Instrumentation and Measurement

Lecture# 10
Mass, force, displacement/strain/velocity/vibration
Measurement
Instructor: Engr. Muhammad Asif
Email: m.asif@uettaxila.edu.pk

Department of Mechatronics Engineering

University of Chakwal

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 Mass and force Measurement

Mass and weight measurement

 Electronic load cell
 Pneumatic load cell
 Hydraulic load cell
 Intelligent load cells
 Spring and beam balance
 Pendulum scale
Force measurement
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Mass (weight) measurement
 Mass describes the quantity of matter that a
body contains.
 Load cells are the most common instrument
used to measure mass, especially in industrial
applications.
 Most load cells are now electronic, although
pneumatic and hydraulic types also exist.
 The alternatives to load cells are either mass-
balance instruments or the spring balance.
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Electronic load cell
 “Gravitational force on the body being
measured is applied to an elastic element
creating deflection”.
 Displacement measured gives the mass
measurement.
 Elastic elements are designed into different
shapes.

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Electronic load cell (elastic
elements)

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Electronic load cell
 Compression Type Electronic load cell:
 The measured mass is placed on top of a
platform resting on the load cell, which
therefore compresses the cell
 Extension Type Electronic load cell:
 The mass is hung from the load cell, thereby
putting the cell into tension.

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Electronic load cell
 Environmental effect on Electronic load
cell:
 Phenomenon of creep.
 Creep describes the permanent deformation that an
elastic element undergoes after it has been under
the load for a certain period of time.
 This can lead to significant measurement errors in
the form of a bias on all readings if the instrument
is not recalibrated from time to time.
 However, careful design and choice of materials
can largely eliminate the problem.
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Electronic load cell

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Pneumatic load cell

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Hydraulic load cell

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Intelligent load cells
 Add a microprocessor to a standard cell.
 What it does produce is an intelligent
weighing system that can compute total cost
from the measured weight, using stored cost
per unit weight information
 Provide output as digital display.
 Total mass can be measured by considering
the masses of individual load cells.
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 Spring Balance

• Simple and cheap

• It should obey Hook’s
law F=kx
• Visual indication

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Mass-balance (weighing)
instruments

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Pendulum Scale

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Force measurement
 F = ma
 Measured in Newtons
 Measurement techniques
 Use of accelerometers
 Vibrating wire sensor

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Use of accelerometers
 The technique of applying a force to a known
mass and measuring the acceleration produced
can be carried out using any type of
accelerometer.
 This method is of very limited practical value
because, in most cases, forces are not free
entities but are part of a system in which they
are acting on some body that is not free to
accelerate.
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Vibrating wire sensor

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Vibrating wire sensor
 Consists of a wire that is kept vibrating at its
resonant frequency by a variable-frequency
oscillator. The resonant frequency of a wire
under tension is given by:

 Measurement of the output frequency of the

oscillator allows the force applied to the wire
to be calculated.
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 Displacement/strain/velocity/vibration
Measurement
 Translational motion transducers
 Displacement

The resistive potentiometer

Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)
Strain gauges
 Velocity

Integration of displacement measurements

Differentiation of the output of an accelerometer
 Vibration

Nature of vibration
Vibration measurement

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Displacement
 Translational displacement transducers are
instruments that measure the motion of a
body in a straight line between two points.
 Displacement transducers are also useful for
the measurement of pressure, force,
acceleration.

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 The resistive potentiometer
 The best-known displacement-measuring device.
 It consists of a resistance element with a movable contact as shown in
Figure below.
 A voltage Vs is applied across the two ends A and B of the resistance
element and an output voltage V0 is measured between the point of
contact C of the sliding element and the end of the resistance element
A.

Potential
divider
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Types of resistive potentiometer
 Linear
 Logarithmic

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The resistive potentiometer
 The body whose motion is being measured is connected to
the sliding element of the potentiometer.
 Multi turn pots give you the better required resolution.
 Sources of errors in pots
 Dirty contact point increases the resistance giving wrong output.
 High-speed motion of the slider can also cause the contact to
bounce, giving an intermittent output.
 Friction between the slider and the track can also be a problem in
some measurement systems.

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The resistive potentiometer
 The life expectancy of potentiometers is normally quoted
as a number of reversals, i.e. as the number of times the
slider can be moved backwards and forwards along the
track.
 The figures quoted for wire-wound, carbon-film and
plastic-film types are respectively 1 million, 5 million and
30 million.
 Warning!!.......You must know the wiring scheme of pots
as the same device is used as a fix value resistor, rheostat,
and potentiometer.
 Solve example at page# 367

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 Strain gauges
 The traditional type of strain
gauge consists of a length of
metal resistance wire formed
into a zigzag pattern and
mounted onto a flexible
backing sheet.
 The wire is nominally of
circular cross-section. As
strain is applied to the gauge,
the shape of the cross-section
of the resistance wire distorts,
changing the cross-sectional
area.
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 Strain gauges
 Strain gauges are devices that experience a change
in resistance when these are stretched or strained.
 These are able to detect very small displacements,
usually in the range 0 – 50 µm
 Strain gauges are normally only used to measure
displacements within devices like diaphragm-
based pressure sensors

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 Strain gauges
 Sources of errors:
 Phenomenon of Creep
 Exceeding the range of elastic element
 Humidity

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Linear variable differential
transformer (LVDT)
 Consists of a transformer with a single primary winding
and two secondary windings connected in the series
opposing manner shown in Figure.

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Linear variable differential
transformer (LVDT)
 Alternative schematic

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Linear variable differential
transformer (LVDT)
 The object whose translational displacement is to be
measured is physically attached to the central iron core of
the transformer, so that all motions of the body are
transferred to the core.
 Develop mathematical relations of LVDT by yourself, its
very easy.

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Linear variable differential
transformer (LVDT) graph
Amplitude versus Displacement

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Vibration
 Quick back and forth movement
 It may be periodic or random
 Commonly encountered in machinery operation
 vibrations can be of 100g or greater in magnitude
 Vibrations consist of linear harmonic motion

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References
• Chapter#18, Alan S Moris “Measurement and
Instrumentation Principles” 3rd edition.
• Chapter#19, Alan S Moris “Measurement and
Instrumentation Principles” 3rd edition.

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