0.1 Temperature measurement and first-order dynamic response  (Page 5/5)

Part 4: additional tests

Once you have performed all of the tests outlined above, consider the following tests:

•Transfer the thermocouple from ice water to room temperature air.

How does the time constant compare with the one obtained from the air-to-ice-water transition? Is it different?Why or why not?

•When calculating the time constant for the thermocouple in transition from air to ice water, you measured thetime to go 63.2 percent of the way from the initial temperature (around 21 C) to the final temperature (around 0 C). Using the samegraph, recalculate the time constant using14 C as the starting temperature (i.e., what is the time required to go 63.2 percent ofthe way from 14 C to 0 C?). Is this time constant value significantly different from the initial value you computed? Why orwhy not?

Part 5: thought questions

Document your response to these questions in your lab book.

1. How do the time constants of the thermometer, thermocouple, and thermistor compare? Why is thethermometer“slow”compared to the other devices?

2. How do the time constants obtained for air and water compare? Are they significantly different? If so, explainwhy.

3. Does the instrument need to be at steady state before transferring it to the final medium?

4. How accurate (qualitatively) is the first-order model approximation for the different sensors andmedia?

Part 6: frequency response

From the measured time responses of the thermometer, the thermocouple, and the thermistor, it can be seenthat the response time of these sensors is not instantaneous. From this we can infer that these measurement systems may have somedifficulty following inputs that change quickly. Frequency response is a means of characterizing the dynamic response capabilities of asystem.

The frequency response of a system can be determined by calculating the response of a system to sinusoidalinputs at different frequencies. Two important characteristics are:

• the magnitude ratio between the output and input waveforms
• the phase difference between the output and input waveforms

For a first-order system, we can create the frequency response plot using only our knowledge of the system timeconstant. The magnitude ratio can be calculated from the following expression.

The phase difference is determined from expression 5.

In Excel, create a frequency response plot for the thermometer, thermocouple, and thermistor using the timeconstant from the ice water tests. Plot the magnitude ratio on a log-log scale and the phase difference on a semilog scale (logscale of frequency axis). Consider frequencies from 0.1 rad/s to 1000 rad/s. Your plots will look nice if you use ten points perdecade of frequency (i.e., 0.1, 0.2, 0.3,…,1, 2, 3,…, 10, 20, 30,…). Overlay the three magnitude responses on one plot and the three phase responses on another. How do the frequency responsecharacteristics of the thermometer, thermocouple, and thermistor compare?

Part 7: dynamic temperature measurement problem

Include the analysis for this problem in your lab book.

Assume that the thermocouple you used is placed in a water stream at a point where the temperature variessinusoidally between 60 C and 80 C at a frequency of 40 rad/s. Assuming that the thermocouple time constant is the same as thevalue you determined in the ice water case, what will be the range of sinusoidal variation in the temperature readings? Repeat thecalculations for a temperature frequency of 2 rad/s. Now assume the thermocouple is in air instead of water. Determine the range of thevariation using input frequencies of 10 rad/s and 1 rad/s.

Clean up:

Please straighten up your lab work area. Turn off the data acquisition hardware and leave your work area clean.Your help in keeping the lab neat is appreciated.

Report:

For this lab, you are to write up the Method section of a full formal report. Guidelines are given in theexample report in the Undergraduate Guide. Avoid presenting results in the Methods section. Your writing assignment is relativelyshort. Take the time to do a good job. Since you will not be submitting Results or Discussion of Results in the report, you willneed to document your results in your lab book. Also, be sure to answer the questions from the lab handout in your lab book.