M.I.E.

T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

M.I.E.T. ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(Approved by AICTE and Affiliated to Anna University Chennai)
TRICHY – PUDUKKOTTAI ROAD, TIRUCHIRAPPALLI – 620 007

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

COURSE MATERIAL

EE6404 - MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTAION

II YEAR – IV SEMESTER

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

(SYLLABUS)
Sub. Code : EE6404 Branch/Year/Sem : EEE/II/IV

Sub Name : MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTAION Staff Name : S.PANDIARAJAN

EE6404 MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION LTPC

3003
UNIT I INTRODUCTION 9
Functional elements of an instrument – Static and dynamic characteristics – Errors in
measurement – Statistical evaluation of measurement data – Standards and calibration.
UNIT II ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS INSTRUMENTS 9
Principle and types of analog and digital voltmeters, ammeters, multimeters – Single and
three phase wattmeters and energy meters – Magnetic measurements – Determination of B-
H curve and measurements of iron loss – Instrument transformers – Instruments for
measurement of frequency and phase.
UNIT III COMPARISON METHODS OF MEASUREMENTS 9
D.C & A.C potentiometers, D.C & A.C bridges, transformer ratio bridges, self-balancing
bridges. Interference & screening – Multiple earth and earth loops - Electrostatic and
electromagnetic interference – Grounding techniques.
UNIT IV STORAGE AND DISPLAY DEVICES 9
Magnetic disk and tape – Recorders, digital plotters and printers, CRT display, digital CRO,
LED, LCD & dot matrix display – Data Loggers.
UNIT V TRANSDUCERS AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS 9
Classification of transducers – Selection of transducers – Resistive, capacitive & inductive
transducers – Piezoelectric, Hall effect, optical and digital transducers – Elements of data
acquisition system – A/D, D/A converters – Smart sensors.
TOTAL :45 PERIODS
TEXT BOOKS:
1. A.K. Sawhney, ‘A Course in Electrical & Electronic Measurements & Instrumentation’,
Dhanpat Rai and Co, 2004.
2. J. B. Gupta, ‘A Course in Electronic and Electrical Measurements’, S. K. Kataria & Sons,
Delhi, 2003.
3. Doebelin E.O. and Manik D.N., Measurement Systems – Applications and Design, Special
Indian Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd., 2007.
REFERENCES:
1. H.S. Kalsi, ‘Electronic Instrumentation’, Tata McGraw Hill, II Edition 2004.
2. D.V.S. Moorthy, ‘Transducers and Instrumentation’, Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd, 2007.
3. A.J. Bouwens, ‘Digital Instrumentation’, Tata McGraw Hill, 1997.
4. Martin Reissland, ‘Electrical Measurements’, New Age International (P) Ltd., Delhi, 2001.
5. Alan. S. Morris, Principles of Measurements and Instrumentation, 2nd Edition, Prentice
Hall of India, 2003.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

EE6404 MEASUREMENTS AND INSTRUMENTAION

COURSE OBJECTIVES
 To introduce the basic functional elements of instrumentation.
 To introduce the fundamentals of electrical and electronic instruments.
 To educate on the comparison between various measurement techniques.
 To introduce various storage and display devices.
 To introduce various transducers and the data acquisition systems.

COURSE OUTCOMES

 Identify the basic block elements in measuring instruments.

 Explain the significance of electrical and magnetic instruments.
 Demonstrate the working of various bridge circuits.
 Choose the suitable display devices for different applications.
 Illustrate the function of different blocks involved in DAS.
 Compare the performance of electrical and electronic instruments.

Prepared by Verified By
Mr. S.PANDIARAJAN HOD

Approved by

PRINCIPAL

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

UNIT I

INTRODUCTION

Functional elements of an instrument – static and dynamic characteristics – errors in

measurement –statistical evaluation of measurement data – standards and calibration.

Instrumentation

Instrumentation is a branch of engineering that deals with the measurement and control of
different parameters. Instrumentation is defined as "the art and science of measurement and
control". Instrumentation can be used to refer to the field in which Instrument technicians and
engineers work, or it can refer to the available methods of measurement and control.

Eg. Pressure, temperature, level, velocity .etc

The measurement of a given parameter or quantity is the act or result of a quantitative comparison
between a predefined standard and an unknown quantity to be measured. The physical , chemical,
electrical quantity ,properly process, variable or a condition to be measured is referred as
measurement.

Objectives of engineering measurements

1. Measurements of system parameter information

The result of measurement gives visual indication of
parameter(registering/monitoring)or signal for further processing. The collected information gives the
current status of physical parameters.

2. Automatic control systems

The measurement systems forms an integral part of automatic control systems in
which a variables is to be maintained at a desired value. For keeping a variable at a certain level, the
current status of the same must known

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Process

Measurement
Final control
element

Controller

3. Simulation means comparison of full scale prototype with a perfect model. T model is translated to
the prototype model. Then the experimental results of the model are translated to the prototype. For
this measurement of experiment results of the prototype is necessary.

Eg. Testing the model of aerodynamic bodies in controlled air streams and measuring the o/p flow
conditions for simulation.

4. Experimental; design

For developing a new products prototype different experiments must be carried out to
measure its performance with respect to different inputs.

5. To perform various manipulation

For performing different mathematical manipulations (addition, subtraction, multiplication,

division, differentiation etc).

6. Testing of materials and quality control

The raw materials for production must be cross checked with standard specification which is
also a kind of measurement. Similarly the final product also must be tested against a standard one
which comes under quality control.

7. Verification of scientific theories.

To verify scientific theories, experiments are to be conducted which involves measurement of

quantities.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Basic measurement system- block diagram

A measuring system exists to provide information about the physical value of some variable
being measured. In simple cases, the system can consist of only a single unit that gives an output
reading or signal according to the magnitude of the unknown variable applied to it. However, in more
complex measurement situations, a measuring system consists of several separate elements as shown
in Figure. These components might be contained within one or more boxes, and the boxes holding
individual measurement elements might be either close together or physically separate. The term
measuring instrument is commonly used to describe a measurement system, whether it contains only
one or many elements, and this term will be widely used throughout this text.

A measurement system consists of 3 fundamental blocks.

1. An input device

2. Signal conditioning and processing device

3. Output device

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Every device is composed of one or more functional elements.

1. Input device.

The function of input device is to sense the quantity under measurement. If the measurand is a
non electrical quantity, it has to be converted to a proportional electrical quantity; this is done by
means of a transducer.

2. Signal conditioning & processing device

The o/p of the first stage may not be suitable for the i/p of the next stage and hence may need
to be manipulated. Signal conditioning includes amplification, filtering, attenuating etc.

Data transmitting element: When the elements of an instrument are actually physically separated it
becomes necessary to transmit data from one to another. The element that performs this function is
called data transmission element. The signals may now be processed for display.

3. Output device
The information about the quantity under measurement has to be conveyed to the personal handling
to the instrument or the system to monitoring control or analysis purposes. To monitor data analog or
digital indicating instruments like ammeter voltmeter etc may be used. To record data magnetic tape
recorders, printers, micro processors may be used. For control and analysis purposes a
microprocessor or computer may be used.

Elements of a measurement system

The first element in any measuring system is the primary sensor: this gives an output that is a
function of the measurand (the input applied to it). For most but not all sensors, this function is at least
approximately linear. Some examples of primary sensors are a liquid-in-glass thermometer, a
thermocouple and a strain gauge. In the case of the mercury-in-glass thermometer, the output reading
is given in terms of the level of the mercury, and so this particular primary sensor is also a complete
measurement system in itself. However, in general, the primary sensor is only part of a measurement
system. Variable conversion elements are needed where the output variable of a primary transducer is
in an inconvenient form and has to be converted to a more convenient form. For instance, the strain
gauge has an output in the form of a varying resistance. The resistance change cannot be easily

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

measured and so it is converted to a change in voltage by a bridge circuit, which is a typical example
of a variable conversion element. In some cases, the primary sensor and variable conversion element
are combined, and the combination is known as a transducer.

Signal processing elements exist to improve the quality of the output of a measurement system in
some way. A very common type of signal processing element is the electronic amplifier, which
amplifies the output of the primary transducer or variable conversion element, thus improving the
sensitivity and resolution of measurement. This element of a measuring system is particularly
important where the primary transducer has a low output. For example, thermocouples have a typical
output of only a few millivolts. Other types of signal processing element are those that filter out
induced noise and remove mean levels etc. In some devices, signal processing is incorporated into a
transducer, which is then known as a transmitter.

In addition to these three components just mentioned, some measurement systems have one or
two other components, firstly to transmit the signal to some remote point and secondly to display or
record the signal if it is not fed automatically into a feedback control system. Signal transmission is
needed when the observation or application point of the output of a measurement system is some
distance away from the site of the primary transducer. The signal transmission element has
traditionally consisted of single or multi-cored cable, which is often screened to minimize signal
corruption by induced electrical noise. However, fibre-optic cables are being used in ever increasing
numbers in modern installations, in part because of their low transmission loss and imperviousness to
the effects of electrical and magnetic fields.

The final optional element in a measurement system is the point where the measured signal is
utilized. In some cases, this element is omitted altogether because the measurement is used as part of
an automatic control scheme, and the transmitted signal is

fed directly into the control system. In other cases, this element in the measurement system takes the
form either of a signal presentation unit or of a signal-recording unit.

Performance characteristics

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Knowledge of the performance characteristics of an instrument is essential for selecting the

most suitable instrument for specific measuring jobs. Performance characteristics of an instrument are
mainly divided into two.

1. Static characteristics
2. Dynamic characteristics

Static Characteristics

The set of criteria defined for the instrument which is used to measure the quantities that are
varying slowly with time or constant is called static characteristics.

Accuracy and inaccuracy (measurement uncertainty)

The accuracy of an instrument is a measure of how close the output reading of the instrument
to the correct value. The measured value invariably differs from the true value because of the effects
of disturbing inputs such as temperature, humidity etc. and because of the performance characteristics
of the measuring system itself. In practice, it is more usual to quote the inaccuracy figure rather than
the accuracy figure for an instrument. Inaccuracy is the extent to which a reading might be wrong, and
is often quoted as a percentage of the full scale (f.s.) reading of an instrument. If, for example, a
pressure gauge of range 0–10 bar has a quoted inaccuracy of 1.0% f.s. (1% of full-scale reading), then
the maximum error to be expected in any reading is 0.1 bar. This means that when the instrument is
reading 1.0 bar, the possible error is 10% of this value. For this reason, it is an important system
design rule that instruments are chosen such that their range is appropriate to the spread of values
being measured, in order that the best possible accuracy is maintained in instrument readings. Thus, if
we were measuring pressures with expected values between 0 and 1 bar, we would not use an
instrument with a range of 0–10 bar. The term measurement uncertainty is frequently used in place of
inaccuracy.

Precision/repeatability/reproducibility

Precision is a term that describes an instrument‘s degree of freedom from random errors. If a
large number of readings are taken of the same quantity by a high precision instrument, then the
spread of readings will be very small. Precision is often, though incorrectly, confused with accuracy.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

High precision does not imply anything about measurement accuracy. A high precision instrument
may have a low accuracy. Low accuracy measurements from a high precision instrument are normally
caused by a bias in the measurements, which is removable by recalibration.

The terms repeatability and reproducibility mean approximately the same but are applied in different
contexts as given below. 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. The degree of repeatability or reproducibility in measurements
from an instrument is an alternative way of expressing its precision. Figure illustrates this more
clearly. The figure shows the results of tests on three industrial robots that were programmed to place
components at a particular point on a table. The target point was at the centre of the concentric circles
shown, and the black dots represent the points where each robot actually deposited components at
each attempt. Both the accuracy and precision of Robot 1 are shown to be low in this trial. Robot 2
consistently puts the component down at approximately the same place but this is the wrong point.
Therefore, it has high precision but low accuracy. Finally, Robot 3 has both high precision and high
accuracy, because it consistently places the component at the correct target position.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Tolerance

Tolerance is a term that is closely related to accuracy and defines the maximum error that is
to be expected in some value. Whilst it is not, strictly speaking, a static characteristic of measuring
instruments, it is mentioned here because the accuracy of some instruments is sometimes quoted as a
tolerance figure. When used correctly, tolerance describes the maximum deviation of a manufactured
component from some specified value. 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

Range or span

The range or span of an instrument defines the minimum and maximum values of a quantity that the
instrument is designed to measure. The range of the indicating instrument is normally from zero to
some full scale value and span is simply difference between the full scale and lower scale value. But
some instrument operate under a bias so that they start reading, for example, voltages from 150 V to

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

250 V only. The zero of these instruments is suppressed from indication by means of a bias. In such a
case , the range is said to be from 150 V to 250 V and the span is 100 V.

Linearity

Linearity defines the proportionality between the input quantity and output quantity. It is
normally desirable that the output reading of an instrument is linearly proportional to the quantity
being measured. The Xs marked on Figure show a plot of the typical output readings of an instrument
when a sequence of input quantities is applied to it. Normal procedure is to draw a good fit straight
line through the Xs, as shown in Figure. (Whilst this can often be done with reasonable accuracy by
eye, it is always preferable to apply a mathematical least-squares line-fitting technique.) The non-
linearity is then defined as the maximum deviation of any of the output readings marked X from this
straight line. Non-linearity is usually expressed as a percentage of full-scale reading.

Sensitivity of measurement

The sensitivity of measurement is a measure of the change in instrument output that occurs
when the quantity being measured changes by a given amount. Thus, sensitivity is the ratio of the
scale deflection to the value of measurand producing deflection. The sensitivity of measurement is
therefore the slope of the straight line drawn on above figure. If, for example, a pressure of 2 bar
produces a deflection of 10 degrees in a pressure transducer, the sensitivity of the instrument is 5
degrees/bar (assuming that the deflection is zero with zero pressure applied).

Threshold

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Threshold is defined as the minimum input quantity that is necessary to cause a detectable
change in the output signal from the zero indication. Manufacturers vary in the way that they specify
threshold for instruments. Some quote absolute values, whereas others quote threshold as a percentage
of full-scale readings. As an illustration, a car speedometer typically has a threshold of about 15 km/h.
This means that, if the vehicle starts from rest and accelerates, no output reading is observed on the
speedometer until the speed reaches 15 km/h.

Resolution

Resolution is the smallest increment of the input quantity to which the measuring system
responds. Like threshold, resolution is sometimes specified as an absolute value and sometimes as a
percentage of full scale deflection. One of the major factors influencing the resolution of an
instrument is how finely its output scale is divided into subdivisions. Using a car speedometer as an
example again, 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.

Sensitivity to disturbance

All calibrations and specifications of an instrument are only valid under controlled conditions
of temperature, pressure etc. These standard ambient conditions are usually defined in the instrument
specification. 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. This causes a constant error that exists over the full range of
measurement of the instrument. Zero drift is normally removable by calibration.

Zero drift is also commonly found in instruments like voltmeters that are affected by ambient
temperature changes. Typical units by which such zero drift is measured are volts/ 0C. This is often
called the zero drift coefficient related to temperature changes. If the characteristic of an instrument is
sensitive to several environmental parameters, then it will have several zero drift coefficients, one for

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

each environmental parameter. A typical change in the output characteristic of a pressure gauge
subject to zero drift is shown in figure.

Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor drift) defines the amount by which an
instrument‘s sensitivity of measurement varies as ambient conditions change. It is quantified by
sensitivity drift coefficients that define how much drift there is for a unit change in each
environmental parameter that the instrument characteristics are sensitive to. Many components within
an instrument are affected by environmental fluctuations, such as temperature changes: for instance,
the modulus of elasticity of a spring is temperature dependent. Figure b shows what effect sensitivity
drift can have on the output characteristic of an instrument. Sensitivity drift is measured in units of the
form (angular degree/bar)/0C. If an instrument suffers both zero drift and sensitivity drift at the same
time, then the typical modification of the output characteristic is shown in figure c.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Hysteresis effects

Transducer hysteresis is evidenced by a difference in output when a series of inputs is applied

first in an ascending or increasing direction and then in a descending or decreasing direction. This
occurs as a result of the behavior of the materials used to manufacture the sensing element or as a
result of the assembly of these materials. Transducer hysteresis is most evident in sensors that use
metal diaphragms, bellows, or spring assemblies in the sensing element. In a pressure transducer, the
metal diaphragm is stretched when the pressure is increased and then relaxes when the pressure is
reduced. Certain stress levels are built up in the diaphragm material as the pressure is increased, and
when the pressure is decreased not all this stress is released. This also means that the diaphragm
deflection is not the same for increasing and decreasing pressures.

Figure illustrates the output characteristic of an instrument that exhibits hysteresis. If the input
measured quantity to the instrument is steadily increased from a negative value, the output reading
varies in the manner shown in curve (a). If the input variable is then steadily decreased, the output
varies in the manner shown in curve (b). The non-coincidence between these loading and unloading
curves is known as hysteresis. Two quantities are defined, maximum input hysteresis and maximum
output hysteresis, as shown in Figure. These are normally expressed as a percentage of the full-scale
input or output reading respectively.

Hysteresis is most commonly found in instruments that contain springs, such as the passive pressure
gauge and the Prony brake (used for measuring torque). It is also evident when friction forces in a
system have different magnitudes depending on the direction of movement, such as in the pendulum-
scale mass-measuring device. Hysteresis can also occur in instruments that contain electrical windings

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

formed round an iron core, due to magnetic hysteresis in the iron. This occurs in devices like the
variable inductance displacement transducer, the LVDT and the rotary differential transformer.

Dead space

Dead space is defined as the range of different input values over which there is no change in
output value. Dead band is the largest change in input quantity to which the measuring system does
not respond. It is primarily caused by friction in the components of the sensor or by gaps in the mating
surfaces of moving components such as gears. Dead band is identified by slowly increasing the input
signal in small increments until a change of output is noted. The value of input at this point is noted,
and the dead band is expressed as that value expressed as a percentage of the transducer span. Some
instruments that do not suffer from any significant hysteresis can still exhibit a dead space in their
output characteristics, however. Backlash in gears is a typical cause of dead space, and results in the
sort of instrument output characteristic shown in figure. Backlash is commonly experienced in
gearsets used to convert between translational and rotational motion (which is a common technique
used to measure translational velocity).

Static error

It is the algebraic difference between the measured value and true value.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Error =measured value - True value.

Stability

The ability of an instrument to retain its performance throughout its specified operating life is
called stability. Transducers and instruments of high stability need not be calibrated frequently. Zero
stability defines the ability of instrument to restore to zero reading after the input quantity has been
brought to zero, while other conditions remains the same.

2.Dynamic characteristics

Dynamic characteristics of a measuring systems relate to its performance when the measured
is a function of time.(dynamic means varying with time). In measurement systems, the dynamic
response of instruments must be anaysed because the parameters are functions of time.. The
response of instruments or systems to dynamic i/ps are also functions of time.the terms related to
dynamic response are

 Over shoot
 Peaktime
 Timedelay
 Time delay
 Setting time
 Time constant

Dynamic characteristics of instruments

The static characteristics of measuring instruments are concerned only with the teadystate

reading that the instrument settles down to, such as the accuracy of the reading etc.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The dynamic characteristics of a measuring instrument describe its behaviourbetween the time a
measured quantity changes value and the time when the instrument output attains a steady value in
response. As with static characteristics, any values for dynamic characteristics quoted in instrument
data sheets only apply when the instrument is used under specified environmental conditions. Outside
these calibration conditions, some variation in the dynamic parameters can be expected. In any linear,
time-invariant measuring system, the following general relation can be written between input and
output for time t > 0:

where qi is the measured quantity, q0 is the output reading and a0 . . . an, b0 . . . bm are

constants. The reader whose mathematical background is such that the above equation appears
daunting should not worry unduly, as only certain special, simplified cases of it are applicable in
normal measurement situations. The major point of importance is to have a practical appreciation of
the manner in which various different types of instrument

respond when the measurand applied to them varies. If we limit consideration to that of step changes
in the measured quantity only, then equation (2.1) reduces to:

Zero order instrument

If all the coefficients a1 . . . an other than a0 in equation (2.2) are assumed zero, then:

where K is a constant known as the instrument sensitivity as defined earlier. Any instrument that
behaves according to equation (2.3) is said to be of zero order type. Following a step change in the
measured quantity at time t, the instrument output moves immediately to a new value at the same time

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

instant t, as shown in Figure 2.10. A potentiometer, which measures motion, is a good example of
such an instrument, where the output voltage changes instantaneously as the slider is displaced along
the potentiometer track.

First order instrument

If all the coefficients a2 . . . an except for a0 and a1 are assumed zero in

equation (2.2) then

Any instrument that behaves according to equation (2.4) is known as a first order

instrument. If d/dt is replaced by the D operator in equation (2.4), we get:

Defining K = b0/a0 as the static sensitivity and D = a1/a0 as the time constant of the system, equation
(2.5) becomes:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

If equation (2.6) is solved analytically, the output quantity q0 in response to a step change in qi at time
t varies with time in the manner shown in Figure 2.11. The time constant _ of the step response is the
time taken for the output quantity q0 to reach 63% of its final value. The liquid-in-glass thermometer
(see Chapter 14) is a good example of a first order

instrument. It is well known that, if a thermometer at room temperature is plunged into boiling water,
the output e.m.f. does not rise instantaneously to a level indicating 100C, but instead approaches a
reading indicating 100C in a manner similar to that shown in Figure.

