Republic of the Philippines

Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology

Cabanatuan City




DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING





EXPERIMENT NO. 11
CALIBRATION OF PRESSURE MEASURING DEVICE



Objective
1. To familiarize ourselves with the different type of pressure measuring instrument.
2. To be able to calibrate a pressure measuring device using dead weight gage tester.

List of Apparatus:
1. Bourdon dead weight gage tester.
2. Set of standard weight
3. Oil sample

Procedure:
1. Loosen the screw of the hand wheel and the valve of the oil reservoir.
2. Fill up the oil reservoir up to its proper level using oil sample.
3. To eliminate or remove the air trapped inside the oil cylinder, open the drain valve slowly tighten
the hand wheel so that the oil and the air will spill out through the drain cock.
4. Close drain valve.
5. Twist the rotating plunger to minimize the friction.
6. For trial I slowly tighten the hand wheel until the platform rises to approx.. 1 cm.
7. Record the gage reading.
8. For the succeeding trials, add weights one after the other with the increment provided in the data
sheet.
9. After the trials have been made, get the percent difference between the equivalent standard
pressure and gage reading.

Set-up of Apparatus:

Bourdon gage tester

Final data sheet:
Trial
STD press
(kg/kg^)
Equip.
Press.
(psi)
Gage
Reading
(PSI)
Differences Percent Error












Discussion:

Higher pressures are commonly measured by balancing the pressure against the resistance of a metal spring.
Deflection then becomes a measure of pressure, but of course this device must be calibrated.

In the bourdon gage the spring is flattened tube, bent to form a circular arc. When subjected to internal
pressure source. And the free end is sealed and connected to a multiplying and indicating mechanism, from
which the pressure is read. The common pressure ranges for full scale readings of bourdon gage are 15 to
10,000psi, but higher ranges are also available. Vacuum gages of the same type are calibrated in the inches of
mercury , and compound gages are marked in pounds per square inc above atmosphere and inches of mercury
below atmosphere.

By using a loner flattened tube a helical spring gage is produced. The greater deflection of such a gage is
convenient for driving the pen of dial chart recorder and for low pressure gages.


For moderate pressure, the bourdon tube is made of steel. Pressure gages should be calibrated on a
deadweight testing advice. It is a well known principle that when a straight piece of tubing into this shape, the
strides come nearer together making the tube a very flattened oval. If one end of such a tube is closed and
fluid pressure applied inside, the force pressuring the elastic will have a tendency to enlarge the radius of
curvature, thus moving the end of tube to certain pt. by connecting a suitable mechanism to end of tube, you
can determine the pressure applied. This kind of instrument is known as the Bourdon pressure gage tube

The dead weight tester offers a good calibration facility over a wide pressure range apart from calibration
against accurately measured heads of liquids of known density, the tester consist of a piston operating in an
oil filled cylinder of known bore and carrying accurately known weights. The gage under test is attached to the
tester and the required pressure is applied by a screw is applied by a screw piston or ram until the weights are
the spun to reduce friction effects.

Pressure measurements are normally made in terms of absolute gauge, vacuum or differential pressure. These
terms refer to the reference point against which the measurement is made. Absolute pressure is reffered to us
absolute zero, gage and vacuum take atmospheric pressure as the reference point: differential pressure is the
difference between two pressures which are themselves unknown or irrelevant.