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Explain the basic principles of humidity and moisture measurement Explain construction and working of Psychrometer What is dew cell? Explain any mechanical method for density measurement. Explain the basic principle of hot wire type densitometer. What are smart sensors? Explain different liquid density measurement methods. Give notes on conductivity measurement. Discuss the recent trends in sensor technologies Write notes on MEMS and nanosensors

Humidity: Quantity of water vapor retained by a gas Absolute humidity: Weight of water vapor in unit dry gas H=Wv/Wg Specific humidity: Weight of water vapor in unit of the mixture Relative humidity: Ratio of moisture content of the gas to the maximum moisture the gas can contain at that temperature Dew point: Saturation temperature of the mixture at corresponding vapour pressure.

Hygrometers Mechanical device measuring the dimensional changes of a humidity sensitive material. Extension of hair is a function of relative humidity, length increases with humidity. Slow in process and aging effects its calibration and produces considerable drift, but cheap. Electrical type consists of two wires spaced out in a suitable backing and a hygroscopic coating is given to it. Materials like lithium Cl, phospohoric acid, CaCl, ZnCl,Tin tetra Cl etc are used for coating. Wires act as two electrodes, hygroscopic material absorbs moisture and starts dissociating, changes in resistance are measured. Psychrometer Dry thermometer- Room temperature Wet thermometer- Adiabatic temperature: temperature when cooling by evaporation and heating by convection reaches a thermodynamic equilibrium. Pv=Psat-kPT(td-tw) K=A[1+B(tw-32) & Psychrometric table (Pv & Psat) <==> %HR=(PV/PSat)x100 Sling Psychrometer Wet covered by a knitted wick. Thermometers fastened to a light base which is suitably stringed to a handle such that about this handle the base can be whirled for generating the required draft air. Dew Cell Absolute humidity transducer based on thermal system. Thin metal tube is covered with glass fibres or cloth and is impregnated with LiCl as a hygroscopic material. A double winding silver wires are made helically over it and supplied from AC source. LiCl absorbs moisture and become conductive, depending on amount of moisture, the resistanace between the two wires changes and current flowing between

them also changes and heats up the LiCl to drive off moisture. An equilibrium of the system is reached when the electrolyte acquires a temperature at which the partial pressure over the saturated LiCl solution equals to the water vapour pressure of the atmosphere. This temperature is measured by using a thermocouple or resistance thermometer. This directly gives the dew point and the balancing of vapour pressure makes the device suitable for vapour pressure measurements. [15-100% Humidity measurement and dew point from -30 to 70oC] Accuracy is quite good and response time is within 35min. Density measurement Mechanical Pressure at the bottom of a tank of constant liquid column is proportional to density(Pressure head type) Compare hydrostatic pressure due to heights of liquid in two tanks. One is reference tank consisting of liquid of constant height and density, other tank maintains constant height by overflow, so that the manometer can direcyly be caliberated in terms of the density of the liquid of the measuring tank, relation is given by, = K1+K2h K1=(h1/h2) r and K2=(1/h2) m. The manometer is connected through the bubbler system. Weight of given volume of water is proportional to its density Pressure Displacement type Chamber is continuously flushed with a liquid at constant rate of about 10x103cc/min. A pneumatic servo balance measures the weight of the displacer placed inside the chamber. This is proportional to density Electrical Float type densitometer A number of floats weighted so differently are so positioned that when the density of the liquid changes some of them will open or close an electrical circuit by buoyant action, the system can be arranged so that visual observation is also possible. Buoyancy effect densitometer -Hydrometer Level inside the hydrometer tube is maintained constant by using an overflow tube. The reluctance type transmitter is easily coupled to the stem of the hydrometer. The buoyant action rises or lowers the hydrometer for different densities thereby sending an electrical signal through the inductance coil. Vibration type Measures changes in the frequency of vibration with change in the density of liquid that passes through a pipe of appropriate design. An OSC-amplifier, O/A, has a driver coil to excite the vibration and a pickup coil to pick up the frequency of vibration of the pipe. The change in frequency is found out by the demodulator which also receives the standard OSC, SO frequency, It can have both analog and digital display. For a vibration in the Horizontal direction vibration frequency is given by,