A large number of other instruments also belong to this first order class: this is of particular
importance in control systems where it is necessary to take account of the time lag that occurs
between a measured quantity changing in value and the measuring instrument indicating the change.
Fortunately, the time constant of many first order instruments is small relative to the dynamics of the
process being measured, and so no serious problems are created.

First order instrument characteristic

Second order instrument

If all coefficients a3 . . . an other than a0, a1 and a2 in equation (2.2) are assumed zero,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

then we get:

It is convenient to re-express the variables a0, a1, a2 and b0 in equation (2.8) in terms of

three parameters K (static sensitivity), ω (undamped natural frequency) and (damping

ratio), where:

Re-expressing equation (2.8) in terms of K, ω and we get:

This is the standard equation for a second order system and any instrument whose response can be
described by it is known as a second order instrument. If equation (2.9) is solved analytically, the
shape of the step response obtained depends on the value of the damping ratio parameter _. The
output responses of a second order instrument for various values of _ following a step change in the
value of the measured quantity at time t are shown. For case (A) where _ D 0, there is no damping and
the instrument output exhibits constant amplitude oscillations when disturbed by any change in the
physical quantity measured. For light damping of _ D 0.2, represented by case (B), the response to a
step change in input is still oscillatory but the oscillations gradually die down. Further increase in the
value of _ reduces oscillations and overshoot still more, as shown by curves (C) and (D), and finally
the response becomes very overdamped as shown by curve (E) where the output reading creeps up
slowly towards the correct reading. Clearly, the extreme response curves (A) and (E) are grossly
unsuitable for any measuring instrument. If an instrument were to be only ever subjected to step
inputs, then the design strategy would be to aim towards a damping ratio of 0.707, which gives the
critically damped response (C). Unfortunately, most of the physical quantities that instruments are
required to measure do not change in the mathematically convenient form of steps, but rather in the

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

form of ramps of varying slopes. As the form of the input variable changes, so the best value for
varies, and choice of _ becomes one of compromise between those values that are best for each type
of input variable behaviour anticipated. Commercial second order instruments, of which the
accelerometer is a common example, are generally designed to have a damping ratio somewhere in
the range of 0.6–0.8.

Response characteristics of second order instruments

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Analog and Digital information

Digital information

1. it is discrete &vary in steps

2. Easier to design
3. storage of information is easy
4. programmed and processed easily
5. not defined for every value of time

Analog information

1. variations/unit time it is in the form of continous or stepless

2. design is not easy
3. storage is difficult
4. difficult to program
5. Analog signals are defined for every value oh time

Errors

Error is the difference between the true value of the variable and the measured value.

Errors are classified as

1. Gross error

2. Systematic error

3. Random errors

Gross error

Gross error mainly occurs due to carelessness or lack of experience of a human being. These cover
human mistakes in reading, recording and calculating results. These errors occur due to incorrect
adjustments of instruments.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Thers errors can be minimized by

1.taking great care while taking reading, recordings and calculating results.

2. Taking multiple readings preferably by different persons.

Systematic errors

There errors are mainly occur due to the short comings of the instrument such as defective or work
parts ageing effects, environmental effects. A constant uniform deviation of the operation of an
instrument is known as systematic error.

There are three types of systematic errors as

1. Instrumental errors
2. Environmental errors
3. Observational errors
Instrumental errors

These errors are mainly due to following three reasons

1. Short-comings of instrument

These are because of the mechanical structure of the instruments eg. Friction in the bearings of
various moving parts, irregular spring tensions, reduction intension due to improper handlings,
hysteresis, gear backlash, variation in air gap etc. These can be avoided by the following methods..

1. Selecting proper instrument and planning the transducer for the measurement.
2. Recognizing the effect of such errors and applying the proper correction factors.
3. Calibrating the instrument carefully against standard.

2. Misuse of instrument

A good instrument if used in abnormal way gives misleading results. Poor initial
adjustments, improper zero setting, using leads of high resistance etc are the examples of misuse
a good instrument.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

3. Loading effects

Loading effects due to the conditions external to the measuring instrument. The various
factors that cause these errors are temperature changes, pressure changes, thermal emf., stray
capacitance, cross capacitance effect of external fields, aging of equipments and frequency sensitivity
of an instrument. Various methods to reduce errors are

1. Using proper correction factors and using information supplied by the manufacturer of the
instrument
2. Using the arrangements which will keep the surrounding conditioning, temperature control
enclosures etc.
3. Reducing the effect of dust humidity on the components in the instruments.
4. The effects of external fields can be minimized by using the magnetic or electrostatic shields
of screens.

Sources of systematic error

Systematic errors in the output of many instruments are due to factors inherent in the manufacture of
the instrument arising out of tolerances in the components of the instrument. They can also arise due
to wear in instrument components over a period of time. In other cases, systematic errors are
introduced either by the effect of environmental

disturbances or through the disturbance of the measured system by the act of measurement.

System disturbance due to measurement

Disturbance of the measured system by the act of measurement is a common source of systematic
error.

Errors during the measurement process

Thermometer, which would initially be at room temperature, and plunge it into the water. In
so doing, we would be introducing a relatively cold mass (the thermometer) into the hot water and a
heat transfer would take place between the water and the thermometer. This heat transfer would lower

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

the temperature of the water. Whilst the reduction in temperature in this case would be so small as to
be undetectable by the limited measurement resolution of such a thermometer, the effect is finite and
clearly establishes the principle that, in nearly all measurement situations, the process of measurement
disturbs the system and alters the values of the physical quantities being measured. A particularly
important example of this occurs with the orifice plate. This is placed into a fluid-carrying pipe to
measure the flow rate, which is a function of the pressure that is measured either side of the orifice
plate. This measurement procedure causes a permanent pressure loss in the flowing fluid. The
disturbance of the measured system can often be very significant.

Errors due to environmental inputs

An environmental input is defined as an apparently real input to a measurement system that is

actually caused by a change in the environmental conditions surrounding the measurement system.
The fact that the static and dynamic characteristics specified for measuring instruments are only valid
for particular environmental conditions (e.g. of temperature and pressure) has already been discussed
at considerable length in Chapter 2. These specified conditions must be reproduced as closely as
possible during calibration exercises because, away from the specified calibration conditions, the
characteristics of measuring instruments vary to some extent and cause measurement errors.The
magnitude of this environment-induced variation is quantified by the two constants known as
sensitivity drift and zero drift, both of which are generally included in the published specifications for
an instrument. Such variations of environmental conditions away from the calibration conditions are
sometimes described as modifying inputs to the measurement system because they modify the output
of the system. When such modifying inputs are present, it is often difficult to determine how much of
the output change in a measurement system is due to a change in the measured variable and how
much is due to a change in environmental conditions. This is illustrated by the following example.
Suppose we are given a small closed box and told that it may contain either a mouse or a rat.

System designers are therefore charged with the task of either reducing the susceptibility of measuring
instruments to environmental inputs or, alternatively, quantifying the effect of environmental inputs
and correcting for them in the instrument output reading.

Connecting leads

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

In connecting together the components of a measurement system, a common source of error is

the failure to take proper account of the resistance of connecting leads (or pipes in the case of
pneumatically or hydraulically actuated measurement systems). For instance, in typical applications of
a resistance thermometer, it is common to find that the thermometer is separated from other parts of
the measurement system by perhaps 100 metres.

Not only should they be of adequate cross-section so that their resistance is minimized, but they
should be adequately screened if they are thought likely to be subject to electrical or magnetic fields
that could otherwise cause induced noise. Where screening is thought essential, then the routing of
cables also needs careful planning. In one application in the author‘s personal experience involving
instrumentation of an electrical

steel making furnace, screened signal-carrying cables between transducers on the arc furnace and a
control room at the side of the furnace were initially corrupted by high amplitude 50 Hz noise.
However, by changing the route of the cables between the transducers and the control room, the
magnitude of this induced noise was reduced by

a factor of about ten.

Reduction of systematic errors

The prerequisite for the reduction of systematic errors is a complete analysis of the
measurement system that identifies all sources of error. Simple faults within a system, such as bent
meter needles and poor cabling practices, can usually be readily and cheaply rectified once they have
been identified. However, other error sources require more detailed analysis and treatment. Various
approaches to error reduction are considered

below.

Careful instrument design

Careful instrument design is the most useful weapon in the battle against environmental
inputs, by reducing the sensitivity of an instrument to environmental inputs to as low a level as
possible. For instance, in the design of strain gauges, the element should be constructed from a
material whose resistance has a very low temperature coefficient (i.e. the variation of the resistance
with temperature is very small). However, errors due to the way in which an instrument is designed
are not always easy to correct, and a choice often has to be made between the high cost of redesign
and the alternative of accepting the reduced measurement accuracy if redesign is not undertaken.

Calibration

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Instrument calibration is a very important consideration in measurement systems. All

instruments suffer drift in their characteristics, and the rate at which this happens depends on many
factors, such as the environmental conditions in which instruments are used and the frequency of their
use. Thus, errors due to instruments being out of calibration can usually be rectified by increasing the
frequency of recalibration.

Observationtional errors.

These are the errors introduced by the observer. These are many sources of
observational errors such as parallax error while reading a scale, selection , the habits of individual
observers etc.

To eliminate such errors we should use the instruments with mirrors knife edge pointers etc.
Instruments with digital display can also be used.

Errors in measurement systems can be divided into those that arise during the measurement process
and those that arise due to later corruption of the measurement signal by induced noise during transfer
of the signal from the point of measurement to some other point.

Random errors are perturbations of the measurement either side of the true value caused by random
and unpredictable effects, such that positive errors and negative errors occur in approximately equal
numbers for a series of measurements made of the same quantity. Such perturbations are mainly
small, but large perturbations occur from time to time, again unpredictably. Random errors often arise
when measurements are taken by human observation of an analogue meter, especially where this
involves interpolation between scale points. Electrical noise can also be a source of random errors. To
a large extent, random errors can be overcome by taking the same measurement a number of times
and extracting a value by averaging or other statistical techniques. However, any quantification of the
measurement value and statement of error bounds remains a statistical quantity. Because of the nature
of random errors and the fact that large perturbations in the measured quantity occur from time to
time, the best that we can do is to express measurements in probabilistic terms: we may be able to
assign a 95% or even 99% confidence level that the measurement is a certain value within error
bounds of, say, 1%, but we can never attach a 100% probability to measurement values that are
subject to random errors. Finally, a word must be said about the distinction between systematic and

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

random errors. Error sources in the measurement system must be examined carefully to determine
what type of error is present, systematic or random, and to apply the appropriate treatment. In the case
of manual data measurements, a human observer may make a different observation at each attempt,
but it is often reasonable to assume that the errors are random and that the mean of these readings is
likely to be close to the correct value. However, this is only true as long as the human observer is not
introducing a parallax-induced systematic error as well by persistently reading the position of a needle
against the scale of an analogue meter from one side rather than from directly above. In that case,
correction would have to be made for this systematic error (bias) in the measurements before
statistical techniques were applied to reduce the effect of random errors.

Errors during the measurement process

Manual correction of output reading

In the case of errors that are due either to system disturbance during the act of measurement
or due to environmental changes, a good measurement technician can substantially reduce errors at
the output of a measurement system by calculating the effect of such systematic errors and making
appropriate correction to the instrument readings. This is not necessarily an easy task, and requires all
disturbances in the measurement system to be quantified. This procedure is carried out automatically
by intelligent instruments.

Intelligent instruments

Intelligent instruments contain extra sensors that measure the value of environmental inputs
and automatically compensate the value of the output reading. They have the ability to deal very
effectively with systematic errors in measurement systems, and errors can be attenuated to very low
levels in many cases.

Quantification of systematic errors

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Once all practical steps have been taken to eliminate or reduce the magnitude of systematic
errors, the final action required is to estimate the maximum remaining error that may exist in a
measurement due to systematic errors. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to quantify exact
values of a systematic error, particularly if measurements are subject to unpredictable environmental
conditions. Data sheets supplied by instrument manufacturers usually quantify systematic errors in
this way, and such figures take account of all systematic errors that may be present in output readings
from the instrument.

Statistical analysis of measurements subject to random errors

Mean and median values

Mean:

The average value of a set of measurements of a constant quantity can be expressed as either
the mean value or the median value. As the number of measurements increases, the difference
between the mean value and median values becomes very small. However, for any set of n
measurements x1, x2,…………., xn of a constant quantity, the most likely true value is the mean
given by:

This is valid for all data sets where the measurement errors are distributed equally about the zero error
value, i.e. where the positive errors are balanced in quantity and magnitude by the negative errors.

Median

The median is an approximation to the mean that can be written down without having to sum
the measurements. The median is the middle value when the measurements in the data set are written
down in ascending order of magnitude. For a set of n measurements x1, x2 , …………. , xn of a
constant quantity, written down in ascending order of magnitude, the median value is given by:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Thus, for a set of 9 measurements x1, x2, ……..xn arranged in order of magnitude, the

median value is x5.

For an even number of measurements, the median value is midway between the two centre values, i.e.

for 10 measurements x1, …….. …, x10, the median value is given by: 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.398, 420, 394, 416, 404,
408, 400, 420, 396, 413, 430, Measurement set A_

mean = 409.0 and

median = 408.

Suppose now that the measurements are taken again using a better measuring rule, and with the
observers taking more care, to produce the following measurement set B:

409 406 402 407 405 404 407 404 407 407 408 _Measurement set B_ For these measurements,

mean = 406.0 and

median = 407.

Which of the two measurement sets A and B, and the corresponding mean and median values, should
we have most confidence in? Intuitively, we can regard measurement set B as being more reliable
since the measurements are much closer together. In set A, the spread between the smallest (396) and
largest (430) value is 34, whilst in set B, the spread is only 6. Thus, the smaller the spread of the
measurements, the more confidence we have in the mean or median value calculated.

Let us now see what happens if we increase the number of measurements by extending

measurement set B to 23 measurements. We will call this measurement set C. 409 ,406 402, 407, 405,
404, 407, 404, 407, 407, 408, 406, 410, 406, 405, 408, 406, 409, 406, 405, 409, 406, 407
_Measurement set C_

Now, mean = 406.5 and median = 406.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

This confirms our earlier statement that the median value tends towards the mean value as the number
of measurements increases.

Standard deviation and variance

Expressing the spread of measurements simply as the range between the largest and smallest
value is not in fact a very good way of examining how the measurement values are distributed about
the mean value. A much better way of expressing the distribution is to calculate the variance or
standard deviation of the measurements. The starting point for calculating these parameters is to
calculate the deviation (error) di of each measurement xi from the mean value xmean:

The variance (V) is then given by

The standard deviation is simply the square root of the variance.

Example

Calculate and V for measurement set.

Solution

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

First, draw a table of measurements and deviations for set A (mean D 409 as calculated

earlier):

Note that the smaller values of V and _ for measurement set B compared with A correspond with the
respective size of the spread in the range between maximum and minimum values for the two sets.

ž Thus, as V and _ decrease for a measurement set, we are able to express greater confidence that the
calculated mean or median value is close to the true value, i.e. that the averaging process has reduced
the random error value close to zero. ž Comparing V and _ for measurement sets B and C, V and _ get
smaller as the number of measurements increases, confirming that confidence in the mean value
increases as the number of measurements increases. We have observed so far that random errors can
be reduced by taking the average (mean or median) of a number of measurements. However, although
the mean or median value is close to the true value, it would only become exactly equal to the true
value if we could average an infinite number of measurements. As we can only make a finite number
of measurements in a practical situation, the average value will still

have some error. This error can be quantified as the standard error of the mean, which will be
discussed in detail a little later. However, before that, the subject of graphical analysis of random
measurement errors needs to be covered

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

UNIT II

ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS INSTRUMENTS

Principle and types of analog and digital voltmeters, ammeters, multi meters – single and three phase
wattmeter‘s and energy meters – magnetic measurements – determination of B-H curve and
measurements of iron loss – instrument transformers – instruments for measurement of frequency and
phase.

Theory Permanent Magnet Moving Coil (PMMC) Instruments

The general theory of moving-coil instruments may be dealt with considering a rectangular coil of
turns, free to rotate about a vertical axis. N

Fig. 42.1(a) shows the basic construction of a PMMC instrument. A moving coil instrument consists
basically of a permanent magnet to provide a magnetic field and a small lightweight coil is wound on
a rectangular soft iron core that is free to rotate around

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

its vertical axis. When a current is passed through the coil windings, a torque is developed on the coil
by the interaction of the magnetic field and the field set up by the current in the coil. The aluminum
pointer attached to rotating coil and the pointer moves around the calibrated scale indicates the
deflection of the coil. To reduce parallax error a mirror is usually placed along with the scale. A
balance weight is also attached to the pointer to counteract its weight (see Fig.). To use PMMC device
as a meter, two problems must be solved. First, a way must be found to return the coil to its original
position when there is no current through the coil. Second, a method is needed to indicate the amount
of coil movement. The first problem is solved by the use of hairsprings attached to each end of the
coil as shown in Fig. . These hairsprings are not only supplying a restoring torque but also provide an
electric connection to the rotating coil. With the use of hairsprings, the coil will return to its initial
position when no current is flowing though the coil. The springs will also resist the movement of coil
when there is current through coil. When the developing force between the magnetic fields (from
permanent magnet and electro magnet) is exactly equal to the force of the springs, the coil rotation
will stop. The coil set up is supported on jeweled bearings in order to achieve free movement. Two
other features are considered to increase the accuracy and efficiency of this meter movement. First, an
iron core is placed inside the coil to concentrate the magnetic fields. Second, the curved pole faces
ensure the turning force on the coil increases as the current increases.

It is assumed that the coil sides are situated in a uniform radial magnetic field of flux
density2/Bwbm, let the length of a coil side (within the magnetic field) be (meter), and the distance
from each coil side to the axis be (meter). lr

Principle of operation

It has been mentioned that the interaction between the induced field and the field produced by
the permanent magnet causes a deflecting torque, which results in rotation of the coil. The deflecting
torque produced is described below in mathematical form:

Truly speaking, the equation (42.2) is valid while the iron core is cylindrical and the air gap between
the coil and pole faces of the permanent magnet is uniform. This result the flux density B is constant
and the torque is proportional to the coil current and instrument scale is linear.

Controlling Torque: The value of control torque depends on the mechanical design of the control
device. For spiral springs and strip suspensions, the controlling torque is directly proportional to the
angle of deflection of the coil.

..,ieControl torque =Cθ (42.3)

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

where,

θ = deflection angle in radians and = spring constant C/.Nmrad

Damping Torque: It is provided by the induced currents in a metal former or core on which
the coil is wound or in the circuit of the coil itself. As the coil moves in the field of the permanent
magnet, eddy currents are set up in the metal former or core. The magnetic field produced by the eddy
currents opposes the motion of the coil. The pointer will therefore swing more slowly to its proper
position and come to rest quickly with very little oscillation. Electromagnetic damping is caused by
the induced effects in the moving coil as it rotates in magnetic field, provided the coil forms part of
closed electric circuit.

Deflecting torque:

If the coil is carrying a current of I amp, the force on a coil side B il N (Newton N)

Torque due to both coil side = (2r) (Bil N) (N m)

Where G is the galvanometer constant and is expressed as G=2 r BlN (Nm/amp)

=NBA (Nm/amp)

Where A= 2rl= area of Coil.

N=no of turns of the coil.

B=flux density in Wb/m2

L=length of the vertical side of the coil,m

2r=breath of the coil.

I=current in ampere.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

A= 2rl= area, m2

Equation of motion : the resulting torque in a coil or motion of a coil in a manganetic filed is due to

D d
the combined effect of deflecting torque (T d) controlling torque(Cθ) damping torque dt and it is
expressed mathematically as

2 2
d d Jd  + Dd + c = G I
j 2 = Gi – C – D dt = 2 dt
dt dt

Where J is the moment of inertia of moving parts. One can easily study the dynamic behavior of the
above second order system by solving the differential equation

Remarks: When the moving system reached at steady state i.e. at final deflected position, the
controlling torque becomes equal and opposite to the deflecting torque. The deflecting angle is
directly proportional to the current in the movable coil (see eq). For this reason, the scale of the
moving coil instrument is calibrated linearly

Multi-range ammeters and voltmeters

An ammeter is required to measure the current in a circuit and it therefore connected in series
with the components carrying the current. If the ammeter resistance is not very much smaller than the
load resistance, the load current can be substantially altered by the inclusion of the ammeter in the
circuit. To operate a moving coil instrument around a current level 50ma is impractical owing to the
bulk and weight of the coil that would be required. So, it is necessary to extend the meter-range shunts
(in case of ammeters) and multipliers (in case of volt meters) are used in the following manner.

