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Static and Dynamic Temperature Measurements

Alex Gomez
AbstractThis report describes the set up and calibration of a
thermocouple. This experiment was to test and calibrate the Ktype thermocouple. A thermocouple amplifier and USB-6008
data acquisition device (DAQ) will be connected to record the
data from each test. Calibration of the system was done first then
a quick dunk into boiling water from room temperature will
simulate a step input of the thermocouple that can be modeled as
a first order system.

I. INTRODUCTION
Thermocouples are a combination of two specific wires
connected to each-other that produce a voltage difference that
changes with temperature. Op-amps will be used to amplify
the voltage signal from the thermocouple for a more accurate
reading with most DAQ devices.
II. METHODS
This experiment used a variety of different tools that
worked together to calibrate a thermocouple past the
manufacturers pre-calibrated range. When calibrated they
could collect the data for a first-order step input of the
thermocouple.
A. Analysis
To calibrate the system temperatures from 50C to 100C,
which is in the uncalibrated section of the thermocouple,
points were recorded in 2 to 3C intervals and the voltage at
each point was recorded. A linear line that fit best through
each recorded point was calculated using Matlab software.
The system being tested is a first-order step input. To
calculate the time constant of this system the steady state temp
and the temperature were first found. Then 63.2% of that
temperature was calculated and the time to that point is the
time constant.
= + [( ) 63.2%]
(1)
Once is found from (1) the corresponding temperature at
that point can be found and the difference in time from the
initial point is the time constant. This was done for each of the
five separate dunks to find an average time constant for the
system.
B. Experimental Program
A beaker filled to 450 mL was placed on a hot plate with a
stirring bean and a thermometer to begin heating to 50C
while the circuits were setup. The AD595AQ and the LM358
amplifiers were connected to a powered breadboard. The
powered breadboard terminals were set to +15 and -15 volts to
be connected to the LM358 power connections pin 8 and 4
respectively. The ground from the power was used as the
common ground for the DAQ and AD595AQ thermocouple
amplifier pin 4, 7, and 13. The (+) Chromel wire was also
connected to the ground and pin 1. The () Alumel wire was
connected to pin 14. A +5 volt was attached to pin 11 and the
negative was connected to the ground.

Figure 1. AD595AQ and LM358 connected to the powered breadboard

in the experiment.

Pin 8 and 9 were connected to the input pin 3 of the LM358.

On the LM358 pin 1 and 2 were bridged together with pin 1
connected to the DAQ. The connections can be visualized in
figure 1.
A Simulink program was created to record the data from
both the calibration points and the five dunks. For calibrating
the thermocouple 200 samples per second was used. For the
dunks the samples per second was turned up to 2500 to gather
more points as the temperature rises quick during each dunk.
The calibration equation was used in the Simulink program to
give time and C in the data tables.
III. RESULTS
For the calibration 21 points were recorded from 47 to
99.2C where the voltage was averaged for two seconds of
data and plotted. A line was fitted to the points in the
calibration data and the line was used in the Simulink to give
temperature for the calibration.
= 167.38 91.353
(2)
The manufacturer sensitivity was 10 mV/C for 25C [1]
and the sensitivity of my calibration for 47 to 99.2C was
5.97mV/C
Dunk
Start time
T initial
T steady
Time
state
constant
(s)
(s)
(C)
(C)
1
0.0808
22.86
94.29
0.0392
2
0.0800
22.01
96.64
0.0320
3
0.0864
21.80
97.49
0.0256
4
0.0808
23.50
96.74
0.0384
5
0.0800
24.46
96.42
0.0408
Table 1. Table with data extracted from the dunk data.

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residuals was best represented at a quadratic line for the
calibration for the range above 50C. The time constants were
relatively close except for dunks two and three. Those two
dunks also had the lowest and highest initial and final
temperatures which could mean that the thermocouple
responds quicker to greater differences in temperature.
REFERENCES
[1]

Figure 2. Calibration plot with calibration equation.

The calibration data had a norm of residuals of 2.7678 for a

linear representation of the calibration data.

Figure 3. Plot showing all five dunks.

The dunks are all relatively similar to each-other with most

of the variance in the initial and final temperatures. The
second and third dunks were the outliers of the experiment
which had a quicker response to the dunk. The quicker
response could had been from dunking the thermocouple into
the water quicker and further into the beaker.

IV. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

In this experiment I was able to calibrate a thermocouple
and use that calibration to record a first order step input
response. The manufacturers data was not very close to the
sensitivity that I found in this experiment and the norm of

Monolithic Thermocouple Amplification,

http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/datasheets/AD594_595.pdf