
thus add more water to the cylinder.
Teory.

Instrument calibration is one of the primary processes used to

maintain instrument accuracy. It is the process of configuring an
instrument to provide results within an acceptable range. Known
weights have been applied on a Dead Weight Calibrator to apply
pressure to a fluid for checking the accuracy of readings from a
pressure gauge. Various types of pressure measuring instrument
have been used to measure the pressure intensity at any point in
static or moving fluid. One of these devices is the Bourdon tube
pressure gauge. Bourdon tube pressure gauges are most widely
used nowadays because of their reliability, compactness, low
cost and ease of use. It consists of a curved tube of elliptical
cross-section bent into a circular arc.When pressure is applied to
the tube, it tends to straighten out, and the deflection of the end
of the tube is communicated through a system of levers to a
recording pointer. This gauge is widely used for steam and
compressed gases. The pressure indicated is the difference
between the system pressure and to the external (ambient)
pressure, and is usually referred to as the gauge pressure.

Bourdon gauge connected to a dead weight tester. The Bourdon

gauge has a transparent dial that allows students to see the
working mechanism. The mechanism is a thin walled tube with
an oval cross-section, bent into an arc. One end of the tube is
held rigidly. This end admits pressure. The other end of the tube,
connected to a dial and pointer mechanism, is free to move.
When the pressure in the tube increases, it tries to straighten and
so moves the pointer by an amount proportional to the pressure
increase.
To calibrate the gauge, students add weights to a platform on a
dead weight tester. The weights put a known force on to a piston.
The piston has a known area, so students can calculate the
pressure. A flexible tube containing water transfers the pressure
on the piston to the Bourdon tube. Students add the weights in
increments, recording pressure readings from the gauge at each
increment. They then remove the weights and record gauge
readings. By working out theoretical results they can work out
gauge error and discuss possible causes.

Procedure

1. Measure the weight of the piston and its cross-sectional area.

2. Remove the piston and pour water into the cylinder until its
full to the overflow level.
3. Clear any air trapped in the tube by tilting and gently tapping
the apparatus
4. Then, replace the cylinder to the piston and allowed to settle.
5. A spirit level placed on the platforms at the top of the piston.
Ensure that the cylinder stand vertically
6. Add weights in convenient increments.
7. Observe the pressure gauge reading at each increment.
8. A similar sets of results is then taking with decreasing
weights.
9. Tabulated all readings and calculations
Discussion

The graph plotted shows that the increasing pressure is similar

with the decreasing pressure where the slope plotted is almost
overlapped to each other.However,the point plotted is not
smoothly linear or form a straight line.Furthermore, the gauge
error occurred inconsistently where the line plotted is going
upward and downward.There are several prime factor that may
influenced the results of this experiment such as;

I. There are bubbles or air trapped inside the tube when the
experiment carried out.
II. Pressure is exerted on the piston during its placed into the
cylinder where it can affected the reading gauge pressure
taken for entire experiment
III. The piston is not totally in stable condition during the value
of gauge pressure is taken.
IV.Parallax error is occurred where the observer eye are not
perpendicular to the scale of Bourdon Gauge during the
value of gauge pressure is observed.

Conclusion.

The objective to determine the accuracy in Bourdon Gauge

readings and calibration requirements is achieved.