For higher range ammeters a low resistance made up of managing (low temperature
coefficient of resistance) is connected in parallel to the moving coil (see Fig.) and instrument may be
calibrated to read directly to the total current.

They are called shunts. The movement of PMMC instrument is not inherently insensitive to
temperature, but it may be temperature-compensated by the appropriate use of series and shunt
resistors of copper and managing. Both the magnetic field strength and spring-tension decrease with
an increase in temperature. On other side, the coil resistance

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

increases with an increase in temperature. These changes lead to make the pointer read low for a
given current with respect to magnetic field strength and coil resistance. Use of manganin resistance
(known as swamping resistance which has a temperature coefficient practically zero) in series with
the coil resistance can reduce the error due to the variation of resistance of the moving coil. The
swamping resistance () is usually three times that of coil thereby reducing a possible error of, say, 4%
to 1%. A multirange ammeter can be constructed simple by employing several values of shunt
resistances, with a rotary switch to select the desired range. Fig. 42.2(b) shows the circuit
arrangement. r

When an instrument is used in this fashion, care must be taken to ensure shunt does not
become open-circuited, even for a very short instant. When the switch is moved from position ‗B‘ to
‗C‘ or moved to any positions, the shunt resistance will remain open-circuited for a fraction of time,
resulting a very large current may flow through the ammeter and damage the instrument. To avoid
such situation, one may use the make-before-break switch as shown in Fig.42.(c).

The wide-ended moving contact connected to the next terminal to which it is being moved before it
loses contact with the previous terminals. Thus, during the switching time there are two resistances
are parallel with the instrument and finally the required shunt only will come in parallel to the
instrument

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

When an instrument is used in this fashion, care must be taken to ensure shunt does not become open
circuit, even for a very short instant. When the switch is moved from the position B to C or moved to
any position, the shunt resistance will remain open circuit for a fraction of time, resulting a very large
current may floe through the ammeter and damage the instrument .to avoid such situation, one may
use the make before break switch as shown in fig.

Multi-range voltmeter: A dc voltmeter is constructed by a connecting a resistor in series with a

PMMC instrument. Unlike an ammeter, a voltmeter should have a very high resistances R and it is
normally connected in parallel with the circuit where the voltage is to be measured (see Fig.42.4). To
minimize voltmeter loading, the voltmeter operating current should be very small i.e., the resistance
connected in series with the coil should be high.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The moving coil instrument can be suitable modified to act either as an ammeter or as a voltmeter. For
multi range voltmeter the arrangement is follows as shown in fig. any one of several multiplier
resistor is selected by means of rotary switch. Unlike the case of the ammeter, the rotary switch used
with the voltmeter should be a break before make, type, that is, moving contact should be disconnect
from one terminal before connecting to the next terminal

Advantages, Limitations and sources of errors

Advantages:

• The scale is uniformly divided (see at steady state , sGICθ=).

• The power consumption can be made very low (25200WtoWμμ).

• The torque-weight ratio can be made high with a view to achieve high accuracy.

• A single instrument can be used for multi range ammeters and voltmeters.

• Error due to stray magnetic field is very small.

Limitations:

• They are suitable for direct current only.

• The instrument cost is high.

• Variation of magnet strength with time.

The Errors are due to:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

i) Frictional error, ii) Magnetic decay, iii) Thermo electric error, iv) Temperature error.

Errors can be reduced by following the steps given below:

• Proper pivoting and balancing weight may reduce the frictional error.

• Suitable aging can reduce the magnetic decay.

• Use of managing resistance in series (swamping resistance) can nullify the effect of variation of
resistance of the instrument circuit due to temperature variation.

• The stiffness of spring, permeability of magnetic core (Magnetic core is the core of electromagnet or
inductor which is typically made by winding a coil of wire around a ferromagnetic material) decreases
with increases in temperature.

Ammeter Sensitivity:

Ammeter sensitivity is determined by the amount of current required by the meter coil to
produce full-scale deflection of the pointer. The smaller the amount of current required producing this
deflection, the greater the sensitivity of the meter. A meter movement that requires only 100
microamperes for full- scale deflection has a greater sensitivity than a meter movement that requires 1
mA for the same deflection.

Voltmeter Sensitivity:

The sensitivity of a voltmeter is given in ohms per volt. It is determined by dividing the sum
of the resistance of the meter (R ), plus the series resistance (R ), by the full-scale reading in volts.
m s

Construction and Basic principle operation of Moving-iron Instruments

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

We have mentioned earlier that the instruments are classified according to the principles of operation.
Furthermore, each class may be subdivided according to the nature of the movable system and method
by which the operating torque is produced. Specifically, the electromagnetic instruments are sub-
classes as (i) moving-iron instruments (ii) electro-dynamic or dynamometer instruments, (iii)
induction instruments. In this section, we will discuss briefly the basic principle of moving-iron
instruments that are generally used to measure alternating voltages and currents. In moving –iron
instruments the movable system consists of one or more pieces of specially-shaped soft iron, which
are so pivoted as to be acted upon by the magnetic field produced by the current in coil. There are two
general types of moving-iron instruments namely (i) Repulsion (or double iron) type (ii) Attraction (or
single-iron) type. The brief description of different components of a moving-iron instrument is given
below.

• Moving element: a small piece of soft iron in the form of a vane or rod

• Coil: to produce the magnetic field due to current flowing through it and also to magnetize the iron
pieces.

• In repulsion type, a fixed vane or rod is also used and magnetized with the same polarity.

• Control torque is provided by spring or weight (gravity)

• Damping torque is normally pneumatic, the damping device consisting of an air chamber and a
moving vane attached to the instrument spindle.

• Deflecting torque produces a movement on an aluminum pointer over a graduated scale.

Construction of Moving-iron Instruments

The deflecting torque in any moving-iron instrument is due to forces on a small piece of magnetically
‗soft‘ iron that is magnetized by a coil carrying the operating current. In repulsion (Fig.42.7) type
moving–iron instrument consists of two cylindrical soft iron vanes mounted within a fixed current-
carrying coil. One iron vane is held fixed to the coil frame and other is free to rotate, carrying with it
the pointer shaft. Two irons lie in the magnetic field produced by the coil that consists of only few
turns if the instrument is an ammeter or of many turns if the instrument is a voltmeter. Current in the
coil induces both vanes to become magnetized and repulsion between the similarly magnetized vanes
produces a proportional rotation. The deflecting torque is proportional to the square of the current in

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

the coil, making the instrument reading is a true ‗RMS‘ quantity Rotation is opposed by a hairspring
that produces the restoring torque. Only the fixed coil carries load current, and it is constructed so as
to withstand high transient current. Moving iron instruments having scales that are nonlinear and
somewhat crowded in the lower range of calibration. Another type of instrument that is usually
classed with the attractive types of instrument is shown in Fig.42.8.

This instrument consists of a few soft iron discs (B) that are fixed to the spindle , pivoted in
jeweled bearings. The spindle also carries a pointer , a balance weight , a controlling weight and a
damping piston (DDP1W2WE), which moves in a curved fixed cylinder . The special shape of the
moving-iron discs is for obtaining a scale of suitable form. F

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Remark: Moving-iron vanes instruments may be used for DC current and voltage measurements and
they are subject to minor frequency errors only. The instruments may be effectively shielded from the
influence of external magnetic fields by enclosing the working parts, except the pointer, in a
laminated iron cylinder with laminated iron end covers.

Torque expression:

Torque expression may be obtained in terms of the inductance of the instrument. Suppose the
initial current is I the instrument inductance l and the deflection θ. Then let I change to i+dI being a
small change of the current as a result let θ change to (θ+d θ) and the L to (l+dl). In order to get an
instrument change in current di there must be an increase in the applied voltage across coil.

V = dLI = I dl + L di
The applied voltage dt dt dt

The electric energy supplied to the coils in dt is

2
V I dt = i dl + IL dI

Increase in energy stored in the magnetic filed = ½ (I+dI)2 (L+dL)- ½ I2 L

(Neglecting second and higher order terms in small quantity)

If the T is the value of the control torque corresponding to deflection θ the extra energy stored in the
control due to the change d θ to T d θ . The stored increase in stored

2
energy= IL d I + ½ i d L + T d 

From the principle of the conversion of energy, one can write the flowing expression

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Electric energy drawn from the supply =increases in stored energy + mechanical work done.

Controlling torque

I spring control Ts=Ks θ where Ks is the spring.

II Gravity control T G=KG sin θ

Ranges of Ammeters and Voltmeters

For a given moving-iron instrument the ampere-turns necessary to produce full-scale deflection are
constant. One can alter the range of ammeters by providing a shunt coil with the moving coil.

Shunts and Multipliers for MI instruments

For moving –iron ammeters:

For the circuit shown in fig let Rm and Lm are respectively the resistance and inductance of the
coil and R sh and Lsh the corresponding values for shunt.

The ratio of current in two parallel

Ish =  R2m + (w Lm)2 

 2
Im  R 2 + (w L sh) 

The above ratio will be independent of the frequency ω provided that he time constants of the parallel
Lm = Lsh
two branches are same Rm Rm

Ish = Rm
In other words Im Rsh

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Now

I = Ish + I m = Im  Rm + 1 
 Rsh 

 Rm + 1  .
 
Multipliers for the shunt =  Rsh  It is difficult to design a shunt with the appropriate
inductance and shunts are rarely incorporated in moving iron ammeters. thus the multiplier for the
 Rm + 1  .
 
shunt =  Rsh  it is difficult to design a shunt with the appropriate inductance and shunt are
rarely incorporated in moving iron ammeters. Thus the multi range can effectively be obtained by
winding the instrument coil in section which may be connected in series ,parallel or series parallel
combination which in turn change the total ampere in the magnetizing coil.

For moving –iron voltmeters:

Voltmeter ranges may be altered connecting a resistance in series with the coil. Hence the
same coil winding specification may be employed for a number of ranges. Let us considered a high
resistance Rse is connected in series with the moving coil and it shown in fig.

2 2
V = Im Rm + (w Lm)

2 2
V = Im (Rm + Rse) + (w Lm)

Multiplier

V = (R + R ) 2 + (w L ) 2  (R 2 + (w L ) 2)
m se m m m
v

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Note: An ordinary arrangement with a non inductive resistance in series with the fixed coil-result in
error that increase as the frequency increases .the change of the impedance of the instrument with
change of frequency error; multiplier may be easily shunted by the capacitor.

Advantages:

• The instruments are suitable for use in a.c and d.c circuits.

• The instruments are robust, owing to the simple construction of the moving parts.

• The stationary parts of the instruments are also simple.

• Instrument is low cost compared to moving coil instrument.

• Torque/weight ration is high, thus less frictional error.

Errors:

i. Errors due to temperature variation.

ii. Errors due to friction is quite small as torque-weight ratio is high in moving-iron instruments.

iii. Stray fields cause relatively low values of magnetizing force produced by the coil. Efficient
magnetic screening is essential to reduce this effect.

iv. Error due to variation of frequency causes change of reactance of the coil and also changes the
eddy currents induced in neighboring metal.

v. Deflecting torque is not exactly proportional to the square of the current due to non-linear
characteristics of iron material.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Induction type meters

GENERAL THEORY

Induction type instruments are used only on a.c. circuits. All induction type instruments
consist of 2 windings and an aluminum disc. When alternating currents flow through the windings,
fluxes 1 and 2 are produced. Both these fluxes induce emfs E 1 and E2 in the disc or drum and
circulate eddy currents I1 and I2 respectively. Therefore 2 torques are produced by:

1st flux Ф interacting with eddy current I2 produced by other flux 

2nd flux Ф 2 interacting with eddy current I1 produced by other flux 

Total torque is the sum of these 2 torques. Let  and 2 be instantaneous values of 2 fluxes having a
phase difference of  and therefore,

1 = m sin wt
1

2 = m sin wt
2

Where r.m.s values are,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

1 = 0.707m
1

2 = 0.707m 2

Flux 1 produces an emf in the disc by transformer action. The instantaneous value of this emf is,

e1 d m1( sin wt

dt) d m1 cos t)
 
-f

m1 cos t)

dt

Therefore e1 lags flux by 90o. Let E1 be r.m.s value of emf e1, then

E1 0.707 (f m ) 1

f 0.707 (f m )  1
1

If impedance of eddy current path Z, then eddy current,

I1 = E1 = f
lags E1 by an angle Z Z

Average torque produced by the interaction of  and I1 is,

Td 2I1 cos(90° –  + )
1

Td 21  f  cos(90° –  + )
1

  z



IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Similarly,

Average torque produced by the interaction of  and I1 is,

Td 1I2 cos(90° –  + )
2

Td 21  f  cos(90° –  + )
2

  z 

Applying Fleming‘s left hand rule, the two torques act in opposite direction,

Td = Td1 – Td2

Td =  21  f  cos(90° –  + ) – 21  f  cos(90° –  + ) 

  z  z 

Td21  f  sin cos

Solving we get,  z

For torque to be large,

(i) AngleФ1should is almost zero as possible. For this path of eddy currents is made resistive as
possible.

(ii) Angle Ф12should be almost 90o. Hence two fluxes must be displaced by 90o.

Induction type energy meter

Energy is the total power delivered or consumed over a time interval, i.e.,

Energy = Power x Time

Electrical energy developed as work or dissipated as heat over an interval of time t is, W = v i dt

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Energy is an integrating type of instrument used for measurement of energy in domestic and industrial
a.c. circuits.

Single phase induction type energy meter

Construction:

There are 4 main parts:

Driving System:

Consist of 2 electromagnets made of silicon steel laminations

Coil of one of the electromagnet (shunt magnet) is excited by load current known as current coil

Coil of 2nd electromagnet (series magnet) is connected across supply & carries a current proportional
to voltage known as pressure coil

Copper shading bands whose position is adjustable are provided on central limb to bring the flux
exactly in quadrature with the applied voltage

Moving System:

Consist of an aluminum disc mounted on a light alloy shaft positioned in the air gap between
magnets Shaft is pivoted on jewel bearings and a pinion engages it with counting or registering
mechanism

Braking System:

Braking Torque is required to control the speed of moving system.

A permanent magnet is positioned near the edge of the aluminium disc to provide braking torque.This
magnet induces eddy currents that produces the braking torque proportional to the speed of moving
system.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Registering or Counting Mechanism:

Records continuously a no. proportional to a the revolutions made by moving system

Train of gears drives a series of 4 or 5 pointers

There are 2 types of registers – pointer type & cyclometer register

Theory and operation:

Supply voltage V is applied across pressure coil. As pressure coil is highly inductive with a
small resistance then current Ip that flow through the coil, lags it by a few degrees less than 90 o.
Current Ip produces flux Фpt, which consist of Фg and Фp. Flux Фg flows across side gaps whereas flux
Фp links with the disc and eddy emf Eep is induced in it. This in turn produces eddy current Iep which
lags Eep by an angle as the path of eddy current is inductive.

Load current I flows through current coil and produce flux Фs proportional to it. This flux induces
eddy emf Ees in the disc. As a result, eddy current Ies flows through it and lags it by an angle Ф

Two torques are produced – Td1 by the interaction of Фs with Iep and Td2 by the interaction of Фg with
Ies, acting in the opposite direction. Net torque is the difference of these two torques.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Let Ф – phase angle of load

Δ- Phase angle between the supply voltage and pressure coil flux

f – Frequency

Z - Impedance of eddy current paths

Net Driving Torque,

Tdps  f  sin cos = K1ps  f  sin cos

 z  z

Where

K1 is a constant

β was phase angle between fluxes Ф 1 and Ф 2. From phasor diagram, angle between fluxes Ф p and
Ф s is Ф

Td = K1ps  f  sin( – ) cos

 z

pV and sI

Td = K2ps  f  sin( – ) cos

 z 

If f, Z and α are constant,

Td = K3psI sin( – ) cos

Braking Torque, TB = K4N where N is the steady speed

At steady speed, TB = T d

K4N = K3psI sin( – )

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

N = K3  K4 psI sin( – )

if  Δ=90othen,

N = K VI cos Ф =K x Power

Total no. of revolutions = ∫N dt

=∫K VI cos Ф dt

= K ∫ Power (dt)

= K x Energy

Lag Adjustment / Power Factor Adjustment / Quadrature Adjustment / Inductive load Adjustment:

In order to make the angle between fluxes 90o, a magnetic shunt circuit known as
lag coil is introduced. The pressure coil is excited by voltage V and carries a current I p which
produces an mmf AT pt which in turn produces a flux Ф pt lagging the voltage by an angle 90 o- . But
only flux Ф p links with lag coil. As a result, a voltage EL is induced in the coil lagging by 90 and this
o

circulates current IL through it. The lag coil produces an mmf AT L. The flux Ф p that links with the
disc is created by the combined action of main mmf AT pt in phase with Ip and lag coil mmf ATL in
phase with IL. Thus this flux Ф p will be in phase with the resultant mmf AT p. By varying mmf of lag
coil either in magnitude or in phase we can adjust the phase of flux Ф p.

Arrangements for adjusting the mmf of the lag coil are:

Adjustable resistance:

A few turns of thick wire are placed around central limb of shunt magnet
and circuit is closed through a low adjustable resistance. An increase in resistance decreases current
and mmf ATL and hence lag angle Ф decreases. Decreases in resistance increases current and mmf
ATL and hence lag angle increases. Thus angle can be adjusted.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Shading bands:

In this copper shading bands L1 are placed on central limb. When shading bands are
moved up the limb it embraces more flux and hence mmf AT L increases resulting in an increase in
θ when shading bands are moved down, mmf ATL decreases and hence Ф decreasesThus,
angle can be adjusted.

Light Load or Friction Compensation:

At light loads, error due to friction is high. Hence a small torque is provided which is
independent of the load, and is equal in magnitude to the frictional torque.

For this, a shading loop L2 is situated between the center pole of the shunt magnet and the disc.

The interaction between the portions of the flux, which are shaded and unshaded by this loop and the
current in the disc induce a small driving torque whose value can be adjusted by lateral movement of
the loop.

Creep:

- In some meters a slow but continuous rotation is obtained even when only pressure coil is
energized. (i.e; there is no current flowing in current coil) . This is called creeping.

- Major cause is overcompensation of friction. This occurs when the friction compensating device is
such that it compensates the starting friction (Starting Friction > Running Friction)

- Other causes are excessive voltage across potential coil, vibrations, stray magnetic fields

- To prevent creeping two diametrically opposite holes are drilled in the disc. The disc will come to
rest with one of the holes under the edge of a pole of the shunt magnet, the rotation thus limited to a
maximum of half revolution. If a hole is under the edge of a pole the eddy current path is distorted and
the effective center is A‘. As a result there is a force on the disc tending to move A‘ away from pole
axis A. But further rotation of disc is opposed. The magnitude of this opposing torque is not sufficient
to rotate the disc in other direction.

- Another method is by attaching a small iron piece to edge of disc. Force of attraction between brake
magnet and iron piece prevents creeping.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Overload Compensation:

- When disc revolves continuously in field of series magnet under load conditions, there is a
dynamically induced emf in the disc. This causes eddy currents to interact with field of series magnet
to produce self - braking torque T SB.

TSB =Load Current 2

- To minimize this,

Full load speed of disc is kept low almost 40 rpm.

Фs is kept small as compared to Ф p

Overload compensating device is added which takes the form of a magnetic shunt for the series
magnet that diverts flux Фs.

Voltage Compensation:

- Energy meters must be compensated for variation in voltage as this can cause errors as shunt
magnet flux:is not linear with supply voltage owing to saturation

produces dynamically induced emf that produces self braking torque T SB

TSB =Supply Voltage2

- Compensation is provided using saturable magnetic shunt, which diverts flux or by providing holes
in side limbs of shunt magnet

Temperature Compensation:

- Increase in temperature increases resistance of metal parts resulting in:

(i) Decrease in potential coil flux & reduction in angle of lag between V and p

(ii) Decrease in torque produced by all shading bands

(iii) Increase in resistance of eddy current paths

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

(iv) Decrease in angle of lag  of eddy currents

- These effects neutralize each other

- Error is serious at low power factors

- Compensation is provided using temperature shunt on brake magnet

Errors:

Errors caused by driving system are:

(i) Incorrect magnitude of fluxes – caused by abnormal values of voltage, current, frequency and
change in resistance of coil

(ii) Incorrect phase angles – caused by improper lag adjustments, abnormal frequencies, change in
resistance

(iii) Lack of symmetry in magnetic circuit – causes creep

Errors caused by braking system are:

Changes in strength of brake magnets

Changes in disc resistance

Self braking effect

Abnormal friction of moving parts

Adjustments:

Some adjustments are carried out in energy meters so that they read correctly. They are,

Preliminary Light Load Adjustment:

Disc is so positioned that the holes are not underneath the electromagnets

Rated voltage applied to pressure coil with no current in current coil

Light load device adjusted until disc just fails to start

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Full load unity power factor adjustment

Rated voltage applied to pressure coil

Rated full load current at upf passed through current coil

Position of brake magnet adjusted so that disc revolves at correct speed

Lag Adjustment (Low power factor Adjustment)

Rated voltage applied to pressure coil

Rated full load current at 0.5 pf lagging passed through current coil

- Lag device adjusted so that disc revolves at correct speed

Full load unity power factor adjustment and Low power factor Adjustment

Rated voltage applied to pressure coil

Rated full load current at upf passed through current coil

Full load unity power factor adjustment & low power factor adjustment done so that disc revolves at
correct speed

Light Load Adjustment

Rated voltage applied to pressure coil

Low current passed through current coil at upf

Light Load Adjustment done so that disc revolves at correct speed

Full load unity power factor and Light Load Adjustment are gain done so that disc revolves at correct
speed

Performance is rechecked at 0.5 pf lagging

Creep adjustment - Pressure coil is excited by 110% of rated voltage with zero load current. At this
condition meter should not creep

Polyphase induction energy meters

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Electrical energy in a ‗n‘ conductor system requires ‗n-1‘ measuring elements for
measurement of energy. In polyphase wattmeter the elements are mounted on the same spindle, which
drives registering mechanism.

