ECEG 3173: Introduction to Instrumentation

Lecture notes : Created on: Fri 8 Jan 2021 Last updated: Tue 11 Jan 2021

1. Fundamental Concepts Measurement

1.1. The measurement process, instruments and measurement system

Measurement (also called metrology) is the science of determining values of physical variables.

It is an essential activity or process in every branch of technology and science. Accordingly the study
of measurement forms part of engineering and science.

The conceptual model of a measurement process involves a physical/real world process whose
generated variables are to be measured, the measurement system which involves the use of
instruments as a physical means of determining quantities or variables, and the end user (or sink) of
the measured variable.

The physical/real world process may be the physical environment, industrial establishment, a vehicle,
a laboratory setup, a household, a green house, etc.

An instrument is a device that transforms a physical variable of interest (the measurand ) into a form
that is suitable for measurement, recording, monitoring, controlling, transmission, etc.

Because of modular nature of the elements within the measuring instrument, it is common to refer it
as a measurement system.

The end user may be a human who uses the measured value for observation and monitoring of the
process or a machine for recording, transmission with telemetry, automatic controlling, etc.

A measurement system can also be viewed as an information system which links and presents an
observer with a numerical value (or other formats such as graphs) corresponding to the variable
generated and being measured/observed in a physical process as shown below:

Fig: The conceptual model of a measurement process

The input to the measurement system is the true value of the variable; the system output is the
measured value of the variable.

In an ideal measurement system, the measured value would be equal to the true value. The accuracy
of the system can be defined as the closeness of the measured value to the true value. A perfectly
Page 1 of 5
accurate system is a theoretical ideal and the accuracy of a real system is quantified using
measurement system error E, where

E = Measured value - True value

Error is the main performance indicator for a measurement system.

Thus if the measured value of current in a circuit is 11.0 A and the true value is 11.2 A, then the error
E = 0.2 A.

1.2. Structure of measurement systems

The measurement system consists of several elements or blocks. It is possible to identify four types of
elements: sensing, signal conditioning, signal processing and data presentation elements. However, in
a given system one type of element may be missing or may occur more than once. The four types are
shown in Figure 1.2 and can be defined as follows.

Figure 1.2 General structure of measurement system.

1.2.1. Sensing element

The key functional element in the measurement system is the sensor, which has the function of
converting the physical variable input into a signal variable output. Signal variables have the property
that they can be manipulated in a transmission system, such as an electrical circuit. Because of this
property, the signal variable can be transmitted to an output or recording device that can be remote
from the sensor. In electrical circuits, voltage is a common signal variable.

Thus the sensor is in contact with the process and gives an output which depends in some way on the
variable to be measured. An example is a thermocouple whose generated e.m.f. (in millivolt) depends
on temperature.

If there is more than one sensing element in a system, the element in contact with the process is
termed the primary sensing element, the others secondary sensing elements.

1.2.2. Signal conditioning element

This element takes the output of the sensing element and converts it into a form more suitable for
further processing, usually a d.c. voltage, d.c. current or frequency signal.

Page 2 of 5
Examples are:

• Deflection bridge which converts an impedance change into a voltage change

• An amplifier which amplifies if the sensor produces minute signal such as a voltage (say
millivolts) in to volts

• Filtering of noise from the desired signal.

 A deflection bridge which converts an impedance change into a voltage change

1.2.3. Signal processing element

This takes the output of the conditioning element and converts it into a form more suitable for
presentation/display, recording, transmission or used as an input signal to some secondary device or
system (such as a closed loop control system).

Examples are:

• Analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) which converts a continuous voltage into a digital form
for input to a computer

• Computer which calculates the measured value of the variable from the incoming digital data.

Typical calculations are:

• Computation of total mass of product gas from flow rate and density data

• Integration of chromatograph peaks to give the composition of a gas stream

• Correction for sensing element non-linearity.

1.2.4. Data presentation element

This presents the measured value in a form which can be easily recognized by the observer.

Examples are:

• Simple pointer–scale indicator

• Chart recorder

• Alphanumeric display

• Visual display unit (VDU).

Page 3 of 5
A more specific representation of the above structure is shown below:

FIGURE 1.2 Instrument model with amplifier, analog to digital converter, and computer output.

If the signal output from the sensor is small, it is sometimes necessary to amplify the output shown.
The amplified output can then be transmitted to the display device or recorded, depending on the
particular measurement application. In many cases it is necessary for the instrument to provide a
digital signal output so that it can interface with a computer-based data acquisition or
communications system.

If the sensor does not inherently provide a digital output, then the analog output of the sensor is
converted by an analog to digital converter (ADC). The digital signal is typically sent to a computer
processor that can display, store, or transmit the data as output to some other system, which will use
the measurement.

A typical example of a measurement system for measuring temperature is shown below.

Another example of a measurement system which uses two sensing processes to measure weight

Figure 1.3(d).

Here the primary element is a cantilever which converts weight into strain; the strain gauge converts
this into a change in electrical resistance and acts as a secondary sensor. There are two signal
conditioning elements: the deflection bridge converts the resistance change into millivolts and the
amplifier converts millivolts into volts. The computer corrects for non-linearity in the cantilever and
the weight is presented on a digital display.
Page 4 of 5
Sensors and transducer

The word ‘transducer’ is commonly used in connection with measurement and instrumentation in
comparison to a “sensor”. A transducer is commonly a manufactured package which gives an output
voltage (usually) corresponding to an input variable such as pressure or acceleration. Thus a
transducer may incorporate both sensing and signal conditioning elements; for example a weight
transducer would incorporate the first four elements shown in Figure 1.3(d).

It is also important to note that each element in the measurement system may itself be a system
made up of simpler components.

Page 5 of 5