ICPC 14 SENSORS AND TRANDUCERS

Assignment
1) A temperature measurement system consists of linear elements and has an overall
steady-state sensitivity of unity. The dynamics of the system are determined by the
first-order transfer function of the sensing element. At time t=0, the sensing element is
suddenly transferred from air at 20 ºC to boiling water. One minute later the element is
transferred back to air. Using the data given below, calculate the system dynamic error
at the following times: t = 10, 20, 50, 120 and 300s.
Sensor data
Mass = 5 X 10-2 kg
Surface area= 10-3 m2
Specific heat = 0.2 J kg-1 ºC-1
Heat transfer coefficient for air = 0.2 W m-2 ºC-1
Heat transfer coefficient for water = 1.0 W m-2 ºC-1

2) A system is modeled by the equation 0.5 y  y  F (t )

If the input signal is suddenly increased to 150 units at time t = 0 second and
y (0) = 100 units
(a) Determine its response equation.
(b) On the same graph, plot both the input signal and the system time response until
steady state is reached.
dh
3) Industrial mercury in glass thermometer is described by the equation   h  .
dt
where ‘h’ is the height of mercury in capillary and ‘T’ is the temperature at the
thermometer bulb. When the temperature is 25oC the height of mercury in the capillary
is 10mm. The thermometer is immersed in a bath of boiling water suddenly. How does
the height of mercury in the capillary rise? Take α =7 sec and β=1.4

4) A temperature transducer with a time constant of 0.4 sec and a static sensitivity of 0.05
mv/oC is used to measure the temperature of a hot liquid medium which changes from
25o C to 65o C. The transducer is adjusted to read 0 at 25oC.
a) Determine the time taken to read 80% of the final voltage value if the temperature
changes as a step.
b) Calculate the reading of the transducer at the end of 4 seconds if the temperature
changes at a constant rate of 10oC per sec from 25o to 65oC.

5) A thermometer was suddenly dipped in a water bath kept at 100oC, the following data
was generated.

Time 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
in sec
Temp 30 54 74.2 81 86 93 96 97 98.4 99
in oC
 a) Find the time constant of the thermometer.
b) Find the steady state error if the thermometer is used to measure temperature of a
liquid cooling at a constant rate of 2oC for every 5 sec.

6) A thermometer at room temperature of 28oC is suddenly immersed in a steaming water

bath. Calculate the time constant of the thermometer if it takes 30 seconds to show a
reading of 96.4oC.

7) A balloon carrying a first order thermometer with a 15 seconds time constant rises
through the atmosphere at 10 meters per second. Assume that the temperature varies at
0.15oC/50 meters. The balloon radios temperature and altitude reading back to the
ground. At 5000 meter the balloon radios the temperature as 15oC.
a) What is the true temperature at 5000 meters?
b) What is the true altitude at which 15oC occurs?

8) Determine the damping coefficient, natural frequency of oscillation for a second order
transducer described by
d2 y(t) dy(t)
2
 2.8  4y(t)  11.7u(t)
dt dt
Where y (t) is the output and u (t) is the input.

9) The temperature of water in a deep sea varies as T x T o 0.01x , where Tx the

temperature at a depth of x meter and To is the temperature at the sea level. A
submarine equipped with a depth and temperature measuring transducer is allowed to
descend at a rate of 0.5 m/sec. The depth gage is zero order instrument and the
temperature instrument is first order instrument with a time constant of 50 secs. The
surface water temperature is 26oC, what is the temperature reported by the thermometer
and the depth gage after 400 secs of descend?

10) A second order transducer has a damping ratio of 0.5 and a natural frequency of
oscillation of 3 radians. This transducer transduces a step change in input. What is
maximum output of the transducer?

11) During a step function calibration, a first order instrument is exposed to a step change
of 100 units. If after 12 sec. the instrument indicates 80 units, estimate the instrument time
constant. Estimate the error in the indicated value after 1.5 sec, y (0) = 0 units

12) The temperature of a furnace is increasing at a rate of 0.1 ºC/s. What is the maximum
permissible time constant of a first order instrument that can be used, so that temperature is
read with a maximum error of 0.5 ºC.

13) A force sensor has a mass of 0.5 kg, stiffness of 2 X 102 N m-1 and a damping of 6.0 N
s m-1.
(a) Calculate the steady-state sensitivity, natural frequency and damping ratio for the
sensor.
(b) Calculate the displacement of the sensor for a steady input force of 2 N,
(c) If the input force is suddenly increased from 2 to 3 N, derive an expression for the
resulting displacement of the sensor.

14) A force measurement system consists of linear elements and has an overall steady-state
sensitivity of unity. The dynamics of the system are determined by the second-order
transfer function of the sensing element which has a natural frequency ωn = 40 rad s-1 and a
damping ratio ξ = 0.1. Calculate the system dynamic error corresponding to the periodic
 1 1 
input force signal: F (t )  50 sin10t  sin30t  sin50t 
 3 5 
15) A first-order instrument must measure signals with frequency content up to 100 Hz
with an amplitude inaccuracy of 5 percent. What is the maximum allowable time constant?
What will be the phase shift at 50 and 100 Hz?

16) A displacement sensor has an input range of 0 to 3.0 cm and a standard supply voltage
of Vs= 0.5V. Using the table given below estimate, the maximum non linearity as a
percentage of F.S.D, the constants KI, KM associated with supply voltage variation and the
ideal sensitivity of the sensor. (Do it with a rough graph)
Displacement x cm 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Output in mV (Vs=0.5V) 0 16.5 32.0 44.0 51.5 55.5 58.5
Output in mV (Vs=0.6V) 0 21.0 41.5 56.0 65.0 70.5 74.0

17) A circuit arrangement consists of a voltage source of 150V DC in series with two
resistors of value 100 K Ω and 50 K Ω respectively. It is desired to measure the voltage
across the 50K Ω resistor. Two voltmeters are available for measurement:
Voltmeter 1: Sensitivity of 1K Ω /V, used in the range of 100V.
Voltmeter 2: Sensitivity of 20K Ω /V, used in the range of 50V.
Calculate the reading of each meter and the error in each reading expressed as a percentage
of true value.

18) What is the best way of specifying accuracy? A temperature sensor has a range of 20˚C
– 250 ˚C. A measurement results in a value of 55 ˚C for the temperature. Specify the error
if the accuracy is a) ±0.5% of FS, b) ±0.75% of span, c) ± 0.8% of reading. What is the
possible temperature in each case?

19) Temperature of metal bath is measured 100 times with variations in apparatus
procedures and persons. The readings are tabulated below:
Temp ˚C 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405
Freq of Occurrence 1 3 12 23 37 16 4 2 2
Find the mean, mode, mean deviation, standard deviation and the probable error of one
reading