Course Catalogue.

After participating in this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of electric circuit analysis.
• Comprehend the entire instrumentation system, from the sensor to data acquisition.
• Identify and analyze sources of measurement error.
• Explore the operation and design of various sensors.
• Grasp the requirements for conditioning circuits.
• Select appropriate data acquisition cards and systems.
• Understand the concepts and applications of smart sensors.

Description
Monitoring the health condition of different structures, the moisture content of the soil, the temperature of a reactor, and the water level in a container are just a few examples where sensors are of extreme importance to different engineers. This course introduces the basic knowledge of sensors and instrumentation systems for non-electrical engineers. Different sensors like strain gauges, thermocouples, proximity sensors and load cells will be discussed. Also, the design of different conditioning circuits and data acquisition (DAQ) system will be reviewed. Moreover, the concept of smart sensors will be introduced. The course will include a practical demonstration of different measurement systems.

Who Should Attend
This course is intended for non-electrical engineers who will use sensors and measurement systems for different engineering applications.

Course Syllabus

Day I

Introduction

• Components of instrumentation systems
• Sensors
• Conditioning circuit
• Data acquisition system
• Measurement errors
• Bias (offset) error
• Random error

Introduction to Circuit Analysis

• Voltage and current
• Resistive circuit
• Circuit analysis techniques:
• KCL and KVL
• Nodal analysis
• Wheatstone Bridge
• Introduction to capacitors and inductors

Sensors

• Strain Gauges and Load cells
• Temperature sensors
• Thermocouples
• Thermistors
• Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs)
• Infrared (IR) camera
• Displacement sensors:
• Resistive and capacitive sensor
• Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)
• Proximity sensors
• Soil moisture sensors

Day II

Conditioning Circuit

• Amplifier circuit:
• Operational amplifier
• Differential amplifier
• Instrumentational amplifier
• Filters:
• Sources of noise
• Passive low pass filter

Data Acquisition System

• Analog and digital signals
• Selecting DAQ cards are:
• Number of input channels
• Single-ended or differential input signals
• Sampling rate
• Resolution
• Input range
• Analog output
• Digital input and outputs

Introduction to smart sensors

• Examples of smart sensors
• Components of smart sensors:
• Sensing unit
• Communication unit
• Energy supply
• Issues with smart sensors

Practical Demonstration of Complete Measurement Systems

• Temperature measurement
• Load cells
• Proximity sensor