DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

ANDHRA PRADESH
Name : M.Vani
Designation : Lecturer
Branch : AEI
Institution : Dr.B.R.Ambedkar GMRP, KNR
Year/Sem : III-Sem
Subject : Process Instrumentation-1
Subject code : AEI-305
Topic : Fundamentals of Instrumentation
Sub Topic : Standards
Duration : 100 minutes
Teaching aids : ppt, visuals
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Objectives
Upon completion of the topic the student will be
able to know about

• Introduction to standards

• Electrical standards such as

• Voltage standards
• Resistive standards
• Temperature standards.

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Introduction

Definition

A standard of measurement is defined as the

physical representation of the unit of measurement.

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Types of standards

a) International standard

b) Secondary standard

c) Primary standard

d) Working standard

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 International standard
• These are defined by international agreement.

• These are periodically evaluated and checked by

absolute measurement in terms of fundamental units.

• These devices designed, constructed and maintained at

the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

• These standards are not easily available to an ordinary

user for day-to-day comparison and calibration

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 Primary standards…
• Primary standards are devices maintained by national
standard laboratories in different part of the world.

• The primary standards represents the fundamental units.

• These are independently calibrated by absolute

measurement at each of the national laboratories.

• These results are compared against each other.

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 Primary standards…

• It results the world average figure for the primary

standard.

• These standard are also not available for ordinary man

for comparison.

• These are mainly used for the verification and calibration

of secondary standards.

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 Secondary standards

• These standards are the basic reference standards

used in industrial measurement laboratories.
• These are maintained by the particular involved
industry.
• They are checked locally against other reference
standards in the area.
• They are sent periodically to the national laboratories
for calibration and comparison against the primary
standards
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 Working standards
• They are the principal tools of a measurement
laboratory
• These are high accuracy devices that are commercially
available and are duly checked and certified against
either the primary standards or secondary standards.

• These are widely used for calibrating general laboratory

instruments, for carrying out comparison measurements
or for checking the quality of industrial products

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Electrical standards

1) Voltage standards

2) Resistance standards

3) Temperature standards

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 Voltage standard:
• Standard volt was based on an electrochemical cell called
the saturated standard cell (or) standard cell

• The saturated cell has a temperature dependence,

• The output voltage changes about -40µV/ºC from the

nominal of 1.01858 V

• The voltage is a function of a chemical reaction

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 Voltage standard…

• It is not related directly to any other physical constants

• A new standard of the volt is a thin film junction.

• It is cooled to nearly absolute zero and irradiated with

microwave energy

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 Voltage standard…
A voltage is developed across the junction which is given
as
v=hf / 2e

where

h=plank’s constant(6.63*10-34J-s)

e=charge of an electron (1.6*10-19 c)

f=frequency of the microwave radiation.

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 Voltage standard…

• The major method of transferring the volt from the

standard based to secondary standard used for
calibration is the standard cell.

• The device is called the “normal or saturated Weston

cell”.

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 Voltage standard…

• The Weston cell has a positive electrode of mercury and

negative electrode of cadmium amalgom(10% cadmium)

• The electrolyte is a solution of cadmium sulfate.

• These components are placed in H- shaped glass
container

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Weston cadmium cell

Fig 1

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 Types of Weston cell

There are two types of Weston cells

3) Saturated cell

5) Unsaturated cell

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 Saturated cell

• The saturated cell, in which the electrolyte is saturated at

all temperatures by cadmium sulfate crystal covering the

electrodes.

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 Unsaturated cell

• The unsaturated cell, in which the concentration of

cadmium sulfate is such that it produces saturation at 40c.

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Advantages of saturated and unsaturated cell

• The unsaturated cell has a negligible temperature

coefficient of voltage at room temperature.

• Saturated Weston cell remains satisfactory as voltage

standards for periods of 10 to 20 years.

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 Disadvantages of saturated cell

• Saturated cells are temperature sensitive and they are

not suited for general laboratory

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 Resistance standard

• The absolute value of the ohm in the SI system is defined

in terms of the fundamental units

• The resistance coil is mounted in a double-walled sealed

container as shown in the figure
• Sealed container it prevents the changes in resistance due to
environment conditions

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Resistance standard

Fig 2

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 Resistance standard…

• The standard resistor is a coil of wire of some alloy like

manganin.
• Manganin has a high electrical resistivity and a low
temperature coefficient of resistance
• With a set of four or one 1-Ώ resistors of this type, the
unit of resistance can be represented with precison of a
few parts in 107over several years.

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 Temperature standards
• Thermodynamic temperature is one of the basic SI
units

• Its units are Kelvin (k).

• The triple point (237.16k) of water is the temperature

of
equilibrium between ice, water and its vapor.

• The temperature can also be designated as 0c (degree

Celsius).

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 Temperature standards…

The Celsius scale has two fundamental fixed points :

• The boiling point of water as 1000c

• Triple point of water as 0.010c

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 Summary
In this class, we have discussed about

Introduction to standards

• Different standards of measurement

• Electrical standards
• Voltage standards
• Resistive standards
• Temperature standards

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 Quiz

1. Standard volt is based on

c. Voltage
d. Electrochemical cell
e. current
f. None

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2. Triple point of water is at

d. 237.16k
e. 273.16k
f. 372.16k
g. None

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THANK YOU

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