Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2010
A common measurement model for a gas operated piston-cylinder based pressure standardeffective area is the well known integral equation formulation originally developed byDadson of the NPL. However a problem with directly applying this exact mathematical modelis that it cannot be easily cast into a functional form suitable for application of theGuide to the expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) which is reliant on theconcept of sensitivity coefficients without various simplifications. In this paper, weexamine the standard approximations that are currently necessary in order to directlyapply the GUM for a pressure standard effective area uncertainty determination. We alsocompare and contrast this to the exact effective area uncertainty results obtained throughthe direct application of the Monte Carlo Method (MCM) which has recently been publishedas Supplement 1 to the GUM. Based on these investigations we also draw some preliminaryconclusions on the relative merits on the extent to which the shape of the piston andcylinder radii and whose uncertainties may vary along the engagement length of thepiston-cylinder may be modeled and incorporated into a piston-cylinder’s effective areauncertainty calculation.