Static Characteristics of Measurement System Elements Input J Element Output -—> Figure 2.1 Meaning of element characteristics, In the previous chapter we saw that a measurement system consists of different types of element, The following chapters discuss the characteristics that typical elements may possess and their effect on the overall performance of the system. This chapter is concemed with static or steady-state characteristics; these are the relationships which may occur between the output O and input J of an element when / is either at a constant value or changing slowly (Figure 2.1) Systematic characteristics Systematic characteristics are those that can be exactly quantified by mathematical or graphical means, These are distinct from statistical charactetistics which cannot be exactly quantified and are discussed in Section 2.3. Range The input range of an element is specified by the minimum and maximum values Of 1, i.€. Type 10 Iyag- The output range is specified by the minimum and maximum values of O, ic. Oygy to Oyyax- Thus a pressure transducer may have an input range of 0 to 10° Pa and an output range of 4 to 20 mA; a thermocouple may have an input range of 100 to 250 °C and an output range of 4 to 10 mV. Span Span is the maximum variation in input or output, ic. input span is Jax — hay, and ‘output span is Oy,x ~ Oygy- Thus in the above examples the pressure transducer has an input span of 10' Pa and an output span of 16 mA; the thermocouple has an input span of 150 °C and an output span of 6 mV. Ideal straight line ‘An element is said to be linear if corresponding values of J and O lie on a straight line, The ideal straight line connects the minimum point AU, Ogg) to maximum. point BQheax, Onax) (Figure 2.2) and therefore has the equation:www.elsolucionario.net 10 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ELEMENTS eae |ann (21) Tye Tuas [19 Ideal straight line equation Orpen, = KI + a 23] Que = Ores cal straight-line slope =“ and a= ideal straight-line intercept = Oyy — Klos ‘Thus the ideal straight line for the above pressure transducer is: O=16x 10°14 4.0 ‘The ideal straight line defines the ideal characteristics of an element. Non-ideal char- acteristics can then be quantified in terms of deviations from the ideal straight line. Non-linearity In many cases the straight-line relationship defined by eqn [2.2] is not obeyed and the element is said to be non-linear, Non-linearity can be defined (Figure 2.2) in terms of a function N(/) which is the difference between actual and ideal straight-line behaviour, ie NG) = OW) ~ (KI+ a) (23) or OW) = KI+a+NU) 24] Non-linearity is often quantified in terms of the maximum non-linearity N expressed as a percentage of full-scale deflection (f's.d_), ie. as a percentage of span. Thus: Max. non-linearity as, a percentage of f's.d x 100% [2.5] Ora Figure 2.2 Definition of ° non-linearity BUlstaxs Omaxd sc Onn) Inewww.elsolucionario.net 2.1 SYSTEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS 11. ‘As an example, consider a pressure sensor where the maximum difference between actual and ideal straight-line output values is 2 mV. If the output span is 100 mV, then the maximum percentage non-linearity is 2% of fs.d. In many cases O(Z) and therefore N(Z) can be expressed as a polynomial in J: ow a taltal+...tali+...+aJ"= > at? [2.6] ‘An example is the temperature variation of the thermoelectric e.m.f. at the junction of two dissimilar metals. For a copper—constantan (Type T) thermocouple junction, the first four terms in the polynomial relating em.f, E(T), expressed in UV, and junction temperature 7°C are: BT) = 38.747 + 3.319 x 1077? + 2.071 x 10“7? = 2.195 x 10"°T* + higher-order terms up to T° (2.7a] for the range 0 to 400 °C." Since E = 0 wV at T= 0°C and E = 20.869 nV at T= 400 °C, the equation to the ideal straight line is Exons = 52.177 [2.76] and the non-linear correction function is: ND) = BT) ~ Ewa, 13.437 + 3.319 x 1077? + 2.071 x 107? = 2.195 x 10°T* + higher-order terms. [2.7] In some cases expressions other than polynomials are more appropriate: for example the resistance R(T) ohms of a thermistor at T °C is given by: RIT)= [28] Sensitivity ‘This is the change AO in output O for unit change AJ in input J, ic. it is the ratio AO/AL In the limit that AJ tends to zero, the ratio AO/A/ tends to the derivative dO/dl, which is the rate of change of O with respect to J. For a linear element dO/A/ is equal to the slope or gradient K of the straight line; for the above pressure transducer the sensitivity is 1.6 x 10° mA/Pa. For a non-linear element dO/dl = K + AN/Al, ic sensitivity is the slope or gradient of the output versus input characteristics O(/), Figure 2.3 shows the e.m-f. versus temperature characteristics E(T) for a Type T thermocouple (eqn [2.7a]). We see that the gradient and therefore the sensitivity vary with temperature: at 100 °C itis approximately 35 ,1V/°C and at 200 °C approximately 42 wVPC. Environmental effects In general, the output © depends not only on the signal input / but on enviror ‘mental inputs such as ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, supply voltage, ete. Thus if eqn [2.4] adequately represents the behaviour of the element under ‘standard’ environmental conditions, e.g. 20 °C ambient temperature,www.elsolucionario.net 12. STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ELEMENTS Figure 2.3, Env Thermocouple sensitivity 10.000 5000 ° 100 200 1000 millibars atmospheric pressure, 50% RII and 10'V supply voltage, then the equation must be modified to take account of deviations in environmental conditions from ‘standard’. There are two main types of environmental input. ‘A modifying input / causes the linear sensitivity of an element to change. K is the sensitivity at standard conditions when J4;= 0. If the input is changed from the standard value, then /y is the deviation from standard conditions, ic. (new value — standard value). The sensitivity changes from K to K + Kyly, where K,yis