Elektrotehniki vestnik 72(4): 189-194, 2005 Electrotechnical Review: Ljubljana, Slovenija

Measurement Device and Procedure for Thermocouple Inhomogeneity Detection

Miha Hiti, Jovan Bojkovski, Valentin Batagelj and Janko Drnovek
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Laboratory of Metrology and Quality, Traka 25, 1000 Ljubljana E-pota: miha.hiti@fe.uni-lj.si Abstract. The paper presents an automatic system for thermocouple inhomogeneity detection achieved by moving the thermocouple through temperature gradients and measuring any Seebeck voltage variation. It is a flexible portable system enabling accurate and reproducible measurements even for a great number of repetitions and long measurement periods. Also, the workload on the user performing such measurements is reduced. The vital part of the system is a microcontroller controling the stepper motor for carriage movement. It is also used for communication with a PC computer, where a custom-written program in LabVIEW serves as a user interface. The mounting of the system is developed for vertical as well as horizontal thermometer movement. This allows the system to take advantage of the existing laboratory equipment since it can easily be mounted on different baths and furnaces. A brief description of procedures for thermocouple inhomogeneity detection is given. Measurement results of thermal emf for inhomogeneity detection are presented for different heat sources such as water bath, oil bath and heat-pipe furnace. Key words: thermocouples, uncertainty, temperature measurement

Naprava in postopek za ugotavljanje nehomogenosti termo*lenov

Povzetek. Nehomogenost termo*lenov je pri merjenju temperature vir negotovosti, ki lahko mo*no vpliva na merilni rezultat. V prispevku je predstavljen avtomatiziran sistem za dolo*anje poloaja in velikosti nehomogenosti s pomikanjem termo*lena skozi temperaturno polje. Sistem omogo*a to*ne, ponovljive meritve, tudi kadar potrebujemo veliko ponovitev in dolge *ase meritev. Osnova sistema je mikrokrmilnik za krmiljenje kora*nega motorja in za komunikacijo z osebnim ra*unalnikom. Uporabniki vmesnik in komunikacijski vmesnik na osebnem ra*unalniku sta bila razvita s programskim paketom LabVIEW. Sistem je primeren tako za vodoravne kot za navpi*ne pomike in omogo*a uporabo na obstoje*ih pe*eh in kopelih. V prispevku so opisane razli*ne metode za ugotavljanje nehomogenosti termo*lenov in predstavljeni rezultati merjenja termonapetosti za ugotavljanje nehomogenosti pri vodni kopeli, oljni kopeli in pe*i s toplotno cevjo. Klju*ne besede: termo*leni, negotovost, merjenje temperature

1 Introduction
Thermocouple sensors are most widely used temperature sensors in industrial applications. They allow robust, simple and low-cost measurement of temperature in a wide range, from below -200 C to over +2000 C. However, a serious error can be present in thermocouple measurements and remain unnoticed even when they are calibrated. During use, thermoelectric properties of thermocouples can degrade, especially at higher temperatures or as a result of mechanical strain. Such degradation can be perceived as drift, although it usually does not affect the whole thermocouple, but mainly alters the parts of thermocouple wires exposed to heat. The magnitude of the error as a result of thermocouple degradation depends on immersion depths and heat exposure during use. For accurate measurements with thermocouple thermometers it is necessary to determine any possible inhomogeneities in thermocouple wires. Detection of inhomogeneity has two main objectives: first to detect distribution of any inhomogeneity of the thermocouple, and second to determine the minimum uncertainty that can be expected during use. Uncertainty during use can not be smaller than uncertainty caused by inhomogeneities, since the immersion depth of the

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thermocouple can be such that inhomogeneities are found in the maximum temperature gradient. In this paper a measurement system for detecting thermocouple inhomogeneities is presented. In connection with a PC computer and existing measurement equipment it enables fully automatic detection of thermocouple inhomogeneities by measuring thermocouple output at different immersion depths.

