Thorough Approach to Measurement Uncertainty Analysis Applied to Immersed Heat Exchanger Testing

摘要

This paper discusses the value of an uncertainty analysis, discusses how to determine measurement uncertainty, and then details the sources of error in instrument calibration, data acquisition, and data reduction for a particular experiment. Methods are discussed to determine both the systematic (or bias) error in an experiment as well as to determine the random (or precision) error in the experiment. The detailed analysis is applied to two sets of conditions in measuring the effectiveness of an immersed coil heat exchanger. It shows the value of such analysis as well as an approach to reduce overall measurement uncertainty and to improve the experiment. This paper outlines how to perform an uncertainty analysis and then provides a detailed example of how to apply the methods discussed in the paper. The authors hope this paper will encourage researchers and others to become more concerned with their measurement processes and to report measurement uncertainty with all of their test results. (ERA citation 11:027187)