the change in sensitivity for unit change in Jy. Figure 2.4(a) shows the modilying effect of ambient temperature on a linear element. ‘An interfering input J, causes the straight line intercept or zero bias to change. a is the zero bias at standard conditions when J; = 0. If the input is changed from the standard value, then J; is the deviation from standard conditions, ic. (new value — standard value). The zero bias changes from a to a + Kjlj, where K; is the change in zero bias for unit change in J,, Figure 2.4(b) shows the interfering effect of ambient temperature on a linear element. Ky and K,are referred to as environmental coupling constants or sensitivities. Thus we must now correct eqn [2.4], replacing KT with (K + KJ) and replacing a with a+ Kil;to give: O=KI+a4+NU) + Kylyl + Kyl 2.9) ° ° 30°C, zero bias =a-+ 10K; 20°C, 1)= 0, zero bias =a 10°C, 42-10, zero bias =~ 10K; sensitivity = K 10°C, Iy= 10, ; sensitivity =K—10Kyy + 10K 0K; @ © Figure 2.4 Modifying and interfering inputs.www.elsolucionario.net 2.1 SYSTEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS 13 Ifx is the fractional displacement, then Voyon = (We + AVX Vox + AVex Figure 2.5 Figure 2.6 Hysteresis, Figure 2.7 Backlash in gears. An example of a modifying input is the variation AV; in the supply voltage V; of the potentiometric displacement sensor shown in Figure 2.5. An example of an interfering input is provided by variations in the reference junction temperature 7; of the thermocouple (see following section and Section 8.5). Hysteresis For a given value of J, the output O may be different depending on whether J is increasing or decreasing. Hysteresis is the difference between these two values of 0 (Figure 2.6), ie. Hysteresis HU) = OW)u — OW) > [2.10] Again hysteresis is usually quantified in terms of the maximum hysteresis 7 expressed as a percentage of f's.d, ic. span. Thus: Maximum hysteresis as a percentage of fs.d.=————— x 100% [2.11] ‘A simple gear system (Figure 2.7) for converting linear movement into angular rotation provides a good example of hysteresis. Due to the ‘backlash’ or ‘play’ in the gears the angular rotation 0, for a given value of x, is different depending on the direction of the linear movement. Resolution Some elements are characterised by the output increasing in a series of discrete steps ‘or jumps in response to a continuous increase in input (Figure 2.8). Resolution is defined as the largest change in J that can occur without any corresponding change in O.www.elsolucionario.net 14 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM ELEMENTS Figure 2.8 Resolution and potentiometer example. vax. ~ Leobocose Oy L$ — Ale Aas Tax ‘Thus in Figure 2.8 resolution is defined in terms of the width AJ, of the widest step; resolution expressed as a percentage of f's.d. is thus: x 100% A common example is a wire-wound potentiometer (Figure 2.8); in response to a continuous increase in x the resistance R increases in a series of steps, the size of each step being equal to the resistance of a single tum. Thus the resolution of a 100 tum potentiometer is 1%. Another example is an analogue-to-digital converter (Chapter 10); here the output digital signal responds in discrete steps to a continu- ous increase in input voltage; the resolution is the change in voltage required to cause the output code to change by the least significant bit. Wear and ageing ‘These effects can cause the characteristics of an element, e.g. Kand a, to change slowly but systematically throughout its life. One example is the stiffness of a spring A(?) decreasing slowly with time due to wear, ie Kt) = ky - bt (2.12) where fy is the initial stiffness and dis a constant. Another example is the constants a,, ay, etc. of a thermocouple, measuring the temperature of gas leaving a cracking fumace, changing systematically with time due to chemical changes in the thermo- couple metals. Error bands Nonlinearity, hysteresis and resolution effects in many modern sensors and trans- ducers are so small that its difficult and not worthwhile to exactly quantify each indi- vidual effect. In these cases the manufacturer defines the performance of the element in terms of error bands (Figure 2.9). Here the manufacturer states that for any value of [the output O will be within +h of the ideal straight-line value Oypy,,- Here an exact or systematic statement of performance is replaced by a statistical statement in terms of a probability density function p(O). In general a probability density function p(x) is defined so that the integral J p(x) dx (equal to the area under the curve in Figure 2.10 between x, and x,) is the probability P, . of x lying between x, and x, (Section 6.2) In this case the probability density function is rectangular (Figure 2.9), ie.www.elsolucionario.net 2.2 GENERALISED MODEL OF A SYSTEM ELEMENT 15 Figure 2.9 Error ° (0) bands and rectangular probability density function, a 5 Figure 2.10 Probability pos) density function. Probability density Area between x; and x [ Fe Orn hE OS Oyun O\r8 0>0, =0 -n>0 [2.13] We note that the area of the rectangle is equal to unity: this is the probability of 0 lying between Oppzay, ~ ft and Opyeas +h: Generalised model of a system element If hysteresis and resolution effect are not present in an clement but environmental and nonelinear effects are, then the steady-state output O of the element is in general given by eqn [2.9], ie O=KI+ a+ MQ) + Kyle + Kil; 2.9] Figure 2.11 shows this equation in block diagram form to represent the static characteristics of an element. For completeness the diagram also shows the transfer function G(s), which represents the dynamic characteristics of the element, The ‘meaning of transfer function will be explained in Chapter 4 where the form of G(s) for different elements will be derived. Examples of this general model are shown in Figure 2.12(a), (b) and (c), which summarise the static and dynamic characteristics of a strain gauge, thermocouple and accelerometer respectively.