2 Methods For Thermoelectric Inhomogeneity Testing

A thermocouple consists of two dissimilar conductors, i.e. thermocouple wires, joined to form a circuit. It produces a current in a closed circuit when one junction is at a different temperature from the other. The current is produced by electromotive force (emf), also known as Seebeck voltage. The Seebeck voltage E(T) is calculated by Eq. (1):

E (T ) = s (T )dT
T1

T2

(1)

where s(T) is the Seebeck coefficient of a homogeneous thermocouple segment and T1 and T2 represent local temperatures at each end of the thermocouple segment. It can be seen from Eq. (1) that the emf is not produced at the thermocouple junctions but is generated along the whole thermocouple length. Thermoelectric properties of thermocouple wires may vary as a result of physical and chemical variations. These variations can lead to changes of the local Seebeck coefficient along thermocouple wires during use. In general, the Seebeck coefficient is a function not only of temperature but also of ambient pressure, elastic strain, magnetic field and other variables. Since the thermal emf is generated at temperature gradients along the whole wire length, local changes in Seebeck coefficient can cause an error in the measured voltage at a given temperature. If inhomogeneous thermocouples are used at different immersion depths, accurate temperature measurements are impossible. Even if the immersion depth of thermocouples is not changed during use, they are in most cases removed for calibration, which is usually performed at one immersion depth only. At calibration the temperature gradient along the thermocouple wires differs from the temperature gradient at use, thus the inhomogeneity introduced during use can not be detected and corrected. Since inhomogeneity of the Seebeck coefficient is one of major sources of uncertainty in thermocouple temperature measurement, a method for inhomogeneity testing has to be employed and uncertainty must be evaluated accordingly. Several different methods and systems exist for detection of inhomogeneities, however they usually

require dedicated equipment, [1, 2]. Such systems are based on applying a local temperature gradient to the thermocouple wire and moving it along the wire. Various heat sources can be used to assure the required temperature gradient such as hot-air blowers, small flames and different furnaces and baths. Hot-air blowers, small flames and other concentrated heat sources cause a temperature rise in a narrow region on the thermocouple wire with two temperature gradients, while keeping both ends of the thermocouple at the same temperature. In furnaces and baths the temperature gradient is present only in one region along the thermocouple wire with one end of the thermocouple totally immersed in the heat source and one end at a room temperature. Local heating of the thermocouple wire is suitable for testing local inhomogeneities but is not appropriate for detecting inhomogeneities along an extensive length of the wire, [3]. With respect to motion control, different procedures can be used when measuring thermocouple inhomogeneities, [4]. The simplest method is manually advancing the thermocouple into the heat source or moving the heat source along the thermocouple and measuring the emf. Since it is difficult to maintain a constant rate of movement manually, a motorised movement control is more appropriate. For most accurate inhomogeneity testing, an intermittent motion is recommended, where a thermocouple is slowly moved in steps of few millimetres. Such motion can be realized quite easily by using a computer or a microcontroller and an appropriate system for linear movement. The rate of movement can thus be defined and accurate positioning can be assured. We designed and built a system that allows us to perform tests either manually or automatically, at a constant rate of immersion or with an intermittent motion. It is intended for detecting inhomogeneities by immersing the thermocouple in different heat sources and takes advantage of water baths, oil baths, furnaces and other equipment existing in our laboratory. However it can, with some modifications, also be used for detecting inhomogeneities by moving a concentrated heat source along the wire.

3 Apparatus
The apparatus is designed as shown in [5]. The central part of the system is a custom-made thermocouple support set-up with motorised movement control by means of a stepper motor (Fig. 1). The frame is built by using commercially available aluminium profile elements. The main element is designed for a range of movement of about 400 mm.

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sequence for the L298N bridge driver. The L297 requires only a step clock and direction signals from the microcontroller and generates control signals for the power stage.

Figure 1: System for motorized linear movement

The carriage for thermocouple movement is designed to fit the grooves of the aluminium profile element. The movement of the carriage is realized by a spindle and stepper motor. The spindle is used to transform the rotation of the motor to translation of the carriage. The friction of the spindle also holds the carriage in place when windings of the stepper motor are not energized. The thermometer support is mounted on the carriage. A number of different support elements had to be developed since there are thermometers of various shapes that need to be fitted to the carriage. While the design of the support for vertical insertion is fairly straightforward, a special support for horizontal insertion of the thermometer had to be built. Since thermometers are fragile instruments and need to be handled with care, a special design of the support is necessary in order to prevent the thermometer from breaking while inserting it into the heat source. It should compensate any deviation of the motion of thermometer from the axis of insertion. The developed support restricts the thermometer movement in one plane but allows some rotation along x and z axes (Fig. 2). It also allows some movement in directions of the two axes, perpendicular to the axis of insertion, thus resulting in the thermometer aligning itself with the opening at the heat source. A control circuit is built to control the stepper motor. The employed microcontroller is an Atmel ATmega8535 8-bit microcontroller. Its main features are 8 Kbyte In-System Programmable Flash Memory, 512 Byte EEPROM, 512 bytes SRAM, 32 generalpurpose I/O lines, 8-chanel 10-bit ADC and up to 16 MIPS throughput at 16 MHz. It has a built-in serial peripheral interface for communication with a PC computer or other peripheral devices. To drive the stepper motor, an L297 stepper motor controller is used in combination with an L298N bridge driver. This combination allows a low-cost stepper motor control system to be built with only few components and simplifies software development. The L297 integrates all the control circuitry required to control bipolar or unipolar stepper motors and provides the stepping

