Pressure measurement


Pressure measurement is the measurement of an applied force per unit area by a fluid on a surface. Pressure is typically expressed in units of pascals in the International System of Units. Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressure and vacuum. Instruments used to measure and display pressure mechanically are called pressure gauges, 'vacuum gauges or compound gauges'. The widely used Bourdon gauge is a mechanical device, which both measures and indicates and is probably the best known type of gauge.
A vacuum gauge is used to measure pressures lower than the ambient atmospheric pressure, which is set as the zero point, in negative values. Most gauges measure pressure relative to atmospheric pressure as the zero point, so this form of reading is simply referred to as "gauge pressure". However, anything greater than total vacuum is technically a form of pressure. For very low pressures, a gauge that uses total vacuum as the zero point reference must be used, giving pressure reading as an absolute pressure.
Other methods of pressure measurement involve sensors that can transmit the pressure reading to a remote indicator or control system.

Absolute, gauge and differential pressures — zero reference

Everyday pressure measurements, such as for vehicle tire pressure, are usually made relative to ambient air pressure. In other cases measurements are made relative to a vacuum or to some other specific reference. When distinguishing between these zero references, the following terms are used:
  • ' is zero-referenced against a perfect vacuum, using an absolute scale, so it is equal to gauge pressure plus atmospheric pressure. Absolute pressure sensors are used in applications where a constant reference is required, like for example, high-performance industrial applications such as monitoring vacuum pumps, liquid pressure measurement, industrial packaging, industrial process control and aviation inspection.
  • ' is zero-referenced against ambient air pressure, so it is equal to absolute pressure minus atmospheric pressure. A tire pressure gauge is an example of gauge pressure measurement; when it indicates zero, then the pressure it is measuring is the same as the ambient pressure. Most sensors for measuring up to 50 bar are manufactured in this way, since otherwise the atmospheric pressure fluctuation is reflected as an error in the measurement result.
  • is the difference in pressure between two points. Differential pressure sensors are used to measure many properties, such as pressure drops across oil filters or air filters, fluid levels or flow rates. Technically speaking, most pressure sensors are really differential pressure sensors; for example a gauge pressure sensor is merely a differential pressure sensor in which one side is open to the ambient atmosphere. A DP cell is a device that measures the differential pressure between two inputs.
The zero reference in use is usually implied by context, and these words are added only when clarification is needed. Tire pressure and blood pressure are gauge pressures by convention, while atmospheric pressures, deep vacuum pressures, and altimeter pressures must be absolute.
For most working fluids where a fluid exists in a closed system, gauge pressure measurement prevails. Pressure instruments connected to the system will indicate pressures relative to the current atmospheric pressure. The situation changes when extreme vacuum pressures are measured, then absolute pressures are typically used instead and measuring instruments used will be different.
Differential pressures are commonly used in industrial process systems. Differential pressure gauges have two inlet ports, each connected to one of the volumes whose pressure is to be monitored. In effect, such a gauge performs the mathematical operation of subtraction through mechanical means, obviating the need for an operator or control system to watch two separate gauges and determine the difference in readings.
Moderate vacuum pressure readings can be ambiguous without the proper context, as they may represent absolute pressure or gauge pressure without a negative sign. Thus a vacuum of 26 inHg gauge is equivalent to an absolute pressure of 4 inHg, calculated as 30 inHg − 26 inHg.
Atmospheric pressure is typically about 100 kPa at sea level, but is variable with altitude and weather. If the absolute pressure of a fluid stays constant, the gauge pressure of the same fluid will vary as atmospheric pressure changes. For example, when a car drives up a mountain, the tire pressure goes up because atmospheric pressure goes down. The absolute pressure in the tire is essentially unchanged.
Using atmospheric pressure as reference is usually signified by a "g" for gauge after the pressure unit, e.g. 70 psig, which means that the pressure measured is the total pressure minus atmospheric pressure. There are two types of gauge reference pressure: vented gauge and sealed gauge.
A vented-gauge pressure transmitter, for example, allows the outside air pressure to be exposed to the negative side of the pressure-sensing diaphragm, through a vented cable or a hole on the side of the device, so that it always measures the pressure referred to ambient barometric pressure. Thus a vented-gauge reference pressure sensor should always read zero pressure when the process pressure connection is held open to the air.
A sealed gauge reference is very similar, except that atmospheric pressure is sealed on the negative side of the diaphragm. This is usually adopted on high pressure ranges, such as hydraulics, where atmospheric pressure changes will have a negligible effect on the accuracy of the reading, so venting is not necessary. This also allows some manufacturers to provide secondary pressure containment as an extra precaution for pressure equipment safety if the burst pressure of the primary pressure sensing diaphragm is exceeded.
There is another way of creating a sealed gauge reference, and this is to seal a high vacuum on the reverse side of the sensing diaphragm. Then the output signal is offset, so the pressure sensor reads close to zero when measuring atmospheric pressure.
A sealed gauge reference pressure transducer will never read exactly zero because atmospheric pressure is always changing and the reference in this case is fixed at 1 bar.
To produce an absolute pressure sensor, the manufacturer seals a high vacuum behind the sensing diaphragm. If the process-pressure connection of an absolute-pressure transmitter is open to the air, it will read the actual barometric pressure.
A sealed pressure sensor is similar to a gauge pressure sensor except that it measures pressure relative to some fixed pressure rather than the ambient atmospheric pressure.

