MEASUREMENT AND INSTRUMENTATION

LECTURE 2: PERFORMANCE OF STATIC

CHARACTERISTICS IN MEASUREMENT AND
INSTRUMENTATION
 Contents
• Definition of static
• Requirement of static characteristics preservation
• Static calibration
• Passive & active sensors

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 Definition of Static
• The steady state relationship between input and
output of an instrument
• Measurement of quantities that are constant or
vary quite slowly with respect to time.
• It does not involve differential equations.
• All the static performance characteristics are
obtained by one form or another via a process
called static calibration.
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 Contents
• Definition of static

• Requirement of static
characteristics preservation
• Static calibration
• Passive & active sensors

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Requirement of static
characteristics preservation
• Precise & Accurate
• Measurements that are close to each other are precise
• Measurements that are close to the correct value are accurate
• Measurements can be:
• Precise but inaccurate
• Neither precise nor accurate
• Precise and accurate

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 Examples
Three industrial robots were programmed to place components
at a particular point on a table. The target point was the center
of a circle shown below. The results are:

(a) Low precision, (b) Precise not

low accuracy accurate

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(c) Precise and accurate
 Accuracy
Output of device

Ideal device

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20 Accuracy at % of FS
0

20 40 Value of measurand

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Requirement of static
characteristics preservation
• Repeatability
• The ability of an instrument to register readings accurately
repeatedly
• Linearity
• The input and output relationship of a linear transducer can be
represented by the following equation:

y = mx + c
• where y is the output of transducer, x is the input of transducer,
m is the slope of curve (transfer function), c is the offset.
• Often, the straight line approach is used for certain range of
operation for a non-linear system.

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Requirement of static
characteristics preservation
• Hysteresis
• Hysteresis results in predictable error. May be due to
internal friction, freeplay or looseness in the
mechanism of an instrument.
• Also in electrical phenomena (relation between the
output voltage and the input field current in a d.c.
generator) - the effect is due to magnetic hysteresis of
the iron in the field coils.
• The transfer functions differ with the increase and
decrease of inputs as shown in the following figure.

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Generalized graph of output/input relationship
where hysteresis is present. (From P. H. Sydenham,
Handbook of Measurement Science, Vol. 2,
Chichester, U.K., John Wiley & Sons, 1983)

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 Linearity
It is highly desirable that the measurement system has a
linier relationship between input and output means that
the change in output is proportional to the change in the
value of the measurand
Deviation from true linearity is called linearity error

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Sensitivity
• Sensitivity is the ratio of change in magnitude of the output to
the change in magnitude of the measurand

• Sensitivity=D(output)/D(input)

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Sensitivity and Non Linearity

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 Contents
• Definition of static
• Requirement of static characteristics preservation

• Static calibration
• Passive & active sensors

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Static Calibration
• Imagine a situation in which all inputs (desired,
interfering or modifying) except one are kept at some
constant values.
• The one input under study is varied over some range of
constant values which causes the output(s) to vary over
some range of constant values.
• The input/output relationships developed in this way
comprise a static calibration valid under the stated
constant conditions of all other inputs.
• The procedure may be repeated for other inputs for
overall instrument static behaviour
• Ultimate objective is to define measurement accuracy
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 Contents
• Definition of static
• Requirement of static characteristics preservation
• Static calibration

• Passive & active sensors

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Passive & Active Sensors
• Sensors are often transducer in that they are devices that
convert input energy of one form into output energy of
another form.
• Categorisation of sensors: depends on how they interact
with the environment they are measuring
• Passive sensors: they do not add energy as part of the
measurement process but may remove energy in their operation.
E.g. thermocouple converts a physical temperature into a voltage
signal
• Active sensors: they add energy to the measurement environment
as part of the measurement process. E.g. in a radar or sonar
system, the distance to some object is measured by actively
sending out a radio (radar) or acoustic (sonar) wave to reflect off
some object and measure its range from the sensor
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 EXERCISE
• What is the meaning of the following words:
• Measurand
• Physical quantity
• Data
• Parameter
• Transducer
• Actuator

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 ANSWER TO EXERCISE
• Measurand: Physical quantity being measured
• Physical quantity: Variable such as pressure, temperature,
mass, length, etc
• Data: Information obtained from the
instrumentation/measurement system as a result of the
measurements made of the physical quantities
• Parameter: Physical quantity within defined (numeric) limits.
• Transducer: A device that converts one form of energy to another
• Actuator: Electronic transducer that converts electrical energy into
mechanical energy

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Next Lecture

Analysis on Experimental Data

End of Lecture 2

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