Electrical Measurements &

Instrumentation
Measurement Characteristics
 Instrument Selection
• Before selecting or designing an instrument, the
accuracy and precision requirements; and
environmental conditions must be clear.
• Higher specifications means higher cost, so
money shouldn’t be wasted for unnecessary
characteristics.
• For example a thermometer with ±0.5oC accuracy
isn’t suitable for measuring temperature of a
chemical reaction, but it is OK for measuring
room temperature
 Performance Characteristics
The performance characteristics are categorized
in to two types.
• Static Characteristics: The characteristics
required in an instrument that measure a
slow-varying or non-varying quantity.
• Dynamic Characteristics: The set of criteria
defined for instruments that measure rapidly
changing data
 Static Characteristics
• Accuracy and Inaccuracy
Measure of how close the measured value is to the actual
value. Inaccuracy is the extent to which the measurement is
inaccurate.

Example
A pressure gauge with a measurement range of 0-10 bar
has a quoted inaccuracy of 1.0% of the full-scale reading.
(a) What is the maximum measurement error expected
for this instrument?
(b) What is the likely measurement error expressed as a
percentage of the output reading if this pressure gauge is
measuring a pressure of 1 bar?
Example
 Static Characteristics
Precision:
It is a measure of the degree up to which repeated readings in
a group of measurements are similar, provided they are
measured under same conditions.
Example
The width of a room is measured 10 times by an ultrasonic rule and
the following measurements are obtained (units of meters): 5.381
5.379 5.378 5.382 5.380 5.383 5.379 5.377 5.380 5.381.
The width of the same room is then measured by a calibrated steel
tape that gives a reading of 5.374 m, which can be taken as the correct
value for the width of the room.
(a) What is the measurement precision of the ultrasonic rule?
(b) What is the maximum measurement inaccuracy of the ultrasonic
rule
Ans: Calc avg. Max dev from mean
 Static Characteristics
Resolution: The smallest change in the
measured quantity to which the instrument will
respond.
Sensitivity of Measurement: It is change in
instrument output per change in measurand.
Sensitivity=
scale deflection/value of measurand producing deflection
 Example
Example:
The following resistance values of a platinum
resistance thermometer were measured at a
range of temperatures. Determine the
measurement sensitivity of the instrument in
 Static Characteristics
Drift:
It is the gradual shift in the indication of
instrument that occurs due to environmental
changes
Zero Drift:
Zero reading is changed by change in ambient
condition. It adds a constant offset to all the readings.
zero drift coefficient is a measure of zero drift per oC.
 Example
Determine the zero drift when it is used in the
50oC environment, assuming that the
measurement values when it was used in the
20o C environment are correct. Also calculate
the zero drift coefficient.
 Static Characteristics
Sensitivity Drift: An instrument may have non-
constant drift. Such drift effect reading
differently along the complete scale. Sensitivity
Drift coefficient represents the sensitivity drift
induced per oC.
Example (Sensitivity Drift)
 Errors in Measurement
• Gross Error: Also called Human Errors. Due to mistake by human reading
the instrument
• Systematic Errors: Errors in output reading of an instrument that are
consistently on one side of the correct reading (either all are positive or all
are negative)
Sources of Systematic Errors are
– Effect of environmental disturbances, often called modifying inputs
– Disturbance of the measured system by the act of measurement
– Changes in characteristics due to wear in instrument
Reduction of Systematic Errors
– Careful Instrument Design, for example using metals that have a very low
temperature coefficient
– Calibration before use
– Intelligent instruments having extra sensors to compensate for environmental
changes
 Errors in Measurement
• Random Errors: Due to Unpredictable reasons
and the effected measurement could lie on
either side of correct value
– Sudden change in environmental conditions
– Electrical Noise
 Absolute and Relative Errors
• Absolute Error: It is the difference between
the actual value and measured value
Δe = Am – At
• Relative Error: Ratio of the absolute error to
the true value of quantity being measured
er = Δe/At *100
 Example
• An ammeter reads 6.7 A and the true value of
the current is 6.54 A. Determine the absolute
error and the correction for this instrument
• The current through a resistor is 2.5 A, but the
measurement yields a value of 2.45 A.
Calculate the percentage error of
measurement.
 Combination of Errors
• When a result is calculated after measuring
multiple values form different instruments,
the errors also get combined and increase.
• Sum of Quantities:
If A and B are two measurements with ΔA
and ΔB as their Absolute Errors. The sum is
S = (A ± ΔA) + (B ± ΔB)
S=(A+B) ± (ΔA + ΔB )
 Combination of Errors
• Difference of Quantities:
Here again, total possible error is sum of absolute
individual errors
• Product of Quantities:
P = AB
Or, it can be written as:
P = (A ± ΔA) (B ± ΔB)
P = AB ± A ΔB ± B ΔA ± ΔAΔB
ΔAΔB is neglegible
P = AB ± (A ΔB + B ΔA)
% error in P = (% error in A) + (% error in B)
 Combination of Errors
• Quotient of Quantities: In this case too
%error in A/B = (%error in A ) + (%error in B)
• Quantity Raised to a Power:
% error in AB = B (% error in A)
e.g For a current I with accuracy 3%, the error in
I2 is 2(3%)= 6%
 Examples
• Calculate the maximum percentage error in
the sum and difference of two measured
voltages when V1 = 100 V ± 1% and V2 = 80 V
± 5%
• Two capacitors of 100 ± 1.4 mF and 80 ± 1.5
mF are connected in parallel.Determine the
error of the resultant capacitance in mF and in
percentage
Excercise
 Statistical Analysis
• Random Errors can be analyzed by using
statistical analysis.
– Mean
– Standard deviation
– Variance
 Error Distribution
• Consider 56 readings taken by an ammeter
under same conditions.

• If we plot the histogram

We get the plot shown.
Increasing the no of
readings to large no will
give a guassian curve.
Gaussian Distribution
 Probable Error
• Probable Error is that value of error, so that
50% of the measurements lie within it.

• Mathematically