Temperature measurement and control system for engineering education

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental system for temperature measurement and control very useful for engineering undergraduates to test their theoretical knowledge about sensors and transducers, electronic circuits and devices, measurement techniques, control systems etc. This temperature measurement and control system allows an intelligent temperature sensor programming and operating study and controls temperature using a programmable logic controller. The sensor programming involves choosing the temperature unit, output function and type, but also operating functions for switching outputs, temperature thresholds for both outputs, value domain of output current etc. The sensor functioning for various settings can be verified through the manually controlled voltage supply of the power resistor and the cooler. As an application of intelligent temperature sensor, an on-off temperature control system is implemented using a programmable logic controller. The experimental system presented in this paper has various benefits in engineering education: the students are able to work with a real temperature probe and an intelligent sensor and they can implement and test an on-off temperature control system.