Fall 2014

GLE/CEE 330: Soil Mechanics

Instrumentation Laboratory

Purpose
To familiarize students with laboratory instrumentation, sensors, and calibration
techniques.

Write-up
These are individual laboratory reports due in one week from your lab session.
Briefly describe the objective of this laboratory, the tests performed, and testing
conditions. Include any problems or deviations you observed during the tests. In
addition include discussion points below.

Lab Activity
The goal of many mechanical laboratory tests is to measure the stress-strain
behavior of materials. Within soil mechanics, it is also important to know the water
pressure within the porous space, as that will change the effective stress within the
soil. In this lab session, we will calibrate three commonly used pieces of equipment
in soil mechanics laboratories and generate relationships between engineering units
and output from sensors and transducers.

Laboratory sensors and transducers are designed to sense changes in

displacement, strain, force or pressure and convert that measurement into a
voltage. Before these instruments can be effectively used, an operator must
calibrate the tool against known actions and units (i.e., displacement, strain, force
or pressure) and generate a relationship (or calibration curve) to translate the
output voltage into units the operator can understand. It is desirable that this curve
is linear. If readings are different during loading and unloading, this is referred to as
hysteresis of the sensor. Hysteresis will result in errors in the measurements;
however, a small amount of hysteresis is usually acceptable provided that the
potential error is understood and that zero readings are repeatable. Many tools can
be used with computerized data acquisition systems which incorporate the
calibration curve into the programming. The operator can therefore see the change
in engineering units with time on a computer monitor.
Load Cells (Figure 1)
Load cells are transducers that respond to an applied load by deforming and
converting that deformation into voltage output. Strains are sufficiently small such
that there is a linear relationship between load and deformation (i.e., elastic
modulus of steel), and a relationship between applied load and voltage can be
determined.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1: Typical load cells: (a) S-beam load cell, (b) Low profile load cell, and (c)
Compression-tension load cell (Source: www.omega.com).

Load cells are used in many soil mechanics tests where the force applied to a
sample needs to be measured. Over the course of this semester, a load cell will be
used in automatic consolidation, direct shear, and triaxial testing. In computer
controlled testing, load cells are also used in a feedback operation that monitors the
load being applied to the sample so a computer algorithm can ensure that the
system is applying the correct amount of force on the sample.

Load Cell Calibration Procedure:

1. First record a zero force measurement and determine units of output.
2. Using the weights provided, measure several different loads (more than five
loads) by placing the weights on the cell.
3. Record all necessary data.
4. Take measurements of the output voltage during loading and unloading, and
repeat the sequence (including three total zero readings).
Linear Variable Displacement Transformer (LVDT Figure 2)
LVDT measures the position in one dimension of an object in contact with the LVDT
shaft. LVDTs are constructed with a magnetic core attached to the shaft which has
coils surrounding the core. The coils within the LVDT generate a time-varying
magnetic field. As the shaft moves within the core of the LVDT, the magnitude of the
magnetic field changes which induces a current in a secondary coil. By measuring
the voltage generated in the secondary coil, a linear relationship between the
position of the shaft and voltage can be obtained. In many LVDTs, the shaft is spring
loaded and the measurement range is limited by the length of the shaft itself.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2: Typical LVDTs: (a) Spring Loaded LVDT, (b) Miniature LVDTs, and (c) Long
displacement LVDTs and peripheral electronics (Source: www.omega.com).

In soil mechanics laboratories, LVDTs are used to measure the deformation of

samples due to compression forces applied in consolidation, direct shear and triaxial
testing, as well as displacement of shear boxes during the direct shear test.

LVDT Procedure:
1. Record a zero measurement and determine units of output.
2. Depress the LVDT shaft to at least 10 different lengths and record the output.
3. Record all necessary data on provided data collection sheet.
4. Take measurements of the output voltage during loading and unloading, and
repeat the sequence (including three total zero readings).
Pressure Transducer (Figure 3)
Pressure transducers measure fluid pressure in a closed system by depressing a thin
metal membrane and recording the magnitude of the strain in the membrane as a
voltage. To calibrate the response, a pressure transducer is connected to a stand
pipe with a known height of water above the sensor. Then, as you increase or
decrease the height of water above the sensor and record the output voltage of the
pressure transducer, the calibration curve may be obtained.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3: Typical pressure transducers: (a) analog transducers, (b) low-cost pressure
transducers, and (c) pressure transducer with digital readout (Source:
www.omega.com).

Pressure transducers are used in several soil mechanics tests, including hydraulic
conductivity and triaxial tests. The information collected by pressure transducers
are vital to understanding undrained triaxial tests as pore pressures inside the
sample may increase or decrease depending on the initial effective stress condition
and the void ratio of the specimen.

Pressure Transducer Procedure:

1. Measure the distance from the base of the standpipe to the pressure
transducer.
2. Record a zero measurement and determine units of output.
3. Add water to the standpipe (at least 5 different heights) and record the
voltage output. Start with small additions of water and after each
 measurement add more water until the standpipe is almost full. Repeat the
(approximately) same measurements during draining of the standpipe.
4. Repeat steps 3 and 4 (including three total zero readings).

Caliper (Figure 4)
Even though calipers do not need calibration, they are precision instruments that
are commonly used in laboratory to measure dimension of bodies. In soil mechanics
laboratories, they are used to measure the dimensions of cells and samples and the
measurements are used in the calculation of the laboratory results. There are
different types of calipers, including calipers with dial and digital displays for which
the readout is obvious (Figures 4b and c).

(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 4: Typical calipesr: (a) vernier-scale analog caliper, (b) dial caliper, and (c)
digital caliper (Source: wikipedia.com & www.physics.smu.edu).

There is another type of caliper that uses both a primary and a secondary (Vernier)
scale to make precise and high resolution measurements of dimensions (Figures 4a
and 5). The scales are read as follow (Figure 5b): The zero marking in the secondary
scale indicates the coarse measurement in the primary scale, in the figure, that
value is 3 mm. To evaluate the decimals in the measurement, find the best
alignment between the indicators in the primary and secondary scales and read the
value the secondary scale (i.e., the decimals in the measurement). The value in the
figure is 0.58 mm. The complete measurement is 3.58 mm. Note that the
measurement resolution of the Vernier caliper in the example is 3.58 mm. The
Vernier caliper in your lab may have different resolution.

Primary scale (on

top)

Secondary scale (on bottom)

(a) (b)
Figure 5: Views of the primary and secondary (vernier) scales on a Vernier caliper
(Source: wikipedia).

Vernier Caliper Procedure:

1. Measure three times the diameter, height and thickness of the ring provided.
2. Compile all the measurement of all the students in your lab session.

3. Calculate the mean =

measi and standard deviation
N

=
( meas i )2
N 1
of all the measurements for the diameter, height and

thickness (N is the total number of measurements, meas i is each individual

measurement).
4. Comment on possible sources of error.

Memo/Discussion:
1. Calibration curves (plot engineering units on y-axis and voltage on x-axis) for
each sensor.
2. Develop linear correlations to estimate engineering units from output voltage.
3. What is the error of each transducer in terms of engineering units? Is this
acceptable?
4. What do you think the applicability of your calibration curves are for a
load/pressure/deformation that is 5 times the maximum value you recorded?
Is the error the same, smaller, or larger than that inferred from your
calibration?
5. What would be the value of standard deviation if there is no error in the
caliper measurements?
6. Include all sample calculations.
7. Remember to include your data collection sheet with your lab report!