A Resistance Thermometer or Resistance Temperature

Detector is a device which used to determine the temperature by

measuring the resistance of pure electrical wire. This wire is
referred to as a temperature sensor. If we want to measure
temperature with high accuracy, RTD is the only one solution in
industries. It has good linear characteristics over a wide range of
temperature. The variation of resistance of the metal with the
variation of the temperature is given as,
Where, Rt and R0 are the resistance values at tC and t0C
temperatures. and are the constants depends on the metals.
This expression is for huge range of temperature. For small range
of temperature, the expression can be,

In RTD devices; Copper, Nickel and Platinum are widely used

metals. These three metals are having different resistance
variations with respective to the temperature variations. That is
called resistance-temperature characteristics. Platinum has the
temperature range of 650C, and then the Copper and Nickel
have 120C and 300C respectively. The figure-1 shows the
resistance-temperature characteristics curve of the three different
metals. For Platinum, its resistance changes by approximately 0.4
ohms per degree Celsius of temperature. The purity of the
platinum is checked by measuring R100 / R0. Because, whatever
the materials actually we are using for making the RTD that
should be pure. If it will not pure, it will deviate from the

conventional resistance-temperature graph. So, and values

will change depending upon the metals.

Construction of Resistance Temperature

Detector or RTD
The construction is typically such that the wire is wound on a
form (in a coil) on notched mica cross frame to achieve small
size, improving the thermal conductivity to decrease the response
time and a high rate of heat transfer is obtained. In the industrial
RTDs, the coil is protected by a stainless steel sheath or a
protective tube.
So that, the physical strain is negligible as the wire expands and
increase the length of wire with the temperature change. If the
strain on the wire is increasing, then the tension increases. Due
to that, the resistance of the wire will change which is
undesirable. So, we dont want to change the resistance of wire
by any other unwanted changes except the temperature changes.
This is also useful to RTD maintenance while the plant is in
operation. Mica is placed in between the steel sheath and
resistance wire for better electrical insulation. Due less strain in
resistance wire, it should be carefully wound over mica sheet. The
fig.2 shows the structural view of an Industrial Resistance
Temperature Detector.

Optical Pyrometer
The working principle and construction of an Optical
Pyrometer are quite simple. We have drawn an experimental
model of this type of temperature sensors.
It is a measuring instrument that measures temperature of a hot
glowing object. The instrument has an illuminated reference, with
which the brightness of that of the hot body is matched by
controlling the input electric current of the reference. When, the
glow of the reference matches with the hot object through an eye
piece, that electric current is measured to calibrate the
temperature of the hot body.

Construction of Optical Pyrometer

It is quite simple. Consider it as a cylinder, which has a lens in
one end and in the other end there is an eye piece. In between
there is a lamp. In front of the eye piece there is a coloured glass
(usually red), to make lights monochromatic. The lamp is
connected to a battery source through an ammeter and a
rheostat as shown in the figure.

The optical pyrometer works in a certain simple process. The

process is, the brightness of the filament of the lamp, that we are
using through a battery source can be controlled by the rheostat.
Now by controlling the incoming current, the brightness of the

filament is increased or decreased. Going through this process

there will be a certain point, when the filament of the lamp will
not be visible from the eye piece. That very moment the
brightness of the filament matches with the brightness of the hot
body as seen through the monochromatic glass. From the reading
of the ammeter of that particular condition we can get the
temperature of the hot body, as the ammeter is previously
calibrated in temperature scale.
There are some limitations of this pyrometer. Such as:-1.

This type of pyrometer can measure the temperature of only

those objects which are emitting light that means glowing
objects.
2. The optical pyrometer has a range of measuring
temperature of 1400C to near about 3500C
Thermistor
Thermistor is a temperature sensitive device. If the temperature
varies, then the resistance of the thermistor either increases or
decreases. By using this property, we can use it as a temperature
sensor. Thermistor Thermometer is a resistor type
thermometers. But, it differs from RTD or resistance Temperature
Detector. In thermistors, the semiconductor materials are used,
while RTD has pure metals. The semiconductor materials are
prepared from the oxides of chromium, cobalt, nickel,
manganese, and sulphides of iron, aluminium or copper. Because
of semiconductor, resistance of the thermistor varies significantly
with temperature, more than the normal resistance. Thermistor
thermometers have high sensitivity but it has nonlinear
characteristics. This can be understood from the following
example; for a typical 2000 thermistor, the change in
temperature at 25C is 80/C, whereas for a 2000 platinum
RTD, the change in temperature at 25C is 7/C.
Thermistors are classified into two types. They are, Negative
Temperature Co-efficient Thermistors, Positive Temperature Coefficient Thermistors.

The fig.1(a) and fig.1(b) shows their resistance-temperature

characteristics curve.

Thermocouple
The thermocouple is widely used temperature sensor in industry.
Whenever two different types of metals are connected together, a
thermoelectric potential (sometimes called thermoelectric EMF) is
generated across the two free ends the metals according to the
temperature of the joint. This is known as the thermoelectric
effect. Such thermoelectric potentials are only a few milli-volts in
magnitude and so the effect is only significant when typical
voltage output signals of a measurement system are of a similar
low magnitude.
This thermoelectric effect was discovered by Thomas Johan
Seeback discovered in 1821. This thermoelectric EMF is
generated due to the combination of Peltier effect and Thomson
effect. The EMF generated can be approximately expressed by the
relationship:
The values of constants a1, a2, a3, etc. depend on the metals A
and B as shown in fig.1. In this fig.1, T1 and T2 are the
temperatures which are presented in the junction points of metal
A and B. T1 is represented as hot junction and T2 is represented
as clod junction.So, the T1 should be greater than the T2. Now, T1
T2 = T. This is nothing but the temperature difference of two

temperatures. In thermocouple circuit, a thermoelectric potential

is generated across the two free ends that is the function of
junction temperature. This is done by Seeback effect.

In thermocouple temperature sensor, the temperature of hot

junction is measured in respect of cold junction of vise varsa. The
thermoelectric potential is generated in a thermocouple
instrument is in range of V. Hence, the voltmeter connected to
measure the thermoelectric potential is extremely sensitive and
the temperature can be read directly from this voltmeter, if it is
calibrated properly in the scale of temperature. Thermocouples
are a very important class of device as they provide the most
commonly used method of measuring temperatures in industry.
The major reasons behind popularity of thermocouple
temperature measurement are;
1. They are very strong and readings are uniform,
2. They can measure wide range of temperatures,
3. Their characteristics are almost linear with a accuracy of
0.05 %

UNIT 1
FORCE AND TORQUE MEASUREMENTS
The basic principle behind the measurement of force is when a force is applied on an
object, the object gets displaced. The amount of displacement occurred can be calculated
using the various displacement transducers, and thus force measurement can be done. This is
an indirect method for calculating force. Some of the direct methods for measuring force are
given below.

Strain Gauge Transducer

Piezo-Electric Transducer