The project will create a primary pressure standard for the range up to 1.6 GPa. It will be realised as two pressure-measuring multipliers each consisting of a low and a high pressure piston-cylinder assembly. Stress-strain finite element analysis (FEA) will be performed in order to design the multipliers and a pressure generation system. Using FEA, the pressure distortion coefficient – the main parameter of high pressure balances - will be determined. Dimensional properties of the piston-cylinder assemblies, elastic constants of the materials and the pressure-dependent densities and viscosities of the liquids used as a pressure transmitting medium – the data required for the design of the pressure multipliers and their FEA analysis will be measured. Metrological characterization of the new pressure standards and validation of the theoretical results will be performed by cross-float experiments. Transfer pressure standards up to 1.5 GPa to be used in NMIs’ pressure comparisons or on-site calibrations will be developed on the basis of modern 1.5 GPa pressure transducers. To this purpose, different types of high pressure transducers will be tested to assess their drift, hysteresis, sensitivity, repeatability, long-term stability and load cycling effects. Results of this study will be provided to the transducers' manufacturers, with each manufacturer receiving the results for his transducer, enabling optimization of the transducers.
This project is part of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP, http://www.euramet.org/index.php?id=emrp); it is partly funded by the European Union on the basis of Decision No 912/2009/EC.