ME 605: EXPERIMENTAL

TECHNIQUES
M. TECH. (Turbo Machines) & (Industrial
Process Equipment Design)

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

COURSE DETAILS
ME 605: EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
Course Load (per week) and credit:
L T P Credit
03 0 02 04
Instructors: This is shared course between SVNIT and L&T
From SVNIT: Bade M H 2 lectures per week.
L & T: Parmar 1 lecture + 2 Hrs. Practical/week

Teaching and Examinations Schedule:

Teaching Duration: 27 July to 4 December 2009
First Test: 7-9 September 2009 (25%)
Second Test: 4-6 October 2009 (25%)
End Examination: 7-12 December 2009 (50%)

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 GRADES
Letter grades will be based on the weighted average (Test-
1, 2 & end exam.) specified above and assigned as follows:
AA = 90-100%
AB= 85-90%
BB = 78-84%
BC = 73-77%
CC = 68-72%
CD= 59-67%
DD = 50-58%
FF < 50%
** I reserve the right to adjust your grades. Your grade will only improve if adjustments
are necessary.

SYLLABUS
Basic concepts of Measurement
Statistical Analysis of Experimental Data Method of
Least Squares, Uncertainty Analysis.
Response characteristics of Instruments 1st & 2nd
order instrument.
Transducers, Vibration & Noise measurements.
Theory of strain gauges
Advance & Specific measurements Stress & Strain
Measurement by Photo Elastic Bench, Hotwire &
Laser Doppler Anemometry.
Thermal & Transport property measurement, Thermo
gravimetric, Gas Chromatography, Air Pollution &
Nuclear radiation measurement.

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 SYLLABUS
NDT, Radiography, Ultrasonography
Wind Tunnel Testing
Data Acquisition System
Advance measurement techniques
Optical measurement
Portable coordinate measurement system
Software analysis
Mechanical Metallurgy
Tensile & Bend Testing

SYLLABUS
Impact & Hardness Testing
Fracture Toughness Test
Corrosion & Creep Test
Visual Check
Radiography
Ultrasonic test
Magnetic Particle / Dye Penetrant Test
Other Non Destructive Tests (e.g. Acoustic
Emission Current etc.)

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 REFERENCE
1. Holman, J.P, Experimental Methods for Engineers
5 th Ed. McGraw hill International Edition, 1989
2. Doeblin, E.O., Measurement System Application
and Design McGraw Hill International Ed., 1990
3. Eckman, D.P. Industrial Instrumentation, Wiley
Eastern Ltd., New Delhi, 1990
4. Hale, J. and Kocak, H., Dynamics and Bifurcation
s, Springer-Verlag, N.Y. 1991
5. Strogatz, S.H., Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos,
Addison Wesley, Massachusetts, 1995.

REFERENCE
6. Helfrack, A.D. and Cooper, W.D., Modern
Electronic Instrumentation & Measurement
Techniques, Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi -2001.
7. Experimental Techniques, D. S. Kumar.
8.http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?courseId=107
2&p=1
9. http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/IIT-
MADRAS/Mechanical_Measurements_Metrology/in
dex.php

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 COURSE GOALS:
Enable you to understand, appreciate and apply the
fundamental principles of measurements.
Making aware of different measuring instruments and Data
acquisition systems
Any live experiment to be carry out the most important part
is the Measuring Devices and error analysis. This course is
intended to aid you in developing the skills you will need for
systematic decomposition and solution of real-world
problems related to Experimentations.

Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity
in an open, honest and responsible manner.
All students should act with personal integrity,
respect other students dignity, rights and property,
and help create and maintain an environment in
which all can succeed through the fruits of their
efforts. An environment of academic integrity is
requisite to respect for self and others and a civil
community.

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 Academic integrity
Academic integrity includes a commitment to not engage in
or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation or
deception. Such acts of dishonesty include cheating or
copying, plagiarizing, submitting another persons' work as
one's own, using Internet sources without citation,
fabricating field data or citations, "ghosting" (taking or
having another student take an exam), stealing
examinations, tampering with the academic work of
another student, facilitating other students' acts of
academic dishonesty, etc.
Students charged with a breach of academic integrity will
receive due process and, if the charge is found valid,
academic sanctions may range, depending on the severity
of the offense, FF for the course.

INTRODUCTION TO MECHANICAL
MEASUREMENTS

Fig. Why make measurements?

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 EXPERIEMENT TECHNIQUES
Introduction
Need of Experiment Techniques
To prove the theory
To develop and or modify product
Classification of Experiments:
Research Experiment for Basic or Development work
Standard Performance or Property Testing
General Guidelines:
Design of Experiment: Engineer should know what to
look for before the beginning the experiments.

