AdMet 2012 Paper No.

PM 008

Studies on the Stability of the Industrial Pressure Balances for Hydrostatic Pressure Measurement upto 100 MPa

Sanjay Yadav, V. K. Gupta, Lalit Kumar and A. K. Bandyopadhyay

National Physical Laboratory (NPLI), Council of Scientic and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi 110 012, INDIA email: syadav@nplindia.org

Abstract : In the present paper, we have reported the results on the studied carried out an industrial pressure balance (PB) which was characterized at NPL twice. The results thus obtained are also compared with the values reported by the manufacturer at the time of procurement. Therefore, the stability of the effective area is known for the period of 7 years. Further studies were carried out on the same type and model of PBs as previous PB, being used by different users at two different locations. It is observed that there is a small change in the short term stability but the change is prominent in case of long term stability. However, such changes are well within the estimated measurement uncertainty of the instrument. The change in effective area is quite signicant for the identical models at three different locations in India i.e. in Delhi (north), Chennai (south) and Guwahati (west), due to obvious reasons of different form geometry of the p-c assemblies. However, the behavior of effective area is found similar at all the three locations. Admittedly, some more studies are required for the same model used at other locations to come out with some conclusive comment. The causes for such behaviours are described.

1. INTRODUCTION Pressure balances (PBs) are the primary standards to measure hydrostatic pressure in uid media from atmosphere to few GPa [1-2]. Therefore, PB also known as dead weight tester, dead weight piston gauge, and piston manometer is regarded as a fundamental pressure-measuring instrument with utmost measurement uncertainty. The direct measurement of pressure, according to its denition as a quotient of force and area, and the use of high-quality materials result in small uncertainties of measurement and an excellent long-term stability over the years. For these reasons, PBs have already been used in calibration laboratories of industry, national institutes and research laboratories for many years. Most of the industrial applications are generally in the pressure range from

atmospheric pressure to 100 MPa. As per ISO stipulations, whenever, such instruments are used for precise and accurate pressure measurements, it is obligatory at the part of measurement authority to indicate the quality of the results. Stability of the PB over the years is one of the important parameters to dene the quality of results quantitatively. Also, it helps the users to decide the optimum calibration interval of the particular instrument. The present paper is an attempt to study the stability of an industrial PB for 7 years and also compare the behavior of an identical model being used at 3 different locations in India while characterizing these instruments at NPL, New Delhi 2. METHODOLOGY A globally accepted and established comparative calibration technique, often called

cross-oat method, is used in the present investigation to characterize the PBs under reference and evaluate their characteristics [1-5]. A layout diagram and photograph of the cross-oating experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The characterization of PB starts from the calibration of dead weights for their assigned mass values with measurement uncertainties, and followed by collection of pressure data, computation of pressure generated by standard and force generated by instrument under test, determination of effective area, curve tting of data and nally computation of measurement uncertainty. All the PBs studied under present investigation were calibrated against NPL100MPN, a secondary national hydraulic pressure standard having measurement uncertainty better than 25 x 10-6. The NPL100MPN had successfully been used as laboratory standard in various key comparison exercise in recent past [6-10].

to determine the effective area (At) of test instrument, the total temperature corrected forces Ft acting on the test instrument is divided by corresponding reference pressure p measured by the standard instrument. Before recording any observation, both the instruments i.e. pressure standard and test instrument were leveled using leveling screws and sprit level. The necessary weights were placed on the carrier of standard and adjusted as per the values of the pressure generated by the test gauge. This is repeated several times so that the error due to this adjustment of the weights is minimized. Sufcient time, 15 minutes approximately, has been provided between two successive observations so that both the systems are in complete equilibrium. It may be mentioned that during the cross oating both the gauges are connected directly. Usually, the piston was rotated @ 30 rpm to reduce the effect of friction. In a cross-oating position, the two gauges are considered to be in balance when sink rate of each piston is normal for that particular pressure. At this position, there was no pressure drop in the connecting line and consequently no movement of the uid. This procedure was repeated for 25 pressure points chosen arbitrarily within entire pressure range up to 100 MPa and observations were repeated six times, thrice each in increasing and decreasing order of pressure, for each pressure point, generating thus total number of 150 observations for one time calibration of each PB. The pressure measuring points were chosen arbitrarily in place of equidistance, as is normally done, to cover calibration of individual weights which were 25 in number including piston plus mass carrying bell. The values of pressure generated, the effective area, repeatability and expanded uncertainty were then computed using computer software developed for this purpose [11]. The least square curves were tted to know the most probable value of nominal area, Ao and distortion coefcient, l alongwith their standard deviations. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The rst industrial PB studied was Ruska Model 2485 530D, procured during 2004

Fig. 1: Cross-oat method (line diagram left, pictorial view, right) for the characterization of a pressure balance When pressure is applied to oat the piston up to the equilibrium level, this pressure is dened by p = Fs / A, where Fs is the force applied on the piston of the standards instrument and A is the known effective area of the standard instrument. In order

(manufacturer supplied data) being used in Delhi, a northern part of India. It was rst calibrated during 2007 and recently during 2011. Therefore, 7 years data was available for the analysis. The plots showing the stability of effective area (Ae) as a function of applied pressure (p) are depicted in Fig.2. As expected, the similar trends of the effective area (Ae) is observed during all these years except some drift in the values between 2009 and 2011. The data obtained during 2009 is much closer to the values reported by the manufacturer during 2004. When 2009 data is compared with manufacturer data of 2004, it is found that the values of 2009 are slightly higher up to 60 MPa and lower beyond that pressure. It is evident form the plots that there is no unidirectional drift in the values to assign some correction factors. Therefore, it was considered appropriate to plot the average of all these values and determine the deviations from the average values for each years data as shown in Fig. 3. It is clearly evident form Fig. 3 that 2004, 2009 and 2011 data are well within 20 x 10-6, 14 x 10-6 and 28 x10-6, respectively form the average values which is in excellent agreement with the estimated measurement uncertainty of this gauge as 72 x 10-6 at a coverage factor of k = 2. There is an agreement of 20 x 10-6 between 2004 and 2009 data while it is 45 x 10-6 in case of 2009 and 2011 data. It is mentioned here that these agreement values are the worst case values, generally obtained at the

