MEL304 Notes Intermediate Elements

UNIT IV
INTERMEDIATE ELEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
The output signal of any transducer usually needs to be
modified by elements, so that they can be displayed
or recorded with convenience. These include: -
1. Amplifiers
2. Compensating devices
3. Differentiating and integrating devices
4. Filters
5. A/D or D/A converters
6. Data transmission elements
AMPLIFIERS
• They increase the magnitude of a signal, so
that it can be conveniently displayed or
recorded.
• These may be of mechanical, hydraulic,
pneumatic, optical or electrical/electronic
types.
• When a reduction is needed, they are known as
“attenuators”.
MECHANICAL AMPLIFYING
ELEMENT
• Mechanical amplifying elements are simple in operation.
• They find a wide range of applications in the mechanical
type of instruments. For example, A dial gauge with a least
count of 1μm employs a system of gears to amplify the
displacement input. Further, a Bourden pressure gauge
employs a combination of levers and gears to give the
desired amplification to the transduced displacement
signal.
• However, these types of amplifiers have the disadvantages
of friction, backlash errors and inertial effects due to
relatively higher mass.
• They are also affected by environmental temperature
changes.
HYDRAULIC AMPLIFYING
ELEMENT
• Hydraulic amplifying elements find a wide range of
applications in the form of hydraulic actuators in the control
elements used in the automobile hydraulic brakes and
hydraulic steering systems.
• The advantages is compactness for a specified force while
the disadvantages are possible leakages and problems in
dusty environments.
PNEUMATIC AMPLIFYING
ELEMENT
• A pneumatic transducer, of flapper nozzle type, for converting
mechanical displacement Xi to pressure p2.
• In order to amplify pressure signal p2, a ball type relay is shown which is
operated by the motion of an elastic diaphragm which gets deflected due
to p2.
• If the ball is at the lowest position, pressure p3 is atmospheric while at
the topmost position, p3 equals air supply pressure p1.
• Thus, p3 changes from zero gauge pressure to p1 due to a small
pressure change in p2 and so the relay can be treated as a pneumatic
amplifier.
• These are used in industrial environment where compressed air is easily
available.
OPTICAL AMPLFYING ELEMENT
• One common application of the optical amplifying element is in the
suspension type of the optical type of galvanometer which is a very
sensitive type of instrument.
• The lamp and scale type of amplifier is relatively inexpensive and
provides a large amount of amplification to the input signals.
• However, these amplifiers because of their inertia effects due to
mirror mass cannot be employed in the dynamic type of
measurements.
• In order to amplify the angular displacement qi, as shown in Fig. 5.4
an optical arrangement isused.
ELECTRICAL AMPLIFYING
ELEMENT
• Currently, most of the electrical amplifiers are either transistor based or
employ suitable integrated circuits (ICs) or both.
• Presently a wide variety of amplifiers are available to meet the specific
requirements in the signal conditioning element of the instrument
systems.
• The following are the characteristics of an ideal amplifier i.e. it should
have:
(i) infiniteinput impedance, i.e. it should have no loading effect on the

transducer.
(ii) zero output impedance
(iii) a very large gain (theoretically infinite) to improve resolution
(iv) zero output for zero input
(v) excellent frequency response.
OPERATIONAL AMPLIFIERS
• An operational amplifier essentially, has the following
characteristics:
— high gain dc difference amplifier type, having two inputs terminals
and act on a difference in voltages at the terminals.
— available as an integrated circuit (IC)
— high input impedance
— low output impedance
— normally used along with outside resistance and capacitances
• A typical operational amplifier IC has several elements e.g. an
operational amplifier has 20 transistors, 12 resistors, 1 capacitor and
the performance is gain up to 105, depending on frequency, power
supply 18V, maximum differential input 30 V, maximum signal ended
input 15 V and input offset voltage 2 mV..
• These amplifiers are used in several applications—
amplification, summing and difference amplification, integrating,

differentiating, charge amplifiers, sensor linearization, etc.
• A typical representation of an operational amplifier is shown in Fig.

• The input voltages are e1 and e2 and output e0, all measured
relative to the ground. Input e1 is called inverting input, written with a
negative sign and e2, the non-inverting one, written with a positive
sign
1. INVERTING AMPLIFIER:
2. NON – INVERTING AMPLIFIER:
3. SUMMING AMPLIFIER:
4. DIFFERENTIAL AMPLIFIER:
A/D CONVERTERS
• Potentiometric type
• Potentiometric type A–D converter employs comparison
elements that are in the form of semiconductor relays or
magnetic cores.
• These elements change their state (ON/OFF), if the input
signal is greater or less than a fraction of the reference
voltage to which they are connected.
• The potentiometer resistances are weighted so that the
reference potentials are according to binary values say
1, 2, 4, 8, etc.
• An automatic switching unit compares the analog input
value with the reference voltages, starting with the
highest and the comparison elements change their state
accordingly, thus giving a digital output.
• Successive approximation type:
• In this converter, the analog input from a sensor is compared with the
voltage generated by a D–A converter from a logic and multiple bit
storage register.
• When the two are equal, the conversion is ended and an acceptable
digital output is available.
• In this method, an n-bit word takes n steps for comparison and time
taken to obtain the bit word is n/f, where f is the clock frequency.
• Counting type:
• Here, the analog input voltage ei is compared against a ramp voltage
er generated by a ramp generator.
• The time taken to reach equal values is a measure of the analog input
voltage ei, since the slope of the ramp voltage is constant.
• In order to get a digital output proportional to the time taken for the two
voltages to be equal (which in turn is proportional to ei), an electronic
gate is opened to permit the output from a frequency oscillator to be
fed to a counter.
• The gate is open for the times t1, t2, t3, etc.
• Dual slope integrating type:
D/A CONVERTERS
• Whenever digital signals have to be converted to analog
ones, the switching defining the digital signal value has to
be changed to an equivalent voltage.
• D–A converter, similar to the potentiometric A–D converter
discussed earlier.
• The switches are opened when a particular digital value is
present, otherwise these are closed.
• Thus, the feedback resistance of the amplifier shown, at
any instant, is the sum of the resistance values that are not
shorted out.
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM
• For large-scale data recording, data acquisition systems or loggers are
employed, e.g. in a power plant, the input signals, like temperatures,
pressures, speeds, flow rates, etc. from a number of locations, may have
to be recorded periodically or continuously.
• The data acquisition systems used are usually of digital type using a
digital computer and may have multiple channels for measurement of
various physical variables, the number of channels may be up to100 or
even more.
• A sample and hold (S and H) device is used where an analog-to-digital
converter (A–D converter) is employed and where the analog signal
might change during conversion.
• The computer controls the addressing and data input and processes the
signals as desired, for display, printing and storage.
INDICATING & DISPLAY
ELEMENTS
DIGITAL VOLTMETERS
CATHODE RAY OSCILLOSCOPES
GALVANOMETRIC RECORDERS
SERVO TYPE POTENTIOMETRIC
RECORDERS
MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDERS
DATA DISPLAY & STORAGE

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UNIT IV

(i) infiniteinput impedance, i.e. it should have no loading effect on the

amplification, summing and difference amplification, integrating,

• A typical representation of an operational amplifier is shown in Fig.

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