LECTURE I

COURSE ROAD MAP

• Measurement system : standards, characteristics, measurement

uncertainty, instrument types

• Electrical Quantities : Bridge Circuits (DC and AC Bridges)

• Introduction to Sensors ,Transducers & Actuators

• Signal conditioning & Transmission : Telemetry

• Data Display, Recording and Presentation

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 References
1. A. S. Morris, R. Langari, Measurement and Instrumentation,
Theory and Application, Second 2nd ed. Academic Press, 2016.

2. A. S. Morris, Measurement and Instrumentation Principles,

Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001.

3. Robert B. Northrop, Introduction to instrumentation and

measurements, 2nd Ed. CRC Press, 2005.

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 Introduction

• Measurements provide us with a means of describing various phenomena in

quantitative terms.

…………“whatever exists, exists in some amount”…….

• Instrumentation is defined as "the art and science of measurement and control"

• The measurement of a given quantity is essentially an act or result of comparison

between a quantity whose magnitude (amount) is unknown, with a similar
quantity whose magnitude (amount) is known.

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 Introduction

• Measurement: is the process or operation using an instrument, to express a

parameter, quantity or variable in terms of meaningful numbers.

• Measurements provide us with a means of expressing a natural phenomena or the

various processes in quantitative terms.

• Measurement Instrument: The measurement instrument may be defined as a device

for determining the value or magnitude of a variable or quantity being measured.

• Measurand: Measurand is the variable being measured. (physical, electrical, thermal)

• Unit: The standard measure of each type of physical quantity to be measured is called
the unit.

• Measurements are only meaningful if they posses two basic requirements;

1. The comparison standard used if any must be accurately defined and should be
commonly accepted.

2. The instrument and the method adopted for obtaining the comparison must be
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provable.
 Instrument
• Instrument : tool or device or equipment for used in the field of
instrumentation for the purpose of :

◼ Sensing

◼ Detecting

◼ Measuring

◼ Recording

◼ Controlling

◼ Communicating

• For the sack of quantifying or giving sense to an unknown factor.

• Can be done manually or automatically.

• The measurement instrument should not affect the quantity to be measured

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 Standard of Units
 Without units , the number obtained by measuring has no physical meaning.

 For the sake of uniformity of units all over the world, an international organization
the general conference of weights and measures, recommended a unified
systematically constituted system of units.

 This international system of units is called SI system of units. SI- (Le Système
International d‘Unités) was established in 1960.

 The value of any particular quantity in SI system of units can be further simplified by
the use of prefixes.

 The various SI prefixes such as milli, micro, nano etc simplify the expressions of the
units of various quantities.

 The SI system of units is divided mainly into 3 categories namely

 Fundamental units (primary fundamental & auxiliary fundamental)

 Supplementary units (Radian for plan angles, Steradian for solid angles)
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 Derived units
 Fundamental SI Units
 The units which are independently chosen and not dependent on
any other units are called fundamental units or base units.
 The following table shows the Basic SI Units:

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 Derived Units
 These are obtained from a combination of two or more fundamental SI units.

 Derived units are mainly classified as:

1. Mechanical units such as velocity, acceleration, force, weight, torque etc.

2. Electric and magnetic units such as power , energy, weber, ohms, tesla etc.

3. Thermal units such as latent heat , specific heat capacity, calorific value etc.
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 Methods of Measurement
Direct Comparison Methods
 In direct measurement methods, the unknown quantity is measured
directly.
 Direct methods of measurement are of two types, namely, deflection
methods and comparison methods.
 In deflection methods, the value of the unknown quantity is measured by
the help of a measuring instrument having a calibrated scale indicating the
quantity under measurement directly, such as measurement of current by
an ammeter.
 In comparison methods, the value of the unknown quantity is determined
by direct comparison with a standard of the given quantity, such as
measurement of emf by comparison with the emf of a standard cell.
 Comparison methods can be classified as null methods, differential
methods, etc.
 In null methods of measurement, the action of the unknown quantity upon
the instrument is reduced to zero by the counter action of a known quantity
of the same kind, such as measurement of weight by a balance,
measurement of resistance, capacitance, and inductance by bridge circuits.
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Indirect Comparison Methods
 In indirect measurement methods, the comparison is done with a
standard through the use of a calibrated system.
 These methods for measurement are used in those cases where
the desired parameter to be measured is difficult to be measured
directly, but the parameter has got some relation with some other
related parameter which can be easily measured.
 For instance, the elimination of bacteria from some fluid is
directly dependent upon its temperature.
 Thus, the bacteria elimination can be measured indirectly by
measuring the temperature of the fluid.
 In indirect methods of measurement, it is general practice to
establish an empirical relation between the actual measured
quantity and the desired parameter.

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Standards and their Classifications
 A standard of measurement is a physical representation of a unit of
measurement.

 A unit is realised by reference to an arbitrary material standard or to

natural phenomena including physical and atomic constants.

 Standards of measurements can be classified according to their function

and type of application as:

➢ International standards

➢ Primary standards

➢ Secondary standards

➢ Working standards
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International standards:
 The international standards are defined by international agreement.

 International standards are devices designed and constructed to the

specifications of an international forum.

 They represent the units of measurements of various physical quantities

to the highest possible accuracy that is attainable by the use of
advanced techniques of production and measurement technology.

 These standards are maintained by the International Bureau of Weights

and Measures at Sevres, France.

 Are not available to the ordinary user of measuring instruments for

purposes of comparison or calibration.
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Primary standards
 Primary standards are devices maintained by standards organizations/ national
laboratories in different parts of the world.