Figure 2: Thermocouple support

The software for the microcontroller is written in such way that the load on the microcontroller is minimized. The microcontroller is mainly used to control the speed and direction of rotation of the stepper motor and for the communication with the PC computer. It receives the required instructions such as action to be performed (e.g. movement, home procedure, position request) and associated parameters (e.g. speed, direction and distance to be moved). It also replies to requests about status information (e.g. current position, speed). All instructions that are sent to the microcontroller are processed in real-time. Besides communication protocol and stepper motor control functions, no movement algorithm is pre-programmed on the microcontroller. The communication between microcontroller and PC computer is via an RS-232 interface. The system therefore requires no dedicated hardware and can be connected to any PC computer. On the PC, a program in LabVIEW is written to serve as a user interface and as communication interface. The software on the PC controls the thermometer movement as well as records the measured data from the voltmeter. Data acquisition by the measurement instruments and positioning of the thermometer can thus be synchronized. By using low-level instructions for the control of the system, it is possible to reduce the burden on the microcontroller and at the same time simplify the software development. The programming of the movement is done in LabVIEW thus enabling the user to simply change the movement procedure, without the need to reprogram the microcontroller each time changes are made. By allowing the user to program custom procedures in LabVIEW, even the most complicated movement procedures can be realized by using the simple pre-programmed instruction set of the microcontroller.

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The automated system consisting of the PC computer, controller interface and thermometer support is shown in Fig. 3. The system can also be used for other applications where accurate linear movement is required [6].

Figure 3: System for automated inhomogeneity detection

4 Results Of Thermocouple Inhomogeneity Measurements

The developed system was used for measurements of thermocouple inhomogeneity on the existing laboratory equipment: in a water bath at 50 C, in an oil bath at 100 C and in a heat-pipe at 600 C. Three different types of thermocouples were used for the tests: K-type, T-type in the baths and R-type in the furnace. First the K-type and T-type thermocouples were simultaneously immersed in the water bath at 50 C. The set-up of the measurement system on top of the water bath is shown in Fig. 4. Both thermocouples were fixed to the carriage. The test was performed by withdrawing the thermocouples from the bath in 5 mm steps with a rate of 2 mm/s. The time interval between two steps was 10 minutes to allow temperature to stabilize. On each step, 60 measurements of the thermal emf were made and the median value was calculated. Thermal emf was measured with an HP 34420A nanovoltmeter, cold junctions of the thermocouples were immersed in an ice bath and stability of the water bath during the test was measured by an additional SPRT kept at constant immersion. Stability of the water bath was 10 mK. The procedure was repeated with the same K-type and T-type thermocouples in an oil bath at 100 C. Stability of the oil bath measured with SPRT was 15 mK. Results of inhomogeneity measurements for the Ttype and K-type thermocouples in the oil and water baths are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, respectively.
Figure 4: System set-up on water bath

Figure 5: Inhomogeneity of the T-type thermocouple measured in the water bath at 50 C and in the oil bath at 100 C

It can be observed from the results that both thermocouples exhibit significant inhomogeneities, the T-type thermocouple at immersion from 140 mm to 190 mm and the K-type for immersion more than 200 mm. It can also be observed that the effect of inhomogeneities is much smaller at lower temperatures. This is a result of a small temperature difference between the ambient temperature and temperature of the medium inside the water bath which is about 25 K. In the oil bath at 100 C, the temperature difference at the oil/air interface is about 75 K. It produces higher temperature gradients, amplifies the effect of Seebeck coefficient inhomogeneities and produces higher thermal emf variation.

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knowledge of uncertainty and homogeneity is required. This will contribute to an improved calibration integrity.

