Industrial Control Chapter 1

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INDUSTRIAL CONTROL
(A B.Sc. Course)

Control Engineering Group

School of Engineering
Shiraz University

A Summary of The Course

Lectured By: Dr. Ali Akbar Safavi

Winter 1384

Please note: This is only a summary of the material discussed during the lectures. Reading the
reference books and/or attending lectures are essential for understanding the material.

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Course Outline for Industrial Control

* Introduction
* Industrial Processes:
- Liquid Level Systems
- Thermal Systems
- Others
* Linearization of Non-Linear Systems
* Empirical Process Modelling
-First Order Plus Time Delay
- Higher Orders
- Others
- System Identification
* Classical Controllers and Tuning
- On-Off Switches
- PID Controllers
- PID Tuning
-ZN
- ISE
- Others
*Various Types of Controllers
- Electronic
- Pneumatic
- Hydraulic
* More Advanced Control Loops
- Feedforward Control
- Feedforward/Feedback
- Cascade Control
- Delay Compensator
- Decoupling Control
* Industrial Control Platforms
- On-Off Switches
- Industrial PIDs
- PLC
- DCS
- Fieldbus

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References for Industrial Control

1. Process Dynamics, Modeling, and Control (1994)

By: B.A. Ogaunnaike & W.H. Ray (Oxford University Press)
2. Modern Control Engineering, Fourth Edition (2002)
By: K. Ogata
(‫ ﻣﻬﻨﺪس ﺳﺒﺰ ﭘﻮﺷﺎن )اﻧﺘﺸﺎرات داﻧﺸﮕﺎﻩ ﻋﻠﻢ و ﺻﻨﻌﺖ اﻳﺮان‬: ‫ ( ﺗﺎﻟﻴﻒ‬1379) ‫ اﺻﻮل و اﺟﺰاء ﮐﻨﺘﺮل ﺻﻨﻌﺘﯽ‬. 3.
(‫ دﮐﺘﺮ ﻋﻠﯽ ﻋﻴﺴﯽ ﭘﻮر )اﻧﺘﺸﺎرات ﺑﺮق ﻣﻨﻄﻘﻪ اﯼ ﺗﻬﺮان‬:‫ ( ﺗﺎﻟﻴﻒ‬1379) ‫ ﮐﻨﺘﺮل ﺻﻨﻌﺘﯽ‬.4.

Please note: English translation (in Farsi) of these references may be available, but we strongly
recommend using the English versions.

Some Internet Resources

The ECOSSE Control HyperCourse (UK)

http://eweb.chemeng.ed.ac.uk/courses/control/course/map/intro.html

Resource Center for

Engineering Laboratories on the Web (USA)
http://chem.engr.utc.edu

Virtual Control Lab (Germany)

http://www.esr.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/VCLab/main.html

MIT Open courses (USA):

For general (e.e.)
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/index,html

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Control is a vital part of almost all types of industries, from chemical industries to power
industries, or from food industries to aerospace industries.

Though the control problems could be different in these industries, the formulation of the
problem and the methodologies applied to them are very much similar. A true understanding of
the control concepts, however, is essential in order to apply the available control techniques to
various applications.

Furthermore, there may always be some close relation between the subject of control and some
other subjects such as modeling, optimisation, etc., so that a reasonable understanding of such
subjects may also be esential for a control study.

In what follows, an industrially oriented example of a typical chemical process control problem
will extensively be introduced. Through this example various industrial control concepts are
briefly reviewed. Almost all aspects of this process control example can be extended to other
types of control problems.

1.1. AN INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE OF A TYPICAL CONTROL PROBLEM

The primary objective of a process industry is to combine processing units, such as reactors,
distillation columns, extractors, heat exchangers, etc., integrated in a rational fashion into a
process in order to transform raw materials and inut energy into finished products. Such a
concept is illustrated in Figure 1.1.

For control study, we define a plant or a process to be any single processing unit, or
combinations of processing unites, used for conversion of raw materials into finished products.

Figure 1.1.: A process.

