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Control System Engineering - IsA Professional Engineering Licensing Exam Study Guide

The document discusses units and standards used for measurement as well as key parameters to consider for process instrumentation. It notes that the International System of Units (SI) is followed by most countries while the English system is used by few, including the USA. Several parameters that describe instrument performance are then defined, including accuracy, precision, range, sensitivity, offset, drift, hysteresis, resolution, repeatability, and linearity. Accuracy compares the indicated and actual values, precision specifies reading limits, and range is the lowest to highest measurable values.

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56 views2 pages

Control System Engineering - IsA Professional Engineering Licensing Exam Study Guide

The document discusses units and standards used for measurement as well as key parameters to consider for process instrumentation. It notes that the International System of Units (SI) is followed by most countries while the English system is used by few, including the USA. Several parameters that describe instrument performance are then defined, including accuracy, precision, range, sensitivity, offset, drift, hysteresis, resolution, repeatability, and linearity. Accuracy compares the indicated and actual values, precision specifies reading limits, and range is the lowest to highest measurable values.

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demon123abc
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Units and Standards

In order to avoid confusion and to obtain a consistent result, a set of units and standards have been
commonly followed by all countries. Each instrument used is given a separate symbol which
makes it easier for its identification and also for process control drawings. All the lists have been
developed by The Instrument Society of America (ISA) and is being used worldwide.

The units that are used for the measurement f different variables fall mainly under two categories.
One is the International system, SI (Systéme International D’Unités) and the other is the English
system. The problem is that the latter is followed by very few countries including USA, but the
former is followed by most of the other countries.

Parameters

There are some parameters that are to be checked during a process. They are all explained below.

 Accuracy – It is defined as the difference between the indicated value and the actual value.
The actual value may be a known standard and accuracy is obtained by comparing it with
the obtained value. If the difference is small accuracy is high and vice versa. Accuracy
depends on several other parameters like hysteresis, linearity, sensitivity, offset, drift and
so on. It is usually expressed as a percentage of span, percentage of reading or even absolute
value. The standard value is set by the government so as to maintain the standard.
 Reading accuracy is the deviation from true at the point the reading is being taken and is
expressed as a percentage. Absolute accuracy of an instrument is the deviation from true
as a number not as a percentage.
 Span – It can be defined as the range of an instrument from the minimum to maximum
scale value. In the case of a thermometer, its scale goes from −40°C to 100°C. Thus its
span is 140°C. As said before accuracy is defined as a percentage of span. It is actually a
deviation from true expressed as a percentage of the span.
 Precision – It may be defined as the limits within which a signal can be read. For example
if you consider an analog scale, which is set to graduate in divisions of 0.2 psi, the position
of the needle of the instrument could be estimated to be within 0.02 psi. Thus the precision
of the instrument is 0.02 psi.
 Range – It can be defined as the measure of the instrument between the lowest and highest
readings it can measure. A thermometer has a scale from −40°C to 100°C. Thus the range
varies from −40°C to 100°C.
 Reproducibility – It can be defined as the ability of an instrument to produce the same
output repeatedly after reading the same input repeatedly, under the same conditions.
 Sensitivity – It can also be called as the transfer function of a process. It is the ratio between
the change in the output of an instrument to the corresponding change in the measured
variable. For a good instrument or process, the sensitivity should always be high, thus
producing higher output amplitudes.
 Offset – Offset is the reading of an instrument with zero input.
 Drift – Drift is the change in the reading of an instrument of a fixed variable with time.
 Hysteresis – It can be defined as the different readings taken down when an instrument
approaches a signal from opposite directions. That is the corresponding value taken down
as the instrument moves from zero to midscale will be different from that between the
midscale and full scale reading. The reason is the appearance of stresses inside the
instrument material due to the change of its original shape between the zero reading and
the full scale reading.

Hysteresis

 Resolution – It is the smallest difference in a variable to which the instrument will respond.
 Repeatability – It is a measure of the closeness of agreement between a number of readings
(10 to 12) taken consecutively of a variable, before the variable has time to change. The
average reading is calculated and the spread in the value of the readings taken.
 Linearity – It can b defined as a measure of the proportionality between the actual values
of a variable being measured to the output of the instrument over its operating range.

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