Temperature Measurement

INDUSTRIAL INSTRUMENTATION

RESISTANCE THERMOMETER
(Change in electrical property) Variation of Resistance in metallic conductors with change in temperature principle of Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) The relation between electrical resistance of a metal and the corresponding temperature T is generally given as Resistance at Temperature T = 0C Resistance at Temperature T Constants Although this is a nonlinear relationship, it can be seen from figure that the curve is nearly linear for copper and platinum over a fairly long range. However, copper being easily susceptible to chemical reactions such as oxidation, sulphate formation, etc., platinum is chosen for RTDs. The Platinum Resistance Thermometers are also referred to as PRTs.

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Temperature Measurement

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PLATINUM RESISTANCE THERMOMETER

The ends of this wire are joined to terminals A and B on the top of the instrument. Another exactly similar lead, with its lower end shorted to B is connected to terminal C to compensate for the resistance of the leads. The Pt-100 RTD has a sensitivity of 0.385 /C. Range: -40C to 1200C. Accuracy: 0.2% to 1.2% at different ranges. Errors: Self-Heating: E.g. 1 ma current through 100 RTD generates 100W power. Error will be 1C/mW in free air. It can be reduced to 0.1C/mW in air flowing at 1m/s. Reduction of this effect: 1) Pulses can be given instead of continuous supply. 2) Circuit is designed such that very current flows in it. Lead Wire Resistance: E.g. 1 connected to 100 PRT causes 1% measurement error

MEASUREMENT WITH RTDs

Two Wire Connection:

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Temperature Measurement

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The simplest resistance measurement configuration uses two wires to connect the thermometer to a Wheatstone bridge. In this configuration, the resistance of the connecting wires is always included with that of the sensor leading to errors in the signal. So, it is mainly used when high accuracy is not required.

Using this configuration, about 10 m of cable can be used. Three Wire Connection:

In order to minimize the effects of lead resistances, a three wire configuration can be used. Here, the two leads to the sensor are on the adjoining arms. There is a lead resistance in each arm of the bridge
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They cancel out as can be seen from the following analysis:

High quality connection cables should be used for this type of configuration because we have assumed that the two lead resistances are equal. This configuration allows for up to 600m of cable. Four Wire Compensation: See note for diagram and analysis The four-wire resistance thermometer configuration even further increases the accuracy and reliability of the measurement of resistance. It provides full cancellation of spurious effects and cable resistance of up to 15 can be handled, though in principle, the resistance error due to lead wire resistance is zero in four-wire measurements.

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Temperature Measurement

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TEMPERATURE COMPUTATION: From Callendar-Van Deuson Relation: With the advent of computers, the temperature corresponding to a measured resistance can be found by the method of iteration from the Callendar-Van Deuson Relations.

From Callendar and Griffiths method: Callander and Griffiths observed that the following simple relation gives true readings up to 630C: where, c is the mean temperature coefficient of Resistance between 0C and 100C, and is given by,

The difference between the true temperature and that obtained from the above equation is given by where, is a constant for a particular specimen of wire and its value varies between 1.488 and 1.498. So, the procedure is given as follows:
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Temperature Measurement

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Step 1: Find Platinum temperature from Equation (1), by measuring . The last two quantities are to be determined only once and for all. Step 2: Substitute this value for on the left and for T on the right-hand side of equation (3) to obtain a revised value of T. Step 3: Substitute the value of T obtained from Step 2 in the right hand side of Equation (3) to obtain a more accurate value of T Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the value of T converges. This iterative procedure is also called the successive approximation method.

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