Measurement and

Instrumentation principles
By Alan S. Morris
MSE-315
Lec. Mudassar Shehzad

Office# 323, mudassar.shehzad@scme.nust.edu.pk

11-March-2015
 Necessity for calibration
It can normally be assumed that a new
instrument will have been calibrated when it is
obtained from an instrument manufacturer,
and will therefore initially behave according to
the characteristics stated in the specifications.

During use, however, its behaviour will

gradually diverge from the stated specification
for a variety of reasons. Such reasons include
mechanical wear, and the effects of dirt, dust,
fumes and chemicals in the operating
environment.
The rate of divergence from standard specifications varies according to the type of
instrument,the frequency of usage and the severity of the operating conditions. However,
there will come a time, determined by practical knowledge, when the characteristics
of the instrument will have drifted from the standard specification by an unacceptable
amount.
When this situation is reached, it is necessary to
recalibrate the instrument to the standard
specifications. Such recalibration is performed by
adjusting the instrument at each point in its output
range until its output readings are the same as
those of a second standard instrument to which the
same inputs are applied. This second instrument
is one kept solely for calibration purposes whose
specifications are accurately
known.
Errors during the measurement process

Ch#3
Errors in measurement systems can be divided
into

those that arise during the measurement those that arise due to later corruption of the
process measurement signal by induced noise during
transfer of the signal from the point of
measurement to some other point.
important to reduce errors to the minimum
possible level to reduce the incidence of
And errors
then to quantify the maximum remaining error that
may exist in any instrument output reading

carry out a detailed

analysis of all error sources
in the system
Random Errors Systematic Errors
 Systematic errors

either all the errors are positive

or they are all negative

Due to

Effect of Uncalibrate
System Bent meter
environmen d
Disturbance needle
tal change instruments

Poor
Drift Cabli
ng
 Random errors

Random errors often arise when

measurements are taken by human
observation of an analogue meter, especially
where this involves interpolation between
scale points.
overcome by taking the same
measurement a number of times

best that we can do is to express

measurements
in probabilistic terms:
Parallax-induced systematic error
parallex
 System disturbance due to
measurement
Cold thermometer
Initially at 25C
Putting cold thermometer
in boiled water
Is
Averaging the temperature
of hot water Boiling water
At 100C

Orifice plate cause the

permanent pressure loss in
the flowing fluid
Is the
Example of system
disturbance
Measurements in electric circuits
 Measurements in electric circuits

Interaction between the fix field and induced fields

Caused to rotate the coil
Increase the # of turns
To increase the input Use the higher resistance
Materials

But it can decrease the current in coil and sensitivity

 Errors due to environmental inputs
caused by a change in the environmental
conditions surrounding the measurement Wear in instrument
system components

Caused by the change in ambient conditions

Like Tem, Pressure etc for static and dynamic
Type of instrumentation

must be reproduced as closely as possible

during calibration exercises
Connecting leads
The magnitude of this environment-induced
variation is quantified by the two constants
known as sensitivity drift and zero drift
 Reduction of systematic errors
• Careful instrument design
• Method of opposing inputs
• High-gain feedback
• Calibration
• Manual correction of output reading
• Intelligent instruments
 High-gain feedback
Ei is applied to a motor
Torque Constant = Km
induced torque turns a pointer against the
restraining action of a spring with spring
constant = Ks
Dm= (Constant) the effect of environmental
output of motor
Ds= (Constant) the effect of environmental
output of spring
 Systematic Error
On +ve side (+X%)
Magnitude

Variable Systematic Error

On –ve side (–X%)
 Quantification of Random errors
• Unpredictable variation *Random Error
• Positive error and negative errors occur in
approximately equal member for a series of
measurement
• Calculating the average of number of repeated
• Quantification by *Averaging
• Quantification by *Mean and Median
 Statistical Analysis
• Constant quality can be expressed as either the mean value or the
median value
• Note: As the number of measurements increases the difference
between the mean value and median values become very small

For the set of 10 values the x1, x2 For the set of 9 values the x1, x2 …
… x10 the median is x5, x6 x9 the median is x5
The average of x5 and x6 =
(x5+x6)/2
 Examples
Suppose that the length of a steel bar is measured by a number of different observers
and the following set of 11 measurements are recorded (units mm). We will call this
measurement set A.
Set A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 435

430
Magnitude

425

420

Magnitude
415

410

405
Mean = = 409.0 400

395

390
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Number of measurements

Median= = 408
With more care of observation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Set B

Mean =409.0 Median=404

 Examples

420
Magnitude

415
Magnitude

410

405

400
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Number of measurements
Standard deviation and variance
 Activity
Mean=409
Measurement

Deviation from mean

Graphical method to quantify the
errors
Missing lectures in lecture slides
Lec 11 and 12
 Graphical Data Analysis
Graphical techniques are a very useful way of
analyzing the way in which random
measurement errors are distributed.

Simplest way ------ to draw the histogram

2mm Band Width

# of measurements
Between 405.5-to-407.5=11

# of measurements
Between 407.5-to-409.5=5
 Graphical Data Analysis
It is more useful to draw a histogram of deviation
Of measurements from the mean value

Step 1
Calculate the deviation of each measurement
Away from the calculated mean value

Step 2
Draw a histogram of deviation --- the band of
Equal width --- and counting the deviation values
In each band
Note: the # of measurements increases----- the smaller bands can be defined
As the # measurements approaches to unity  the histogram become smooth
Then the curve known as frequency distribution curve
 Graphical Data Analysis
Ordinate (Y-axis)  the frequency of the occurance
Of each deviation value F(D)
Assessing the maximum error likely in any one measurement is  “Cumulative
distribution Frequency” (c.d.f)
Area under the curve

If the area under the curve is unity then the curve is known as “Probability Curve”

Max-
Probability

Dp If Dp is non
If Dp=0
Zero
Random Error Abscissa (X-axis)  Magnitude of deviation Systematic Err
Gaussian distribution
Gaussian distribution