These wattmeters may be either muiltidisc type or single disc type.

Multidisc Type: Each element drives a separate disc

Single Disc Type: All elements drive same disc. Disc is slotted or laminated in sectors to prevent
interaction between eddy currents produced by one element with flux produced by another element

Two element energy meter

Two element energy meter is used in 3-phase 3 wire system

Provided with 2 discs one for each element

Driving torque of both the elements must be exactly equal for equal amounts of power passing
through each. For this an adjustable magnetic shunt is provided on one or both elements and coils are
energized from a 1- supply. Pressure coils are connected in parallel and current coils are connected
in series. When energized, torques produced by both elements opposes each other. The magnetic
shunt is adjusted such that the two torques are exactly equal and opposite and therefore there is no
rotation of disc.

Electrodynamic instruments

Introduction

Electrodynamics type instruments are similar to the PMMC-type elements except that the
magnet is replaced by two serially connected fixed coils that produce the magnetic field when
energized (see Fig.43.1). The fixed coils are spaced far enough apart to allow passage of the shaft of
the movable coil. The movable coil carries a pointer, which is balanced by counter weights. Its
rotation is controlled by springs. The motor torque is proportional to the product of the currents in the

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

moving and fixed coils. If the current is reversed, the field polarity and the polarity of the moving coil
reverse at the same time, and the turning force continues in the original direction. Since the reversing
the current direction does not reverse the turning force, this type of instruments can be used to
measure AC or DC current, voltage, or its major application as a wattmeter for power measurement.
In the first two cases, the moving and fixed are serially connected. For power measurement, one of the
coils (usually the fixed coils) passes the load current and other coil passes a current proportional to the
load voltage. Air friction damping is employed for these instruments and is provided by a pair of
Aluminum-vanes attached to the spindle at the bottom. These vanes move in a sector shaped chamber.
Cost and performance compared with the other types of instruments restrict the use of this design to
AC or DC power measurement. Electro-dynamic meters are typically expensive but have the
advantage of being more accurate than moving coil and moving iron instrument but its sensitivity is
low. Similar to moving iron vane instruments, the electro dynamic instruments are true RMS
responding meters. When electro dynamic instruments used for power measurement its scale is linear
because it predicts the average power delivered to the load and it is calibrated in average values for
AC. Voltage, current and power can all be measured if the fixed and moving coils are connected
appropriately. Other parts of the instruments are described briefly below:

Electro dynamic (or Dynamometer) type Instruments:

Fixed coil: The magnetic field is produced by the fixed coil which is divided into two sections
to give more uniform field near the centre and to allow passage of the instrument shaft.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Moving coil: The moving coil is wound either as a self-sustaining coil or else on a non-magnetic
former. A metallic former cannot be used, as eddy currents would be induced in it by alternating field.
Light but rigid construction is used for the moving coil. It should be noted that both fixed and moving
coils are air cored.

Springs: The controlling torque is provided by two control springs. These hairsprings also act as
leads of current to the moving coil.

Dampers: Air friction damping is employed for these instruments and is provided by a pair of
Aluminum-vanes attached to the spindle at the bottom. These vanes move in a sector shaped chamber.

Shielding: Since the magnetic field produced by fixed coils is weaker than that in other types of
instruments, these meters need a special magnetic shielding. Electro-dynamic instruments are
effectively shielded from the effects of external magnetic fields by enclosing the mechanism in a
laminated iron hollow cylinder with closed ends.

Operating Principle

Let us consider the currents in the fixed and moving coils are fi and respectively. The action
of electrodynamic instrument depends upon the force exerted between fixed and moving coils
carrying current. The flux density produced by the fixed coil is proportional to (fixed coil current).
The force on the conductors of the moving coil, for a given strength field, will proportional to
(moving coil current) and the number of turns ‗‘ of the moving coil. In case of ammeter and voltmeter
fixed and moving coils are connected in series and the developed torque is due to the interaction of
the magnetic fields produced by currents in the fixed and moving coils and thus it will be proportional
Thus, dynamic instruments can be used for dc and ac measurements .
to

Expression for developed torque:

Let us assume that the fixed and moving coil having self inductance L f and Lm respectively
.further it is assumed that the mutual inductance between the fixed and movable coil is M.

Total energy stored in the magenetic filed of the coil is given by

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

W = 1 lf i f + 1 lm i m + M lf i m
2 2 2
2 2

Where If and Im are the cureent through the fixed and moving coil. From the above equaton for the
torque developed

Td = dw = ifim dm
d d

L eq= L+ Lm+2M

And form mutual inductance between them

M = 1[Leq – (Lf + Lm)]

2

With all deflection type instrument ,mhowever the mutul inductance varies with the relative position
of the moving coil abd fixed coil.the maximum value M max of the mutual inductance occure when
the axis of the moving and fixed coil ar alined with θ=180 as this postion gives the maximum flux
linage between coils. When θ=0‘ , M=-m max . if the plane of the moving coil is at an angle θ with
the direction of the B that produced by the fixed coil . then the muual inductance expressed in M=-
Mmax

D.C OPERATION

The developed torque is rewritten by setting If = if and Im= im

Td = If Im Mmax Sin 

If the control torque is due to spring , the controlling torque is propotional to the angle of the
deflecting θ

Contolling torque =T c=Ks θ

Where ks is the spring constant

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

If Im dM = Ks 
d

A.C operation

The dynamometer instrument is used to measure alternating current or voltage.the moving

coil due to it inertia takes up a position where the average deflecting torque over a complete cycle is
balanced by the the restoring of the spiral spring.the deflecting torque is proportional to to the maean
value of the squre of the current or voltage and the instrument scale can be therefore be calibtated to
read RMS value of alternating current or voltage

T

Tav = 1  if(t) im(t) dM dt
T 0 d

Ammeters

Fig. shows that fixed coils and moving coil of a dynamometer instrument connected in series
and assumed the current through moving coil does not exceed a certain the upper limit depending on
its construction.

The flux direction through the fixed and movable coils due to current is shown in Fig. . it can be noted
that the –pole of the moving coil flux is reflected from the adjacent –pole of the fixed coil and on the
other side adjacent S–poles are also repelled each other. This results the pointer to move clockwise
direction from ‗zero position‘ to a steady position depending upon the magnitude of current flowing
through the coils. Fig.illustrate the effect of reversing the direction of the current through the coils and
shows that the deflecting torque produces movement of the pointer in the same direction. This means
that the dynamometer instrument suitable for both dc and ac measurements of current and voltage.
The dynamic instrument when uses as a voltmeter, the fixed coils wounded with thin wire are
connected in series with the moving coil and a non-inductive resistance Fig. For ammeter application

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

the fixed coils are connected in parallel with the moving coil, and in parallel with a shunt, as required
(see Fig.43.4). NN

Remarks: The scale of the instrument can be conveniently calibrated on dc and then used to measure
ac.

Ranges of Ammeters and Voltmeters

Ammeters

A given size of instruments requires a definite number of ampere-turns to be supplied by the

fixed and moving coils to obtain a full–scale deflection. Ammeter ranges are altered by changing the
number of turns and size of conductor in the fixed and moving coils. A double range instrument may
easily be obtained by connecting different coil sections either in series or in parallel. The internal
connections are shown in Fig.43.3. The maximum range for which ammeters are usually constructed
is dependent on its application. For ammeter use in which only fraction of rated current (say 200 ma)
is carried by the moving coil to alter its range by changing the mode of connection of the fixed coils.

Voltmeters: With voltmeters the ranges is altered by changing the number of turns in the coils and the
value of series resistances, but the range of a given instrument may be increased by connecting
additional resistances in series with it. For example, the range of a given voltmeter may be doubled
while connecting in series with it a non–inductive resistance equal in value to the original resistance
of the instrument.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

onnections for ammeter, voltmeter and

wattmeter

Ammeter

When ammeters for ranges above about 250 , the moving coil cannot be connected in series with the
fixed coil (note the control spring is unsuitable for currents above about 250 ). Therefore, the moving
coil must be connected in parallel with the fixed coils as shown in Fig 43.4. mAmA

Here the moving coil current is kept within 200 mA and the rest of current is passed through the fixed
coil. Moving coil carries a small fraction of measured current through the moving coil. For extreme
accuracy the connection shown in Fig. 43.4 must fulfill the following conditions.

• The resistance/reactance ratio must have the same value (i.e time constant of moving coil = time
constant of fixed coil) for each branch.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

• The percentage change of resistance with temperature must be the same for the two The connection
for use as a voltmeter is shown in Fig. 43.5, in which fixed and oving coils are connected in series
with a high series resistance having ―zero resistivity co-efficients‖.

Voltmeters

Voltmeter: the connection for use as a voltmeter is shown in fig. in which fixed and moving coil are
connected in series with a high resistance having ‗Zero resistivity co-efficient.

Remarks: Electro-dynamic meter‘s use is much more common for ac voltmeters than for ac
ammeters.

Wattmeter: Perhaps the most important use of the electrodynamometer is for the wattmeter. The
mechanism of electro dynamic wattmeter closely resembles that of an electro-dynamic ammeter, but
the moving coil of wattmeter is connected in series with a high non–inductive resistance.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Advantages and disadvantages of electro-dynamic instruments

Advantages:

i Free from hysteresis and eddy current errors.

ii Applicable to both dc and ac circuits.

iii Precision grade accuracy for 40 Hz to 500 Hz.

iv Electro-dynamic voltmeters give accurate r.m.s values of voltage irrespective of waveforms.

Disadvantages:

i Low torque/weight ratio, hence more frictional errors.

ii More expensive than PMMC or MI instruments.

iii Power consumption higher than PMMC but less than MI instruments.

For these reasons, dynamometer ammeters and voltmeters are not in common use (except for
calibration purpose) especially in dc circuits. The most important application of the dynamometer
type instruments used as dynamometer wattmeter

Frequency meters

Frequency meters are instruments used to indicate frequency. The different types of frequency
meters are:

MECHANICAL RESONANCE TYPE OR VIBRATING REED TYPE

FREQUENCY METER

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Construction:

Reeds

- Thin steel strips called reeds are placed in a row alongside close to an electromagnet.

All reeds are similar with their natural frequencies of vibration different (as they have slightly
different dimensions) & are arranged in ascending order of frequencies.

- Reeds are fixed at bottom end and are free at top end with a portion bend to serve as flag.

Electromagnet

- Electromagnet has a laminated iron core on which coil is wound. The coil is connected in series
across the supply whose frequency is to be measured.

Vibrating Reed
Type Frequency Meter Reed

Operation:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Frequency Meter is connected across the supply whose frequency is to be measured the coil
of electromagnet carries a current i, which alternates at the supply frequency. The force of attraction
between the reeds and the electromagnet is proportional to i2 and therefore this force varies twice at
the frequency supply frequency. Thus, the force exerted on the reeds varies every half cycle. All the
reeds tend to vibrate, but the reed whose natural frequency is equal to twice the frequency of supply
tends to vibrate the most. Vibration of other reeds is unobservable.

Variation of amplitude of vibrations with frequency

For a frequency exactly midway between that of the reeds, both will vibrate with amplitudes with
equal magnitude.

Electrical resonance type

Two types of electrical Resonance Meters are described below:

Ferrodynamic type of frequency meter:

Construction:

Magnetizing Coil

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

- Consists of a fixed coil called magnetizing coil, which is connected across the supply whose
frequency is to be measured

- It is mounted on a laminated iron core

Iron core

- Cross section of iron core varies gradually over the length , being maximum near the end where
magnetizing coil is mounted and minimum at the other end.

Moving Coil

- Moving coil is pivoted over the iron core

- A pointer is attached to moving coil

- Terminals of moving coil are connected to a suitable capacitor C

No provision for controlling force

Principle of Operation:

Magnetizing coil carries a current I and produces flux  in phase with current I. Flux induces emf
E in the moving coil lagging behind it by 90o. Emf E circulates current Im in the moving coil. Phase of
current Im depends upon inductance L of the moving coil and capacitance C.

Circuit of moving coil is inductive & therefore current Im lags behind emf E by an angle . The
torque acting on the moving coil is,

Td =Im I cos (90o + α)

Circuit of moving coil is capacitive & therefore current I m leads emf E by an angle. The torque
acting on the moving coil is,

Td =Im I cos (90o - α)

Inductive reactance of the circuit of moving coil is equal to its capacitive reactance & therefore
current Im is in phase with emf E. The torque acting on the moving coil is,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Td =Im I cos 90o = 0

Ferro dynamic frequency Meter

Working:

For a fixed frequency, capacitive reactance is constant but inductive reactance of

moving coil depends upon the position it occupies on the iron core. Inductive reactance is maximum
when moving coil occupies a position close to the magnetizing coil and is minimum at the other end.

The figure shows the position of moving coil at normal frequency. At this position,
inductive reactance is equal to the capacitive reactance.

Suppose the frequency increases above its normal value then, XL > XC & therefore
torque is produced. This torque pulls the moving coil to an equilibrium position i.e., moving coil
deflects towards the section of iron core having minimum cross section. So inductive reactance
decreases and moving coil comes to rest at a position where XL = XC.

Suppose the frequency decreases below its normal value then, XL < XC & therefore
torque is produced. This torque pulls the moving coil to an equilibrium position i.e., moving coil

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

deflects towards the section of iron core having maximum cross section. So inductive reactance
increases and moving coil comes to rest at a position where XL = XC.

Advantage:

Great sensitivity

Electrodynamometer type of frequency meter:

Construction:

Fixed coil

Fixed coil is divided into two parts 1 and 2 which forms two separates resonant circuits

- Fixed coil 1 is in series with an inductance L1 and a capacitance C1 forming a resonant circuit of
frequency f1.

- Fixed coil 2 is in series with an inductance L2 and a capacitance C2 forming a resonant circuit of
frequency f2.

Moving Coil

- Current through the moving coil is sum of the currents through the 2 parts of fixed coil

- Torque on the movable element is proportional to the current through the moving coil

A small iron vane mounted on the moving system provides controlling torque.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Electrodynamometer type frequency meter

Operation:

At a particular frequency, the current through circuit of fixed coil 1 lags

behind applied voltage (as XL1>XC1) while the current through circuit of fixed coil 2 leads applied
voltage (as XL2<XC2). Therefore torques produced by 2 coils act in opposition on the moving coil. The
resultant torque is a function of frequency of the applied voltage.

Application:

- For power frequency measurements

- In power system, for monitoring the frequency

Power factor meters

Power Factor meters indicate directly, the power factor of the circuit to which they are connected.

General Construction:

Current Circuit that carries the current in the circuit whose power factor is to be measured

Pressure Circuit is connected across the circuit whose power factor is to be measured

Pressure circuit is split into 2 parallel paths - one inductive and other non inductive

Operation:

Deflection of pointer depends upon the phase difference (i.e. cos between the main current
and the currents in the two paths of pressure circuit

Moving system is perfectly balanced at equilibrium position by 2 opposing forces & therefore there is
no need for controlling torque. Hence, when a power factor meter is disconnected from a circuit the
pointer remains at the position, which it occupied at the instant of disconnection.

The different types of power factor meters are:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Electrodynamometer power factor meter

Single phase electrodynamometer power factor meter

Construction:

Fixed Coil or Current Coil

- Current Coil is split into 2 parts

- It carries current of circuit under test and produces magnetic field proportional to the main current

Pressure Coil or Moving Coil

- There are 2 identical pressure coils A and B connected across the voltage of the circuit

- Pressure coil A has a non-inductive resistance R connected in series with it.

- Pressure coil B has a highly inductive choke coil L connected in series with it.

- Current through coil A is in phase with the circuit voltage while that in coil B lags voltage by an
angle , which is nearly equal to 90o

- Angle between the plane of the coils A & B is also

- At normal frequency, values of L and R are such that current through both the coils have same
magnitude i.e., R = L

- Connections to the moving coils are made through thin silver or gold ligaments

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Single Phase Electrodynamometer Power Factor Meter

Operation:

Let‘s assume that current through coil B lags the voltage by exactly 90 o. Therefore, angle between
plane of coils is 90o. Let be the angular deflection from the plane of reference and Mmax be the
maximum value of mutual inductance. Consider the case of lagging power factor:

Deflecting torque acting on coil A,

TA = K V I Mmax cos Ф sin θ

Deflecting torque acting on coil B,

TB = K V I Mmax cos (90o - Ф ) sin (90o + θ)

TB = K V I Mmax sin Ф cos θ

The two torques acts in opposite direction. The coil will take up a position such that the two torques
are equal. Hence at equilibrium,

TA = TB

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

K V I Mmax cos θ sin  = K V I Mmax sin Ф cos θ

Thus, deflection of the instrument is a measure of phase angle of the circuit. Scale of instrument can
be directly calibrated in terms of power factor.

Disadvantage:

Error in the indication may be caused by change in reactance of the coil due to,

change in supply frequency (other than the one it is calibrated at)

presence of harmonics in the supply

Three phase electrodynamometer power factor meter

Construction:

Fixed Coil or Current Coil – similar to that of single phase

Pressure Coil or Moving Coil

- There are 2 identical pressure coils A and B connected across two different phases of the circuit

- Each coil has only a series resistance & therefore current through both the coils (I A & IB) are in
phase with applied voltage

- Required phase displacement between current I A & IB is obtained from supply itself

- Hence, angle between the plane of the coils is 120o

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

3-phase electrodynamometer power factor meter

Operation:

Assume,

V12 – voltage applied across coil A

V13 – voltage applied across coil B

V12 = V13 = V

Let be the angular deflection from the plane of reference and Mmax be the maximum value of
mutual inductance. Consider the case of lagging power factor:

Deflecting torque acting on coil A,

TA = K V12 I Mmax cos (30o + Ф )sin (60o + θ ) = K V I Mmax cos (30o +

Ф)  sin (60o + θ)

Deflecting torque acting on coil B,

TB = K V13 I Mmax cos (30o - Ф ) sin (120o + θ ) K V I Mmax cos (30o
- Ф ) sin (120o + θ )

The two torques acts in opposite direction. The coil will take up a position such that the two
torques are equal. Hence at equilibrium,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

TA = TB K V I Mmax cos (30o + Ф) sin (60o + θ) K V I Mmax cos (30o -  sin Ф) (120o +
θ)

Solving,

Thus, deflection of the instrument is a measure of phase angle of the circuit

Advantage:

Error due to change in frequency is eliminated as currents in both the coils are equally affected.

Moving iron power factor meter

According to principle of operation these may be classified as,

Rotating field power factor meter

Three phase rotating field power factor meter

Construction:

Fixed Coils

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

A1, A2, A3 are three fixed coils connected respectively in lines 1, 2 and 3 of 3-phase supply through
current transformers Axes of A1, A2 and A3 are120o displaced from each other and intersecting on
the central line of the instrument Equivalent moving coil- Fixed coil P is connected in series with a
high resistance across one pair of lines (2 & 3)

Iron cylinder C is placed inside the coil P pivoted on a spindle. Two sector shaped iron vanes 180 o
apart are fixed to the cylinder

Spindle also carries damping vanes and a pointer

Iron Cylinder, Vanes and coil P are equivalent electromagnetically to a rectangular moving coil

There are no control springs

Rotating Field Moving Iron Power Factor Meter

Operation:

Current Ip, which is in phase with and proportional to line voltage (due to the large resistance in
series), magnetizes coil P and the vanes. The alternating flux produced interacts with the fluxes
produced by coils A1, A2 and A3. This causes moving system to take up a position determined by the
phase angle of the system.