Figure 6: Inhomogeneity of the K-type thermocouple measured in a water bath at 50 C and an oil bath at 100 C

Inhomogeneity of the R-type thermocouple was tested in a furnace with a non-pressure controlled Caesium heat-pipe at 600 C. The thermocouple was inserted into the furnace horizontally. The time interval between movements was at least one hour to allow temperature to stabilize. Temperature equilibrium inside the heat-pipe was disturbed during movement of the thermocouple and required long settling times. The new, stable temperature after each movement of the thermocouple was measured with a reference thermometer at a fixed location inside the heat-pipe and was not necessarily identical to previous stable temperature. To compensate for this temperature change, a difference between the reference thermometer value and the thermocouple under test value was calculated. Due to the long time interval, the step of withdrawal was increased to 10 mm. Results are shown in Fig. 7. There are no significant variations, which indicates a homogeneous thermocouple.

Figure 7: Inhomogeneity of the R-type thermocouple measured in a heat-pipe at 600 C

6 References
[1] R. P. Reed, The effect of interrogating temperature
profile in the Seebeck inhomogeneity method of test (SIMOT), D. C. Ripple, Proceedings of International Symposium on Temperature Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, Volume 7, American Institute of Physics, New York, 2003, pp. 491-496 D. Zvizdic, D. Serfezi, L. Grgec Bermanec, G. Bonnier, E. Renaot, Estimation of uncertainties in comparison calibration of thermocouples, D. C. Ripple, Proceedings of International Symposium on Temperature Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, Volume 7, American Institute of Physics, New York, 2003, pp. 529-534 R. P. Reed, Thermoelectric inhomogeneity testing: Part I-Principles, J. F. Schooley, Proceedings of International Symposium on Temperature Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, Volume 6, American Institute of Physics, New York, 1992, pp. 519-524 R. P. Reed, Thermoelectric inhomogeneity testing: Part II-advanced methods, J. F. Schooley, Proceedings of International Symposium on Temperature Measurement and Control in Science and Industry, Volume 6, American Institute of Physics, New York, 1992, pp. 525-530 J. V. Nicholas, D. R. White, Traceable Temperature, Chichester, John Wiley&Sons Ltd., 1994, pp. 272-273. A. Miklavec, M. Hiti, J. Bojkovski, V. Batagelj, Merilni sistem za merjenje nehomogenosti termo*lenov in temperaturnega profila v fiksnih to*kah, B. Zajc Zbornik trinajste mednarodne Elektrotehnike in ra?unalnike konference ERK 2004, Ljubljana, 2004, str. 423-426

[2]

5 Conclusion
The presented apparatus was successfully tested by measuring inhomogeneities of thermocouples in different heat sources. Results are given for tests performed by immersing different types of thermocouples vertically in baths as well as horizontally in a tube furnace. By analysing measurement results obtained with the developed system, identification of any thermocouple inhomogeneity is simple. Further development will be necessary to reduce vibrations caused by the stepper motor during movement of the carriage. As such vibrations can cause noise affecting measurement results, our measurements were made only when the thermometer was not moving. Further work could be towards different inhomogeneity detection techniques by using alternative movement procedures and modifying the thermocouple support to serve as a platform for a moving heat source. To end with, we recommend the developed system for analysis of reliability of thermocouples where

[3]

[4]

[5] [6]

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Miha Hiti received his B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2002 from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. As a member of the National Young Researcher Scheme he works in the Laboratory of Metrology and Quality at Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Jovan Bojkovski received his B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1994 and 2002, respectively. Since 1992 he has been a Research Staff Member at the Laboratory of Metrology and Quality at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. His current research interests are temperature calibration, International Temperature Scale 1990, thermometers, relative humidity and on-site calibrations. He is chairman of TC-Temperature at EUROMET.

Valentin Batagelj received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ljubljana in 1998, 2001 and 2004, respectively. Since 1998 he has been a Research Staff Member at the Laboratory of Metrology and Quality at the Faculty of Electrical engineering. His current research interests are automation of measuring systems in calibration laboratories and temperature calibrations on the primary and secondary level. Janko Drnovek received his M.Sc. degree in 1979 from the Imperial College of Science and Technology of London and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1986 from the University of Ljubljana. Currently he is Head of the Laboratory of Metrology and Quality and Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering which he joined in 1980. Between 1982 and 1986 he was project leader for laboratory measuring systems at Iskra Kibernetika, Kranj. Currently he is President of the Metrology Council at the Metrology Institute of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian delegate to EUROMET.