A good example of these ideas is the crude oil fractionation section of a typical oil refinary as
shown in Figure 1.2. Here the crude oil as the raw material is pumped from some tanks
through the gas-fired preheater furnace, into the fractionator, where separation into such useful
products and high boiling resedue take palce. In this example,
• The processing units are the storage tanks, the furnace, and the fractionator, along with their
respective auxiliary equipment.
• The raw material is basically the crude oil; the air and fuel gas fed into the furnace provide
the energy input realized via firing in the furnace.

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• The condensation of lighter material at the top of the fractionator, effected by the cooling
unit, constitutes energy output.
• The finished products are the naptha and the residue streams from the top and bottom, and
the gas oil streams from the mid-sections.

Figure 1.2. The upstream end of an oil refinery.

1.2 The Basic Principles of Operation

In operation of the processing units of a plant various objectives are usually considered. The
following are examples of such objectives in a broad sense.
1. It is desirable to operate the processing units safely. This is to say that no unit should be
operated at, or near conditions which make the operation unsafe for the equipment itself or
for the people around it. In our example, some operating constraints mandated by safety are
that the temperature of the furnace tubes and the pressure of the fractionation unit should not
exceed their limits.
2. Specified production rates must be maintained. The amount of product output required of a
plant in time is usually dictated by market requirements. Thus the output should be carefully
maintained in the required amount.
3. Product quality specifications must be maintained. Product not meeting the required quality
specifications must either be discarded as waste, or, where possible, reprocessed at extra
cost. The need for economic utilization of resources therefore provides the motivation to
satisfy product quality specifications.

For the process shown in Figure 1.2, some operating constraints mandated by safety
would be that the furnace tubes should not exceed their metallurgical temperature limit
and the fractionation unit should not exceed its pressure rating.

The issues of maintaining production rates and product quality are linked for this
process. The products available from crude oil are determined by their boiling points, as
shown in Figure 1.3. Thus a lighter crude oil feed could produce more naptha and light gas
oil, while a heavier crude oil would produce more heavy gas oil and high boiling residue.

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Figure 1.3. Crude oil boiling point curve illustrating the product distribution of a light
crude oil and a heavy crude oil.

Hence, the production rate possible for each of the products depends on the particular crude
oil being fractionated and the quality specifications (usually a maximum boiling point for
each fraction above the bottom).

Thus by shifting the maximum boiling point upwards for a product such as naptha or gas
oil, one could produce more of it, but it would have a lower quality (i.e., more high-boiling
materials

Now, the processes are , by nature, dynamic, by which we mean that their variables are always
changing with time. It is clear, therefore, that to achieve the above noted objectives, there is the
need to monitor, and be able to induce change in, those key process variable that are related to
safety, production rate, and product quality.
This dual task of:

1. Monitoring certain process condition indicator variables, and,

2. Inducing changes in the appropriate process variables in order to improve
process conditions

is the job of the control system. To achieve good designs for these control systems one
must embark on the study of a new field, defined as follows:

.•Process Dynamics and Control is that aspect of engineering concerned with the analysis,
design, and implementation of control systems that facilitate the achievement of
specified objectives of process safety, production rates, and product quality.

1.3 AN INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE OF A TYPICAL PROCESS CONTROL PROBLEM

The next phase of our presentation of introductory concepts involves the definition of
certain terms that are routinely used in connection with various components of a process,
and an introduction to the concept of a process control system. This will be done in next
sub-sections.

To motivate the discussion, however, let us first examine atypical industrial control
problem, and present what may well be a typical attempt to solve such problems, by
following a simulated discussion between a plant engineer (PE) and a control engineer (CE).

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As industrial systems go, this particular example is deliberately chosen to be simple, yet
possessing enough important problematic features to capture the essence of control
applications in the process industry. This allows us to focus on the essentials and avoid
getting bogged down with complex details that may only be distracting at this point.

1.3.1 The Problem

The process unit under consideration is the furnace in Figure 1.2 used to preheat the crude
oil feed material to the fractionator. A more detailed schematic diagram is shown in
Figure 1.4. Such units are typically found in refineries and petrochemical plants.

