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Lecture: 12
Appropriate transducers convert physical phenomena into measurable signals; however, different
signals need to be measured in different ways. Signals can be categorized as analog or digital.
An analog signal can be at any value with respect to time. Examples of analog signals include
voltage, temperature, pressure, and strain. A digital signal cannot take on any value with respect
to time. Instead, a digital signal has two possible levels: high and low. Common examples of
digital measurements are for quadrature encoders and frequency detection.
Analog Measurements:
You can measure several analog measurements directly using standard data acquisition devices.
The common ranges on these devices are 10 V for voltage or 0 to 20 mA for current. The
commonly available resolution varies from 12 to 24 bits.
At the same time, there are several sensors and transducers that output signals that cannot be
directly connected and measured by data acquisition devices and require prior conditioning.
These types of measurements include temperature using thermocouples, strain using strain gages,
or high-voltage measurements.
Thermocouple
A thermocouple is one of the most common transducers to measure temperature and output
voltage proportional to the temperature of the junction formed by two dissimilar metals. This
output voltage, generally in microvolts, needs to be amplified. The output voltage also needs to
be compensated for any additional voltages induced by other metal junctions in the measurement
path. Once this is done, you can digitize the conditioned signal.
Strain Gage:
A strain gage is a device whose electrical resistance varies in proportion to the amount of
strain in the device. In practice, strain measurements rarely involve quantities larger than a
few millistrain (e x 10-3). Therefore, to measure the strain requires accurate measurement of
very small changes in resistance. To measure such small changes in resistance, strain gages
are almost always used in a bridge configuration with a voltage excitation source. The
general Wheatstone bridge, illustrated in Figure 2, consists of four resistive arms with an
excitation voltage, VEX, that is applied across the bridge.
Email: dr.laith@uotechnology.edu.iq