✓ The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) in Washington is responsible for

maintenance of the primary standards in North America.

✓ The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Great Britain

✓ The oldest in the world, the Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt in

Germany.

 These devices represent the fundamental and derived quantities and are calibrated
independently by absolute measurements.

 One of the main functions of maintaining primary standards is to calibrate / check

and certify secondary reference standards.

 Like international standards, these standards also are not easily available to an
ordinary user of instruments for verification / calibration of working standards.14
Secondary standards
 Secondary standards are basic reference standards employed by
industrial measurement laboratories.
 These standards are maintained by the particular involved industry and
are checked locally against other reference standards in the area.
 One of the important functions of an industrial laboratory is the
maintenance and periodic calibration of secondary standards against
primary standards of the national standards laboratory / organization.
 In addition, secondary standards are freely available to the ordinary
user of instruments for checking and calibration of working standards.
 E.g. KEBS

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Working standards
 Working standards are the principle tools of a measurement laboratory.
 They are used to check and calibrate general laboratory instruments for
accuracy and performance or to perform comparison measurements in
industrial applications.
 E.g. A manufacturer of precision resistances, may use a standard resistor in
the quality control department of his plant to check his testing equipment. In
this case, the manufacturer verifies that his measurement setup performs
within the required limits of accuracy.
 These are high-accuracy devices that are commercially available and are
duly checked and certified against either the primary or secondary standards.
 Working standards are very widely used for calibrating general laboratory
instruments, for carrying out comparison measurements or for checking the
quality (range of accuracy) of industrial products.
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 Measurement System
 In simple cases, the measurement 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 or

measuring instrument consists of several separate elements (a system)

 A measurement system may be defined as a systematic arrangement for the

measurement or determination of an unknown quantity and analysis of
instrumentation.

 The operation of a measurement system can be explained in terms of

functional elements of the system

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Elements of a Measurement System

Fig 1: Overview of Measurement System

Fig 2: General Structure of Measurement System 18

 Sensing Element/Sensor:
 The first element in any measuring system is the primary sensor, it makes
contact or detects the quantity or variable being measured.

 This gives an output that is a function of the measurand.

 Primary sensing elements may have a non-electrical input and output

such as a spring, manometer or may have an electrical input and output
such as a rectifier.

 In case there is a non-electrical input and output, then it is converted into

an electrical signal by means of a transducer.

 The transducer is defined as a device, which when actuated by one form

of energy, is capable of converting it into another form of energy.
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 Signal Conditioning
 Certain operations are to be performed on the signal before its
further transmission so that interfering sources are removed in order
that the signal may not get distorted.
 The process may be linear such as amplification, attenuation,
integration, differentiation, addition and subtraction or nonlinear
such as modulation, detection, sampling, filtering, chopping and
clipping, etc. The process is called signal conditioning.
 So a signal conditioner follows the primary sensing element or
transducer, as the case may be.
 The sensing element senses the condition, state or value of the
process variable by extracting a small part of energy from the
measurand, and then produces an output which reflects this
condition, state or value of the measurand. 20
 Variable Conversion Elements
 They 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.
 After passing through the primary sensing element, the output is in the form
of an electrical signal, may be voltage, current, frequency, which may or may
not be accepted to the system.
 For performing the desired operation, it may be necessary to convert this
output to some other suitable form while retaining the information content of
the original signal.
 E.g., if the output is in analog form and the next step of the system accepts
only in digital form then an analog-to-digital converter will be employed.
 Many instruments do not require any variable conversion unit, while some
others require more than one element.
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 Manipulation Elements
 Sometimes it is necessary to change the signal level without changing the
information contained in it for the acceptance of the instrument.

 The function of the variable manipulation unit is to manipulate the signal

presented to it while preserving the original nature of the signal.

 E.g., an electronic amplifier converts a small low voltage input signal into a
high voltage output signal.

 Thus, the voltage amplifier acts as a variable manipulation unit.

 Some of the instruments may require this function or some of the

instruments may not.

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 Data Transmission Elements
 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 data transmission elements are required to transmit the data

containing the information of the signal from one system to another.

 E.g., satellites are physically separated from the earth where the
control stations guiding their movement are located.

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Data Presentation Elements
 This stage presents the output in a manner in which it can be utilized. (displays the
result of the measurement)
 The function of the data presentation elements is to provide an indication or
recording in a form that can be evaluated by an unaided human sense or by a
controller.
 The information regarding measurand is to be conveyed to the personnel handling
the instrument or the system for monitoring, controlling or analysis purpose.
 Such a device may be in the form of analog or digital format.

 The simplest form of a display device is the common panel meter with some kind of
calibrated scale and pointer.
 In case the data is to be recorded, recorders like magnetic tapes or magnetic discs
may be used.
 For control and analysis purpose, computers may be used.

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 MS Application
Classified into three major areas:
1. Used in regulating trade:- applying instruments that measure
physical quantities such as length, volume and mass in terms of
standard units.
2. Used in monitoring functions. These provide information that
enables human beings to take some prescribed action accordingly.
 In a chemical process for instance, the progress of chemical reactions is
indicated by the measurement of temperatures and pressures at various
points, and such measurements allow the operator to take correct
decisions regarding the electrical supply to heaters, cooling water flows,
valve positions etc
3. Other important use of monitoring instruments is in calibrating the
instruments used in the automatic process control systems.
(automatic feedback control systems)

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 Basic Functions of Instrumentation

The 3 basic functions of instrumentation :-

• Indicating – visualize the process/operation (monitoring)

• Recording – observe and save the measurement reading

• Controlling – to control measurement processes

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