EXPERIEMENT TECHNIQUES
Objective of the experiment dictate the accuracy
required, expense justified and human effort necessary.
Importance of Data collection: Range in which data
required, Parameters to be measured, Number of Data
points to be taken in particular range.

In Research, there is seldom clear cut way of

proceeding. Each experiment is a different one
having numerous difficulty of varying complexities.

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 Schematic of a general measurement system

Elements of a measurement system

A measuring system exists to provide an
information about the physical value of some
variable being measured (physical quantity).
The term measuring instrument is commonly used
to describe a measurement system, whether it
contains only one or many elements

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 Continue
Measured variable (measurand)
Sensor
Variable Conversion element
Signal processing
Output measurement
Signal transmission
Use of measurement at remote point
Signal presentation or recording
Output display/recording

Elements of a measuring instrument

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 Measurement categories
1. Primary quantity
2. Derived quantity
3. Intrusive Probe method
4. Non-intrusive

Referred Book: Experimental Techniques, J P Holman,

McGraw-Hill Pub., 7th Edition [2001]
Measurement and Instrumentation Principles, Alan S
Morris, Butterworth-Heinemann, 3rd Edition [2001]

BASIC CONCEPTS
General Classifications of Instruments:
Active and passive instruments
Null-type and deflection-type instruments
Analogue and digital instruments
Indicating instruments and instruments with a
signal output
Smart and non-smart instruments

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 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Accuracy and inaccuracy (measurement
uncertainty)
The accuracy of an instrument is a measure of how
close the output reading of the instrument is to the
correct value.
It is an important system design rule that instruments
are chosen such that their range is appropriate to the
spread of values being measured, in order that the best
possible accuracy is maintained in instrument readings.
The term measurement uncertainty is frequently used in
place of inaccuracy for the particular instrument.

STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Precision/Repeatability/Reproducibility
Precision is a term that describes an instruments degree of
freedom from random errors. Alternately, instruments ability to
reproduce a certain reading with a given accuracy.
Accuracy can be improved up to but not beyond the precision of the
instrument by calibration.
The precision of the instrument is usually subject to many complicated
factors and requires special techniques to analysis.
Repeatability describes the closeness of output readings
when the same input is applied repetitively over a short
period of time, with the same measurement conditions,
same instrument and observer, same location and same
conditions of use maintained throughout.

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 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Reproducibility describes the closeness of output
readings for the same input when there are changes
in the method of measurement, observer,
measuring instrument, location, conditions of use
and time of measurement.
Both terms thus describe the spread of output readings for the
same input. This spread is referred to as repeatability if the
measurement conditions are constant and as reproducibility if
the measurement conditions vary.
The degree of repeatability or reproducibility in measurements
from an instrument is an alternative way of expressing its
precision.

Precision and Accuracy

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 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Tolerance
Tolerance is a term that is closely related to accuracy and
defines the maximum error that is to be expected in some
value.
When used correctly, tolerance describes the maximum
deviation of a manufactured component from some specified
value.
Range or span
The range or span of an instrument defines the minimum and
maximum values of a quantity that the instrument is designed
to measure.
Linearity
Output reading of an instrument is linearly proportional to the
quantity being measured.

STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Sensitivity of Measurement
The sensitivity of measurement is
a measure of the change in
instrument output that occurs when
the quantity being measured
changes by a given amount.

Threshold: If the input to an instrument is gradually increased

from zero, the input will have to reach a certain minimum level before
the change in the instrument output reading is of a large enough
magnitude to be detectable. This minimum level of input is known as
the threshold of the instrument.

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 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Resolution
When an instrument is showing a particular output
reading, there is a lower limit on the magnitude of the
change in the input measured quantity that produces an
observable change in the instrument output.
Sensitivity to disturbance
As variations occur in the ambient temperature etc.,
certain static instrument characteristics change, and the
sensitivity to disturbance is a measure of the magnitude
of this change.
Zero drift and Sensitivity drift

STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
Zero drift or bias describes the effect where the
zero reading of an instrument is modified by a change
in ambient conditions.
Sensitivity drift (also known as scale factor drift)
defines the amount by which an instruments
sensitivity of measurement varies as ambient
conditions change.
Hysteresis effects
Dead space

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 DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF
INSTRUMENTS
The dynamic characteristics of a measuring
instrument describe its behaviour between the time
a measured quantity changes value and the time
when the instrument output attains a steady value in
response.
Instruments can be classified based on the
differential equation as:
Zero order
First order
Second order

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 Errors in measurements
Errors accompany any measurement, however well
it is conducted. The error may be inherent in the
measurement process or it may be induced due to
variations in the way the experiment is conducted.
The errors may be classified as:
(1) Systematic Errors (bias)
(2) Random errors

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