GENERALIZED CONFIGURATION

AND FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTIONS

OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS
Lecture 5
Instructor : Dr Alivelu M Parimi
OUTLINE
Functional elements of an instrument
CLASSIFICATION OF INSTRUMENTS
Active and passive transducers
Analog and digital modes of operation
Null and deflection methods
Input output configuration of measurement system
Methods of correction of modifying and interfering inputs
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Input output configuration of
measurement system
Input quantities are classified into three categories:

Desired Inputs (i
D
) : The instrument is specifically intended to
measure this kind of inputs.

Interfering Inputs (i
I
): This describes inputs to which the
instrument is unintentionally sensitive.

Modifying Inputs (i
M
) : These are the types of inputs which
change the input-output relations for desired and interfering
inputs.

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4
Input output configuration of
measurement system
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The input-output relationship
Example:
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mercury manometer for pressure difference
measurement
Figure shows a mercury manometer for
pressure difference measurement, figure (b)
and (c) show two possible interfering inputs.
Identify all kind of inputs and explain their
effect and relationship
Solution
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Solution
Desired inputs: Pressures difference between
p
1
and p
2

The pressure difference would cause the
output displacement x, which can be read off
as the calibrated scale.
Interfering inputs: (i) Acceleration of the
moving vehicle (ii) Tilt angle
Modifying inputs : (i) Ambient temperature
(ii) Gravitational force.
Fig b) the manometer is mounted on some
vehicle that is accelerating
Fig c) manometer is not properly aligned with
the gravity vector
Exercise
8
Identify different inputs and their effect on the
output
Methods of correction of
modifying and interfering inputs
To obtain accurate measurement, it is necessary that effect of
spurious inputs be known accurately so that correction is
applied or their effects are nullified by suitable design and/or
compensation techniques

Some of the commonly used methods for nullifying or
reducing the effects of spurious inputs are :
The Method of Inherent Insensitivity
The Method of High-Gain Feedback
The Method of Calculated Output Corrections
The method of Filtering

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The Method of Inherent
Insensitivity
Elements of the instrument should inherently be sensitive to
only the desired inputs.
Example
In springs, stiffness must be temperature resistant to give correct
measurement. So a material such as alloy Ni-Span C can be used
to avoid the interference of temperature.

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The Method of High-Gain
Feedback
This method using concept of high gain feedback is
exemplified by the system shown in the Figure 2.8, which
measures a voltage e
i
by applying it to a motor whose torque
acts on spring, causing a displacement x
o
, which may be
measured on a calibrated scale.
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an open-loop system.
x
o
= (K
M0.
K
SP
). e
i

The Method of High-Gain
Feedback
the output x
o
is measured by the feedback device, producing a
voltage e
o
proportional to x
o.
This voltage is subtracted from
the input voltage e
i
, and the difference is applied to an
amplifier, which drives the motor, and thereby the motor
torque acts on a spring producing x
o

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Closed-loop or Feedback System
i
FB SP M AM
SP M AM
e
K K K K
K K K
0
0
1
x
0
=
K
AM
to be very large
High Gain Feedback is a good
method of reducing the effect of
interfering and modifying inputs.
Exercise
Draw the block diagram and find the expression for high gain
amplifier in the position servomechanism system .

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The Method of Calculated
Output Corrections
Method requires one to measure or estimate the magnitudes
of the interfering and/or modifying inputs and their effect on
output.


With this information, it is possible to calculate corrections,
which may be added to or subtracted from the indicated
output so as to leave (ideally) only that component associated
with the desired input.
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The Method of Calculated
Output Corrections
The effects of temperature on both calibrated scales length
and the density of mercury may be quite accurately computed
if the temperature is known.


The local gravitational
acceleration is also known for a
given elevation and latitude,
so that this effect may be
corrected by calculation
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The method of Filtering
Filtering is a process to remove unwanted signals.
The most commonly used filters measurement system are
Lowpass filter
Highpass filters
Bandpass filters
Bandrejection (notch ) filter


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The method of Filtering
The filter may be applied to any suitable signal in the
instrument, be it input, output, or intermediate signal.

If a filter is put directly in the path of a spurious input ( before
it affects output), it can be designed ideally to block
completely the passage of the signal.

If, however, it is inserted at a point where the signal contains
both desired and spurious components, the filter must be
designed to be selective.

That is, it must pass the desired components essentially
unaltered while effectively suppressing all others.

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The method of Filtering
Input Signal Filtering

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The method of Filtering
Input Signal Filtering: Example
Figure shows the method of input filtering.
Attachment of instruments to vibrating structure, for example
instruments onboard aircraft or missile. The interfering vibration
input may be filtered out by use of suitable spring mounts. The
mass- spring system is actually a mechanical filter, which passes
on to the instrument only a negligible fraction of the motion of
the vibrating structure.
Example : photographing a highly magnified image

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Mechanical Low Pass Filters for Filtering Spurious Inputs
A Filter for Heat-Flow Inputs
The method of Filtering
Output Filtering

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The method of Filtering
Output Filtering

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The method of Filtering
Method of Opposing Inputs
The method of opposing inputs consists of intentionally
introducing into the instrument interfering and/or modifying
inputs that tend to cancel the bad effects of the unavoidable
inputs.

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Block diagram of the method of opposing inputs
The method of Filtering
Method of Opposing Inputs: Example

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A voltmeter using Method of Opposing inputs
Conclusion
In this chapter,

Concept of understanding function of any instrument in terms
of functional elements has been discussed.

Classification of instruments as Null/deflection, contact/non-
contact, manual/automated, intelligent/dumb, analog/digital
has also been discussed with help of many examples.

Identification of various inputs affecting output and methods
to remove effect of spurious inputs has also been discussed.
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The method of Filtering
Exercise
Explain the filtering mechanism in the strain gauge circuit

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