Design and metrological characterisation of different pressure balances using the finite-element method
Giorgio Buonanno, Marco Dell’Isola
The increasing interest in high-pressure primary standards has given rise in recent years to particular attention to the design and metrological characterisation of pressure balances. To this purpose several simplified and empirical methods are generally used but most of them are not applicable to complex units and they do not allow an optimum design of the unit. The present study is based on a finite-element method developed by the University of Cassino and the CNR-IMGC (Istituto di Metrologia ‘G Colonnetti’) of Turin. This method is applied to different kinds of pressure balances to underline its efficiency in metrological characterisation. Finally, the design problems regarding pressure balances are analysed with particular reference to the dimensional optimisation and to tolerance effects.