Fig.3: Deviations of effective area from average value Further studies were carried out on the two other PBs, one being used at the extreme southern part of India and another extreme eastern part of India. These two PBs studied were the identical Ruska Model 2485-5586 as previously described in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 but slightly varying dimensions of piston cylinder assemblies. The motive behind studying identical PBs was to investigate the behavior of effective area when used at different locations, organizations and operators. The behaviors of effective area for these PBs alongwith average effective area of previously described PB are shown in Fig. 4. Interestingly, the similar trends of effective areas were observed for all the 3 three locations. It is observed that there is a small change in the short term stability but the change is prominent in case of long term stability. However, such changes are well within the estimated measurement uncertainty of the instrument. The reported maximum difference in the effective areas is less than 180 x 10-6, 140 x 10-6 and 60 x 10-6, between PBs of Chennai and Guwahati, Chennai and Delhi and Delhi and Guwahati, respectively due to obvious reasons of varying form geometry of the piston cylinder assemblies.

Fig.2: Stability of the effective area lowest pressure point of 5 MPa which is 5 % of the full scale pressure due to obvious reason that best performance of any PB is obtained in between (10-100) % of full scale pressure. Therefore, it is concluded from these studies that the gauge under test remained very stable during all these years and is properly handled by the operators.

Fig.4: Behaviour of effective area of same model used at three different locations

Table 1 : Metrological chacteristics of all the PBs reported by manufacturer and determined at NPL

REFERENCES 1. Heydemann P. L. M. and Welch W.E., Experimental Thermodynamics Volume II, edited by B. Leneindre and B. Voder, Butterworths, London, 1975, 147. Dadson R. S., Lewis S. L. and Peggs G. N., The Pressure Balance: Theory and Practice, Published by Her Majestys Stationary Ofce, London, 1982. Yadav Sanjay, Agarwal Ravinder, Bandyopadhyay A. K., Sharma D. R. and Gupta A. C., Modern instrumentation techniques in pressure metrology under Static Conditions, MAPAN - Journal of Metrology Society India, 18, 2003, 57-82. Yadav Sanjay, Characterisation of dead weight testers and computation of associated uncertainties: a case study of the contemporary techniques, Metrology and Measurement Systems, XIV, 2007, 453-469. Yadav Sanjay, Prakash Om, Gupta V. K. and Bandyopadhyay A. K., The effect of pressure-transmitting uids in the characterization of a controlled clearance piston gauge up to 1 GPa, Metrologia, 44, 2007, 222-233. Yadav Sanjay, Bandyopadhyay A. K., Dilawar Nita and Gupta A.C., Intercomparison of national hydraulic pressure standards upto 500 MPa Measurement + Control, 35, 2002, 4751. Driver R. G., Olson D. A., Yadav Sanjay and Bandyopadhyay A. K., Final report on APMP.SIM.M.P-K7: bilateral comparison between NIST (USA) and NPLI (India) in the hydraulic pressure region 40 MPa to 200 MPa, Metrologia (Tech. Suppl.), 43, 2006, 07003.

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3. The details of the metrological characteristics determined for all these PBs at NPL are compiled in Table 1 alongwith the results reported by the manufacturer, for the comparison. It is clearly seen form the Table 1 that results obtained at NPL are quite comparable and stable. The PBs shown at Sl. No. 1, 2 and 3 in Table 1 exhibit excellent agreements of A0 as 2, 12 and 4 ppm between manufacturers and NPL values for their continuous usage of 6, 8 and 7 years, respectively. Similarly, there are no signicant changes recoded in the distortion coefcient values. 4. CONCLUSIONS Some of the industrial PBs of identical models having pistons of slightly varying diameters within the manufacturing tolerances have been studied for the stability of their metrological characteristics and continuous usage over the years. It is concluded from the studies that all the PBs remained very stable within their estimated measurement uncertainties. Compilation of such data creates the history of the instruments usage which would be helpful for the users to decide the frequency of their next calibrations. However, admittedly authors feel some additional data is needed for the PBs used at some other locations to come out with some conclusive remarks over enhancing the frequency of next calibrations for such PBs.

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Sabuga, W., Bergogilo, M., Rabault, T., Waller, B., Torres, J.C., Olson, D.A., Agarwal, A., Kobata, T., Bandyopadhyay, A. K., Final report on key comparison CCM.P-K7 in the range 10 MPa to 100 MPa of hydraulic gauge pressure, Metrologia (Tech. Suppl.), 42, 2005, 07005.

10. Kobata, T., Bandyopadhyay, A. K., Moore, K., Eltawil, A. A. E., Woo, S. Y., Chan, T. K., Jian, W., Man, J., Con, N. N., Fatt, C. S., Permana, W., Aldammd, M., Sabuga, W., Changpan, T., Hung, C. C. and Pengcheng, Z, Final report on key comparison APMP.M.P-K7 in hydraulic gauge pressure from 10 MPa to 100 MPa. Metrologia (Tech. Suppl.), 42, 2005, 07006. 11. Yadav Sanjay, Vijayakumar D. Arun and Gupta A. C., Computer software for calibration of industrial and master simple / reentrant type piston gauges, MAPAN - Journal of Metrology Society of India, 12, 1997, 101-104.