karl Fischer titration An accurate method for determining the amount of water is the Karl Fischer titration, developed

in 1935 by the German chemist whose name it bears. This method detects only water, contrary to loss on drying, which detects any volatile substances. [edit]Techniques used for natural gas Natural gas poses a unique situation since it can have very high levels of solid and liquid contaminants as well as corrosives in varying concentrations. Water measurements are made in parts per million, pounds of water per million standard cubic feet of gas, mass of water vapor per unit volume, or mass of water vapor per unit mass of dry gas. That is,humidity is the amount of "vapor-phase" water in a gas. If there are liquids present in the gas, they are often filtered out before reaching a gas analyzer to protect the analyzer from damage. Measurements of moisture in natural gas are typically performed with one of the following techniques:

Color indicator tubes Chilled mirrors Electrolytic Piezoelectric sorption, also known as Quartz Crystal Microbalance Aluminum oxide and silicon oxide Spectroscopy

Other moisture measurement techniques exist but are not used in natural gas applications for various reasons. For example, the Gravimetric Hygrometer and the Two-Pressure System used by theNational Bureau of Standards are precise lab techniques but are not practical for use in industrial applications. Color indicator tubes The color indicator tube (also referred to as the Draeger Tube or Stain Tube) is a device many natural gas pipelines use for a quick and rough measurement of moisture. Each tube contains chemicals that react to a specific compound to form a stain or color when passed through the gas. The tubes are used once and discarded. A manufacturer calibrates the tubes, but since the measurement is directly related to exposure time, the flow rate, and the extractive technique, it is susceptible to error. In practice, the error can be as high as 25

percent. The color indicator tubes are well suited for infrequent, rough estimations of moisture in natural gas; for example, if the tube indicates 30 pounds of water, there is a high degree of certainty that it is over 10 pounds. [edit]Chilled mirrors When gas flows over a chilled surface, or chilled mirror, the moisture will condense on it. The exact temperature at which this condensation begins is known as the dew point. The temperature of this mirror is reduced from high to low, and the temperature is read exactly when the dew is observed. By obtaining the dew point temperature, one can calculate moisture content in the gas. The mirror temperature is controlled by the flow of a refrigerant over the mirror or by using a thermoelectric cooler. The detection of condensation on the mirror can be achieved using visual or optical means. For example, a light source can be reflected off the mirror into a detector and condensation detected by changes in light reflected. The observation can also be done visually; however the exact point at which condensation begins is not discernible to the eye. Since the temperature is passing through the dew point rather than stopping exactly at the dew point, the measurement tends to be high. Additionally, the condensation of moisture can be confused with condensation of other condensable such as heavy hydrocarbons, alcohol, and glycol. Automated on-line systems are not able to make these distinctions, and training is required to use the manual systems. [edit]Electrolytic The Electrolytic sensor uses two closely spaced, parallel windings coated with a thin film of phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5). As this coating absorbs incoming water vapor, an electrical potential is applied to the windings that electrolyzes the water to hydrogen and oxygen. The current consumed by the electrolysis determines the mass of water vapor entering the sensor. The flow rate and pressure of the incoming sample must be controlled precisely to maintain a standard sample mass flow rate into the sensor. The method is fairly inexpensive and can be used effectively in pure gas streams where response rates are not critical. Contamination from oils, liquids or glycols on the windings will cause drift in the readings and damage to the sensor. The sensor cannot react to sudden changes in moisture, i.e., the reaction on the windings surfaces takes some time to stabilize. Large amounts of water in the pipeline (called slugs) will wet the surface and requires tens of minutes or hours to dry-down. Effective sample conditioning and removal of liquids is essential when using this sensor

[edit]Piezoelectric sorption The piezoelectric sorption instrument compares the changes in frequency of

