Instrumentation and

Measurement
(Lecture 12-15)
By
ADNAN FAZIL & AKHTAR HANIF

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Air University

ULTRASONIC
TRANSDUCERS / SENSORS
Ultrasonic devices are used in many fields of measurement, particularly for

measuring fluid flow rates, liquid levels and translational displacements.

Ultrasound is a band of frequencies in the range above 20 kHz, that is, above

the sonic range that humans can usually hear.

Measurement devices that use ultrasound consist of one device that transmits

an ultrasound wave and another device that receives the wave.

Such elements can operate interchangeably as either a transmitter or receiver.

These are available with operating frequencies that vary between 20 kHz and
15 MHz.
INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

TRANSMISSION SPEED

The transmission speed of ultrasound varies according to the medium through

which it travels.
When transmitted through air, the speed of ultrasound is affected by

environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and air turbulence. Of

these, temperature has the largest effect. The velocity of sound through air
varies with temperature according to:

where T is the temperature in C. Thus, even for a relatively small temperature

change of 20 degrees from 0C to 20C, the velocity changes from 331.6m/s to

343.6m/s.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

DIRECTIONALITY OF ULTRASOUND
WAVES
The ultrasound element actually emits a spherical wave of energy whose

magnitude in any direction is a function of the angle made with respect to the
direction that is normal to the face of the ultrasonic element.
The peak emission always occurs along a line that is normal to the transmitting

face of the ultrasonic element, and this is loosely referred to as the direction of
travel.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

 For many purposes, it is useful to treat the transmission as a conical volume of

energy, with the edges of the cone defined as the transmission angle where the
amplitude of the energy in the transmission is -6 dB compared with the peak
value (i.e. where the amplitude of the energy is half that in the normal
direction). Using this definition, a 40 kHz ultrasonic element has a transmission
cone of 50 and a 400 kHz element has a transmission cone of 3.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WAVELENGTH,

FREQUENCY AND
DIRECTIONALITY OF ULTRASOUND WAVES
The frequency and wavelength of ultrasound waves are related according to:

where is the wavelength, v is the velocity and f is the frequency of the

ultrasound waves.
This shows that the relationship between and f depends on the velocity of the

ultrasound and hence varies according to the nature and temperature of the
medium through which it travels.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

ATTENUATION OF ULTRASOUND
WAVES
Ultrasound waves suffer attenuation in the amplitude of the transmitted energy

according to the distance travelled.

The amount of attenuation also depends on the nominal frequency of the

ultrasound and the adsorption characteristics of the medium through which it

travels.
The amount of adsorption depends not only on the type of transmission

medium but also on the level of humidity and dust in the medium.
The amplitude Xd of the ultrasound wave at a distance d from the emission

point can be expressed as:

where X0 is the magnitude of the energy at the point of emission, f is the

nominal frequency of the ultrasound and is the attenuation constant that

depends on the ultrasound frequency, the medium that the ultrasound travels
through and any pollutants in the medium such as dust or water particles.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

ULTRASOUND AS A RANGE SENSOR

The basic principles of an ultrasonic range sensor are to measure the time

between transmission of a burst of ultrasonic energy from an ultrasonic

transmitter and receipt of that energy by an ultrasonic receiver. Then, the
distance d can be calculated from: d = vt.
where v is the ultrasound velocity and t is the measured energy transit time.

Problem: An obvious difficulty in applying this equation is the variability of v

with temperature.
Solution: One solution to this problem is to include an extra ultrasonic

transmitter/ receiver pair in the measurement system in which the two elements
are positioned a known distance apart.
Element choice is restricted by the attenuation characteristics of different types

of element, and relatively low-frequency elements have to be used for the

measurement of large ranges.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

USE OF ULTRASOUND IN TRACKING 3D

OBJECT MOTION
An ultrasonic transmitter mounted on the moving object (T) transmits bursts of

energy to three receivers A, B, C located at the origin (A) and at distances q (to
B) and p (to C) along the axes of an xyz co-ordinate system.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

EXPLOITING DOPPLER SHIFT IN

ULTRASOUND TRANSMISSION

From BOOK (PDF)

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

10

ULTRASONIC IMAGING
A short burst of ultrasonic energy is transmitted from the ultrasonic element into

the medium being investigated and the energy that is reflected back into the
element is analyzed. Ultrasonic elements in the frequency range 1MHz to
15MHz are used.
Ultrasound is reflected back at all interfaces between different materials, with

the proportion of energy reflected being a function of the materials either side of
the interface.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

11

ROTATIONAL MOTION
TRANSDUCERS

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

12

ROTATIONAL DISPLACEMENT
Circular and helical potentiometers
The circular potentiometer is the cheapest device available for measuring

rotational displacements. It works on almost exactly the same principles as the

translational motion potentiometer, except that the track is bent round into a
circular shape.
The measurement range of individual devices varies from 010 to 0360

depending on whether the track forms a full circle or only part of a circle.
Where greater measurement range than 0360 is required, a helical

potentiometer is used, with some devices being able to measure up to 60 full

turns.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

13

ROTATIONAL DIFFERENTIAL
TRANSFORMER
This is a special form of differential transformer that measures rotational rather

than translational motion.

The method of construction and connection of the windings is exactly the same

as for the linear variable differential transformer (LVDT), except that a specially
shaped core is used that varies the mutual inductance between the windings as
it rotates.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

14

INCREMENTAL SHAFT ENCODERS

The principle of operation is to generate pulses as the shaft whose

displacement is being measured rotates. These pulses are counted and the
total angular rotation inferred from the pulse count.
The pulses are generated either by optical or by magnetic means and are

detected by suitable sensors.

Of the two, the optical system is considerably cheaper and therefore much

more common.
Such instruments are very convenient for computer control applications, as the

measurement is already in the required digital form and therefore the usual
analogue to digital signal conversion process is avoided.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

15

 The fixed disc has only one window and the light source is aligned with this so

that the light shines through all the time.

The second disc has two tracks of windows cut into it that are equidistantly

spaced around the disc.

Two light detectors are
positioned beyond the second disc so that one is aligned with each track of

windows.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

16

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

17

 The pulse count obtained from this gives no information about the direction of

rotation.
Direction information is provided by the second, inner track of windows, which

have an angular displacement with respect to the outer set of windows of half a
window width.
The maximum measurement resolution obtainable is limited by the number of

windows that can be machined onto a disc.

The maximum number of windows per track for a 150 mm-diameter disc is

5000, which gives a basic angular measurement resolution of 1 in 5000.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

18

CODED-DISC SHAFT ENCODERS

Unlike the incremental shaft encoder that gives a digital output in the form of

pulses that have to be counted, the digital shaft encoder has an output in the
form of a binary number of several digits that provides an absolute
measurement of shaft position.
Digital encoders provide high accuracy and reliability.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

19

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

20

STROBOSCOPIC METHODS TO
MEASURE ROTATIONAL VELOCITY
Flashing rates available in commercial stroboscopes vary from 110 up to 150,000
per minute according to the range of velocity measurement required, and typical
measurement inaccuracy is 1%.
The instrument is usually in the form of a hand-held device that is pointed towards
the rotating body.

INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT

11-May-14

21