SMART FUEL

MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

Anand Rangaswamy
6th Semester,Electrical & Electronics
SJCE,Mysore
anandr81@rediffmail.com
If you're like me, you like to squeeze every last mile
you can out of your tank of fuel .
If you could get 20 useful miles extra from each
tank, that could save you two or three trips to the
gas station over the course of a year.

• Present Day System

*Notoriously inaccurate,analog system
*Shows empty when there are gallons left
*Shows full for the first 50 miles
*SMS conceived because students my
age end up pushing their bikes
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 Present Day Measurement System

• Simplest method
• Based on buoyancy effect
• Mechanically coupled to displacement
sensor such as a simple pot
• Error in the instrument is inversely
proportional to the area of the float

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 Mechanism:The Sending Unit
Basically consists of
• Float made of foam connected to a rod
• Mounted onto a variable resistor by means
of a wiper,which is grounded on one side
• The current that flows is proportional to the
position of the wiper which in turn depends
on the amount of fuel present
• As the fuel level goes down the float sinks
and hence the wiper moves over the pot
causing a decrease in current Click Here

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 Reasons for Inaccuracy
• Fuel has to drop below a certain level
before the float starts to drop.Its upward
movement is limited either by the link it is
connected to or the top of the tank
• Similarly,the range of movement does not
extend to the very bottom of the tank
• Shape of the tank ,it may be made of plastic
molded to fit around tight spaces

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 Disadvantages
• The error in measurement is inversely proportional
to the cross sectional area of the float. The
manufacturer does not have the freedom to design
an efficient space saving design of the tank
• The device is not linear,zero on the gauge would
correspond to a few litres in reality
• The float mechanism is affected by the
disturbances to the level of the fluid
• The float mechanism is erroneous on inclines

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 The New Design
• Reads accurately, state of the art technology
• Uses appropriate sensors
• Converts analog signals to digital signals
• Uses a microprocessor

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 Factors Considered While
Selecting Sensors
• Nature of required • Speed of response
measurement • Maintenance,life
• Nature of output • Power requirement
• Range • Availability & cost
• Accuracy • Reliability
• Linearity

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 Probable Pressure Sensors
• Bourdon tube
• Piezoelectric Load Cells
• Diaphragm Pressure Sensors
• Bellow pressure sensors
• Load cells

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 Why Load Cells?
• Versatile for this application
• Satisfies all requirements
• Can operate over wide range of forces
• Most popular sensor in the industry

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 What Are Load Cells?
• Electro mechanical sensors to measure static
and dynamic forces
• Consists of strain gauges
• Load on the load cell causes strain on the
gauge which is measured in volts per unit
force
• Shape and location of the gauge chosen such
that both compressive and tensile forces act
on it
• The deformation of the load column of
transducer causes strain at the surface
changing resistance
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Characteristics of A Strain Gauge

• Gauge length,width
• Gauge sensitivity
• Range of measurement
• Accuracy
• Ability to withstand ambient environmental
conditions

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 Electrical Strain Gauges
• Principle based on measurement of change
in R,L,C that are proportional to strain
transferred to the specimen
• Usually 4 strain gauges are mounted 2
radially and 2 axially
• This arrangement permits a full wheatstone
bridge that allows greater accuracy
• Any change in ambient temperature will
affect all four gauges similarly and will
cancel out

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 Temperature changes
• Changes in temperature affect resistance of
the gauge,can cause an error
• To overcome this an unstrained
compensating gauge having the same
temperature characteristics as the active
gauge is to be used in the bridge
circuit,mounted close to the active gauge

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 Problems Faced With Strain
Gauges
• Gauges are sensitive to temperature,which
increases r,such changes can be falsely
interpreted as pressure change
• The output of a strain gauge is very small
and has to be amplified with some error due
to noise signals in the amp
• An electrical bridge circuit solves both
problems

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 The New Design

• Number of load cells under the tank

• The weight of the tank & fuel acts on the
load cells causing change in resistance
which is read as change in voltage
• This is measured by the bridge circuit and is
amplified

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 Prerequisites
• To determine force exerted by the fuel per
unit value of fuel volume
• We have to note down the value of change
in voltage produced by the required amount
of fuel depending on our resolution
• We can then set the least count by
calibrating the system to that minimum
amount of fuel,say 100 ml
• The microprocessor stores the odometer
reading each time the fuel goes down by
some amount, ideally 1 litre
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• The data for the last 10 litres is stored and
with some manipulation on the data the
average mileage can be calculated
• Depending on the amount of fuel left the
microprocessor can predict how far the car
can run without a refill

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 Advantages of the Proposed
System

• More accurate than the existing system

• This system is not affected by inclines
• No electrical part inside the tank,safety is
enhanced
• The system is independent of shape of the
tank
• The device can be made linear

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 Disadvantages
• This method may not be directly applicable
to pick up trucks and motorbikes without
modifications
• The new system is more expensive,however
most present day cars come equipped with
a microprocessor,the cost wouldn’t be a
hindering block

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 References
• Instrumentation technology – Jones
• Instrumentation fundamentals and
applications – Morrison
• Industrial instrumentation – Tata Mangalam
& R.Padmanabhan
• Mechatronics – W.Bolton
• Instrumentation Devices & Systems - C.S.
Rangan, G.R. Sarma, V.S.V. Mani
• Measurements Systems Application And
Design – Ernest O Doeblin

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THANK YOU!

QUESTIONS?