Total deflecting torque,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Td I o o o o o
1 Ip cos (90 – ) sin (90 + ) + I2 Ip cos (330 – ) sin (210 + ) + I3 Ip cos (210 – ) sin

(330o + ) ]

For a steady deflection, the total torque must be zero. Also considering system to be balanced i.e., I 1 =
I2 = I3, we have,

cos (90o – ) sin (90o + ) + cos (330o – ) sin (210o + ) + cos (210o – ) sin (330o + ) = 0

Solving 

Note:

The three fixed coils A1, A2, A3 produce a rotating magnetic field. In order to prevent induction
motor action high resistivity metal is used for the moving irons so as to reduce the values of induced
currents.

Single phase rotating field power factor meter

Construction:

Fixed coils

A1, A2, A3 are three fixed coils connected respectively in lines 1, 2 and 3 of 3-phase supply with
resistor R, inductor L and a capacitor C in series with it respectively.

Current in coil A1 is in phase with the line voltage

Current in coil A2 lags by 600

Current in coil A3 leads 60o

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

- Connections of coil A1 are reversed w.r.t connections of other coils so that currents in the 3 coils are
120o out of phase with each other

Rest is similar to that of 3-phase power factor meter

Operation:

Similar to that of 3-phase power factor meter

Single phase moving iron power factor meter

Alternating field power factor meter (nalder lipman type)

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Construction:

- Moving system comprises of three pairs of iron vanes & cylinders which are fixed to a common
spindle pivoted in jewel bearings 7 carries damping vanes & pointer

o
- Iron vanes are sector shaped with arc subtending & each pair are fixed 180o apart. Also 3 pairs
of iron vanes are displaced from each other by 120o

- Cylinders are separated by distance pieces S made of non – magnetic material

- Iron cylinders & the vanes are magnetized by 3 fixed co-axial pressure coils P1, P2, P3 mounted co-
axially with the spindle

- Current coil A is wound in two equal parts mounted parallel to each other on opposite sides of the
spindle

Operation:

P1, P2, P3 are excited by currents proportional to the phase voltages of the 3-phase system producing 3
fluxes. Coil is supplied with current proportional to current in one of the lines of the 3-phase system
and it also produces a flux. Due to the interaction of these fluxes, moving system deflects into such a
position that the mea torque on one pair of vanes is neutralized by the other two torques, so that
resultant torque is zero. In this steady position, the deflection of the iron vane is equal to phase angle
of the circuit.

Nalder Lipman Power Factor Meter

Note:

Its used for balanced currents but it can be modified for use on unbalanced 3-phase circuit & for 2-
phase & 1-phase circuits.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

No rotating magnetic field is produced here

Advantage of Moving Iron power factor meter

Working forces are very large

All coils are fixed. Hence the use of ligaments is elminated

Scale extends over 360o

Simple & robust in construction

Cheap

Disadvantage of Moving Iron power factor meter

Less accurate due to iron losses

Calibration is affected by variations in supply frequency, voltage & waveform

Magnetic measurements

Ballistic galvanometer

It is used for the measurement of quantity of electricity passed through it. It is due to the result of an
instantaneous emf induced in search coil connected across the ballistic galvanometer terminals. The
quantity of electricity passing through the galvanometer is proportional to the emf induced and hence
to the change in the flux linking with the search coil.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

When we pass a current through a galvanometer it does not reach its

steady state deflection immediately but there is a time interval or period of transition during which the
galvanometer deflects from zero position to final steady position. Dynamic behavior of galvanometer
during this period is examined by the equation of motion. The constants of galvanometer are known
as intrinsic constants.

The different torque acting on the moving system are

1. Deflecting Torque (Td): It is for deflecting the pointer from initial zero position.

Td=BANi

B= Flux density in air gap

A=Area of coil

N= Number of turns

i = Current through the galvanometer.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

2. Inertia Torque (Tj): A retarding torque is produced due to inertia of moving system. This torque
depends upon the moment of inertia of the moving system and angular acceleration.

Tj = J d2θ/dt2

J = Moment of inertia of moving system, θ =deflection at any time.

3. Damping Torque (TD): Damping is provided by the friction due the motion of the coil in air and
also by induced electrical effects, if a closed circuit is provided.

TD= D dθ/dt

D= damping constant.

4. Controlling Torque (Tc): It is provided due to the elasticity of the system which tries to restore
the moving system back to its original position.

Tc = kθ , k= Control constant

Flux meter

It is a special type of ballistic galvanometer in which the controlling torque is very small and the
electromagnetic damping is heavy.

The construction is similar to that of a moving coil mille ammeter. A coil of small cross section is
suspended from a spring supported by means of a single silk thread. The coil moves in the narrow gap
of a permanent magnet. There are no control springs. The current is lead in to the coil with the help of
a very loose helices of thin, annealed silver strips. The controlling torque is thus reduced to minimum.
The coil is former less and air friction damping is negligible.

The terminals of the flux meter are connected to a search coil. The flux linking with the search
coil is changed either by removing the coil from the magnetic field or by reversing the field. Due to
the change in the value of the flux linking with the search coil an emf is induced in it. This emf send a
current through the flux meter which deflects through an angle depending upon the change in the
value of the flux linkages.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

If the flux meter permanent magnet field is uniform for all positions of the moving coil, G is a
constant. Change in the value of the flux is directly proportional to the change in the deflection. So the
instrument have a uniform scale.

Lloyd – fisher square

This is the most commonly used magnetic square and therefore it is described in greater
details. The strips used are usually 0.25 m long and 50 to 60 mm wide. These strips are built up into
four stacks. Each stack is made up of two types of strips one cut in the direction of rolling and other
cut perpendicular to the direction of rolling. The stacks or strips are placed inside four similar
magnetizing coils of large cross sectional area. These four coils are connected in series to form the
primary winding. Each magnetizing coil has two similar single layer coils underneath it. They are
called secondary coils. These secondary coils are connected in series in groups of four, one from each
core to form two separate secondary windings.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The ends of the strips project beyond the magnetizing coils. The strips are
so arranged that plane of each strip is perpendicular to the plane of the square. The magnetic circuit is
completed by bringing the four stacks together in the form of a square and joining them at the corners.
Measured loss has to be corrected for the loss in the corner pieces.

UNIT- III – COMPARISON METHODS OF MEASUREMENTS

D.C & A.C potentiometers, D.C & A.C bridges, transformer ratio bridges, self-balancing bridges.
Interference & screening – Multiple earth and earth loops - Electrostatic and electromagnetic
interference – Grounding techniques.

POTENTIOMETRS

The instrument used to measure an voltage comparing it with a known voltage is known
as potentiometers.

Advantages

1. High degree of accuracy due to the comparison method.

2. It is independent of source resistance.

3. It is used to measure current with the help of a standard resistance.

4. It is used to calibrate ammeter, voltmeter, wattmeter etc .

SLIDE-WIRE POTENTIOMETERS

It consist of a German sliver or magnanin wire of uniform cross section and stretched
between two terminals A&B on a flat board with a scale graduated in mm fixed along side. The

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

extremes A&B are connected to a battery through a variable resistance R with a positive terminal 0f
battery connected to end A & negative terminal to end B.

When switch is closed ,a voltage is developed between A&J as AB is a resistor R of

length L.Then total resistance/unit length ,r =R/L.The resistance is not a constant but depend on
sliding contact as it is varied.

Voltage drop = irl across the resistance.

Precision Slide Wire Potentiometer (Compton Potentiometer)

It use calibrated dial resistors and a small circular wire of one or more turns there by
reducing the size of the instrument. A dial switch having 16 contact points and a short slide wire .Two
moving contacts P1&P2.P1 sliding over the slide wire and contact P2 sliding over he studs connected
to the resistance coil. Balance condition more easily and quickly obtained by means of coarse (dial)
adjustments and fine (slide wire) adjustment. A battery B of 2V is connected across the potentiometer
through the resistors R1&R2 for controlling the current

drawn from the battery .R1 consists of a number of resistance coils connected in sires and is meant for
coarse adjustment.R2 is like a slide wire and is meant for fine adjustment .

Vernier Potentiometer

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

In slide wire potentiometer, the slide wire should be extremely well made so that the variations in
contact resistance are not to limit the precision in adjustment of the potentiometer current. This
difficulty may be overcome by the use of a shunted dial resistance for the regulator.

The working of Vernier potentiometer is based on Kelvin Varley principle.

APPLICATIONS OF POTENTIOMETERS

Calibration of Ammeter

Fig shows the circuit for calibrating the ammeter. A standard resistance of suitable
value and sufficient current carrying capacity is placed in series with the ammeter under
calibraton.The voltage across the standard resistor is measured with the help of potentiometer an the
current through the standard resistance can be computed. I

Current I=Vs/S

Vs= voltage across the standard resistor

S= standard resistor

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Calibration of voltmeter

Fig. shows the circuit for calibration of voltmeter. Fig shows a potential divider network consisting of
two rheostats one for coarse and other for fine control of calibrating voltage. The potentiometer
measures he true value of voltage. If the potentiometer reading does not agree with the voltmeter
reading a negative or positive error is indicated. A calibration curve may be drawn with the help of the
readings of voltmeter and potentiometer.

Calibration of wattmeter

The arrangement is shown in fig. The current coil of wattmeter is supplied from a low
voltage supply and the series rheostat is inserted to adjust the value of current. The voltage ,V, and the
current ,I, are measured with the potentiometer employing D.P.D.T switch. The true power is then VI
and the wattmeter reading may be compared with this value.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

AC POTENTIOMETERS

 Two types of AC potentiometers

Polar type

In these instruments, the magnitude of the unknown voltage is read from one scale
and its phase angle with respect to some reference phasor is read directly from a second scale. Voltage
is read in the form V<θ.

Co-ordinate type

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

These instruments are provided with two scales to read respectively the in phase
component V1,and the quadrature component,V2 of the unknown voltage V.These components are 90
degree out of phase with each other.

MEASUREMENT OF RESISTANCE

1. Low resistance
All resistance of the order of 1Ω under may be classified as low resistance.

Eg : Resistance of armature and series windings of large machines

2. Medium Resistance

This class includes resistance from 1Ω upwards to 100KΩ

Eg : Voltmeter resistance, field resistance of motor.

3. High Resistance

Resistance of 100KΩ and upwards may be classified as high resistance.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

BRIDGE MEASUREMENT:-

Bridges are used measuring component values and other circuit parameters directly derived from
component values.In bridge circuits , the unknown values of an components are compared to that
of an accurately known component

A Simply bridge circuit consist of

a)four resitance arms

b)battery

c)null detector

The null detector is usually a galvanometer or other sensitive current meter. The bridge is excited
by a DC or AC Source, applied to two opposite junction and a detector connected to the other
two junction and a detector connected to the other two junctions.

Bridge circuit are used for measuring component values such as resistance ®, Inductance(L) and
capacitance(C), The measurement accuracy is very high

Basically there are two types of bridges,

They are a)DC Bridge

b)AC Bridge.

a)DC Bridge

DC bridge are mainly used for measuring DC Resitances .‖Wheat stone bridge‖ is used for
measuring medium DC Resistances and kelvin‘s double bridge ― is used for measuring low DC
Resitances .

b)AC Bridge:-

In AC bridge , its basic form consist of

1) Four arms

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

2) Source of Excitation and

3) Null detector.
For low frequency measurements , the source of excitation is power line, for high frequency
measurement excitation is by oscillator.The null detector is usually a pair of headphones.

―Maxwell‘s Bridge and ―Hay‘s Bridge‖ are used for measurement of self inductance.

―weins bridge‖ are ―universal impedance Bridge‖ are used for measurement of frequency.

(i)Wheat stone Bridge.

Wheat stone Bridge is the simplest form of bridge used for measuring resistance

The wheat stone bridge has

a) four resistance arms

b) battery and

c) Galvanometer.

The source (2) is connected to ‗a‘ and ‗b‘ Galvanometer has a zero centre scale .When

there is no current , the voltage between ‗a‘ and ‗c‘ equals , the voltage between ‗a‘

and ‗d‘ (or) the voltage between ‗b‘ and ‗c‘ equals, the voltage between ‗b‘ and ‗d‘.

so the balance condition

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

I1 R1 = I 2 R 2 (OR)

I3R3 = I4 R4

In general, Resistance R1 and R2 are resistive arms and R3 is called standard arm of the

Bridge from fig

For (G) current to be zero, following condition is to be satisfied,

E
I1 = I3 =
R1  R3

E
I2 = I4 =
R2  R4

Substitute I 1 and I 2 in the equation I 1 R 1 = I 2 R 2

E E
X R1 = X R2
R1  R3 R2  R4

R1 (R2+R4) = R2 (R1+R3)

R1R2 +R1R4 = R2R1 +R2R3

R 2 R3
R4 (OR) RX =
R1

This is the equation for the bridge to be balanced.

In practical, one of the resistances (R3) is made adjustable to permit balancing when the bridge is
balanced, the unknown resistance (R4) may be determined by adjusting the value of standard
resistor R3, therefore

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

RX = R2 R3/R1

(RX=unknown resistance)

The sensitivity of a Wheatstone bridge is defined as the deflection of a galvanometer per unit current.
The amount of deflection is a function of the sensitivity of the galvanometer.

MAXWELL’S BRIDGE

The Maxwell bridge is used for measuring unknown inductance in terms of a known capacitance

Z1==1/Y1 (R1 in parallel with C1)

Y1=1/R1 +jwC

Z2 = R2

Z3 = R3

ZX= RX in series with LX=RX+jwlx

For bridge to be made balanced,

Z1ZX = Z2Z3 ---------(1)

Sub Z1, Z2, Z3 and ZX in equation ---(1)

We get

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

r1
(RX +jwlx) = R2R3
1  JWr1c1

RX =jwlx = R2R3 (1/R1 +jwC1)

R 2 R3
RX +jwlx = and LX=R2R3C1
R1

For Q =wlx/RX ----(2)

Substitute RX & LX in equation (2)

wR 2 R3C1R1
Q=
R 2 R3

Q = w C1R1

In maxwell‘s bridge circuit , one of the ratio arms has a resitance R1 and capacitance C1 in
parallel. The expansion for Q factor is given as ―Q=WC1R1‖

The resistance is expressed in ohms inductance in henrys and capacitance in farads.

This bridge measures inductances from 1 to 1000HZ.

Uses of maxwell’s Bridge

a)used for the measurement of low Q values

b) inductance can be measured directly

DISADVANTAGE:-

1. There is an interaction between the resistance and reactance balances .If the bridge is used with
a fixed capacitor. This can be eliminated by varying the capacitor. This can be eliminated by
reactance balance.

2. Limited to measurement of low Q cols.

HAY’S BRIDGE:-

Hay‘s bridge the modified form of maxwell‘s bridge uses a resistance uses a resistance in series
with the standard capacitor.It is used to measure inductance.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Z1= R1 – j/wC1

Z2 = R2

Z3= R3

Zx = Rx + jwlx

For bridge to be balanced

Z1ZX = Z2Z3-------------------(1)

Sub Z1 , to Z4 in (1)

We get

(R1 – j/Wc1) (Rx + jwLx) = R2R3

R1Rx + R1jwLx – jRx/Wc1 + Lx/Wc1 = R2R3

R1Rx + Lx/ Wc1 – jRx/Wc1 + jwlxR1 = R2R3

Equating real & imaginary parts, we get

R1Rx + Lx/C1= R2R3-------(2)

And

Rx/Wc1 = wLxR1------------(3)

2
Rx = W LxR1C1

Sub Rx in (2) we get,

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

R1(W 2 LxR1C1) + Lx/C1 = R2R3

W 2 LxR 2 1 C1 + Lx/C1 = R2R3

C1 is multiplied in both sides, so we get

2 2 2
W R1 C1 Lx = R2R3C1

2 2 2
Lx (W R1 C1 +1) = R2R3C1

R2R3C1
Lx =
W R12 C12 + 1
2

Sub Lx in (3) we get,

R2R3C1
Rx/wc1 = wR1
W R12 C12 + 1
2

w2C12 R1R 2 R3
Rx =
1  w2 R12 C12

The Hay‘s bridge has a resitance R1 in series with a standard capacitor ‗C1‘. It is more
convenient for measuring high Q coils, because of the value of R1 is very low for large phase
angles. For a low value Q coils Maxwell Bridge is preferred.

This circuit is useful for the measurement of high Q inductors (Q>10)

WEIN BRIDGE

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 Wein bridge is use to measure frequency .It is an a.c bridge . It is used as a notch filter in the
harmonic distortion analyzer.
 It is also used in audio and high frequency oscillators as the frequency determining element
 The figure shows wein‘s bridge circuit used to measure frequency from figure

Z1 = R1 – j/Wc1

Z2 = R2

Z3 = 1/R3 + jwC3

Z4 = R4

For bridge to be made balanced,

Z1Z4 = Z2Z3

Z1Z 4
Z2 = -----------------(1)
Z3

Sub Z1 to Z4 in (1)

We get

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

1
R2 = (R1 - j/Wc1) R4( )
1/ R3  jwC 3

R2 = R4 (R1 - j/Wc1) (1/R3 + jwC3)

R 4 R1 R4 j R 4C 3
R2 = + + R1R4 jwC3 +
R3 wC1R3 C1

By equating real and imaginary parts,we get

R1  R 4 C 3  R 4
R2 = + ---------------(2)
R3 C1

And

R4
- Wc3r1r4 = 0 -----------------(3)
wC1R3

2
Rx = w LxR1C1

From equation (2) we get,

R2 R1 C 3
= + --------------(4)
R4 R3 C1

From equation (3) we get

1/Wc1r3 = Wc3r1

2
w = 1/C1R1R3C3

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

1
w=
C1R1R3C3

as w = 2Πf ,

1
f= ------------------(5)
2Ð C1R1R3C3

by choosing R1 = R3 and C1 = C3 , then equation (4) is reduced to

R2/R4 = 2

Therefore the equation has a series RC combination in one arm and parallel RC combination in
the adjoining arm, The impedance of arm 1 is Z1 and an admittance of arm 3 is Y3 .For the
bridge to get balanced

Z1Z4 = Z2Z3 ,

Z1Z 4
(ie) Z2 =
Z3

The frequency to be found is shown as

F = 1/2ΠRC HZ

USES OF WEIN’S CIRCUIT

1. used for measuring frequency

2. used for measuring capacitances
3. used in harmonic distortion analyzer as a notch filter.
4. used as frequency determining element in audio frequency and RF oscillator
5. Accuracy from 0.5 to 1% can be obtained

ANDERSON’S BRIDGE:-

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 This bridge , in fact is a modification of the maxwell‘s inductance – capacitance bridge .In
this method, the self inductance bridge . In this method , the self – inductance is measured in
terms of a standard capacitor.
 This method is applicanle for precise measuerement of self inductance over a very wide range
of values.
 The fig shows the connections and the phasor diagram of the bridge for balanced condition .
Let L1 = Self inductance to be measured

R1 = Resistance of self –inductor

R1 = Resistance connected in series with self-inductor

R2, r1,R3,R4 = Known non-inductance resistor

C = fixed standard capacitor

And At Balance , Now I1R3 = Ic x 1/jwC

Ic = I1 jwCR3

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Writing the other balance equation

I1(r1 +R1 + jwL1) = I2R2 + Ic r

And

Ic (r + 1/jwC) = (I2 – Ic) R4

Sub the value of Ic in the above equation , we have

I1 = (r1 + R1 + jwL1) = I2R2 + I1 jwCR3r

Or I1(r1 + R1 + jwL1 - jwCR3r) = I2R2—(1)

And jwCR3I1(r + 1/jwC) = (I2 – I1jwCR3)R4 (OR)

I1(jwCR3r + jw (R3R4 + R3) = I2R4—(2)

From equation (1) and (2) we obtain

I1(r1 +R1 + jwL1 - jwCR3r) = I1 (R2R3/R4 + jwCR2R3r/R4 + jwCR3R2)

Equating the real and imaginary parts

R1 = R2R3/R4 – r1

L1 = CR3/R4(r(R4 + R2) + R2R4)

An examination of balance equation reveals that to obtain easy convergence of balance , alternate
adjustment of r1 and R2 should be done as they appear in only one of the two balance equations

ADVANTAGES:-

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

1.In case of adjustments are carried out by manipulating control over r1 and r , they become
independent of each other. This is a marked superiority over sliding balance conditions met with
low Q coils when measuring with maxwell‘s bridge

2.This bridge may be used for accurate determination of capacitance in terms of inductance

DISADVANTAGES:-

1.The anderson‘s bridge is more complex than its prototype maxwell‘s.The anderson‘s bridge has
more parts and is more complicated to set up and manipulate. The balance equation are not simple
and in fact are much more tedious.

2.An additional junction pont increases the difficulty of shielding the bridge. Considering the
above complication of Anderson‘s bridge , in all the cases where a variable capacitor is
permissible the more simple maxwell‘s bridge is used instead of Anderson‘s bridge.

