Level Sensor

EUNILLO DIO P. ELLE

BS Chemical Engineering

College of Engineering and Architecture

Department of Chemical Engineering

Cebu Institute of Technology - University, N. Bacalso Ave. Cebu City, 6000 Philippines

ABSTRACT

A level sensor is a device used to determine the level or amount of fluids, liquids or other
substances that flow in an open or closed system. It is usually connected to an output unit for
transmitting the results to a monitoring system. The objective of this experiment is to determine
the characteristic of the differential transformer as position. After the experiment was
conducted it was found out that level value of the fluid and the voltage supplies increases as
the other also increases, thus having a directly proportional relationship. Verifying the directly
proportional relationship, as what can be seen in Figure 3-1, the graph has a regression value
of 0.9947 which is close to 1 thus verifying that the level value and the voltage supplied does
have a linear and directly proportional relationship.
1. Introduction

Level sensors detect the level of liquids and other fluids and fluidized solids,
including slurries, granular materials, and powders that exhibit an upper free surface.
Substances that flow become essentially horizontal in their containers (or other physical
boundaries) because of gravity whereas most bulk solids pile at an angle of repose to a peak.
The substance to be measured can be inside a container or can be in its natural form (e.g., a
river or a lake). The level measurement can be either continuous or point values. Continuous
level sensors measure level within a specified range and determine the exact amount of
substance in a certain place, while point-level sensors only indicate whether the substance is
above or below the sensing point. Generally the latter detect levels that are excessively high or
low.

There are many physical and application variables that affect the selection of the
optimal level monitoring method for industrial and commercial processes. The selection
criteria include the physical: phase (liquid, solid or
slurry), temperature, pressure or vacuum, chemistry, dielectric
constant of medium, density (specific gravity) of medium, agitation (action), acoustical or
electrical noise, vibration, mechanical shock, tank or bin size and shape. Also important are the
application constraints: price, accuracy, appearance, response rate, ease
of calibration or programming, physical size and mounting of the instrument, monitoring or
control of continuous or discrete (point) levels. In short, level sensors are one of the very
important sensors and play very important role in a variety of consumer/ industrial applications.

A level sensor is a device for determining the level or amount of fluids, liquids or other
substances that flow in an open or closed system. There are two types of level measurements,
namely, continuous and point level measurements.

Continuous level sensors are used for measuring levels to a specific limit, but they
provide accurate results. Point level sensors, on the other hand, only determine if the liquid
level is high or low.

The level sensors are usually connected to an output unit for transmitting the results to
a monitoring system. Current technologies employ wireless transmission of data to the
monitoring system, which is useful in elevated and dangerous locations that cannot be easily
accessed by common workers.
2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Materials

 DL 2314  Set of leads

 Digital Multi-meter

2.2 Methods

The process simulation panel was set as follows:

 Delivery valve fully opened
 Motor valve fully opened
 SOL valve opened (ON) using the interface On-Off Driver
 MAN valve fully opened (knob turned counter-clockwise)
 Drain valve fully closed (knob turned clockwise)
 Needle valve fully closed (knob turned clockwise)
 Air valve fully opened (knob turned counter-clockwise)
 Process tank with 4cm level of water

The following were then done:

1. Bush N°2 of the Level Sensor was connected through leads to bush N°1 of the
correspondent interface and bush N°2 to bush N°2.
2. A terminal of a digital voltmeter set in DC was inserted in bush N°13 of the
Level Interface and the other one on the earth bush.
3. Bush N°18 of the Linear Driver was connected to the bush of Set Point 1, bush
N°19 to bush N°19 and bush N°20 to bush N°20.
4. The main switch (ON) was pressed.
5. The pump regulating the voltage on Set Point 1 was started and the level of the
water in the Process Tank was brought to 6 cm.
6. Once the level was reached, the pump was stopped and the voltage value of Set
Point 1 was set to 0 V.
7. The level of the water in the tank was gradually decreased by turning the Needle
Valve knob counter-clockwise and/or the Drain Valve know back to 4 cm.
 8. The voltage value was verified and the voltmeter was read and corresponded to
0 V otherwise the Offset trimmer must be regulated until the desired value was
obtained. This way, the minimum working point of the Level Sensor was fixed.
9. The pump was started and the level of the water was increased to 14 cm.
10. The pump was stopped and the voltage value was verified and must correspond
to 10 V, otherwise the Gain trimmer was regulated until the desired value was
obtained.
11. The voltage was verified and the level values were corrected by repeating the
steps from step N°7.
12. The tank was slowly drained until certain level values were reached and for each
level value, the corresponding voltage value was taken down.
13. The main switch was turned OFF.
14. All the connections were removed.
15. The characteristic of the level sensor was represented.

2.3 Sketch

Figure 2.3-1. Level Sensor

Figure 2.3-2. Level Sensor Connection

 Figure 2.3-3. Connection Diagram

3. Results
Table 3-1. Tabulated Data and Results
Level
14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
[cm]

Voltage 10 8.87 7.70 6.53 5.43 4.48 3.27 2.36 1.35 0.30 0

Level Control Calibration

12

10

8
y = 1.0348x - 4.7415
Level (cm)

6 R² = 0.9947

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
-2
Voltage (V)

Figure 3-1. Level vs. Voltage Characteristic Curve

4. Discussion

As seen in both Table 3-1 and Figure 3-1, as the voltage increases, the level of the water
also increases. From the graph, it shows that the relationship between voltage and level of water
is somewhat directly proportional since the regression value of the line is 0.9947 which is close
to 1.

It was also observed in the experiment that as the level of the water in the process tank
is increased, the corresponding voltage reading in the voltmeter increases in a linear behavior.
The voltage at 14 cm reads a 10 V voltage and as it was decreased to 4 cm, the voltage reading
is exactly 0 V giving the voltage readings at 1 centimeter interval a closer to perfect reading,
not to mention the disturbances acquired during the lowering of the level of the water.

5. Conclusion

From the experiment and answering the objectives of this experiment, and basing from
Table 3-1 and Figure 3-1, the level value is dependent on the voltage supplied. As voltage
increases, the level of the water also increases, thus having a directly proportional relationship.
Also, the differential transform which is an electromechanical sensor converts the measured
rectilinear motion of the level of the water into an electrical signal. Since it converts a
rectilinear motion, the voltage and the level of the water is observed to be directly proportional
with each other.

References

[1] Azo Sensors, (2014, September 25). What is a Level Sensor? Retrieved August 15,
2018, from https://www.azosensors.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=380

[2] Wikipedia, (2018, August 9). Level Sensors. Retrieved August 15, 2018, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_sensor