40048 - Sensors and Transducers for Industry and Environment M

Learning outcomes

The course instructs students in the operation and characterization of the main types of sensors and transducers used in the industrial sector and for environmental surveys; provides indications for correct interfacing between these devices and the control and processing equipment that exploit their signals; instructs students to the design and implementation of simple acquisition and processing systems for the signals supplied by the transducers.

Course contents

Sensors
The measurement process. Fundamental sensor applications: measurement and process control.

Metrological characterization of sensors
Model of a sensor. Characterization of a sensor. Parameters for static and dynamic behaviour characterization of a sensor. Operating conditions.

Passive sensors: principle of operation
Resistive sensors. Capacitive sensors. Inductive sensors. Magnetic sensors: the Hall effect. Magnetoresistors.

Active sensors: principle of operation
Peltier, Thomson, Seebeck effects. Piezoelectric sensors. Pyroelectric sensors.

Sensors and transducers for mechanical quantities
Encoder, resolver, synchro. Inductive proximity sensors. Strain gage. Linear voltage differential transformer. Ultrasound position transducers.

Flowmeters
Differential pressure, magnetic, ultrasound, vortex shedding and Coriolis effect volume or mass flowmeters.

Integration of sensors and electronic instrumentation
Equivalent circuit of a transducer. Noise and amplification of electrical signals. Signal conditioning. Smart sensors. Industrial data acquisition devices.

Optical sensors
Interferometric and intensimetric optical sensors. Operation principle: Michelson, Sagnac, Mach-Zehnder, Fabry-Pérot. Optical sources (led and laser). Photodetectors. Fiber optic. Fiber optic sensors.

Examples of sensor applications: mechanical, automotive, robotics, avionics.

Readings/Bibliography

Lectures transparencies
Fiber Optic Sensors, Second Edition Edited by Shizhuo Yin , Paul B . Ruffin , and Francis T . S . Yu CRC Press
Industrial Process Sensors David M. Scott CRC Press
Novel Sensors and Sensing R . G . Jackson Taylor & Francis

Teaching methods

Lectures and laboratory exercises

Assessment methods

Oral exam

Teaching tools

Blackboard and overhead projector

Office hours

See the website of Gaetano Pasini

See the website of Pier Andrea Traverso