Measurement Standards

• A standard of measurement is defined as physical

representation of the unit of measurement.
• It is a known accurate measure of physical quantity.
• A unit of measurement is generally chosen with
reference to an arbitrary material standard or to a
natural phenomenon physical and atomic constant.
• Earlier all standards were arbitrary material
standards.
• Now all fundamental measurements are based on
universal constants such as Speed of Light, Plank’s

Standards & Calibration

Constant etc.
• Standards are used to determine the values of other
physical quantities by the comparison method.
• All standards are preserved at the International
Bureau of Weight and Measures (BIMP), Paris.
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Categories of Standards
• International Standard
• Primary Standard
• Secondary Standard
• Working Standard

Standards & Calibration

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Measurement Standards
• International Standard
 Defined by International Agreement
 Represent the closest possible accuracy attainable by
the current science and technology

• Primary Standard
 Maintained at the National Standards Laboratory
(different for every country). NPL for India.
 Function: the calibration and verification of

Standards & Calibration

secondary standards
 Fundamental and derived quantities are
calibrated independently by absolute
measurement.

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Measurement Standards
• Secondary standards
 Maintained by Industrial Measurement Laboratory.
 Used to check and calibrate lab instrument for
accuracy and performance.
 Checking / calibration of instruments / working
standards.
 Periodically calibrated form primary Standards.
• Working Standards
 The standards used by workers and technicians.

Standards & Calibration

 Commercially available high accuracy devices.
 For calibration of general laboratory instruments.
 Calibrated against primary or secondary standards.

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Basic Units in International
Standards
Quantity Unit Symbol
Length Meter m
mass Kilogram kg
Time Second s
Electric Current Ampere A

Standards & Calibration

Temperature Kelvin K
Amount of Substance Mole mol
Luminous Intensity Candela cd
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Derived Units in International
Standards
• Frequency, Force, Pressure, Stress, Energy, Power,
Electric Charge, Electric Potential Difference,
Electric Charge, Electric Capacitance, Electric
Resistance, Magnetic Flux, Magnetic Flux Density,
Inductance are some of the derived Properties
• Area, Acceleration, Angular Acceleration, Angular
Velocity, Density, Dynamic Viscosity, Heat Flux,

Standards & Calibration

Moment of Force, Specific Heat Capacity, Linear
Velocity, Volume – derived quantities used in
Mechanical Engineering.

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 Standards & Calibration
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International standards
• They are devices designed and constructed to the
specifications of an international forum i.e.,
“highest possible accuracy”.
• Maintained by the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures at Se’vre’s , France.
Mass (kilogram) – kg
• Mass of 1 cubic decimeter of water at 4° c.
• Material representation as International prototype
kilogram is preserved. The mass of a platinum–

Standards & Calibration

iridium cylinder kept in the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures, Se’ver’s, Paris
• From May 2019, it will be based on Plank’s Constant

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Length (Meter) – m
• Till 1960 - Distance between graduations on platinum
iridium bar
• After 1960 - 1650763.73 wavelengths of kr 86 orange
–red light.
• The length of path travelled by light in an interval of
1/299 792 458 seconds in vacuum
Time (Second) - s
• It is 1/86400 of a mean solar day. Frequency of

Standards & Calibration

cesium transition to its hyperfine state unperturbed by
external fields. 9192631770 Hertz Cesium Clock ---1
µs/day. 9.192631770 x 109 cycles of radiation from
vaporized caesium-133 (an accuracy of 1 in 1012 or 1
second in 36 000 years)
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Temperature (Kelvin) - K
• The temperature difference between absolute zero and
the triple point of water is defined as 273.16 kelvin
Current (Ampere) – A
• One ampere is the current flowing through two
infinitely long parallel conductors of negligible cross-
section placed 1 metre apart in a vacuum and
producing a force of 2 x 10-7 Newton per metre length

Standards & Calibration

of conductor.

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Luminous Intensity (Candela) – cd
• It is the luminous intensity in a given direction from a
source emitting monochromatic radiation at a frequency of
540 terahertz (540 x 1012Hz) and with a radiant density in
that direction of 1.4641 mW/steradian (1/683 W/steradian).
(1 steradian is the solid angle which, having its vertex at
the centre of a sphere, cuts off an area of the sphere
surface equal to that of a square with sides of length equal
to the sphere radius)

Matter (Mole) – mol

• It is the amount of substance of a system which contains

Standards & Calibration

as many elementary entities as there are atoms in a 0.012
kg of carbon-12
• Elementary entities can be atoms, ions etc, but to be
defined
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From 20th May 2019
• Thekilogram will be defined by the Planck
constant (h)
• The ampere will be defined by the elementary
electrical charge (e)
• Thekelvin will be defined by the Boltzmann
constant (k)

Standards & Calibration

• Themole will be defined by the Avogadro
constant (NA)

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Static Calibration
• It refers to a situation in which all inputs (d,i,m)
except one are kept at some constant values.
• Then the input under study is varied over some range
of constant values, which causes output to vary over
some range of constant values.
• This input-output relationship comprise a static
calibration valid under the stated constant conditions
of all other inputs.

Standards & Calibration

• Method describes the ideal situation. All other inputs
are measured independently. Instruments to measure
other inputs need not be very accurate.

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• During calibration input should be accurate.
• Accuracy of input should be at least 10 times better than
instrument being calibrated.
• For calibration standard input is to be given or input
which is compared with standard is given.
• Primary Calibration
 Calibration against primary standards
 Secondary standards / working standards are calibrated
against primary standards
• Secondary Calibration
 Calibration against secondary standards
 Working standards are calibrated against secondary standards

Standards & Calibration

• Routine Calibration
 Calibration against working standards
 Calibration of shop / laboratory instrument
 Periodic
• Traceability 14
Direct Calibration
• Calibration with known input sources.
 Flowmeter will measure volume and time with
primary standards.

• Calibrationwith devices having accuracy

equivalent to primary standards and similar
accuracy for calibrated instrument.
 Calibrated device can act as secondary standard.

Standards & Calibration

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Indirect Calibration
• Calibrating the equivalent device in place of the
device which is calibrated.
• Equivalence ensures similar performance.
 Turbine flowmeter which are geometrically similar
are dynamically equivalent if they have equal
Reynold’s number.
𝐷1𝜌1𝑉1 𝐷2𝜌2𝑉2
=
𝜇1 𝜇2

Standards & Calibration

• It is possible to predict performance of one device by
studying the performance of equivalent device.

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