Figure 1.4. Crude oil preheater furnace.

The crude oil flowrate F and temperature Ti; at the inlet of the furnace tend to
fluctuate substantially. The flowrate and temperature of the crude oil at the outlet of the
furnace are, respectively, F0 and T.

It is desired to deliver the crude oil feed to the fractionator at a constant temperature
T*, regardless of the conditions at the furnace inlet. For plant safety reasons, and
because of metallurgical limits, it is mandatory that the furnace tube temperature not
exceed the value Tm.

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The heat content of the heating fuel, as well as the fuel supply pressure, are also known to
vary because of disturbances in the fuel gas coming from a different processing unit in the
refinery complex.
The furnace control problem may be summarized as follows:

Deliver crude oil feed to the fractionator at a constant temperature T*, and flowrate F0,
regardless of all the factors potentially capable of causing the furnace outlet temperature T
to deviate from this desired value, making sure that the temperature of the tube surfaces
within the furnace does not, at any time, exceed the value Tm.
Observe the presence of the three objectives related to safety, product quality, and production
rate, namely: furnace temperature limit Tm, the required target temperature T*, for the furnace
"product", and the crude oil throughput F0, respectively.
1.3.2 Evolving Effective Solutions
The various phases in the evolution of an acceptable solution to typical industrial control
problems are illustrated by the following dialogue between a plant engineer (PE), charged with
the responsibility of smooth operation of the plant (in this case, the furnace), and the control
engineer (CE), who is responsible for assisting in providing solutions to control-related
process operation problems.
Phase 1

CE: What are your operating objectives?

PE: We would like to deliver the crude oil to the fractionation unit downstream at a
constant target temperature T* . The value of this set-point is usually determined
by the crude oil type, and desired refinery throughput; it therefore changes every
2-3 days. Also, we have an upper limit constraint (Tm) on how high the furnace tube
temperatures can get.
CE: So, of your two process outputs, Fo, and T, the former is set externally by the fractionator,
while the latter is the one you are concerned about controlling?
PE: Yes.
CE: Your control objective is therefore to regulate the process output T as well as deal with
the servo problem of set-point changes every 2-3 days?
PE: Yes.
CE: Of your input variables which ones do you really have control over?
PE: Only the air flowrate, and the fuel flowrate; and even then, we usually preset the air
flowrate and change only the fuel flowrate when necessary. Our main control variable is the air-
to-fuel ratio.
CE: The other input variables, the crude oil feed rate F, and inlet temperature Tt, are
therefore disturbances'?
PE: Yes.
CE: Any other process variables of importance that I should know of?
PE: Yes, the fuel supply pressure Pf, and the fuel's heat content /lf; they vary
significantly, and we don't have any control over these variations. They are also
disturbances.

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CE: What sort of instrumentation do you have for data acquisition and control action
implementation ?
PE: We have thermocouples for measuring the temperatures T and 7"; ,- flow meters for easuring
F, QF • and a control valve on the fuel line. We have an optical
pyrometer installed for monitoring the furnace tube temperature. An alarm is
tripped if the temperature gets within a few degrees of the upper limit constraint.
Phase 2

CE: Do you have a process model available for this furnace?

PE: No; but there's an operator who understands the process behavior quite well. We have
tried running the process on manual (control) using this operator, but the results weren't
acceptable. The record shown below, taken off the outlet temperature strip-chart recorder,
is fairly representative. This is the response to a step increase in the inlet feedrate F. (See
Figure 1.5).
CE: Do you have an idea of what might be responsible?
PE: Yes. We think it has to do with basic human limitations; his anticipation of the effect of
the feed disturbance is ingenious, but imperfect, and he just couldn't react fast enough, or
accurately enough, to the influence of the additional disturbance effects of variations in
fuel supply pressure and heat content.

Figure 1.5. System performance under manual control.

