Thermocouple Measurement of Temperature

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EMCH361 Mechanical Engineering Laboratory I, Fall 2014 Laboratory VI THERMOCOUPLE MEASUREMENT OF TEMPERATURE ABSTRACT The purpose of this lab was to obtain a graphical representation of the temperature change. This data was recorded by a heat sensor submerged into boiling water and then taken out to be cooled to room temperature. Water and air have different properties that contribute to the rate in which heat transfers from the body to the medium. Of course in this experiment the assumption is made that the temperature surrounding the probe is uniform so we can neglect minor fluctuations in temperature readings. INTRODUCTION In this lab it is important to understand the construction, principle, and operation of a thermocouple by observing and measuring the behavior of a first order dynamic system. For all quantitative purposes, a laptop computer equipped with LabVIEW software is used to sample and process the digital data. A screenshot of the data acquisition window used is shown in figure 1 below. [pic] Fig. 1 – LabVIEW Digital Data Aquisition THEORY When two dissimilar metals are joined, this results in an emf (Voltage) difference between them. This increases with increasing temperature. This is known as the Seebeck effect and used to measure temperatures in the form of thermocouples. Thermocouples are also affected by the Thomson and Peltier effects which state that a metal going through a temperature gradient will create an emf. They also state that circuitry connected to a thermocouple will have an effect on the emf output. A consideration in measurement systems is the time response. In the case of a thermocouple, this can be represented using a first order system shown by the differential equation : [pic] [1] where: T - temperature as a function of time t - time k -

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