BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

K.K. BIRLA GOA CAMPUS, Semester I, 2018 - 19

Course: INSTR F312 (Transducers and Measurement Systems)
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Comprehensive Examination (Regular) Closed Book Date: 10.12.2018
Max. Marks: 90 Duration: 3 Hrs
PART-A (30 Marks) Time: 60 Minutes
Solve the following questions

1. A pitot tube with a discharge coefficient of 0.98 is used to measure the velocity of water in a pipe. The
differential pressure head is 900 mm. What is the velocity?
2. Determine the velocity of flow in an electromagnetic flow meter for the following conditions. The flux density in
the liquid has an average value of 0.08 Weber/m2. The diameter of the pipe is 10 cm. The induced voltage of the
electromagnetic flow meter is recorded as 0.2 mV.
3. For a certain thermistor, β= 3140 K and the resistance at 27°C is known to be 1050 Ω. The thermistor is used for
temperature measurement and the resistance measured is as 2330 Ω. Find the measured temperature.
4. The e.m.f. generated by a copper–constantan thermometer is 15 mV. If the cold junction is at a temperature of
20° C. Calculate the temperature of the hot junction when the sensitivity of the thermocouple is 0.03 mV/°C.
5. What will be the (a) the gauge pressure and (b) the absolute pressure of water at depth 12 m below the surface?
ρwater = 1000 kg/m3, and Patmosphere = 101 kN/m2.
6. A 6-bit DAC has an input of 100101 and uses a 10 V reference. Find the output voltage produced and specify the
conversion resolution.
7. A weighted summing circuit using an ideal op-amp has three inputs using 100 K resistors and a feedback resistor
of 50 K. A signal V1 is connected to two of the inputs, while a signal V2 is connected to the third. Determine the
output Vo when V1= 3 V and V2 = -3 V.
8. In a ballast circuit, the resistance of ballast and the strain gauge are 100 Ω each. The input voltage is 10 V. The
gauge factor of the strain gauge is 2 and a strain of 10-6 is applied. Calculate the change in output voltage of the
ballast circuit
9. A high-pass filter is found to attenuate a 1kHz signal by 20 dB. What is the critical frequency?
10. A differential amplifier has R2 = 470 kΩ and R1=2.7 kΩ. When Va=Vb=2.5V, the output is 87 mV. Find the CMR
and CMRR.
11. A multimeter having a sensitivity of 2000 Ω/V is used to measure the voltage across a circuit having an output
resistance of 10 kΩ. The open circuit voltage of the circuit is 6 V. Find the reading of the multimeter when it is
set to its 10 V scale. Find the percentage error.
12. A pressure sensor that outputs 25 mV/kPa is used to measure the level of a liquid with a density of 1.3 × 103
kg/m3. What voltage output will be expected for level variations from 0 to 2.0 m? What is the sensitivity for level
measurement expressed in mV/cm?
13. A first order instrument must measure signals with frequency content up to 100 Hz with an amplitude inaccuracy
of 5 %. What is the maximum allowable time constant? What is the phase shift at 50 Hz.
14. In a variable capacitance transducer the diaphragms are 20 mm in diameter and 4 mm apart. If a pressure
produces an average defection of 0.25 mm, calculate the value of capacitance after the application of force. The
capacitance before application of force is 400 pF.
15. A platinum resistance thermometer has a resistance of 150 Ω at 0°C. What is the resistance when the temperature
is 200 °C? When the thermometer has a resistance of 400 Ω, what is the value of the temperature? The resistance
temperature coefficient of platinum is 0.0039/°C.
 BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI
K.K. BIRLA GOA CAMPUS, Semester I, 2018 - 19
Course: INSTR F312 (Transducers and Measurement Systems)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comprehensive Examination (Regular) Closed Book Date: 10.12.2018
Max. Marks: 90 Duration: 3 Hrs
Note: 1. All questions are compulsory. 2. Make Assumptions wherever necessary.

PART-B (60 Marks) Time: 2 Hrs

Q.1 (a) An elastic type of pressure-measuring instrument is of diaphragm type. The central deflection of the
diaphragm was found to be 0.25 mm of an applied pressure of 106 Pa. The output displacement of diaphragm has
been fed to an LVDT with a built in amplifier having a sensitivity of 40 V/mm. Finally, the output is displayed
on an analog voltmeter which has a radius of scale line as 60 mm and has a voltage range from zero to 10 V in
an arc of 150°. Determine the sensitivity of the given diaphragm gauge in terms of mm/bar (1 bar= 105 Pa).
Draw the block diagram and indicate the functional elements of the measuring instrument mentioned above. [7]

(b) What is the true value of voltage across the 500 kΩ resistor connected between terminals A and B as shown in
figure below? What would a voltmeter with a sensitivity of 20 kΩ/V read on the following ranges: 50, 15 and 5
V when connected across terminals C and D? [4]

Vs dR
(c) When a bridge circuit uses n- active strain gauges, the output voltage is given by dVo= n . Justify? [4]
4 R
Q.2 (a) A calibrated RTD with α = 0.0041/ °C, R = 306.5 Ω at 20°C, and PD = 30 mW/ °C will be used to measure a
critical reaction temperature. Temperature must be measured between 50 °C and 100 °C with a resolution of 0.1
°C. Keep the self- heating below 0.01 °C to maintain the 0.1°C resolution. A signal-conditioning system that
will provide an appropriate digital output to a computer is shown below. Specify the requirements on the ADC
and appropriate analog signal conditioning to interface to your ADC. [8]

R5
R1 R2
R4

R6
R7

(b) A type J thermocouple measures 22.5 mV with a 0°C reference. What is the junction temperature? Now, we need
to get 1.5 V from a candle flame at about 700°C. How many type J thermocouples will be required in series if the
reference is assumed to be nominal room temperature, 68 °F? [8]
Q.3 (a) A venturi tube of throat diameter 60 mm is placed in a water pipe of diameter 100 mm to measure the
volumetric flow. The volumetric flow rate through the tube is 0.08 m3/s and the water has a density of 103 kg/m3
and viscosity of 10-3 Ns/m2.
(i) Determine the Reynold’s number for these conditions.
(ii) The coefficient of discharge is 0.99; determine the upstream to throat differential pressure.
(iii) The differential pressure calculated in (ii) is applied across an unstressed flat diaphragm. The diaphragm is
made of mild steel for which young’s modulus is 206 GN/m2 and Poisson’s ratio=0.28, and has a diameter of
10 mm and a thickness of 0.2 mm. Determine the deflection of the diaphragm. [10]
Q.3 (b) An electromagnetic flowmeter is used to measure the average flow rate of an effluent in a pipe of 50 mm
diameter. The velocity profile is symmetrical and can be assumed uniform. The flux density in the liquid has a
peak value of 0. l Wb/m2, the output from the flow meter electrodes is taken to an amplifier of gain 1000 and
impedance between the electrodes is 250 kΩ . The amplifier input impedance is 2.5 MΩ.
(i) Determine the effluent average velocity when the peak to peak voltage at the amplifier output is 0.2 V.
(ii) If effluent conductivity decreases by 20 percent with the same flow rate, determine the percentage change in
reading at the amplifier output. [10]

Q.4 Answer the following questions. [3×3=9]

(i) Explain the disappearing filament optical pyrometer.
(ii) Describe the working of resistive type level measurement.
(iii) How will you classify systematic error in measurement? Explain measures taken to minimize these
errors.

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