hydroscopically coated quartz oscillators. As the mass of the crystal changes due to adsorption of water vapor, the frequency of the oscillator changes. The sensor is a relative measurement, so an integrated calibration system with desiccant dryers, permeations tubes and sample line switching is used to correlate the system on a frequent basis. The system has success in many applications including natural gas. It is possible to have interference from glycol, methanol, and damage from hydrogen sulfide which can result in erratic readings. The sensor itself is relatively inexpensive and very precise. The required calibration system is not as precise and adds to the cost and mechanical complexity of the system. The labor for frequent replacement of desiccant dryers, permeation components, and the sensor heads greatly increase the operational costs. Additionally, slugs of water render the system nonfunctional for long periods of time as the sensor head has to dry-down. [edit]Aluminum oxide and silicon oxide The oxide sensor is made up of an inert substrate material and two dielectric layers, one of which is sensitive to humidity. The moisture molecules pass through the pores on the surface and cause a change to a physical property of the layer beneath it. An aluminum oxide sensor has two metal layers that form the electrodes of a capacitor. The number of water molecules adsorbed will cause a change in the dielectric constant of the sensor. The sensor impedance correlates to the water concentration. A silicon oxide sensor can be an optical device that changes its refractive index as water is absorbed into the sensitive layer or a different impedance type in which silicon replaces the aluminium. In the first type (optical) when light is reflected through the substrate, a wavelength shift can be detected on the output which can be precisely correlated to the moisture concentration. Fiber opticconnector can be used to separate the sensor head and the electronics. This type of sensor is not extremely expensive and can be installed at pipeline pressure (insitu). Water molecules do take time to enter and exit the pores, so some wet-up and dry down delays will be observed, especially after a slug. Contaminants and corrosives may damage and clog the pores causing a drift in the calibration, but the sensor heads can be refurbished or replaced and will perform better in very clean gas streams. As with the piezoelectric and electrolytic sensors, the sensor is susceptible to interference from glycol and methanol, the

calibration will drift as the sensors surface becomes inactive due to damage or blockage, so the calibration is reliable only at the beginning of the sensors life. In the second type (silicon oxide sensor) the device is often temperature controlled for improved stability and is considered to be chemically more stable than aluminium oxide types and far faster responding due to the fact they hold less water in equilibrium at an elevated operating temperature. Whilst most absorption type devices can be installed at pipe line pressures (up to 130 Barg) traceability to international Standards is compromised. Operation at near atmospheric pressure does provide traceability and offers other significant benefits such enabling direct validation against known moisture content. [edit]Spectroscopy Absorption spectroscopy is a relatively simple method of passing light through a gas sample and measuring the amount of light absorbed at the specific wavelength. Traditional spectroscopic techniques have not been successful at doing this in natural gas because methane absorbs light in the same wavelength regions as water. But if one uses a very high resolution spectrometer, it is possible to find some water peaks that are not overlapped by other gas peaks. The tunable laser provides a narrow, tunable wavelength light source that can be used to analyze these small spectral features. According to the Beer-Lambert law, the amount of light absorbed by the gas is proportional to amount of the gas present in the lights path; therefore this technique is a direct measurement of moisture. In order to achieve a long enough path length of light, a mirror is used in the instrument. The mirror may become partially blocked by liquid and solid contaminations, but since the measurement is a ratio of absorbed light over the total light detected, the calibration is unaffected by the partially blocked mirror (if the mirror is totally blocked, it must be cleaned). The Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) analyzer has a higher upfront cost compared to the analyzers above. However, the TDLAS technology is the only one that can meet any one of the following: the necessity for an analyzer that will not suffer from interference or damage from corrosive gases, liquids or solids, or an analyzer that will react very quickly to drastic moisture changes, or an analyzer that will remain calibrated for very long periods of time.

B. GENERAL TESTS Loss on Drying The Loss on Drying Test is designed to measure the amount of water and volatile matters in a sample when the sample is dried under specified conditions. Hereinafter in the Monographs, such a specification as not more than 0.50 % (105, 3 hours) indicates that when determined by drying 1 to 2 g of the sample, accurately weighed, at 105 for 3 hours, the loss in weight is not more than 0.50 % of the sample. Also such a specification as not more than 0.50 % (0.5 g, not more than 1.3kPa, 24 hours) indicates that when determined by placing about 0.5 g of the sample, accurately weighed, in a desiccator with silica gel as the desiccant and drying under pressure at 1.3kPa or less for 24 hours, the loss in weight is not more than 0.50 % of the sample. Procedure Dry a weighing bottle for about 30 minutes under the prescribed conditions, allow to cool it in a desiccator if heated, and weigh it accurately. If the sample is large crystals or lumps, promptly crush it into particles not larger than about 2 mm in diameter and, unless otherwise specified, place 1 to 2 g into the weighing bottle, spread the sample so that the layer is not thicker than 5 mm, and weigh it accurately. Place the bottle in the drying oven, remove the stopper (placing it nearby), dry under the specified conditions, stopper again, take the bottle out of the oven, and weigh it again. If heated, unless otherwise specified, allow to cool it in a desiccator, and weigh it accurately. If the sample melts at a temperature lower than the specified drying temperature, dry it at a temperature 5 10 lower than the melting temperature for 1 to 2 hours, and dry it under the specified conditions.