f=K1(1+K2 )-1 Radiation type

Hot Wire type Densitometer Gow Mac density meter- 4 arms of pipe connections like wheatstone bridge. The sample gas enters the diagonal arm of the bridge at C. A reference gas enters at the inlet a, divides and flushes the split flows of the sample towards the outlet b. The bridge is mounted vertically. Two thermal detector elements are equally cooled and when they are connected to a wheatstone bridge they show null balance. This condition is initially adjusted without the sample gas. When the process gas enters at c and if the sample gas has a larger density than the reference gas, due to critical arrangement of the bridge more sample gas will try to split downwards obstructing the flow of the reference gas through the lower branch and d2 consequently gets hotter. For a lighter gas, similarly d1 will get hotter. The detector bridge unbalance will therefore be a measure of gas density. Smart sensors Sensor with an electrical output when combined with interfacing electronic circuits, it is known as smart sensor. It is both actuator and sensor. It has multi-sensing, communication, self-calibration and computation capabilities. It is cost effective, minimum interconnecting cables, highly reliable, high performance, Easy to design, use and maintain, scalable and flexible & small rugged packaging at minimum cost. They are used as accelerometers, optical sensors, Infrared detectors and integrated multi sensors. Used in structural monitoring and geological mapping. Sensors in industrial automation: A look at technology trends Technology trends The mantra adopted by the sensors industry in general is smaller, faster and cheaper solutions. Sensors that are important in the current industrial scenario include temperature, pressure, force and load, level, micro-electro-mechanical systems and nanotechnology. For example, new research from Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics suggests that nanosized gold particles called nanostars could become powerful chemical sensors. Sensor manufacturers have significantly improved measurement technology, although the different types of industrial measurements have not changed much. Today, sensors offer a number of capabilities, such as increased sensitivity, faster response, decreased hysteresis, and longer-term stability and durability. Further, there are now sensors that can offer multiple types of measurements such as U.K.-based Sensornet's DTSS, which measures dynamic distributed strain, and independent temperature and strain in the same fibre. The ability to introduce the "smart" factor into sensors will continue to drive their application in industrial and process control applications. The industrial sector stands to gain from the design of lowpower microsensors, embedded processors and radios that monitor a broad range of parameters on a factory floor to maintain production. Also, the introduction of smart sensing and calibration solutions

that enable a variety of sensors to have plug-and-play capabilities across many applications helps to streamline the manufacturing and assembly of smart sensors and sensor-based products and systems. Further, the analytical capabilities of smart sensors can be installed on-board by using miniature microprocessors; attached close by using wires; or remotely through wireless networks. Industrial automation presents numerous opportunities for wireless sensor networks. This may be in areas where the sensors are expected to be flexible, have high expendability rates, and where cabling is very expensive. High-capacity wireless sensor networking is still an emerging technology, and the current view on wireless technology for the industrial automation and process control market is that this technology can provide a means to augment legacy sensing systems that would provide a next level of information for intelligent control and automation. However, the early implementations of wireless will be around sensing applications versus control. The biggest opportunity for wireless sensor networks in the industrial sector lies in sensing devices in remote or inaccessible areas, including nuclear plants, oil and gas fields, and high temperature furnaces. Wireless protocols facilitate installation of the sensors in inherently hostile industrial environments. The implementation of wireless sensing devices may commence with the development of an entirely new class of sensor that requires firmware processes for both the network stack and the sensor application to operate in a single monolithic environment, operating on a single processor. This poses numerous challenges, including complexity of design and difficulties in bringing the products to market. Addressing this is Sensicast Systems Inc. The Needham, Mass.-based company's MIND platform is designed to allow third parties to rapidly develop wireless devices based on wireless sensor networks that system integrators and independent software vendors can deploy in end-to-end solutions at customer sites. It offers a way to develop wireless sensors for mesh networks. Wireless sensor networking is a reality today, and innovation in this area will further increase its potential. Improvements down the pipeline include smaller components, faster data-exchange rates, longer ranges and better battery life. Also, batteryless sensor nodes that run with energy from vibrating machine parts, temperature differential, electromagnetic waves such as light, radio waves and infrared waves compete with battery-powered radio solutions. Previously, the main concern that existed with wireless sensors was whether there was sufficient smart energy to power it. Rapid progress of smart energy technologies has resulted in the concern shifting from whether the smart energy solutions are possible to the cost involved in adopting these solutions. Energy autonomous solutions for high-volume industrial sensors compete with battery-powered radio solutions. When energy conversion costs become comparable to battery costs - at similar performances of the system - the advantages of maintenance-free energy autonomous solutions will definitely ensure broader acceptance. Energy sources such as moving objects, vibrating machine parts, temperature differential and electromagnetic waves could be harnessed to power small, wireless and maintenancefree radio switches and sensors. Nanosensors Background Our modern lives rely on sensors to allow society to run smoothly. Sensors in the road detect cars at traffic lights and adjust the flow through intersections accordingly. Sensors at shopping malls detect your presence and open doors to allow you to enter. Sensors measure the water level in your washing machine and ensure it doesnt overflow. Nanosensors work in much the same way but they can detect either minute particles or miniscule

