Elastic distortions in simple piston-cylinder units at pressures up to 100 MPa

Abstract

Abstract The study of elastic distortions in piston-cylinder units of primary standards piston gauges is of importance for the improvement of pressure measurement accuracy. Preliminary work (GF. Molinar et al., 1989) on distortion calculations was carried out on a tungsten carbide (t.c.) piston-cylinder of 0.2 cm2 nominal effective area in the 100 MPa pressure range. The same calculations are now applied in the study of a similar piston-cylinder unit of hard steel (h.s.). The distortions on the outer surface of the cylinder are measured with strain gages and with a capacitance sensor. The calculated distortions, which can be also derived with other methods (G. Klingenberg 1989, R. Wisniewski et al. 1989), are compared with the experimental results obtained on the outer surface of the cylinder. The present two piston-cylinder units of h.s. and of t.c. were cross-floated up to 100 MPa and the ratio R = f(P) = Aeh.s./Aet.c. obtained experimentally is compared with the calculated.