Potentiometer construction A potentiometer is constructed with a resistive element formed into an arc of a circle, and a sliding contact (wiper) travelling over that arc. The resistive element, with a terminal at one or

both ends, is flat or angled, and is commonly made of graphite, although other materials may be used. The wiper is connected through another sliding contact to another terminal. On panel potentiometers, the wiper is usually the center terminal of three. For single-turn potentiometers, this wiper typically travels just under one revolution around the contact. "Multiturn" potentiometers are usually constructed of a conventional resistive element wiped through a worm gear, although other types exist with a helical resistive element and a wiper that turns through 10, 20, or more complete revolutions. Besides graphite, materials used to make the resistive element include resistance wire, carbon particles in plastic, and a ceramic/metal mixture called cermet. A string potentiometer is a multi-turn potentiometer operated by an attached reel of wire turning against a spring, enabling it to convert linear position to a variable resistance. In a linear slider potentiometer, a sliding control is provided instead of a dial control. The resistive element is a rectangular strip, not semi-circular as in a rotary potentiometer. Due to the large opening slot for the wiper, this type of potentiometer has a greater potential for getting contaminated. Conductive track potentiometers use conductive polymer resistor pastes that contain hardwearing resins and polymers, solvents, lubricant and carbon the constituent that provides the conductive properties. The tracks are made by screen printing the paste onto a paperbased phenolic substrate and then curing it in an oven. The curing process removes all solvents and allows the conductive polymer to polymerize and cross-link. This produces a durable track with stable electrical resistance throughout its working life.[citation needed]

PCB mount trimmer potentiometers, or "trimpots", intended for infrequent adjustment. [edit]Resistanceposition relationship: "taper"

The relation between slider position, known as the "taper" and resistance is generally either linear or logarithmic (aka "audio taper"). A letter code ("A" taper, "B" taper, etc.) may be used to identify which taper is used, but the letter code definitions are variable over time and between manufacturers. [edit]Linear taper potentiometer A linear taper potentiometer has a resistive element of constant cross-section, resulting in a device where the resistance between the contact (wiper) and one end terminal is proportional to the distance between them. Linear describes the electrical characteristic of the device, not the geometry of the resistive element. Linear taper potentiometers are used when an approximately proportional relation is desired between shaft rotation (or slider position) and the division ratio of the potentiometer; for example, controls used for adjusting the centering of (an analog) cathode-ray oscilloscope. Logarithmic potentiometer A logarithmic taper potentiometer has a resistive element that either 'tapers' in from one end to the other, or is made from a material whose resistivity varies from one end to the other. This results in a device where output voltage is a logarithmic function of the mechanical angle of the potentiometer. Most (cheaper) "log" potentiometers are actually not logarithmic, but use two regions of different resistance (but constant resistivity) to approximate a logarithmic law. A logarithmic potentiometer can also be simulated (not very accurately) with a linear one and an external resistor. True logarithmic potentiometers are significantly more expensive.

Logarithmic taper potentiometers are often used in connection with audio amplifiers as human perception of audio volume is logarithmic.

A high power wirewound potentiometer. Any potentiometer may be connected as a rheostat.s

[edit]Rheostat See also: Liquid rheostat The most common way to vary the resistance in a circuit is to use a rheostat,[2] a twoterminal variable resistor. Rheostats are usually designed to handle much higher voltage, current and power than potentiometers. Typically they are constructed as a resistive wire wrapped to form a toroidal coil with the wiper moving over the upper surface of the toroid, sliding from one turn of the wire to the next. Sometimes a rheostat is made from resistance wire wound on a heat-resisting cylinder, with the slider made from a number of metal fingers that grip lightly onto a small portion of the turns of resistance wire. The "fingers" can be moved along the coil of resistance wire by a sliding knob thus changing the "tapping" point. They are usually used as variable resistors rather than variable potential dividers. Any three-terminal potentiometer can be used as a two-terminal variable resistor by leaving one of the end terminals disconnected. However, it is common practice to connect the wiper terminal to the unused end of the resistance track to reduce the amount of resistance variation caused by dirt on the track. [edit]Digital potentiometer Main article: Digital potentiometer A digital potentiometer is an electronic component that mimics the functions of analog potentiometers. Through digital input signals, the resistance between two terminals can be adjusted, just as in an analog potentiometer. [edit]Membrane Potentiometer A membrane potentiometer uses a conductive membrane that is deformed by a sliding element to contact a resistor voltage divider. Linearity can range from 0.5% to 5% depending on the material, design and manufacturing process. The repeat accuracy is typically between 0.1mm and 1.0mm with a theoretically infinite resolution. The service life of these types of potentiometers is typically 1 million to 20 million cycles depending on the materials used during manufacturing and the actuation method; contact and contactless (magnetic) methods are available. Many different material variations are available such as PET(foil), FR4, and Kapton. Membrane potentiometer manuafacturers offer linear, rotary, and application-specific variations. The linear versions can range from 9mm to 1000mm in length and the rotary versions range from 0 to 360(multi-turn), with each having a height of 0.5mm. Membrane potentiometers can be used for position sensing.[3]

