Sensors and Transducers

Module-1
1. Classify transducers.

2. What are the basic requirements and specifications of transducers.

3. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of electrical transducers.

4. Explain briefly the important transducer actuating mechanisms with diagrams.

5. Explain the construction and working of the following:

a) Linear and angular motion potentiometers

b) Thermistors and resistance Thermometers
c) Wire resistance strain gauges.
6. A linear resistance potentiometer is 50mm long and is uniformly wound with wire having a
resistance of 10,000Ω.Under normal conditions, the slider is at the center of the potentiometer. Find
the linear displacement when the resistances of the potentiometer as measured by a wheatstone
bridge for two cases are (i) 3850Ω (ii)7560Ω.Are the two displacements in the same direction? If it
is possible to measure a minimum value of 10Ω resistance with the above arrangements, find the
resolution of the potentiometer in mm.

7. Classify variable inductance transducers.

8. Explain the working principle of variable reluctance, variable permeance, variable mutual
inductance transducers with diagram and applications.

9. Explain the construction and working of LVDT transformer. Discuss the applications.

10. The output of a LVDT is connected to a 4V voltmeter through an amplifier whose

amplification factor is 500.An output of 1.8mV appears across the terminals of LVDT when the core
moves through a distance of 0.6mm.if the mill voltmeter scale has 100 divisions and the scale can be
read to ¼ of a division, calculate: (i)The sensitivity of LVDT (ii)The resolution of the instrument in
mm.

11. Explain the working principle and applications of capacitive transducers.

12. A parallel plate capacitive transducer uses plates of area 300 mm2 which are separated by
a distance 0.2mm.(i)Determine the value of capacitance when the dielectric is air having a
permittivity of 8.85x10-12 F/m. (ii)Determine the change in capacitance if a linear displacement
reduces the distance between the plates to 0.18 mm.Also determine the ratio of per unit change
of capacitance to per unit change of displacement.(iii)If a mica sheet 0.01 mm thick is
inserted in the gap ,calculate the value of original capacitance and change in capacitance for
the same displacement. Also calculate the ratio of per unit change in capacitance to per unit change
in displacement. The dielectric constant of mica is 8.

14. Explain the working, advantages and disadvantages of piezoelectric transducers.

15. A 2.5 mm thick quartz piezoelectric crystal having a voltage intensity of 0.055Vm/N is
subjected to pressure of 1.4MN/m. If the permittivity of quartz is 40.6x10-12 F/m, calculate:
(i)Voltage output (ii)Charge sensitivity of the crystal.

16. Explain about the “Hall Effect” based transducers with applications.

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18. The resistivity of semiconductor material was known to be 0.00912Ωm at room temperature,
the flux density in the hall model was 0.45Wb/m2.Calculate the Hall angle for a hall co-
efficient of 3.55x10-4m3/coulomb.

19. Explain the working principle of thermocouple thermometer.

20. Explain the operation of (i) photo emissive cell (ii)photovoltaic cell(iii)photoconductive cell.