An experimental method to dynamically test pressure sensors using a rupture disk

Abstract

The response time of a pressure sensor is required when it is used in control systems and in some measurement applications. It is often difficult to measure the response time of a pressure sensor since it is difficult to obtain changes in fluid pressure sufficient to characterize the sensor dynamic response. In this article we describe a relatively simple system for measuring or validating the response time of pressure sensors with fast dynamic response. The system consists of two chambers isolated by a graphite rupture disk, a device that fully and rapidly opens at a known rupture or break pressure. A pressure transient in the second chamber is initiated by slowly increasing the pressure in the first chamber until reaching the nominal break pressure of the rupture disk. Performance of the system was validated by comparing the rise time predicted by a theoretical model with the rise time of the pressure transient measured by a piezoelectric pressure transducer. The method was evaluated by comparing the response to the pressure transient of an optical based pressure transducer with the response of the reference piezoelectric pressure transducer. The time constant of the tested fiber optic pressure sensor was found using the method presented in this article to be 0.488 ms, which is close to the time constant of 0.455 ms measured by a comparison method.