TECH NOTE # 211

Differential Temperature Measurement using Thermocouples

Issued August 1993; Revised November 1993

There are a number of environments and processes that would benefit from differential
temperature measurement using thermocouples as the sensor. Typical measurement
techniques, however, can have a number of design flaws associated with the measurement and
reading of the sensor output. The following Technical Paper discusses the major issue involved
and provides a solution to obtain higher accuracy for differential thermocouple temperature
measurement.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

When two wires composed of different metals are joined at both ends, an electric circuit is
formed as shown in Figure I. If the two metal junctions are at different temperatures, a very
small voltage is created and a current flows around the circuit. This is known as the Seebeck
effect. It was discovered in 1821 by Thomas Seebeck and is the fundamental basis of the
thermocouple.

The amount of voltage produced by the thermocouple in the circuit is a function of the type of
the metals and the difference in temperatures of the two junctions. In practice, the warmer of
the two junctions is used for measuring the temperature, while the other junction is used as a
reference. This reference junction is known as the "cold junction". If the cold junction is placed
in an ideal ice bath at 32°F and an ideal voltmeter is placed in the circuit, a standard millivolt
table can be generated for the measurement junction at different temperatures.

While directly proportional, the voltage created by the measurement junction is not linear with
temperature. This non-linearity means that the millivolts per degree generated by a
thermocouple junction at one temperature may not equal the millivolts per degree generated by
a thermocouple junction at a different temperature. That is why it is necessary to create tables
that relate the measurement junction temperature vs. millivolts generated by a thermocouple
junction. Table 1 is an example of such a table for a type J (Iron vs. Constantan) thermocouple.
A more detailed description of the use and principles of thermocouple measurement is found in
Accutech Technical Note # 207.

IN PRACTICE
A typical differential temperature measurement system is shown in Figure II. For the purposes of
this paper, we will assume that all junctions are at the same temperature, therefore eliminating
errors associated with cold junctions measurements. As shown in figure II, the voltages created
by junction 1 and Junction 2 are on the same circuit, but with their polarities reversed. If both
junction 1 and two are at the same temperature(figure IIIa), the voltages created by each junction
should be equal, so the resulting voltage from figure IIIa should be zero. If Junction 1 is reading a
higher temperature than Junction 2 (figure IIIb), a voltage imbalance would occur. This voltage
would then be measured and compared to the reference table (Table I).

If the generated thermocouple voltage were linear, this would be an easy and effective way to
measure a temperature differential. In practice, however, serious errors occur due to the non-
linearity of the millivolt generation by the thermocouple junction. This is best illustrated in the
following differential temperature measurement examples.

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 Tech Note #211, page 2

If a J type thermocouple (T/C1) is placed in a temperature of 100°F, the voltage created would
be 1.942mV (.01942 mV/degree). If a second type J thermocouple (T/C2) is put in a
temperature of 150°F, the voltage created would be 3.411mV (0.02274 mV/degree). If you had
set up the thermocouples as shown in figure III, the resulting differential voltage would be
1.469mV. If you looked at Table I under this voltage, it would represent approximately 84°F.
After subtracting 32° (the table is based at 32°, not a 0°), gives you a measured differential of
52°F instead of the actual 50.0°F difference.

If we took the same scenario as described above at higher differential temperatures, the errors
are even magnified. If T/C1 is at 200.0°F, it would generate 4.906mV (0.02453mV/degree).
T/C2 would generate 14.108mV if it was at 500.0°F (0.0282mV/degree). The mV difference
would be 9.202mV, which according to the table on figure II is equal to around 309 (after
subtracting 32°). That is a 9°F error!

These examples show how the millivolts created by a thermocouple are non-linear with respect
to temperature. The millivolts generated at one temperature cannot be directly related to the
amount of millivolts created at a second temperature.

THE DIFFERENTIAL TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT SOLUTION

How can you get an accurate differential temperature measurement if you can't simply subtract
the millivolts of each thermocouple? You need to determine the actual temperature of each of
the thermocouples individually, then subtract the two temperatures. By subtracting these
individually determined temperature readings, you avoid the non-linearity problem associated
with simply subtracting the mV values of each thermocouple and reading the net mV value. The
limit to how accurate you can measure the temperature difference is now how accurate you can
measure each of the thermocouple junction temperatures.

Through the use of microprocessor based instrumentation, it is now possible to use this more
accurate technique. For differential thermocouple readings, the Accutech AI-2000 R4 S13 will
accept the two thermocouple junction inputs into the transmitter, as shown in figure III. The AI-
2000R4 S13 then determines the millivolts generated by each junction, and looks up the
corresponding temperature for each of these millivolt values. Once it has determined the
temperature for each of the measuring junctions by subtracting these two values it will
determine the differential of the temperatures, NOT the differential of the voltages generated.

CONCLUSION
For almost all instruments today, it is nearly impossible to obtain an accurate differential
temperature measurement using thermocouples. Due to the non-linearity of the millivolts
generated by the thermocouple junctions, subtracting the voltage created by one thermocouple
from another and using the net millivolt value to determine the temperature can lead to serious
errors. To avoid these errors, a second instrument such as a controller must be used, adding
extra instrumentation and expense. However, microprocessor based instrumentation such as
the Accutech AI-2000R4 S13 features the ability to determine the actual temperature of each of
the thermocouple junctions, and subtract the temperatures to determine the differential. This
allows higher accuracy at a much lower installed cost, and can be accomplished with a single
instrument.

Accutech A Division of Adpative Instruments Corporation

577 Main Street • Hudson, MA 01749 • U.S.A.
(978) 568-0500 • FAX (978) 568-9085 • Email: sales@accutechinstruments.com