Difference between revisions of "Pressure Sensors"

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'''Pressure Sensor''' measures pressure, typically of gases or liquids. Pressure is an expression of the force required to stop a fluid from expanding, and is usually stated in terms of force per unit area. A pressure sensor usually acts as a transducer; it generates a signal as a function of the pressure imposed. For the purposes of this article, such a signal is electrical.

There is also a category of pressure sensors that are designed to measure in a dynamic mode for capturing very high speed changes in pressure. Example applications for this type of sensor would be in the measuring of combustion pressure in an engine cylinder or in a gas turbine. These sensors are commonly manufactured out of piezoelectric materials such as quartz.

Some pressure sensors, such as those found in some traffic enforcement cameras, function in a binary (on/off) manner, i.e., when pressure is applied to a pressure sensor, the sensor acts to complete or break an electrical circuit. These types of sensors are also known as a pressure switch.

==Types of pressure measurements==

Pressure sensors can be classified in terms of pressure ranges they measure, temperature ranges of operation, and most importantly the type of pressure they measure. Pressure sensors are variously named according to their purpose, but the same technology may be used under different names.

===Absolute pressure sensor===

This sensor is similar to a gauge pressure sensor except that it measures pressure relative to some fixed pressure rather than the ambient atmospheric pressure .

==Pressure-sensing technology==

There are two basic categories of analog pressure sensors.

===Force collector types===  

Measures the flow of charged gas particles (ions) which varies due to density changes to measure pressure. Common examples are the Hot and Cold Cathode gauges.