PSAS/ news/ 2004-05-01

Hybrid Meeting Minutes 05/1/04


In attendance: Peter Bold, Eric Hettinger, Maggie Emery, Brian O’Neel, Jim Ward

Topics Discussed:

We had scheduled to test the pressure transducers today and get the calibration curves for them. There were still a few things that needed to be finished before we could do that. These are:

  1. Write data capture routine in Labview.
  2. Finish last adapter piece to couple 1/4" NPT fitting to Dead Weight Tester.
  3. Build signal conditioning circuit for 4-20 mA current loop. (filter and voltage drop resistor).

Eric brought the modified plumbing so we attached the sensors to it and it all appears to be in working order the upstream and down stream pressure taps are located a great enough distance away from the flat plate orifice that the vena contracta of the flow should not influence the pressure.

We discussed moving to Labview software. Since last meeting we have outfitted a portable computer with the National Instruments PCI-1200 DAQ card and it is operating fine and should give us the flexibility we need to do adequate data capture and control for a liquid motor.

A power supply to excite the pressure transducers was located. It is a +/-12VDC power supply so it is fairly noisy but Tim has done the calculations for a filter that should remedy this.

The dead weight tester has been flushed of the hydraulic oil and replaced with deionized water so that we can pressurize the transducers with a safe fluid since they are going to be used in a pure oxygen environment.

We should be ready by next meeting to capture pressure vs. voltage curves which we will then curve fit to determine the characteristics of the individual sensors.

What Next:

The next hybrid meeting will be in two weeks.

Action Items:

Interesting links:

Pressure transducer installation