quantities of something. Nanosensor Applications Nanosensors can be chemical sensors or mechanical sensors. Amongst other applications they can be used: To detect various chemicals in gases for pollution monitoring For medical diagnostic purposes either as blood borne sensors or in lab-on-a-chip type devices To monitor physical parameters such as temperature, displacement and flow As accelerometers in MEMS devices like airbag sensors How Chemical Nanosensors Work Typically nanosensors work by monitoring electrical changes in the sensor materials. Carbon nanotube based sensors work in this way. For instance when a molecule of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is present it will strip an electron from the nanotube, which in turn causes the nanotube to be less conductive. If ammonia (NO3) is present it reacts with water vapour and donates an electron to the carbon nanotube, making it more conductive. By treating the nanotubes with various coating materials, they can be made sensitive to certain molecules and immune to others. How Mechanical Nanosensors Work Like chemical nanosensors, mechanical nanosensors also tend to measure electrical changes. The nanosensors used in the MEMS systems that car airbags depend upon are monitoring changes in capacitance. These systems have a miniscule weighted shaft attached to a capacitor. The shaft bends with changes in acceleration and this is measured as changes in capacitance. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) (also written as micro-electro-mechanical, MicroElectroMechanical or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) is the technology of very small devices; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nanotechnology. MEMS are also referred to as micromachines (in Japan), or micro systems technology MST (in Europe). MEMS are separate and distinct from the hypothetical vision of molecular nanotechnology or molecular electronics. MEMS are made up of components between 1 to 100 micrometres in size (i.e. 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20 micrometres (20 millionths of a metre) to a millimetre (i.e. 0.02 to 1.0 mm). They usually consist of a central unit that processes data (the microprocessor) and several components that interact with the surroundings such as microsensors.[1] At these size scales, the standard constructs of classical physics are not always useful. Because of the large surface area to volume ratio of MEMS, surface effects such as electrostatics and wetting dominate over volume effects such as inertia or thermal mass. Density measurement Continuous, on-line densitometers commonly used in the oil and gas industry for custody transfer measurement fall into three general classes of devices; vibrating element, buoyant force and continuous weighing. A vibrating element densitometer uses a drive coil to excite a tube or tuning fork to vibrate at its natural or resonant frequency. As the fluid in the tube changes density it causes a change in the resonant frequency because of the change in mass of the tube and its contents. This frequency change is non-linearly proportional to the flowing density of the fluid. A vibrating tube densitometer is often used to measure the density of NGL, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and refined products streams like

gasoline and may also be used to measure the density of crude oil. Vibrating tube densitometers may be mounted external to the main piping utilizing slipstream arrangements or directly mounted in the line. A direct mount densitometer uses a sensing element, for instance a resonant frequency tuning fork, which is inserted into the meter run piping. Buoyant force densitometers measure fluid density by the change in electrical force required to balance a float in a chamber containing the fluid to be measured. The change in force is proportional to flowing density. Continuous weighting devices utilize fluid passing through a tube or vessel of known volume that is continuously weighed to determine the fluid density. The densitometer uses electrical power and a mechanical arrangement of tubing, tuning fork, float and chamber or vessel to measure the density of the fluid flowing through the device. The densitometer then transmits an or vessel to measure the density of the fluid flowing through the device. The densitometer then transmits an electrical signal representing the measured density to a downstream device like a flow computer, a control system.