History

For much of human history, the pressure of gases like air was ignored, denied, or taken for granted, but as early as the 6th century BC, Greek philosopher Anaximenes of Miletus claimed that all things are made of air that is simply changed by varying levels of pressure. He could observe water evaporating, changing to a gas, and felt that this applied even to solid matter. More condensed air made colder, heavier objects, and expanded air made lighter, hotter objects. This was akin to how gases really do become less dense when warmer, more dense when cooler.
In the 17th century, Evangelista Torricelli conducted experiments with mercury that allowed him to measure the presence of air. He would dip a glass tube, closed at one end, into a bowl of mercury and raise the closed end up out of it, keeping the open end submerged. The weight of the mercury would pull it down, leaving a partial vacuum at the far end. This validated his belief that air/gas has mass, creating pressure on things around it. Previously, the more popular conclusion, even for Galileo, was that air was weightless and it is vacuum that provided force, as in a siphon. The discovery helped bring Torricelli to the conclusion:
This test, known as Torricelli's experiment, was essentially the first documented pressure gauge.
Blaise Pascal went further, having his brother-in-law try the experiment at different altitudes on a mountain, and finding indeed that the farther down in the ocean of atmosphere, the higher the pressure.

Units

The SI unit for pressure is the pascal, equal to one newton per square metre. This special name for the unit was added in 1971; before that, pressure in SI was expressed in units such as N·m−2. When indicated, the zero reference is stated in parentheses following the unit, for example 101 kPa. The pound per square inch is still in widespread use in the US and Canada, for measuring, for instance, tire pressure. A letter is often appended to the psi unit to indicate the measurement's zero reference; psia for absolute, psig for gauge, psid for differential, although this practice is discouraged by the NIST.
Because pressure was once commonly measured by its ability to displace a column of liquid in a manometer, pressures are often expressed as a depth of a particular fluid. Manometric measurement is the subject of pressure head calculations. The most common choices for a manometer's fluid are mercury and water; water is nontoxic and readily available, while mercury's density allows for a shorter column to measure a given pressure. The abbreviation "W.C." or the words "water column" are often printed on gauges and measurements that use water for the manometer.
Fluid density and local gravity can vary from one reading to another depending on local factors, so the height of a fluid column does not define pressure precisely. So measurements in "millimetres of mercury" or "inches of mercury" can be converted to SI units as long as attention is paid to the local factors of fluid density and gravity. Temperature fluctuations change the value of fluid density, while location can affect gravity.
Although no longer preferred, these manometric units are still encountered in many fields. Blood pressure is measured in millimetres of mercury in most of the world, central venous pressure and lung pressures in centimeters of water are still common, as in settings for CPAP machines. Natural gas pipeline pressures are measured in inches of water, expressed as "inches W.C."
Underwater divers use manometric units: the ambient pressure is measured in units of metres sea water which is defined as equal to one tenth of a bar. The unit used in the US is the foot sea water, based on standard gravity and a sea-water density of 64 lb/ft3. According to the US Navy Diving Manual, one fsw equals 0.30643 msw,, or, though elsewhere it states that 33 fsw is , which gives one fsw equal to about 0.445 psi. The msw and fsw are the conventional units for measurement of diver pressure exposure used in decompression tables and the unit of calibration for pneumofathometers and hyperbaric chamber pressure gauges. Both msw and fsw are measured relative to normal atmospheric pressure.
In vacuum systems, the units torr, micron, and inch of mercury are most commonly used. Torr and micron usually indicates an absolute pressure, while inHg usually indicates a gauge pressure.
Atmospheric pressures are usually stated using hectopascal, kilopascal, millibar or atmospheres. In American and Canadian engineering, stress is often measured in kip. Stress is not a true pressure since it is not scalar. In the cgs system the unit of pressure was the barye, equal to 1 dyn·cm−2. In the mts system, the unit of pressure was the pieze, equal to 1 sthene per square metre.
Many other hybrid units are used such as mmHg/cm2 or grams-force/cm2. Using the names kilogram, gram, kilogram-force, or gram-force as a unit of force is prohibited in SI; the unit of force in SI is the newton.