Introduction to the fundamental principles associated with measurement and instrumentation. General instrument characteristics, calibration, measurement uncertainty, error specification and propagation, transient characteristics.
Analysis of measurement systems to include: Temperature - thermocouples, thermistors, platinum resistance thermometers. Flow - Velocity measurement, pitot tube, hot wire anemometer. Volumetric measurement, obstruction flowmeters, rotometer, flowmeters. Strain. Force & pressure. load Cells, pressure gauges (mechanical and electronic).
Signal conditioning, electrical signals, transducer circuits, signal transportation. Signal processing. Data acquisition sampling, multiplexing, analogue to digital conversion, scaling up.
Data analytics and data science principles applied to engineering design, manufacturing and process data, i.e. statistical process data analysis for quality control, process data visualisation and validation, hypothesis testing and confidence internals, analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression analysis, model building and factorial experimental design & data analysis.
Laboratory activities include: (i) Instrument calibration, (ii) Error propagation analysis, (iii) data acquisition systems, and (iv) design of experiments incorporating data analysis. During laboratory activities students will work in small teams to complete these experimental activities where teamwork and collaboration is encouraged. All laboratory activities are carried out with due regard to the School's Health and Safety protocols. Students should follow these during all laboratory activities, including wearing a laboratory coat, and relevant PPE when required. Further information is available at https://intranet.ucd.ie/smme/index.html.
There is no specified course text, but a number of texts are recommended as supplementary reading:
Measurement Systems. Doebelin. 6th Ed. ISBN: 978-0070699687 (2011).
Experimental Methods for Engineers. Holman. 8th Ed. ISBN: 978-0073529301 (2011).
Mechanical Measurements. Bechwith. 6th Ed. ISBN: 0201847655 (2006).
Theory and Design for Mechanical Measurements. Figliola. 7th Ed. ISBN: 978-1-119-47565-1 (2019).
Principles of Measurement Systems. Bentley. 4th Ed. ISBN: 0130430285 (2005).
Measurement and Data Analysis for Engineering and Science. Dunn. 4Ed. ISBN: 9781138050860 (2017)