Industrial Instrumentation

Ch.E- 401

Kashif iqbal
Instrument

 Typical components of instrument

 A Sensor:
(measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal)

 A Modifier
(Change the type of signal)

 A Display unit
(transmitting arrangement )
Functional Elements of an Instrument

Process/
Measured medium

Primary Variable Variable

Sensing Conversion Manipulation
Element Element Element

Data Data
Transmission Presentation
Element Element

Observer
Functional Elements of an Instrument (Cont‘d)

Typical Example:
Functional Elements of an Instrument (Cont‘d)

Fluid
Temperature Temperature Tube Tubing
Measured
Quantity

Primary Variable Pressure Data

Process/ Sensing Conversion Transmission
Measured medium Element Element Element

Pressure

Variable Motion Variable Motion Data

Conversion Manipulation Presentation
Element Element Element

Observer
Spiral Bourdon Linkage Gear Scale & Pointer
Tube
Generalized Instrument System
Performance Characteristics of Instruments

 Static characteristics

 Dynamic characteristics
 Static Characteristics
Accuracy and Precision
Repeatability/Reproducibility
Tolerance
Range or span
Linearity
Sensitivity of measurement
Threshold
Resolution
 Sensitivity to disturbance
Hysteresis effects
Dead space

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Static Characteristics

Static characteristics of an instrument includes;

1. Accuracy

The accuracy of an instrument is a measure of

how close the output reading of the instrument
is to the correct value.
Measurements that are close to each other are
precise
Measurements can be:
• Precise but inaccurate
• Neither precise nor accurate
• Precise and accurate
.
Accuracy is usually expressed in engineering units or as a percentage
of the sensor range, for example:
 
 Thermocouple temperature sensor with accuracy of  1.5 K.

 Orifice flow meters with accuracy of 3% of maximum flow range

Static Characteristics

Static characteristics of an instrument includes;

2. Precision

 Precision is the degree of exactness

for which an instrument is designed
or intended to perform.

 It is composed of two
characteristics;
1. Conformity
2. Number of significant figures
Static Characteristics

Static characteristics of an instrument includes;

3. Repeatability

The closeness of agreement among a number of

consecutive measurements of the same variable (value)
under the same operating conditions, approaching in the
same direction.

The term “approaching

in the same direction”
means that the variable
is increasing
(decreasing) to the
value for all replications
of the experiment.
 Repeatability/Reproducibility
Repeatability describes the closeness of output readings when the
same input is applied repetitively over a short period of time, with
the same measurement conditions, same instrument and observer,
same location and same conditions of use maintained throughout.
Reproducibility describes the closeness of output readings for the
same input when there are changes in the method of measurement,
observer, measuring instrument, location, conditions of use and
time of measurement.
Both terms thus describe the spread of output readings for the same
input.
This spread is referred to as repeatability if the measurement
conditions are constant and as reproducibility if the measurement
conditions vary.

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 Tolerance
Tolerance is a term that is closely related to accuracy and
defines the maximum error that is to be expected in some value.

Example
Electric circuit components such as resistors have tolerances of perhaps
5%. One resistor chosen at random from a batch having a nominal value
1000W and tolerance 5% might have an actual value anywhere between
950W and 1050 W.

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Static Characteristics

Static characteristics of an instrument includes;

5. Range/Span
 Range represents the minimum and maximum values which
can be determined by an instrument or equipment.
 Difference between upper and lower range is known as Span.
 Span can be the same for two different range instruments.

If a chemical reactor typically operates at 300 C, the engineer might

select a range of 250-350 C.
 
Since the reactor will be started up from ambient temperature
occasionally, an additional sensor should be provided with a range of -50
to 400 C.
 Linearity
It is highly desirable that the measurement system has a
linear relationship between input and output means that
the change in output is proportional to the change in the
value of the measurand.
Deviation from true linearity is called linearity error.

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 Sensitivity of measurement
 Sensitivity is the ratio of change in magnitude of the
output to the change in magnitude of the measurand
Sensitivity = (output) / (input)

Example:
If the measured output is increased by 100 mV for a
temperature change of 4c, the sensitivity is
S = V/T = 100 mV/ 4c = 25 V/C

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Threshold

If the input to an instrument is gradually increased

from zero, the input will have to reach a certain
minimum level before the change in the instrument
output reading is of a large enough magnitude to be
detectable. This minimum level of input is known as
the threshold of the instrument.

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 Resolution
Resolution is the lower limit on the magnitude of the change in
the input measured quantity that produces an observable
change in the instrument output.
Example
Using a car speedometer as an example , this has subdivisions of
typically 20 km/h. This means that when the needle is between
the scale markings, we cannot estimate speed more accurately
than to the nearest 5 km/h. This figure of 5 km/h thus represents
the resolution of the instrument

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Drift

 Gradual change in instruments measurements.

OR
 Measure of difference in repeatability.

 Under laboratory conditions drift of an element

can be determined by one of two ways;
1. Point drift
2. Calibration drift
Dead Zone

Dead zone is the largest range of values of a measured

variable to which the instrument does not respond.

This is sometimes called dead spot and hysteresis.

Backlash
 Backlash or mechanical hysteresis is defined as that lost
motion or free play which is inherent in mechanical
elements such as gears, linkages or other mechanical
transmission devices that are not rigidly connected.
 Dead space
Dead space is defined as the range of different input
values over which there is no change in output value.

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Static Characteristics

Static characteristics of an instrument includes;

Linearity

This is the closeness to a straight line of the

relationship between the true process variable and
the measurement.
Lack of linearity does not necessarily degrade
sensor performance. If the nonlinearity can be
modeled and an appropriate correction applied to
the measurement before it is used for monitoring
and control, the effect of the non-linearity can be
eliminated.

Linearity is usually reported as non-linearity, which is the

maximum of the deviation between the calibration curve and a
straight line positioned so that the maximum deviation is
minimized
 Sensitivity to disturbance
As variations occur in the ambient temperature etc., certain
static instrument characteristics change, and the sensitivity to
disturbance is a measure of the magnitude of this change.
Such environmental changes affect instruments in two main
ways, known as zero drift and sensitivity drift.
Zero drift is sometimes known by the alternative term, bias.
Zero drift or bias describes the effect where the zero reading
of an instrument is modified by a change in ambient
conditions.
Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor drift) defines the
amount by which an instrument’s sensitivity of measurement
varies as ambient conditions change.
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Hysteresis Effects

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The End

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