[edit]Potentiometer applications Potentiometers are widely used as user controls, and may control a very wide variety of equipment functions. The widespread use of potentiometers in consumer electronics declined in the 1990s, with digital controls now more common. However they remain in many applications, such as volume controls and as position sensors. [edit]Audio control

Linear potentiometers ("faders") One of the most common uses for modern low-power potentiometers is as audio control devices. Both linear potentiometers and rotary potentiometers are regularly used to adjust loudness, frequency attenuation and other characteristics of audio signals. The 'log pot' is used as the volume control in audio amplifiers, where it is also called an "audio taper pot", because the amplitude response of the human earis also logarithmic. It ensures that, on a volume control marked 0 to 10, for example, a setting of 5 sounds half as loud as a setting of 10. There is also ananti-log pot or reverse audio taper which is simply the reverse of a logarithmic potentiometer. It is almost always used in a ganged configuration with a logarithmic potentiometer, for instance, in an audio balance control. Potentiometers used in combination with filter networks act as tone controls or equalizers. [edit]Television Potentiometers were formerly used to control picture brightness, contrast, and color response. A potentiometer was often used to adjust "vertical hold", which affected the synchronization between the receiver's internal sweep circuit (sometimes a multivibrator) and the received picture signal, along with other things such as audio-video carrier offset, tuning frequency (for push-button sets) and so on. [edit]Transducers

Potentiometers are also very widely used as a part of displacement transducers because of the simplicity of construction and because they can give a large output signal. [edit]Computation In analog computers, high precision potentiometers are used to scale intermediate results by desired constant factors, or to set initial conditions for a calculation. A motor-driven potentiometer may be used as a function generator, using a non-linear resistance card to supply approximations to trigonometric functions. For example, the shaft rotation might represent an angle, and the voltage division ratio can be made proportional to the cosine of the angle. [edit]Theory of operation

A potentiometer with a resistive load, showing equivalent fixed resistors for clarity. The potentiometer can be used as a voltage divider to obtain a manually adjustable output voltage at the slider (wiper) from a fixed input voltage applied across the two ends of the potentiometer. This is the most common use of them. The voltage across RL can be calculated by:

If RL is large compared to the other resistances (like the input to an operational amplifier), the output voltage can be approximated by the simpler equation:

(dividing throughout by RL and cancelling terms with RL as denominator) As an example, assume , , , and

Since the load resistance is large compared to the other resistances, the output voltage VL will be approximately:

Due to the load resistance, however, it will actually be slightly lower: 6.623 V. One of the advantages of the potential divider compared to a variable resistor in series with the source is that, while variable resistors have a maximum resistance where some current will always flow, dividers are able to vary the output voltage from maximum (VS) to ground (zero volts) as the wiper moves from one end of the potentiometer to the other. There is, however, always a small amount ofcontact resistance. In addition, the load resistance is often not known and therefore simply placing a variable resistor in series with the load could have a negligible effect or an excessive effect, depending on the load. [edit]Early patents

US patent 131,334, Thomas Edison, "Coiled resistance wire rheostat", issued 1872-9-17

Mary Hallock-Greenewalt invented a type of nonlinear rheostat for use in her visual-music instrument, the Sarabet (US patent 1,357,773)

[edit]See also

Potentiometric sensor Trimmer

[edit]References 1. ^ The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms (IEEE 100) (seventh edition ed.). Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE Press. 2000. ISBN 0-7381-2601-2. 2. ^ The word "rheostat" was coined by Sir Charles Wheatstone about 1845. Brian Bowers (ed.), Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS: 1802-1875, IET, 2001 ISBN 0852961030 pp.104-105 3. ^Membrane Potentiometer White Paper