SCHERING BRIDGE:-

Let C1 = Capacitor whose capacitance is to be determined,

R1 = a series resistance representing the loss in the capacitorC1

C2 = a standard capacitor .This capacitor is either an air (or) a gas capacitor and hence loss
free

R3 = a non inductive resistance

C4 = a variable capacitor,

And

R4 = a variable non – inductive resistance in parallel with variable capacitor C4

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

At balance (r1 + 1/jwC1)(R4/1+ jwC4R4) = R3 /jwC2

(OR) (r1 + 1/jwC1)R4 = R3/jwC2 (1 + jwC4R4)

(OR) r1R4 – Jr4/Wc1 = - Jr3/Wc2 + R3R4C4/C2

Equating the real and imaginary terms , we obtain

r1 = R3C4/C2

and C1 = C2 (R4/R3)

Two independent balance equation are obtained if C4 and R4 are chosen as the
variable elements.

Dissipation factor D1 = tan δ = Wc1R1

= w (C2R4/R3) X (R3C4/C2)

= Wc4r4

 Therefore values of capacitance C1 nad its dissipation factor one obtained from the values of
bridge elements at balance
 Permanently set up schering bridges are sometimes arranged so that balancing is done by
adjustment of R2 and C4 with C2 nad R4 remaining fixed .Since R3 appears in both the
balance equation and therefore there is some difficulty in obtaining balance but it has certain
advantages.

ADVANTAGES:-

1.The equation for capacitance is C1 = (R4/R3)C2 and since R4 and C2 are fixed , the dial of
resistor R3 may be calibrated to read the capacitance directly .

2.Dissipation factor D1 = Wc4R4 and in case the frequency is fixed the dial of capacitor C4 can
be calibrated to read the dissipation factor directly.

ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE:

Definition:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

If the parameter to be measured is at the place at which a measurement is to be displayed. The

main one is electrical noise or interference being superimposed on the measurement signal. This
is called electromagnetic interference.

Sources of Electromagnetic interference:

Sources of noise and interference include

1) AC power circuits , solenoids switching fluorescent lighting , radio

frequency transmitter.
2) Welding equipment
3) Inductive or capacitive coupling.
4) By having earths of slightly different potentials.

Effects of Electromagnetic interference:

Electromagnetic interference often affects instruments signals particularly when very sensitive
instruments which are close to equipment that produces a log of electrical noise.

Electromagnetic Compatibility:

The Electromagnetic compatibility regulation are designed to eliminate radio frequency

interference emission from electrical machines and to ensure that these are immune to such radiation
from external sources.

Earth Loops:

Earth loops from a distinct part of the guarding system of electrical equipments.

Importance of safety ground:

In a proper installation this ground connection ensures that none of the conducting parts of the
instrument when touched can rise a potential above the safety margin with respect to ground.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Earth loop formation:

When two points in a measuring system are connected to ground. A ground loop is formed by
the part of the measuring system between the two ground points and the soil between the two points.

The fig shows an example of such an earth loop formed between a grounded transducer and the
grounded measuring instrument which are connected by relatively long cables.R 1 and R2 represented
the cable resistance.

The transducer might be a thermocouple or a strain gauge connected to a ground object whereas the
instrument can be strip chart recorder impedance bridges an oscilloscope or a data acquisition system.

The ground currents and the soil resistivity create a virtual voltage Sources E cm causing a current to
flow through the measuring set up.Thus a constraints arises that accurate measuring system must be
designed to reduced or eliminate errors due to ground current flowing below the surface of the earth
and ground current associate with the measuring set up it self.

ELECTROSTATIC INTERFERENCE AND SCREENING:

The basics of balancing:

Balanced connection in an audio system are designed to reject both external noise, from
power wiring etc,and also internal cross talk from adjacent signal cables. The basic principle of
balanced inter connection is to get the signal you want by subtraction using a three wire connection.

In many cases one signal wire sense the actual output of the sending unit while the other sense units
output sockets ground, and the difference between them gives the wanted signal. any noise voltage

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

that appear identically on both lines are in theory completely cancelled by the subtraction. In real life
the subtraction falls short of perfection as the gains via the hot and cold inputs will not be precisely
the same, and the degree of discrimination actually achieved is called the common mode rejection
ratio.

Screening:

While two wire carry the signal, the third is ground wire which has the dual duty of both joining
the grounds of the interconnected equipment and electro statically screening the two signal wire by
being in some way wrapped around them. The wrapping around can mean.

1) A lapped screen with wires laid parrel to the central signal conductor. The screening converge
is not perfect, and can be badly degraded as it tends to open up on the outside of the cable
bends.
2) A braided screen around the central signal wires. This is more expensive, but opens up less on
bends. Screening is not 100% but certainly better than lapped Screen.
3) An over lapping foil screen with the ground wire running down the inside of the foil and in
electrical contact with it. This is usually the most effective as the foil cannot open up on the
outside of bends, and should give perfect electrostatic screening. However the higher
resistance of Al foil compared with copper braid means that RF screening may be worse.
Advantages of Balancing

1) It discriminates against noise and crosstalk.

2) Balanced interconnect allow 6 dB more signal level on the line.

UNIT IV
STORAGE AND DISPLAY DEVICES

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Magnetic disk and tape – Recorders, digital plotters and printers, CRT display, digital CRO, LED, LCD
& dot matrix display – Data Loggers.

Recorders:
A recorder is a measuring instrument which records time varying quantity, even after the quantity or
variable to be measured has stopped. The electrical quantities such as voltage & current are measured directly.
The non- electrical quantities are recorded using indirect methods. The non- electrical quantities are first
converted to their equivalent voltages or currents, using various transducers.
Electronic recorders may be classified as:
1. Analog recorders
2. Digital recorders
Analog recorders dealing with analog systems can be classified as
1. Graphic recorders
2. Oscillographic recorders
3. Magnetic Tape recorders
Digital recorders dealing with digital output can be classified as
1. Incremental digital recorders
2. Synchronous digital recorders

4.2 Magnetic Disk And Tape

MagneticTapeRecorder
Ø The magnetic tape recorders are used for high frequency signal recording.
Ø In these recorders, the data is recorded in a way that it can be reproduced in electrical form any
time.
Ø Also main advantage of these recorders is that the recorded data can be replayed for almost
infinite times.
Ø Because of good higher frequency response, these are used in
Instrumentation systems extensively.

Basic Components of Tape Recorder

Following are the basic components of magnetic tape recorder
1. Recording Head
2. Magnetic Tape
3. Reproducing Head
4. Tape Transport Mechanism
5. Conditioning Devices

Recording Head
Ø The construction of the magnetic recording head is very much similar to the construction of a
Transformer having a toroidal core with coil.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Ø There is a uniform fine air gap of 5µ m to 15µ m between the head and the magnetic tape.

(Fig) Magnetic tape recording head

Ø When the current used for recording is passed through coil wound around magnetic core, it
produces magnetic flux.
Ø The magnetic tape is having iron oxide particles.
Ø When th e tape is passing the head, the flux pr oduced due to recording current gets linked with
iron oxide part ices on th e magnetic tape and these particles get magnetized.
Ø This magnet ization particl e remain as it is, e vent Hough the magnetic tape leaves the gap.
Ø The act ual recording ta kes place at the trailing edge of the air gap.
Ø Any signal is recorded in the form of the patterns.
Ø These m a g n e t i c patterns are dispersed anyw here al ong t h e length of mag netictape in accordance
with the variation in recording current with respect to time.
Magnetic Tape
Ø The magnetic tape is made of thin sheet of tough and dimensionally stable plastic ribbon.
Ø One side of this plastic ribbon is coated by powdered iron oxide particles (Fe2O3) thick.
Ø The magnetic tape is wound around a reel.
Ø This tape is transferred from one reel to another.
Ø When the tape passes across air gap magnetic pattern is created in accordance with variation of
recording current.
Ø To reproduce this pattern, the same tape with some recorded pattern is passed across another
magnetic head in which voltage is induced.
Ø This voltage induced is in accordance with the magnetic pattern.
Reproducing Head

Ø The use of the reproducing head is to get the recorded data played back.
Ø The working of the reproducing head is exactly opposite to that of the recording
head.
Ø The reproducing head detects the magnetic pattern recorded on the tape.
Ø The head converts the magnetic pattern back to the original electrical signal.
Ø In appearance, both recording and reproducing heads are very much similar.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Tape Transport Mechanism

(Fig) Basic tape transport mechanism

Ø The tape transport mechanism moves the magnetic tape along the recording head or
reproducing head with a constant speed
Ø The tape transport mechanism must perform following tasks.
It must handle the tape without straining and wearing it.
It must guide the tape across magnetic heads with great precision.
It must maintain proper tension of magnetic tape.
It must maintain uniform and sufficient gap between the tape and heads.
Ø The magnetic tape is wound on reel.
Ø There are two reels; one is called as supply & other is called as take-up reel.
Ø Both the reels rotate in same direction.
Ø The transportation of the tape is done by using supply reel and take-up reel.
Ø The fast winding of the tape or the reversing of the tape is done by using special
arrangements.
Ø The rollers are used to drive and guide the tape.

Conditioning Devices

Ø These devices consist of amplifiers and fitters to modify signal to be recorded.

Ø The conditioning devices allow the signals to be recorded on the magnetic tape with proper format.
Ø Amplifiers allow amplification of signal to be recorded and filters removes unwanted ripple
quantities.
Principle of Tape Recorders
Ø When a magnetic tape is passed through a recording head, the signal to be recorded appears as some
magnetic pattern on the tape.
Ø This magnetic pattern is in accordance with the variations of original recording current.
Ø The recorded signal can be reproduced back by passing the same tape through a reproducing head
where the voltage is induced corresponding to the magnetic pattern on the tape.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Ø When the tape is passed through the reproducing head, the head detects the changes in the magnetic
pattern i.e. magnetization.
Ø The change in magnetization of particles produces change in the reluctance of the magnetic circuit
of the reproducing head, inducing a voltage in its winding.
Ø The induced voltage depends on the direction of magnetisation and its magnitude on the tape.
Ø The emf, thus induced is proportional to the rate of change of
magnitude of magnetisation i.e. e N (dĭ / dt)
Where N = number of turns of the winding on reproducing head
Ǽ = magnetic flux produced.
Suppose the signal to be recorded is Vm sin Ǚt. Thus, the current in the recording head and flux
induced will be proportional to this voltage.
Ø It is given by e= k 1. Vm sin wt, where k1 = constant.
Ø Above pattern of flux is recorded on the tape. Now, when this tape is passed through the
reproducing head, above pattern is regenerated by inducing voltage in the reproducing head
winding.
Ø It is given by e= k2 ǙVm cos wt
Ø Thus the reproducing signal is equal to derivative of input signal
& it is proportional to flux recorded & frequency of recorded signal.

Methods of Recording

The methods used for magnetic tape recording used for instrumentation purposes are as follows:
i) Direct Recording
ii) Frequency Modulation Recording
iii) Pulse Duration Modulation Recording

For instrumentation purposes mostly frequency modulation recording is used. The pulse duration
modulation recording is generally used in the systems for special applications where large number of
slowly changing variables has to be recorded simultaneously.

4.3 Digital Plotters And Printers

PRINTERS
Ø Printers can be classified according to their printing methodology Impact printers and Non-
impact printers.
Ø Impact printers press formed character faces against an inked ribbon onto the paper.
Ø A line printer and dot matrix printer are the examples of an
impact printer.
Ø Non impact printer and plotters use laser techniques, inkjet sprays, xerographic processes,
electrostatic methods and e1ectrothermal methods to get images onto the paper.
Ø A ink-jet printer and laser printer are the examples of non- impact printers.

Line Printers
IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

A line printer prints a complete line at a time. The printing speed of line printer varies from 150 lines to

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

2500 lines per minute with 96 to 100 characters on one line. The line printers are divided into two
categories Drum printers and chain printer.

Drum Printers
Drum printer consists of a cylindr ical drum. One comp lete set of characters i s embossed on all the
print positions on a l ine, as shown in the Fig. The character to be printed is adjusted by rotating drum.

Chain Printers
In these printers chain with embossed character set is used, instead of drum. Here, the character to be
printed is adjusted by rotating chain.

Dot Matrix Printers

Dot matrix printers are also called serial printers as they print one character at a time, with printing head
moving across a line.

Laser Printer
Ø The li ne, do t matrix, and ink jet printers need a head movement on a ribbon to print characters.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Ø This mechanical movement is relatively slow due to the high inertia of mechanical elements.
Ø In laser printers these mechanical movements are avoided.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Ø In these printers, an electronically controlled lase r beam traces out the desired character to be printed
on a photoconductive drum.
Ø The exposed areas of the drum gets charged, which attracts an oppositely charged ink from the ink
toner on to the exposed areas.
Ø This image is then transferred to the paper which comes in contact with the drum with pressure and
heat.

Ø The charge on the drum decides the darkness of the print.

Ø When charge is more, more ink is attra cted and we get a dark print.

Ø A colour laser printer works like a single colour laser printer, except that the process is
repeated four times with four different ink colours: Cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Ø Laser printers have high resolution from 600 dots per inch upto
1200 per inch.
Ø These printers print 4 to 16 page of text per minute.
Ø The high quality and speed of laser printers make them ideal for office environment.

Advantages of Laser printer

Ø The main advantages of laser printers are speed, precision and economy.
Ø A laser can move very quickly, so it can ― write‖ with much greater speed than an inket.
Ø Because the laser beam has an unvarying diameter, it can draw more precisely, without spilling any
excess ink.
Ø Laser printers tend to be more expensive than ink-jet printers, but it doesn‘t cost as much to
keep them running.
Ø Its toner power is cheap and lasts for longer time.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

4.4 CRT Display

The device which allows, the amplitude of such signals, to be displayed primarily as a function of time, is
called cathode ray oscilloscope. The cathode ray tube (CRT) is the heart of the C.R.O. The CRT generates the
electron beam, accelerates the beam, deflects the beam and also has a screen where beam becomes visible as a
spot. The main parts of the CRT are
i) Electron gun
ii) Deflection system
iii) Fluorescent screen
iv) Glass tube or envelope
v) Base

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Electron gun
Ø The electron gun section of the cathode ray tube provides a sharply focused, electron beam directed
towards the fluorescent-coated screen.
Ø This section starts from thermally heated cathode, emitting the electrons.
Ø The control grid is given negative potential with respect to cathode.
Ø This grid controls the number of electrons in t beam, going to the screen.
Ø The momentum of the electrons (their number x their speed) determines the intensity, or brightness, of
the light emitted from the fluorescent screen due to the electron bombardment.
Ø The light emitted is usually of the green colour.

Deflection System

Ø When the electron beam is accelerated it passes through the deflection system, with which beam can be
positioned anywhere on the screen.

Fluorescent Screen

Ø The light produced by the screen does not disappear immediately when bombardment by
electrons ceases, i.e., when the signal becomes zero.
Ø The time period for which the trace remains on the screen after the signal becomes zero
is known as ―persistence or fluorescence‖ .
Ø The persistence may be as short as a few microsecond, or as long as tens of seconds or
even minutes.
Ø Medium persistence traces are mostly used for general purpose applications.
Ø Long persistence traces are used in the study of transients.
Ø Long persistence helps in the study of transients since the trace is still seen on the screen
after the transient has disappeared.

Glass Tube

Ø All the components of a CRT are enclosed in an evacuated glass tube called envelope.
IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Ø This allows the emitted electrons to move about freely from one end of the tube to the
other end.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

 Base

Ø The base is provided to the CRT through which the connections are made to the
various parts.

Digital Storage Oscilloscope

Block Diagram
The block diagram of digital storage oscilloscope is shown in the Fig.

Ø The input signal is applied to the amplifier and attenuator section.

Ø The oscilloscope uses same type of amplifier and attenuator circuitry as used in the
conventional oscilloscopes.
Ø The attenuated signal is then applied to the vertical amplifier.
Ø To digitize the analog signal, analog to digital (A/D) converter is used.
Ø The output of the vertical amplifier is applied to the A/D
converter section.
Ø The successive approximation type of A/D converter is most oftenly used in the digital storage
oscilloscopes.
Ø The sampling rate and memory size are selected depending upon the duration & the waveform
to be recorded.
Ø Once the input signal is sampled, the A/D converter digitizes it.
Ø The signal is then captured in the memory.
S
 Ø Once it is stored in the memory, many manipulations are possible as memory can be
readout without being erased.
Ø The digital storage oscilloscope has three modes:

1. Roll mode
2. Store mode
3. Hold or save mode.

Advantages
i) It is easier to operate and has more capability. ii) The storage time is
infinite.
iii) The display flexibility is available. The number of traces that can be stored and recalled
depends on the size of the memory.
iv) The cursor measurement is possible.
v) The characters can be displayed on screen along with the waveform which can indicate
waveform information such as minimum, maximum, frequency, amplitude etc.
vi) The X-Y plots, B-H curve, P-V diagrams can be displayed.
vii) The pretrigger viewing feature allows to display the waveform before trigger pulse.
viii) Keeping the records is possible by transmitting the data to computer system where the further
processing is possible
ix) Signal processing is possible which includes translating the raw data into finished information
e.g. computing parameters of a captured signal like r.m.s. value, energy stored etc.

4.6 DATA LOGGER

Definition
Data logger is an electronic device that records data over time or in relation to location either with a
built in instrument or sensor.
Components
Ø Pulse inputs
Counts circuit closing
Ø Control ports
Digital in and out
Most commonly used to turn things on and off
Can be programmed as a digital input
Ø Excitation outputs
Though they can be deployed while connected to a host PC over an Ethernet or
serial port a data logger is more typically deployed as standalone devices. The term data logger (also
sometimes referred to as a data recorder) is commonly used to describe a self-contained, standalone
data acquisition system or device. These products are comprised of a number of analog and digital
inputs that are monitored, and the results or conditions of these inputs is then stored on some type of
local memory (e.g. SD Card, Hard Drive).

S
 Examples

Examples of where these devices are used abound. A few of these examples are shown below:

Ø monitoring temperature, pressure, strain and other physical phenomena in aircraft flight tests (even
including logging info from Arinc 429 or other serial communications buses)

Ø Monitoring temperature, pressure, strain and other physical phenomena in automotive and in-vehicle
tests including monitoring traffic and data transmitted on the vehicles CAN bus.

Ø Environmental monitoring for quality control in food processing, food storage, pharmaceutical
manufacturing, and even monitoring the environment during various stages of contract assembly or
semiconductor fabrication

Ø Monitoring stress and strain in large mechanical structures such as bridges, steel framed buildings,
towers, launch pads etc.

Ø Monitoring environmental parameters in temperature and environmental chambers and test facilities.

Ø A data logger is a self-contained unit that does not require a host to operate.

Ø It can be installed in almost any location, and left to operate unattended.

Ø This data can be immediately analyzed for trends, or stored for historical archive purposes.
Ø Data loggers can also monitor for alarm conditions, while recording a minimum number of samples,
for economy.
Ø If the recording is of a steady-state nature, without rapid changes, the user may go through rolls of
paper, without seeing a single change in the input.
Ø A data logger can record at very long intervals, saving paper, and can note when an alarm condition
is occurring. When this happens, the event will be recorded and any outputs will be activated,
even if the event occurs in between sample times.
Ø A record of all significant conditions and events is generated using a minimum of recording
hardcopy
Ø The differences between various data loggers are based on the way that data is recorded and stored.
Ø The basic difference between the two data logger types is that one type allows the data to be stored
in a memory, to be retrieved at a later time, while the other type automatically records the data
on paper, for immediate viewing and analysis.
Ø Many data loggers combine these two functions, usually unequally, with the emphasis on either the
ability to transfer the data or to provide a printout of it
Advantages

S
 Ø A data logger is an attractive alternative to either a recorder or data acquisition system in many
applications. When compared to a recorder, data loggers have the ability to accept a greater number
of input channels, with better resolution and accuracy.

Ø Also, data loggers usually have some form of on-board intelligence, which provides the user with
diverse capabilities.

Ø For example, raw data can be analyzed to give flow rates, differential temperatures, and other
interpreted data that otherwise would require manual analysis by the operator the operator has a
permanent recording on paper,

Ø No other external or peripheral equipment is required for operation, and

Ø Many data loggers of this type also have the ability to record data trends, in addition to simple
digital data recording

Applications

Ø Temperature sensor
Ø Pressure sensor

4.7 LED-BACKLIT LCD TELEVISION

Comparison of LCD, edge lit LED and LED TV

LED-backlight LCD television (incorrectly called LED TV by (CCFLs) used in traditional

LCD televisions. This has a dramatic impact resulting in a thinner panel and less power
consumption, brighter display with better contrast levels. It also generates less heat than regular
LCD TVs. The LEDs can come in three forms: dynamic RGB LEDs which are positioned behind

S
the panel, white Edge-LEDs positioned around the rim of the screen which use a special diffusion
panel to spread the light evenly behind the screen (the most common) and full-array which are
arranged behind the screen but they are incapable of dimming or brightening individually

LED backlighting techniques

RGB dynamic LEDs
This method of backlighting allows dimming to occur in locally specific areas of darkness on the
screen. This can show truer blacks, whites and PRs[clarification needed] at much higher dynamic
contrast ratios, at the cost of less detail in small bright objects on a dark background, such as star
fields
Edge-LEDs
This method of backlighting allows for LED-backlit TVs to become extremely thin. The light is
diffused across the screen by a special panel which produces a uniform color range across the
screen.
Full Array LEDs
Sharp, and now other brands, also have LED backlighting technology that aligns the LEDs on
back of the TV like the RGB Dynamic LED backlight, but it lacks the local dimming of other
sets.[6] The main benefit of its LED backlight is simply reduced energy consumption and may not
improve quality over non-LED LCD TVs.[7]
Differences between LED-backlit and CCFL-backlit LCD displays

An LED backlight offers several general benefits over regular CCFL backlight TVs, typically
higher brightness. Compared to regular CCFL backlighting, there may also be benefits to color
gamut. However advancements in CCFL technology mean wide color gamuts and lower power
consumption are also possible. The principal barrier to wide use of LED backlighting on LCD
televisions is cost.

