MECH 455: Instrumentation

Advanced instrumentation course covering measurement systems, sensors, transducers, and data acquisition with extensive hands-on laboratory experience in designing and building complete measurement systems.

Course Information on UVic Website

Course Description

Overview of fundamental issues associated with measurement systems including components in a measurement system, effects of digitization, sampling, aliasing, noise, quantization error, response of 0th, 1st, and 2nd order systems, Frequency Response Function, voltage conversion, loading effects and filtering. Sensors and transducers for common physical measurements, including optical techniques and sensors.

Laboratories incorporate all elements of the lectures, with students designing and building complete measurement systems with digital acquisition.

Prerequisites: Complete all of: MECH 285, MECH 320, MECH 330, MECH 380, MECH 395
Complete one of: ECE 365 or ELEC 365

Course Objectives

The ability to design and control mechanical systems, evaluate performance, and prevent failures relies on our ability to obtain and analyze data. This course provides students with the basic tools required to gather information about physical systems and processes with a variety of instrumentation systems.

Various measuring techniques using electronic transducers coupled to microprocessors are examined. The integration of sensors with filtering, amplification, noise suppression and data sampling is a major focus. The laboratory experiments constitute a large portion of the work and require students to design and implement complete measurement systems.

Goal: Provide sufficient background so that students will be comfortable designing measurement systems for use in industrial and research applications.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will be able to:

1. Use basic tools required to gather information about physical systems with various instrumentation systems (industrial and research applications)
2. Describe various measuring techniques using electronic transducers coupled to microprocessors
3. Explain integration of sensors, filtering, amplification, noise suppression, and data sampling
4. Gain knowledge about typical properties measured in mechanical systems: temperature, force, pressure, strain, velocity, and acceleration
5. Design and implement complete measurement systems
6. Learn how to evaluate errors accompanying measurements and conduct experimental uncertainty analysis
7. Identify dynamic measurement systems and analyze their behaviour

Course Topics

• Measurement System Fundamentals: Components, architecture, signal flow
• Digitization Effects: Sampling, aliasing, quantization error
• System Response: 0th, 1st, and 2nd order system dynamics
• Frequency Response Functions: Characterization of measurement systems
• Signal Conditioning: Amplification, filtering, voltage conversion, loading effects
• Sensor Technologies:
  • Temperature sensors (thermocouples, RTDs, thermistors, semiconductor junctions)
  • Strain gauges and stress measurement
  • Pressure transducers
  • Velocity and acceleration sensors
  • Optical measurement techniques
• Data Acquisition: Digital acquisition systems, LabVIEW programming
• Uncertainty Analysis: Error propagation and experimental design

Laboratory Experiments

Five comprehensive laboratory projects (60% of final grade):

Lab 1: Measurement System Simulation (4%)

Virtual instrumentation system testing to understand how system characteristics affect our ability to draw conclusions about input waveforms (10 Hz sine wave analysis). Pass/Fail, submitted individually.

Lab 2: Instrumentation Amplifier (14%)

Build an instrumentation amplifier using four operational amplifiers (opamps) and write a LabVIEW program to communicate with the amplifier. Includes pre-lab preparation.

Lab 3: Strain Measurement (14%)

Gain hands-on experience installing strain gauges and measuring strain in mechanical components. Application to stress analysis.

Lab 4: Temperature Measurement (14%)

Design a temperature control system that regulates fan motor speed to control air temperature above a hot plate. Work with three different temperature transducers:

• Semiconductor junction device
• Thermistor
• Thermocouple

Lab 5: Velocity Measurement (14%)

Perform velocity measurement using both displacement and acceleration measurements. Examine advantages and limitations of different transducers. Significant post-processing required to convert recorded data into velocity.

Laboratory Format:

• Labs performed in groups of three
• One report per group (except Lab 1)
• Pre-labs submitted individually at beginning of each lab session
• Mandatory: Failure to complete all laboratory requirements results in grade of F

Assessment

Note: Lab grades include pre-lab grades (submitted individually at start of session)

Textbook

Theory and Design for Mechanical Measurements
by R.S. Figliola and D.E. Beasley

Instructor Information

Instructor: Prof. Caterina Valeo
Office: EOW 543
Phone: (250) 721-8623
Email: valeo@uvic.ca
Office Hours: TBA or by appointment (via Zoom or in person)

Teaching Assistants

• Aditya Rebally (arebally@uvic.ca)
• Jingwen Liu (jingwenl@uvic.ca)
• Esther Zhao (meichenzhao@uvic.ca)

Class Schedule

• Lectures: Mondays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:20 PM (ECS 108)
• Laboratory Sections:
  • B01: Wednesdays 11:30 AM - 2:20 PM (ELW B232)
  • B02: Wednesdays 4:30-7:20 PM (ELW B232)

This course provides essential skills in instrumentation design and data acquisition that are fundamental to experimental engineering, research, and industrial applications. The extensive laboratory component ensures students gain practical, hands-on experience in building real measurement systems.