Course: Measurement of Non-Electrical Quantities

Introduction to measurement
Instrument types and
performance characteristics

Lecture 1
Associate professor Kamala Pashayeva
 Introduction to measurement

Measurement techniques have been of immense importance ever

since the start of human civilization, when measurements were first
needed to regulate the transfer of goods in barter trade to ensure that
exchanges were fair

The industrial revolution during the nineteenth century brought

about a rapid development of new instruments and measurement
techniques to satisfy the needs of industrialized production
techniques

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 The History

Some of the earliest measurements

were of time.
One of the oldest water clocks was
found in the tomb of the ancient
Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I,
buried around 1500 BCE.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859195463102/?lp=true

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 The History

▰ The hero of Alexandria created the vending machine.

His vending machine though was a lot different than
the vending machine we have now.
▰ Hero's vending machine was like this, a person would
deposit the coin into the slot, and the coin would fall
into a pan. The pan was attached to a lever, and he
coins would weight would cause the lever to open a
valve and holy water would gush out.

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 The History

▰ It's said that the thermometer is dated

back to the Greeks of Alexandria who
had discovered that air expands.
▰ That idea in many years later helped
Galileo convert the device into a
scientific instrument that distinguished
temperature

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The History

▰ The alarm clock was created in 200

B.C. By Ctesibius. The best alarm
clock was made with a dial and a
pointer of time. The alarm system
would drop pebbles into a gong at a
present time

https://ancientgreeceinventions.weebly.com/ 6
Grist mill

https://brewminate.com/a-general-history-of-technology-from-the- 7
paleolithic-era-to-modern-times/
 Measurement units

A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and

adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for
measurement of the same kind of quantity.

Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multiple of the unit
of measurement

Now there is a global standard, the International System of Units (SI), the
modern form of the metric system

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 Measurement system applications

Present-day applications of measuring instruments can be

classified into three major areas.
▰ The first of these is their use in regulating trade, applying
instruments that measure physical quantities such as length,
volume and mass in terms of standard units.
▰ The second application area of measuring instruments is in
monitoring functions. These provide information that enables
human beings to take some prescribed action accordingly.
▰ Use as part of automatic feedback control systems forms the
third application area of measurement systems 11
A functional block diagram of a simple temperature control
system in which the temperature Ta of a room is maintained at a
reference value Td 12
 Elements of a measurement system

▰ A measuring system exists to provide information about

the physical value of some variable being measured.

▰ In simple cases, the system can consist of only a single

unit that gives an output reading or signal according to
the magnitude of the unknown variable applied to it.

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However, in more complex measurement situations, a measuring system consists
of several separate elements as shown in Figure
These components might be contained within one or more boxes, and the boxes
holding individual measurement elements might be either close together or
physically separate

Elements of a measuring instrument 14

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http://textofvideo.nptel.ac.in/103105130/lec4.pdf
 Choosing appropriate measuring
instruments
▰ The starting point in choosing the most suitable instrument to
use for measurement of a particular quantity in a
manufacturing plant or other system is the specification of the
instrument characteristics required, especially parameters like
the desired measurement accuracy, resolution, sensitivity and
dynamic performance.

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Accuracy refers to the closeness of a measured
value to a standard or known value.

For example, if in lab you obtain a weight

measurement of 8 kg for a given substance, but
the actual or known weight is 10 kg, then your
measurement is not accurate. In this case, your
measurement is not close to the known value.

Precision refers to the amount of information

that is conveyed by a number in terms of its
digits; it shows the closeness of two or more
measurements to each other. It is independent
of accuracy
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Resolution The least interval between two
adjacent discrete details which can be
distinguished one from the other.

Classic definition based on analog output

instruments:

• The smallest change of the magnitude of the

measure and that produces a minimum
observable output of the instrument

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Dynamic characteristics Input which are not static but are
dynamic in nature i.e the input is vary with the time.

Sensitivity • A measure of the change in instrument output

that occurs when the measure and changes by a given
amount • The ratio of the change in output magnitude to the
change of the input which causes it after the steady state has
been reached.

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It is also essential to know the environmental
conditions that the instrument will be subjected
Higher
to, as some conditions will immediately either the cost
eliminate the possibility of using certain types of or lower?
instrument or else will create a requirement for
expensive protection of the instrument.

Generally, the better the characteristics, the

higher the cost

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However, in comparing the cost and relative suitability of
different instruments for a particular measurement
situation, considerations of durability, maintainability and
constancy of performance are also very important

As a general rule, a good assessment criterion is

obtained if the total purchase cost and estimated
maintenance costs of an instrument over its life are
divided by the period of its expected life

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 Instrument types and
performance characteristics
▰ Instruments can be subdivided into separate classes
according to several criteria.
▰ These subclassifications are useful in broadly establishing
several attributes of particular instruments such as
accuracy, cost, and general applicability to different
applications

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A basic classification may be:

1. Mechanical Instruments: Reliable for static or

slowly changing conditions. Response is ordinarily
slow under dynamic and transient conditions.
2. Electrical Instruments: Uses electrical methods to
indicate the output. Response is more rapid than
mechanical instrument.
3. Electronic Instruments: These instruments have
very fast response. Example: a cathode ray
oscilloscope.

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1. Classification on the basis of energy consideration: Passive vs Active

2. Classification on the basis of Analog and Digital mode of operation

3. Smart and non-smart instruments

4. Indicating instruments and instruments with a signal output

5. Contacting type or Non contacting type

Various
Classifications
6. Automatic or Manual possible

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 Classification on the basis of energy
consideration
Passive Instruments
▰ Output energy is supplied entirely (or almost entirely) by
its input signal
▰ These are self-operated instruments
▰ Output and input signals may be of same form or there
may be an energy conversion

Ordinary mercury in glass Bourdon tube Pitot tube 25

thermometer
 Passive pressure gauge

 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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Active Instruments

- These require an auxiliary source of power

- Power operated instruments
- Output and input signals may be of same form or there may
be an energy conversion

Electronic amplifier Differential transformer

for displacement 27
 Petrol-tank level indicator.

 The energy in the output signal comes from the external power source: the
primary transducer float system is merely modulating the value of the voltage
from this external power source.

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 Analogue and digital instruments
▰ 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
▰ A digital instrument has an
output that varies in discrete
steps and so can only have a
finite number of values
▰ Any digital computer system,
of which the microcomputer
is but one example, performs
its computations in digital
form
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 Indicating instruments and
instruments with a signal output
The other way in which instruments can be divided is
between those that merely give an audio or visual
indication of the magnitude of the physical quantity
measured and those that give an output in the form of a
measurement signal whose magnitude is proportional to
the measured quantity

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 Null-type and deflection-type instruments

▰ Here, weights are put on top of the piston

until the downward force balances the
fluid pressure.
▰ Weights are added until the piston
reaches a datum level, known as the null
point.
▰ Pressure measurement is made in terms Deadweight pressure gauge
of the value of the weights needed to
reach this null position.
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 The pressure gauge just mentioned is a good example of a deflection
type of instrument

The accuracy of these two instruments depends on different things.

For the first one it depends on the linearity and calibration of the
spring, whilst for the second it relies on the calibration of the weights.

 This is in accordance with the general rule that null-type

instruments are more accurate than deflection types

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Smart and non-smart instruments

The advent of the microprocessor has

created a new division in instruments
between those that do incorporate a
microprocessor (smart) and those that
don’t

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