Applications
The variations of LED backlighting do offer different benefits. The first commercial LED backlit
LCD TV was the Sony Qualia 005 (introduced in 2004). This featured RGB LED arrays to offer
a color gamut around twice that of a conventional CCFL LCD television (the combined light
output from red, green and blue LEDs produces a more pure white light than is possible with a
single white light LED). RGB LED technology continues to be used on selected
Sony BRAVIA LCD models, with the addition of 'local dimming' which enables excellent on-
screen contrast through selectively turning off the LEDs behind dark parts of a picture frame.

Edge LED lighting was also first introduced by Sony (September 2008) on the 40 inch BRAVIA
KLV-40ZX1M (referred to as the ZX1 in Europe). The principal benefit of Edge-LED lighting
for LCD televisions is the ability to build thinner housings (the BRAVIA KLV-40ZX1M is as
thin as 9.9mm). Samsung has also introduced a range of Edge-LED lit LCD televisions with
extremely thin housings.

LED-backlit LCD TVs are considered a more sustainable choice, with a longer life and better
S
energy efficiency than plasmas and conventional LCD TVs.[10] Unlike CCFL backlights, LEDs
also use nomercury in their manufacture. However, other elements such
as gallium and arsenic are used in the manufacture of the LED emitters themselves, meaning
there is some debate over whether they are a significantly better long term solution to the
problem of TV disposal.

Because LEDs are able to be switched on and off more quickly than CCFL displays and can
offer a higher light output, it is theoretically possible to offer very high contrast ratios. They can
produce deep blacks (LEDs off) and a high brightness (LEDs on), however care should be taken
with measurements made from pure black and pure white outputs, as technologies like Edge-
LED lighting do not allow these outputs to be reproduced simultaneously on-screen.

In September 2009 Nanoco Group announced that it has signed a joint development agreement
with a major Japanese electronics company under which it will design and develop quantum
dots for LED Backlights in LCD televisions.[11] Quantum dots are valued for displays, because
they emit light in very specific gaussian distributions. This can result in a display that more
accurately renders the colors than the human eye can perceive. Quantum dots also require very
little power since they are not color filtered. In September 2010, LG Electronics revealed their
new product which claimed as the world's slimmest full LED 3D TV at the IFA consumer
electronics trade show in Berlin

4.8 LCD & Dot Matrix Display

LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY

Reflective twisted nematic liquid crystal display.

1. Polarizing filter film with a vertical axis to polarize light as it enters.
2. Glass substrate with ITO electrodes. The shapes of these electrodes will determine the
shapes that will appear when the LCD is turned ON. Vertical ridges etched on the
surface are smooth.
3. Twisted nematic liquid crystal.
S
 4. Glass substrate with common electrode film (ITO) with horizontal ridges to line up with
the horizontal filter.
5. Polarizing filter film with a horizontal axis to block/pass light.
6. Reflective surface to send light back to viewer. (In a backlit LCD, this layer is replaced
with a light source.)
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a thin, flat electronic visual display that uses the light
modulating properties of liquid crystals (LCs). LCs do not emit light directly.
APPLICATIONS
They are used in a wide range of applications including: computer monitors, television,
instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, signage, etc. They are common in consumer devices
such as video players, gaming devices, clocks, watches, calculators, and telephones. LCDs have
displaced cathode ray tube (CRT) displays in most applications. They are usually more compact,
lightweight, portable, less expensive, more reliable, and easier on the eyes.They are available in
a wider range of screen sizes than CRT and plasma displays, and since they do not use
phosphors, they cannot suffer image burn-in. LCDs are more energy efficient and offer safer
disposal than CRTs.

Overview

LCD alarm clock

Construction

Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned between

two transparent electrodes, and two polarizing filters, the axes of transmission of which are (in
most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. With no actual liquid crystal between the
polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed)
polarizer. In most of the cases the liquid crystal has double refraction.

The surface of the electrodes that are in contact with the liquid crystal material are treated so as
to align the liquid crystal molecules in a particular direction. This treatment typically consists of
a thin polymer layer that is unidirectionally rubbed using, for example, a cloth. The direction of
the liquid crystal alignment is then defined by the direction of rubbing. Electrodes are made of a
transparent conductor called Indium Tin Oxide (ITO).
Operation

Before applying an electric field, the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules is determined by
S
the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic device (still the most common
liquid crystal device), the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to
each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This reduces

the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears grey. If the applied
voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost
completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through
the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second
filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied
across the liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying
amounts thus constituting different levels of gray. This electric field also controls (reduces)
the double refraction properties of the liquid crystal.

LCD with top polarizer removed from device and placed on top, such that the top and bottom
polarizers are parallel.

The optical effect of a twisted nematic device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on
variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, these devices
are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the
eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). These devices can
also be operated between parallel polarizers, in which case the bright and dark states are
reversed. The voltage-off dark state in this configuration appears blotchy, however, because of
small variations of thickness across the device.

Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds. If an
electric field of one particular polarity is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is
attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying
an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed
(the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied
field).

When a large number of pixels are needed in a display, it is not technically possible to drive each
directly since then each pixel would require independent electrodes. Instead, the display
is multiplexed. In a multiplexed display, electrodes on one side of the display are grouped and
wired together (typically in columns), and each group gets its own voltage source. On the other
side, the electrodes are also grouped (typically in rows), with each group getting a voltage sink.
S
The groups are designed so each pixel has a unique, unshared combination of source and sink.
The electronics, or the software driving the electronics then turns on sinks in sequence, and
drives sources for the pixels of each sink.

S
ILLUMINATION

LCD panels produce no light of their own, they require an external lighting mechanism to be
easily visible. On most displays, this consists of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp that is situated
behind the LCD panel. Passive-matrix displays are usually not backlit, but active-matrix displays
almost always are, with a few exceptions such as the display in the original Gameboy Advance.
Recently, two types of LED backlit LCD displays have appeared in some televisions as an
alternative to conventional backlit LCDs. In one scheme, the LEDs are used to backlight the
entire LCD panel. In another scheme, a set of green red and blue LEDs is used to illuminate a
small cluster of pixels, which can improve contrast and black level in some situations. For
example, the LEDs in one section of the screen can be dimmed to produce a dark section of the
image while the LEDs in another section are kept bright. Both schemes also allows for a slimmer
panel than on conventional displays.

Passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs

A general purpose alphanumeric LCD, with two lines of 16 characters. LCDs with a small
number of segments, such as those used in digital watches and pocket calculators, have
individual electrical contacts for each segment. A external dedicated circuit supplies an electric
charge to control each segment. This display structure is unwieldy for more than a few display
elements.

Small monochrome displays such as those found in personal organizers, electronic weighing
scales, older laptop screens, and the originalGameboy have a passive-matrix structure
employing super-twisted nematic (STN) or double-layer STN (DSTN) technology (the latter of
which addresses a colour-shifting problem with the former), and colour-STN (CSTN) in which
colour is added by using an internal filter. Each row or column of the display has a single
electrical circuit. The pixels are addressed one at a time by row and column addresses. This type
of display is called passive-matrix addressed because the pixel must retain its state between
refreshes without the benefit of a steady electrical charge. As the number of pixels (and,
correspondingly, columns and rows) increases, this type of display becomes less feasible. Very
slow response times and poor contrast are typical of passive-matrix addressed LCDs.
Monochrome passive-matrix LCDs were standard in most early laptops (although a few used
plasma displays). The commercially unsuccessful Macintosh Portable (released in 1989) was one
of the first to use an active-matrix display (though still monochrome), but passive-matrix was the
norm until the mid-1990s, when colour active-matrix became standard on all laptops.

S
High-resolution colour displays such as modern LCD computer monitors and televisions use
an active matrix structure. A matrix of thin-film transistors (TFTs) is added to the polarizing and
colour filters. Each pixel has its own dedicated transistor, allowing each column line to access
one pixel. When a row line is activated, all of the column lines are connected to a row of pixels
and the correct voltage is driven onto all of the column lines. The row line is then deactivated
and the next row line is activated. All of the row lines are activated in sequence during
a refresh operation. Active-matrix addressed displays look "brighter" and "sharper" than passive-
matrix addressed displays of the same size, and generally have quicker response times,
producing much better images.

ACTIVE MATRIX TECHNOLOGIES

A Casio 1.8 in colour TFT liquid crystal display which equips the SonyCyber-shot DSC-
P93A
Twisted nematic (TN)
Twisted nematic displays contain liquid crystal elements which twist and untwist at varying
degrees to allow light to pass through. When no voltage is applied to a TN liquid crystal cell, the
light is polarized to pass through the cell. In proportion to the voltage applied, the LC cells twist
up to 90 degrees changing the polarization and blocking the light's path. By properly adjusting
the level of the voltage almost any grey level or transmission can be achieved.

In-plane switching (IPS)

In-plane switching is an LCD technology which aligns the liquid crystal cells in a horizontal
direction. In this method, the electrical field is applied through each end of the crystal, but this
requires two transistors for each pixel instead of the single transistor needed for a standard thin-
film transistor (TFT) display. Before LGEnhanced IPS was introduced in 2009, the additional
transistors resulted in blocking more transmission area, thus requiring a brighter backlight, which
consumed more power, and made this type of display less desirable for notebook computers.
This newer, lower power technology can be found in the AppleiMac, iPad, and iPhone 4, as well
as the Hewlett-Packard EliteBook 8740w. Currently Panasonic is using an enhanced version
eIPS for their large size LCD-TV products.Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS)
Known as fringe field switching (FFS) until 2003, advanced fringe field switching is a
technology similar to IPS or S-IPS offering superior performance and colour gamut with high
S
 luminosity. AFFS is developed by HYDIS TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD, Korea (formally
Hyundai Electronics, LCD Task Force). AFFS-applied notebook applications minimize colour

In 2004, HYDIS TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD licenses AFFS patent to Japan's Hitachi Displays.
Hitachi is using AFFS to manufacture high end panels in their product line. In 2006, HYDIS also
licenses AFFS to Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation.
HYDIS introduced AFFS+ which improved outdoor readability in 2007.

Vertical alignment (VA)

Vertical alignment displays are a form of LCDs in which the liquid crystal material naturally
exists in a vertical state removing the need for extra transistors (as in IPS). When no voltage is
applied, the liquid crystal cell remains perpendicular to the substrate creating a black display.
When voltage is applied, the liquid crystal cells shift to a horizontal position, parallel to the
substrate, allowing light to pass through and create a white display. VA liquid crystal displays
provide some of the same advantages as IPS panels, particularly an improved viewing angle and
improved black level

Blue Phase mode

Blue phase LCDs do not require a liquid crystal top layer. Blue phase LCDs are relatively new to
the market, and very expensive because of the low volume of production. They provide a higher
refresh rate than normal LCDs, but normal LCDs are still cheaper to make and actually provide
better colours and a sharper image

Military use of LCD monitors

LCD monitors have been adopted by the United States of America military instead
of CRT displays because they are smaller, lighter and more efficient, although monochrome
plasma displays are also used, notably for their M1 Abrams tanks. For use with night vision
imaging systems a US military LCD monitor must be compliant with MIL-L-3009 (formerly
MIL-L-85762A). These LCD monitors go through extensive certification so that they pass the
standards for the military. These include MIL-STD-901D - High Shock (Sea Vessels), MIL-
STD-167B - Vibration (Sea Vessels), MIL-STD-810F – Field Environmental Conditions
(Ground Vehicles and Systems),MIL-STD-461E/F –EMI/RFI(Electromagnetic nterference/Radio
Frequency Interference), MIL-STD-740B – Airborne/Structureborne Noise, and TEMPEST -
Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions

Quality control

Some LCD panels have defective transistors, causing permanently lit or unlit pixels which are
commonly referred to as stuck pixels or dead pixels respectively. Unlike integrated circuits (ICs),
LCD panels with a few defective transistors are usually still usable. It is claimed that it is
economically prohibitive to discard a panel with just a few defective pixels because LCD panels
are much larger than ICs, but this has never been proven. Manufacturers' policies for the
S
acceptable number of defective pixels vary greatly. At one point, Samsung held a zero-tolerance
policy for LCD monitors sold in Korea. Currently, though, Samsung adheres to the less
restrictive ISO 13406-2 standard. Other companies have been known to tolerate as many as 11
dead pixels in their policies. Dead pixel policies are often hotly debated between manufacturers
and customers. To regulate the acceptability of defects and to protect the end user, ISO released
the ISO 13406-2 standard. However, not every LCD manufacturer conforms to the ISO standard
and the ISO standard is quite often interpreted in different ways. LCD panels are more likely to
have defects than most ICs due to their larger size. For example, a 300 mm SVGA LCD has 8
defects and a 150 mm wafer has only 3 defects. However, 134 of the 137 dies on the wafer will
be acceptable, whereas rejection of the LCD panel would be a 0% yield. Due to competition
between manufacturers quality control has been improved. An SVGA LCD panel with 4 defective
pixels is usually considered defective and customers can request an exchange for a new one.
Some manufacturers, notably in South Korea where some of the largest LCD panel
manufacturers, such as LG, are located, now have "zero defective pixel guarantee", which is an
extra screening process which can then determine "A" and "B" grade panels. Many manufacturers
would replace a product even with one defective pixel. Even where such guarantees do not
exist, the location of defective pixels is important. A display with only a few defective pixels may
be unacceptable if the defective pixels are near each other. Manufacturers may also relax their
replacement criteria when defective pixels are in the center of the viewing area. LCD panels also
have defects known as clouding (or less commonly mura), which describes the uneven patches of
changes in luminance. It is most visible in dark or black areas of displayed scenes

ZERO-POWER (BISTABLE) DISPLAYS

The zenithal bistable device (ZBD), developed by QinetiQ (formerly DERA), can retain an
image without power. The crystals may exist in one of two stable orientations ("Black" and
"White") and power is only required to change the image. ZBD Displays is a spin-off company
from QinetiQ who manufacture both grayscale and colour ZBD devices. A French company,
Nemoptic, has developed the BiNem zero-power, paper-like LCD technology which has
been mass-produced in partnership with Seiko since 2007.

This technology is intended for use in applications such as Electronic Shelf Labels, E-books, E-
documents, E-newspapers, E-dictionaries, Industrial sensors, Ultra-Mobile PCs, etc.

Kent Displays has also developed a "no power" display that uses Polymer Stabilized Cholesteric
Liquid Crystals (ChLCD). A major drawback of ChLCD screens are their slow refresh rate,
especially at low temperatures. Kent has recently demonstrated the use of a ChLCD to cover
the entire surface of a mobile phone, allowing it to change colours, and keep that colour even
when power is cut off. In 2004 researchers at the University of Oxford demonstrated two
new types of zero-power bistable LCDs based on Zenithal bistable techniques. Several bistable
technologies, like the 360° BTN and the bistable cholesteric, depend mainly on the bulk
properties of the liquid crystal (LC) and use standard strong anchoring, with alignment films and
LC mixtures similar to the traditional monostable materials. Other bistable technologies
(i.e. Binem Technology) are based mainly on the surface properties and need specific weak
anchoring materials. distortion while maintaining its superior wide viewing angle for a
professional display. Colour shift and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by
optimizing the white gamut which also enhances white/grey reproduction.
S
Comparison of the OLPC XO-1 display (left) with a typical colour LCD. The images
show
1×1 mm of each screen. A typical LCD addresses groups of 3 locations as pixels. The XO-1
display addresses each location as a separate pixel.

Example of how the colours are generated (R-red, G-green and B-blue)

In colour LCDs each individual pixel is divided into three cells, or subpixels, which are coloured
red, green, and blue, respectively, by additional filters (pigment filters, dye filters and metal
oxide filters). Each subpixel can be controlled independently to yield thousands or millions of
possible colours for each pixel. CRT monitors employ a similar 'subpixel' structures via
phosphors, although the electron beam employed in CRTs do not hit exact subpixels. The
figure at the left shows the twisted nematic (TN) type of LCD.

S
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

UNIT – 5 – TRANSDUCERS AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS

Classification of transducers – Selection of transducers – Resistive, capacitive & inductive transducers

– Piezoelectric, Hall effect, optical and digital transducers – Elements of data acquisition system –
A/D, D/A converters – Smart sensors.

Transducer:

 It‘s a device which convert one form of energy to another form

 Non electrical quantity is converted into an electrical form by a transducer.

Different types transducer:

 Resistive transducers
 Capacitive transducers
 Inductive transducers
 Piezoelectric transducers
 Optical transducers
 Digital transducers

Selection of transducer:

1) Range:
The range of the transducer should be large enough to encompass all the expected
magnitude of the measurand.

2) Sensitivity:
The transducer should give a sufficient output signal per unit of measured input in order to
yield meaningful data.

3) Electrical output characteristics:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

97
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The electrical characteristics the output impendence the frequency response and the
response time of the transducer output signal should be compatible with the recording devices and
the rest of the measuring system equipment.

4) Physical environment :
The transducer selected should be able to withstand the environment conditions to which it
is likely to be subjected while carrying out measurements and test.

Factor influencing choice of the transducer:

1. Operating Principle
2. Sensitivity
3. Operating Range
4. Accuracy
5. Cross sensitivity
6. Errors
7. Transient and frequency response
8. Loading effects.
9. Environmental compatibility
10. Insensitivity to unwanted signals
11. Usage and Ruggedness
12. Electrical aspects
13. Stability and Reliability
14. Static characteristics

1. Operating Principle:
The transducer are many times selected on the basis of operating principle used by them.
The operating principle used may be resistive, inductive, capacitive , optoelectronic, piezo electric
etc.

2. Sensitivity:
The transducer must be sensitive enough to produce detectable output.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

98
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

3. Operating Range:
The transducer should maintain the range requirement and have a good resolution over the
entire range.

4. Accuracy:
High accuracy is assured.

5. Cross sensitivity:
It has to be taken into account when measuring mechanical quantities. There are situation
where the actual quantity is being measured is in one plane and the transducer is subjected to
variation in another plan.

6. Errors:
The transducer should maintain the expected input-output relationship as described by the
transfer function so as to avoid errors.

7. Transient and frequency response :

The transducer should meet the desired time domain specification like peak overshoot, rise
time, setting time and small dynamic error.

8. Loading Effects:
The transducer should have a high input impedance and low output impedance to avoid
loading effects

9. Environmental Compatibility:
It should be assured that the transducer selected to work under specified environmental
conditions maintains its input- output relationship and does not break down.

10. Insensitivity to unwanted signals:

The transducer should be minimally sensitive to unwanted signals and highly sensitive to
desired signals

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

99
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

11. Usage and Ruggedness:

The ruggedness both of mechanical and electrical intensities of transducer versus its size
and weight must be considered while selecting a suitable transducer.

12. Electrical aspects:

The electrical aspects that need consideration while selecting a transducer include the
length and type of cable required.

13. Stability and Reliability :

The transducer should exhibit a high degree of stability to be operative during its operation
and storage life.

14.Static Characteristics :

Apart from low static error, the transducer should have a low non- linearity, low
hysteresis, high resolution and a high degree of repeatability

Active Transducer:

 Also known as self generating type, develop their own voltage or current from the
physical phenomenon being measured.
 Velocity, temperature, light intensity and force can be transducer with the help of active
transducer.
Passive Transducer:

 Also known as externally powered transducers, i.e., derive the power required for energy
conversion from an external power source.

Resistive Transducer:

 In such a transducer resistance between the output terminals of a transducer gets

varied according to the measurand;

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

100
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 resistive transducer is preferred over other transducer because dc and ac both are
suitable for measurements:
l
R
a

Where

ρ - is the resistivity of the material of conductor in ohm-meter.

L=is the length of the conductor in meters

A= cross sectional area of the conductors in m2

 Physical phenomenon that is input signal to the transducer causes variation in resistance by
changing any one of the quantity ρ, l, and A. for the measurement of the displacement length
of the conductor is varied in potentiometer thereby resulting in change in resistance.
 For measurements of force and pressure resistance of the conductor is varied in strain gauge.
 Variation in temperature cause change in the resistivity of the conductor material and so
change in resistance take place which is noted for measurements of temperature .with some
devices resistance varies with the change in light intensity because of photoconductive effect,
while with others resistance varies on exposure to magnetic field due to magneto resistive
effect.
POTENTIOMETRS

The instrument used to measure an voltage comparing it with a known voltage is known
as potentiometers.

