Motivation and Terminology of Automatic Process Control
ABSTRACT: Automatic control systems enable us to operate our processes in a safe and profitable manner. Consider, as on this site, processes with streams comprised of gases, liquids, powders, slurries and melts. Control systems achieve this "safe and profitable" objective by continually measuring process variables such as temperature, pressure, level, flow and concentration - and taking actions such as opening valves, slowing down pumps and turning up heaters - all so that the measured process variables are maintained at operator specified set point values.
The Components of a Control Loop
ABSTRACT: A controller seeks to maintain the measured process variable (PV) at set point (SP) in spite of unmeasured disturbances (D). The major components of a control system include a sensor, a controller and a final control element. To design and implement a controller, we must:
Process Data, Dynamic Modeling and a Recipe for Profitable Control
ABSTRACT: It is best practice to follow a formal procedure or "recipe" when designing and tuning a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller. A recipe-based approach is the fastest method for moving a controller into operation. And perhaps most important, the performance of the controller will be superior to a controller tuned using a guess-and-test or trial-and-error method.
Sample Time Impacts Controller Performance
ABSTRACT: There are two sample times, T, used in process controller design and tuning.One is the control loop sample time that specifies how often the controller samples the measured process variable (PV) and then computes and transmits a new controller output (CO) signal. The other is...