Instrumentation & Measurement (ME342)

Chapter 14: Temperature measurement

Dr. Hani Muhsen

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 14.1 Introduction

Temperature units SI unit: Kelvin (K) US unit Fahrenheit

K = 273.15+ ºC (F)
F = 32+ (9/5) ºC

Some temperature measurement principles

• Thermoelectric effect

• Resistance change

• Sensitivity of semiconductor device

• Radiative heat emission

• Thermal expansion
 14.2 Thermoelectric effect sensors (thermocouples)

• Thermo-electric Transducers: There are 3 main thermo-electric effects:

➢ Seebeck effect

• 2 dissimilar metals are connected together in a loop

• Two junctions are at different temperatures

• Generates an EMF as Heat energy is converted to electrical

➢ Peltier effect

• The inverse of the Seebeck effect

• Flow of current causes a temperature change in the two conductors

➢ Thomson effect : Temperature gradient in a conductor will give rise to an

EMF
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 Seebeck effect

• A temperature gradient along a material

produces a voltage going down from hotter region
to colder region.

• Thermal energy in hot region causes electrons in

the vicinity to be more energetic than electrons
in cold region.

• Electrons diffuses to the cold region, the hot

region has become electron-deficient & positively
charged. The cold region, on the other hand, has
become electron-rich and negatively charged.

• i.e. a potential difference exists going down from

hot region to cold region.

• potential difference is produced by temperature

difference in the wire.

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 Concept of Thermocouples

• If the wires are joined at both ends, and the junctions are at different
temperatures, an electric current will flow - called the Seebeck effect or
thermoelectric effect.

• Differential system - the current is dependant on the temperature difference

between the two junctions.

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 Concept of Thermocouples

• If a voltmeter is used to replace one junction, voltage reading = difference between the
contact potential at the sensing junction and the net contact potential at the voltmeter.

• This creates a positive potential in the junction and negative potentials at the
two reference points V1 & V2.

• These cancel out if they are at the same temperature. (V1 cancels V2)

• Because they are different materials and have different Seebeck coefficients, the
voltage at the two reference points are also different.

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 Reference junction

• The thermocouple is a differential system.

• To obtain an absolute temperature reading, it is necessary to know the

temperature of one junction.

• The classical reference was a beaker of crushed ice and water to provide an
accurate reading.

• This is impractical for everyday use

• Electronic solution:

Cold junction compensation

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 Thermocouples

The general form of this relationship is :

where e is the e.m.f generated and T is the absolute temperature.

•For certain pairs of materials, the nonlinear relationship can be approximated into:

Thermocouples are manufactured from combinations of:

1.Base metals (copper and iron)

2.Base metal alloys (alumel (Ni/Mn/Al/Si), chromel (Ni, Cr), constantan (Cu/Ni)…

3.Nobel metals (platinum and tungsten)

4.Nobel metal alloys (platinum-rhodium, tungsten-rhenium, and gold-iron)

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Standard Thermocouples

Figure 14.1 The e.m.f. temperature characteristics for some standard thermocouple materials.
Some Standard Thermocouple

The five standard base metal thermocouples are:

• Type E (chromel-constantan)

• Type J (iron –constantan)

• Type K (chromel -alumel)

• Type N (nicrosil- nisil)

• Type T (copper –constantan)

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Twisted
Wires

Reference
Junction

Figure 14.2 (a) Thermocouple

and (b) equivalent circuit.
14.2 Thermoelectric effect sensors

(thermocouples)

Law of intermediate metals

Metal Metal Metal
A B C
• It states that the e.m.f. generated at the
junction between two metals or alloys A
and C is equal to the sum of the e.m.f Temp 1 Temp 1

generated at the junction between metals =

or alloys A and B and the e.m.f.
generated at the junction between metals
or alloys B and C, where all junctions are Metal Metal
A C
at the same temperature.

Temp 1
• Suppose we have an iron-constantan thermocouple connected by copper
leads to a meter.

Fe Cons.

Cu Cu
• Thus, the effect of connecting the thermocouple extension wires to the
copper leads to the meter is canceled out, and the actual e.m.f. at the
reference junction is equivalent to that arising from an iron–constantan
connection at the reference junction temperature.

• the equivalent circuit in Figure 14.3b becomes simplified to that shown

in Figure 14.4.

• The e.m.f. generated at the hot junction can then be

calculated as

Figure 14.4 Effective e.m.f. sources in a

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thermocouple measurement system.
 Thermocouple tables (Appendix 3)

Tables are only valid for Tref = 0 ºC (exactly)

Example 14.1: if the measured output e.m.f. from a chromel-constantan

thermocouple is 13.419 mV with the reference junction at 0 ºC , the appropriate
column in the tables shows that this corresponds to a hot junction temperature of
200 ºC.
Thermocouple Types

Type E (chromel-constantan) Type K (chromel -alumel)

Type J (iron –constantan) Type N (nicrosil- nisil)

Type T (copper –constantan)
 Interpolation

Interpolation is used to find values that are located between subsequent rows.
Given:

10.65 − 10.501
Th = 160 + (170 − 160)  =162 C
11.222 − 10.501
 Resistance Thermometers (RTD) Thermistor
(metal) (semiconductor)
• rely on the physical principle of the variation of resistance with
temperature.

• Resistance measured using a d.c. bridge

• Excitation voltage is desirable to be high

• high measurement sensitivity

• however, self-heating effect of high currents flowing changes R value.

Resistance Thermometers (RTD)

• Resistance of metal varies with temperature according to:

• Over a limited temperature range for some metals:

 Figure 14.8 Typical resistance–temperature characteristics of metals.

• Platinum is most linear but expensive

• Copper and Nickel are subject to oxidation and corrosion

For platinum, the nominal resistance at 0 ºC is typically a 100 or 1000Ω .
Sensitivity is 0.385 Ω/ ºC (100 Ω type) 0r 3.85 Ω/ ºC (1000 Ω type).

The working ranges for the shown RTDs is are as follows:

• Platinum: -270 t0 +1000 ºC (although use above 650 ºC is uncommon)

• Copper: -200 to +260 ºC
• Nickel: -200 to + 430 ºC
• Tungsten: -270 to +1100 ºC
Thermistors

• Made from beads of semiconductor material prepared from oxides of

the iron group metals such as chromium, cobalt, iron, manganese,
and nickel.

• Normally they have a negative temperature coefficient ( as the temp

increases their resistance decreases)
 • Low cost and small size.

• Due to small size

• time constant of thermistors is small.

• self-heating effect is greater.

• Usually operated at low current levels than

resistance thermometers

• measurement sensitivity is low

Figure 14.9 Typical resistance–temperature characteristics of thermistor materials.

Measurement and Instrumentation: Theory and Application

Alan S. Morris and Reza Langari, Copyright ©2012 Elsevier, Inc.