Advantages

1.High degree of accuracy due to the comparison method.

2.it is independent of source resistance.

3.Is is used to measure current with the help of a standard resistance.

4.It is used to calibrate ammeter, voltmeter, wattmeter etc .

SLIDE-WIRE POTENTIOMETERS

It consist of a German sliver or magnanin wire of uniform cross section and stretched
between two terminals A&B on a flat board with a scale graduated in mm fixed along side. The

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

101
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

extremes A&B are connected to a battery through a variable resistance R with a positive terminal 0f
battery connected to end A & negative terminal to end B.

When switch is closed ,a voltage is developed between A&J as AB is a resistor R of

length L.Then total resistance/unit length ,r =R/L.The resistance is not a constant but depend on
sliding contact as it is varied.

Voltage drop = irl across the resistance.

Precision Slide Wire Potentiometer (Compton Potentiometer)

It use calibrated dial resistors and a small circular wire of one or more turns there by
reducing the size of the instrument. A dial switch having 16 contact points and a short slide wire .Two
moving contacts P1&P2.P1 sliding over the slide wire and contact P2 sliding over he studs connected
to the resistance coil. Balance condition more easily and quickly obtained by means of coarse (dial)
adjustments and fine (slide wire) adjustment. A battery B of 2V is connected across the potentiometer
through the resistors R1&R2 for controlling the current drawn from the battery .R1 consists of a
number of resistance coils connected in sires and is meant for coarse adjustment.R2 is like a slide wire
and is meant for fine adjustment .

Vernier Potentiometer

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

102
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

In slide wire potentiometer, the slide wire should be extremely well made so that the variations in
contact resistance are not to limit the precision in adjustment of the potentiometer current. This
difficulty may be overcome by the use of a shunted dial resistance for the regulator.

The working of Vernier potentiometer is based on Kelvin Varley principle.

Merits of potentiometers:

1) The pots are cheap, easy to operate, simple in construction and very useful for simple
application.
2) The pots , expect wire wound ones have got very good frequency response and infinite
resolution
3) The potentiometer can measure large amplitude of displacement.
4) The potentiometer give very high electrical efficiency and enough output to control circuit for
operation.
Demerits of potentiometer:

1) the main draw back with the post is because of wear and tear of wiper and its effect on the life
of the transducer.
2) The pots required force are large
3) Large displacement are usually required for moving the slider or wiper along the entire
working surface of the pot.
4) The output is insensitive to variation in displacement of movable contact or wiper between
two consecutive turns of the pot.
Strain gauge:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

103
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 If a metal conductor is stretched or compressed , its resistance changes on account of the fact
that both length and diameter of conductor change.
 Also there is a change in the value of resistivity of the conductor when strained and this
property is called piezoresistive effect.
 Resistive strain gauges are also known as piezoresistive gauges.

L
R  (1)
A

Let a tensile stress s be applied to the wire

dR  L L A L 
   - (2)
ds A s A 2 s A s

Divide equation (2) by

1 dR 1 L 1 A 1 
   - (3)
R ds L s A s  s

From (3) , per unit change in resistance is due to

 Per unit change in length=

 Per unit change in Area =
 Per unit change in resistivity =
Area =
 2 A  D
D ,  2. D.  (4)
4 s 4 s
IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

104
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

1 A (2 4) D D 2 D
   (5)
A s ( 4) D 2 s D s

Equation (3) can be written as

1 dR 1 L 2 D 1 
   - (6)
R ds L s D s  s
Poisson‘s ratio ,

lateral strain D D
v   (7 )
longitudinal strain L L
D D   v L L  (8)

1 dR 1 L 2 L 1 
 v  - (9)
R ds L s L s  s

For small variation , the above relationship , can be written as

R L L 
  2v  - (10)
R L L 

The gauge factor is defined as the ratio of per unit change in resistance to per unit change in length.

R R
Gf  - (11)
L L
or R R  G f  L L
 G f   (12)
where   strain  L L  (13)

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

105
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

R R  
Gf   1  2v  - (12)
L L L L

R R  
Gf   1  2v  - (13)
L L 

Types of strain gauge

 Unbonded metal strain gauge

 Bonded metal wire strain gauge
 Bonded metal foil strain gauge
 Vacuum deposited thin metal film strain gauges.
 Sputter deposited thin metal film strain gauge.
 Bonded semiconductor strain gauges.
 Diffused metal strain gauge.

Unbounded metal strain gauge:

 Used almost exclusively in transducer applications.

 At initial preload , the strains and resistances of the four arms are normally equal, with the
result the output voltage of the bridge, e0=0.
 Application of pressure produces a small displacement , the displacement increases tension in
2 wires and decreasing the resistance of the remaining 2 wires.
 This causes an unbalance of the bridge producing an output voltage which is proportional to
the input displacement and hence to the applied pressure.

Bonded metal wire strain gauge

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

106
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 It consist of a grid of fine resistance wire of diameter of about 0.025mm.

 The wire is cemented to a base.
 The base – thin sheet of paper or bakelite.
 Wire is covered with a thin sheet of material so that it is not damaged mechanically.
 The spreading of wire permits a uniform distribution of stress over a grid.

Bonded metal foil strain gauge

 Extension of the bonded metal wire strain gauge.

 The bonded metal wire strain gauge have been completely superseded by bonded foil strain
gauge.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

107
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

LINEAR VARIABLE DIFFERENTIAL TRANSFORMER

Construction

The most widely used inductive transducer to translate the linear motion into electrical
signals is the linear variable differential transformer(LVDT).LVDT is a differential transformer
consisting of a single primary winding P and two secondary windings S1 and S2 wound over a
hallow bobbin of non-magnetic and insulating material.The secondary windings S1 snd S2 have equal
number of turns and are identically placed on either side of the primary winding.A movable soft iron
core is placed inside the former.The displacement to be measured is applied to the arm attached to the
soft iron core.In order to overcome the problem of eddy current losses in the core,nickel-iron alloy is
used as core material and is slotted longitudinally.

Working

Primary winding is connected to an ac source of voltage varying from 5 to 25V and of

frequency ranging from 50Hz to 20 kHz.Since the primary winding is excited by an alternating
current source ,it produces an alternating magnetic field which inturn induces alternating voltages.The
output voltage of secondary winding S1 is ES1 and that of secondary winding S2 is ES2.In order to
convert the output voltage from S1 and S2 into a single voltage signal the two secondaries S1 and S2
are connected in series opposition as shown in fig.Therefore the output voltage of the transducer is the
difference of the two voltages.

Differential output voltage Eo = Es1 – Es2.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

108
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

When the core is at its normal position the flux linking with both secondary windings are equal
and hence equal emfs are induced in them.Thus at null position Es1=Es2.Since the output voltage of
the transducer is the difference of the two voltages,the output voltage Eo is zero at null position.

Now if the core is moved to the left of the null position ,more flux links with windings S1 and less
with windings S2.Hence output voltage Es1,of the secondary winding S1,is more than Es2,the output
voltage of secondary winding S2.The magnitude of output voltage is thus Eo=Es1 – Es2 and the
output voltage is in phase with the primary voltage.

Advantages of LVDT

 The output of LVDT is practically linear for displacements upto 5mm.The LVDTs have a
very high range of measurement of displacement.
 LVDT has high sensitivity.It usually varies from 10 mv/mm to 40 v/mm.
 The LVDT gives a high output and many a time there is no need for amplification.
 LVDT has very low hyterisis; hence repeatability is excellent under all conditions.
 LVDT can be used on high frequencies upto 20 kHz.
 Most LVDTs consume less than 1 W of power.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

109
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Disadvantages of LVDT

 Large displacements are required for differential output.

 They are sensitive to stray magnetic fields.
 Sometimes the transducer performance is affected by vibrations.
 Temperature affects the performance of the transducer.

Applications

 Displacement.
 Force.
 Weight.
 Pressure.
 Position.

CAPACITIVE TRANSDUCER

The principle of operation of capacitive transducer is based upon the familiar equation for
capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor.

C = €A/d = €o€rA/ d

Where,

A= overlapping area of plates in m².

D= distance between two plates in m.

€o= permittivity of free space and is equal to 8.854*10^-12 F/m

€r = relative permittivity of the dielectric.

The capacitive transducer works on the principle of change of capacitance which may be caused
by

 Change in overlapping area A

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

110
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 Change in the distance d between the plates.

 Change in dielectric constant.

Capacitive transducers-By variation of overlapping area of plates:

We Know C = €o€rA/ d

From the above equation it is found that the capacitance is directly proportional to the area A
of the plates.Thus the capacitance changes linearly with change in area of plates.

Fig shows two types of capacitive transducers used for the measurement of displacement.The
area changes linearly with the displacement and also the capacitance

For a parallel plate capacitor the capacitance is

C = €A/d = €xW/ d F

Where, x = length of overlapping portion of plates in m.

W = width of overlapping portion of plates in m

Sensitivity S = ðC/ðx = €W/d F/m.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

111
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The sensitivity is constant and therefore there is a liner relationship between capacitance and
displacement.This type of transducer can be used to measure linear displacement from 1mm to several
cm with very high accuracy upto 0.01 percent.

For a cylindrical capacitor the capacitance is

C = 2Π€x F

Log(D2/D1)

Where,x = is the length of overlapping portion of cylinder in m.

D2 = inner diameter of outer cylindrical electrode in m.

D1 = outer diameter of inner cylindrical electrode in m.

Sensitivity S = ðC/ðx = 2Π€x F/m

Log(D2/D1)

The principle of variation of capacitance with change in area can also be used to measure
angular displacement.Fig shows a two plate capacitor.One plate is fixed and the other is movable.The
angular displacement to be measured is applied to movable plate.The angular displacement changes
the effective area between the plates and thus the changes the capacitance.The capacitance is
maximum when the two plates completely overlap each other i.e.when θ=180°.

Advantages of capacitive transducers

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

112
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 These transducers have very high impedance and therefore loading effects are minimum.
 These transducers have a good frequency response.This response is as high as 50 kHz and
hence they are very useful for dynamic studies.
 These transducers are extremely sensitive.
 A resolution of the order of 2.5*10³ mm can be obtained with these transducers.
 These transducers are not affected by stray magnetic fields.

Disadvantages

 Output impedance of capacitive transducer is very high.So its measuring circuit becomes very
complicated.
 The cable connecting the transducer to the measuring point is also a source of error.The cable
may be source of loading resulting in loss of sensitivity.
 Capacitance of capacitive transducer changes with change in temperature or on account of
presence of small external matter e.g.dust particles and moisture etc.
 The instrumentation circuitry used with these transducers is very complex.

Application

 Capacitive transducers can be used for measurement of both linear and angular
displacements.
 Capacitive transducers can be used for the measurement of force and pressure.
 Capacitive transducers can also be employed for measuring pressure directly in all those
cases in which permittivity of a medium changes with pressure such as in case of Benzene
permittivity varies by 0.5% in the pressure range of 1 to 1000 times the atmosphere pressure.
 Capacitive transducers are commonly used in conjunction with mechanical modifiers for
measurement of volume ,density,liquid level,weight etc.

Piezoelectric transducer:

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

113
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

In some crystalline or ceramic material, a potential difference appears across the opposite
faces of the material as a result of dimensional changes when a mechanical force applied to it. This is
called the piezoelectric effect and such materials are called the piezoelectric materials.

This effect is reversible also that is when a potential difference is applied across the opposite faces of
the material, it changes its physical dimensions.

Material for piezoelectric transducer:

Common piezoelectric transducer materials include Rochelle salt , ammonium dihydrogen

phosphate (ADP), quartz and ceramics made with barium titanate , potassium dihydrogen phosphate
and lithium sulfate and these used in real application.

The piezoelectric effect can be made to respond to mechanical deformation of the material in many
different modes. The mode can be

1) thickness expansion
2) transverse expansion
3) thickness shear
4) face shear

The mode of motion employed depends on the shape of the electrodes. A piezoelectric elements
used for converting mechanical motion to electrical signal may be thought as charge generator and the

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

114
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

capacitor. Mechanical deformation generates a charge and this charge appears a voltage across the
electrodes.

The output voltage E0=Q/C.

The piezoelectric effect is direction sensitive. a tensile force produces a voltage of one
polarity while a compressive force produces a voltage of opposite polarity.

A crystal is placed between a solid base and the force summing member. An externally applied force,
entering the transducer through its pressure port, applies pressure to the top of the crystal. This
produced an emf across the crystal proportional to the magnitude of applied pressure.

The magnitude and the polarity of the induced surface charge are proportional to the magnitude and
the direction of the applied force.

Q  F *d

Where

d=crystal charge sensitivity in coulomb per Newton and is constant for a given crystal cut.

F=applied Force in Newton.

The force f cause a change in thickness of the crystal by ∆t in meter and so

AE
F t
t

Where A= area of crystal in m2

E=young‘s Modules of elastic in N/m2

T=thickness of crystal in m

The charge at the electrodes gives rise to an output voltage E 0 and is given by expression

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

115
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

Q
E0 
Cp

Where Cp is the capacitance between the electrodes of the crystal.

 0rA
Cp 
t

 0rA
Cp 
t

dF F
E0  
orA / t A

P=F/A is the pressure in pascals applied on the crystal.

d
E0  tP  gtP
or

d
Where g  is the voltage sensitivity of the crystal
or

Advantages of piezoelectric transducer:

1) Piezoelectric transducer is generally small in size.

2) These transducer are self generating type as they do not need external power.

3) Their outputs are quite large.

Disadvantages of piezoelectric transducer:

1) The output voltage is affected by temperature variation of the crystal.

2) It can be for dynamic measurement only.

Application of piezoelectric transducer:

1) The piezoelectric transducer are mainly used for measurement of force and temperature

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

116
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

2) They are mainly employed in high accelerometer.

Thermocouples:

 The basic principle used in thermocouples is called the principle of thermoelectricity

which was discovered by Seebeck.
 The principle states that ―when the conductors of two different metals A and B are
joined together at one end to form a junction is heated to a higher temperature with
respect to the free ends, a voltage is developed at the free ends and if these two
conductors of metals at the free ends are connected, then the emf set up will
established a flow of current.
 The magnitude of net emf will depend upon the magnitude between the temperature
of the two junction and the materials used for the conductors.

Thermocouple arrangement for measuring temperature:

 The main parts of a thermocouple arrangement used to measure temperature are as follows
 The thermocouple hot junction J H which will be introduced into the place where temperature
is to be measured.
 The thermocouple cold junction JC which is maintained at a constant reference temperature.
 A voltage measuring instrument is connected to the free to the ends of the thermocouples.

Operation:

The thermocouple hot junction J H is introduced into the place where the temperature is to be
measured.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

117
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

 The reference temperature is to be controlled at the constant temperature of 0 0 C.

 Since the two junctions are at different temperature, a voltage is set up at the free ends and
since the free ends are connected to a milli voltmeter, the emf set up will establish a flow of
current which can be directly measured using the milli voltmeter.
 Since the reference junction is kept at 00C the emf measured is a function of the temperature
of the temperature of the hot measuring junction. The millivlotmeter is calibrated suitably so
that its reading becomes an indication of the temperature.
Advantages:

1) These instrument are suitable for very high frequency upto 50 MHz. no other instrument can
be measure current and voltages these high frequencies.
2) They indicate the rms values directly.
3) They are not affected by stray magnetic fields.
4) They have good sensitivity.
Disadvantages:

1) The over load capacity is very limited.

2) Considerable power losses due to the poor efficiency of thermal conversion.
3) Low accuracy of measurement.
4) The mill voltmeters used with thermocouple must be necessarily more sensitive and delicate
than those used with shunts, and therefore require careful handling.

ELEMENTS OF DIGITAL DATA AQUSITION SYSTEM- INTERFACING OF

TRANSDUCER

In order to optimize the characteristics of the system in terms of performance of the system,
data handling capacity and cost, different relevant sub-system are combined together. The system
used for data processing, data conversion, data transmission, data storage is called data acquisition
system.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

118
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

DIGITAL DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM

The digital data acquisition system includes all the block shown in fig may use some additional
functions block. The essential functions of digital data acquisitions are as follows,

1. It handles the analog signals

2. it performs measurement
3. it converts analog signal into digital data and handles it.
4. it performs internal programming and control.
The various elements of the digital data acquisition system are as follows,

1. TRANSDUCERS:-
They convert the physical quantity into a proportional electrical signal which is
given as a input to the digital data acquisition system.

2. SIGNAL CONDITIONERS:-
They include supporting circuits for amplifying, modifying or selecting certain
positions of these signals.

3. MULTIPLEXERS:-
The multiplexer accepts multiple analog inputs and connect them sequentially to one
measuring instruments.

4. SIGNAL CONVERTERS:-

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

119
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The signal converters are used to translate analog signal to a form which is suitable
for the next stage that is analog to digital converter. This block is optional one.

5. ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER(A/D CONVERTER):-

It converts the analog voltage to its equivalent digital form. The output of the analog to
digital converter may be fed to the digital display device for display or to the digital recorders for
recording. The same signal may be fed to the digital computer for data reduction or further
processing.

6. AUXILIARY EQUIPMENTS:-
The devices which are used for system programming functions are digital data processing
are included in the auxiliary equipments. The typical functions of the auxillary equipments
include linearization and limit comparison of the signal. These functions are performed by the
individual instruments or the digital computer.

7. DIGITAL RECORDER:-
They record the information in digital form. The digital information is stored on
punched cards, magnetic tape recorders, type written pages, floppies or combination of these
systems. The digital printer used provides a high quality, hard copy for recorders minimizing the
operators work.

The data acquisition system is used, now days in increasing, wide fields. These are
becoming very much popular because of simplicity, accuracy and the most important reliability of
the system. These are widely used in industrial areas, scientific areas, including aerospace,
biomedical and telemetry industries.

When the lower accuracy is tolerable or when wide frequency bandwidth is needed, the
analog data acquisition systems are used. The digital data acquisition systems are used when the
physical quantity being measured has very narrow bandwidth. When the high accuracy with low
per channel cost is required, the ultimate solution is to use the digital data acquisition system.

MULTIPLEXING:

In general the process of transmitting more than one information on one channel is
called multiplexing

Two types of multiplexing

1. Time division multiplexing

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

120
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

2. frequency division multiplexing

1. TIME DIVISION MULTIPLEXING:

These are cases where analog input channels are multiplexed with the communication
channel and signals are transmitted in analog form. In other cases the analog input channels are
multiplexed with a digital computer for analysis and/or control. Here an A/D converter is used
after the multiplexer. A sample and hold circuit is used before the multiplexer as shown in fig.

A DATA ACQUISITION AND CONVERSION

When simultaneous samples of inputs are required. Before discussing different type of time
division multiplexers, we briefly describe an address decoder

ADDRESS DECODER:

Address decoders receives an input from a computer via address lines that serve to
select a particular analog channel to be sampled. The functions of the address decoder are to
associate a particular channel a computer address code. A binary code is sent from the computer
through special input/ output device to select an analog channel and to the input the data on that
channel. A data acquisition system may be as shown in fig.

A TYPICAL ACQUISITION SYSTEM

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

121
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

A two bits, four outputs decoder is shown below, four AND gates with two inputs and four
outputs form a decoder.

TWO BITS FOUR OUTPUTS DECODER

In the fig, for each two bits binary code, there is one AND gate for which output is one.
For e.g. for A =1, and B=0, the output of second gate is 1, since this code represents the decimal
number 1, the gate labeled 1 is on and other are off.

ANALOG MULTIPLEXER:-

This is essentially a solid- state switch works according to the decoded address signal and
selects the data on the selected channel by closing the switch off the channel. A four channel
multiplexer is shown in fig below.

FOUR CHANNEL ANALOGUE MULTIPLEXER

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

122
 M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

The multiplexer receives an input from the address decoder and uses this to close the
appropriate switch. For e.g. an address code channel 10 would detect channel 2. Similarly 00
would select channel 0, 01, channel 1, and 11 channel 3, thus decoder must convert the computer
address line to one of these four possibilities. The actual switch elements usually FET. FETs
have an ‗on‘ resistance of a few hundred ohm and an ‗off‘ resistance of hundred to thousands of
mega ohm.

2. FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING:-

The block diagram of a 4 channel FDM system is shown in fig. four input signals are first
applied to channel modulators which have different carrier frequencies. The carrier oscillator
frequencies are so chosen that they avoid the overlapping of frequency spectrum between each
other.

A band pass filter of each channel is used so that only working frequencies around the
carrier frequency are allowed to pass.

The harmonics and other spurious frequencies are blocked.

At receiving end, the signals are separated by selective filters and demodulators as shown in
fig.

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

123
M.I.E.T ENGINEERING COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF EEE

A FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

IV SEM - MEASUREMENTS & INSTRUMENTATION

124