40048 - Sensors and Transducers for Industry and Environment M

Academic Year 2018/2019

  • Docente: Gaetano Pasini
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: ING-INF/07
  • Language: Italian
  • Moduli: Gaetano Pasini (Modulo 1) Pier Andrea Traverso (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Electrical Energy Engineering (cod. 8611)

Learning outcomes

After the participation at this course, students will be able to understand the operation principles of different sensors for industrial and environmental use. They will be able to characterize them in terms of metrological criteria and evaluate their performance. Additionally, to the students will be provided the knowledge they need to choose the appropriate sensor for measurement, process control and environmental monitoring applications and apply it in a correct way. Finally, at the end of the module they will be able to implement simple data acquisition systems and to analyze and evaluate the acquired data.

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