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CE: Let's start with a simple feedback system then. Let's install a temperature controller that
uses measurements of the furnace outlet temperature T to adjust the fuel flowrate QF
accordingly [Figure 1.6(a)]. We will use a PID controller with these controller parameter
values to start with (proportional band = 70%, reset rate = 2 repeats/min, derivative time = 0).
Feel free to retune the controller if necessary. Let's discuss the results as soon as you are ready.

Phase 3
PE: The performance of the feedback system [see Figure 1.6(b)], even though better than with
manual control, is still not acceptable; too much low-temperature feed is sent to the
fractionator during the first few hours following each throughput increase.
CE: (After a little thought) What is needed is a means by which we can change fuel flow the
instant we detect a change in the feed flowrate. Try this feedforward control strategy by
itself first (Figure 1.7); augment this with feedback only if you find it necessary (Figure
1.8(a)).

Phase 4
PE: With the feedforward strategy by itself, there was the definite advantage of quickly
compensating for the effect of the disturbance, at least initially. The main problem was the
nonavailability of the furnace outlet temperature measurement to the controller, with the
result that we had offsets. Since we can't afford the persistent offset, we had to activate the
feedback system. As expected the addition of feedback rectified this problem (Figure 1.8(b)).
PE: We have one major problem left: the furnace outlet temperature still fluctuates,
sometimes rather unacceptably, whenever we observe variations in the fuel delivery
pressure. In addition, we are pretty sure that the variations in the fuel's heat content
contributes to these fluctuations, but we have no easy way of quantitatively monitoring
these heat content variations. At this point, however, they don't seem to be as significant as
supply pressure variations.
CE: Let's focus on the problem caused by the variations in fuel supply pressure. It is easy to
see why this should be a problem. The controller can only adjust the valve on the fuel line;
and even though we expect that specific valve positions should correspond to specific
fuel flowrates, this will be so only if the delivery pressure is constant. Any fluctuations in
delivery pressure means that the controller will not get the fuel flowrate it asks for.
We must install an additional loop to ensure that the temperature controller gets the
actual flowrate change it demands; a mere change in valve position will not ensure this.
We will install a flow controller in between the temperature controller and the control
valve on the fuel line. The task of this inner loop controller will be to ensure that the fuel
flowrate demanded by the temperature controller is actually delivered to the furnace
regardless of supply pressure variations. The addition of this cascade control system
should work well. (See Figure 1.9 for the final control system and its performance.)

Having overheard the successful design and installation of a control system, let
us now continue with our introduction to the basic concepts and terminology of
process control.

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Figure 1.6. The feedback control system.

Figure 1.7. The feedforward control system.

Figure 1.8. The feedforward/feedback control system.

Figure 1.9. The final control system (feedforward/feedback-plus-cascade).

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1.3 VARIABLES OF A PROCESS

The state of affairs within, or in the immediate environment of, a typical processing unit is
usually indicated by such quantities as temperature, flowrates in and out of containing
vessels, pressure, composition, etc. These are referred to as the variables of the process, or
process variables. Recall that in our discussion of the furnace control problem we
frequently referred to such variables as these.
It is customary to classify these variables according to whether they simply provide
information about process conditions, or whether they are capable of influencing process
conditions. On the first level, therefore, there are two categories of process variables: input
and output variables.

Input variables are those that independently stimulate the system and can thereby induce
change in the internal conditions of the process.

Output variables are those by which one obtains information about the internal state of the
process.
It is appropriate at this point to introduce what is called a sate variable and distinguish it
from an output variable. State variables are generally recognized as :
That minimum set of variables essential for completely describing the internal state (or
condition) of a process.
The state variables are therefore the true indicators of the internal state of the process
system. The actual manifestation of these internal states by measurement is what yields
an output.
Thus the output variable is, in actual fact, some measurement either of a single state
variable or a combination of state variables.

On a second level, it is possible to further classify i n p ut variables as follows:

1. Those input variables that are at our disposal to manipulate freely as we choose
are called manipulated (or control) variables.
2. Those over which we have no control (i.e., those whose values we are in no
position to decide at will) are called disturbance variables.
Finally, we must note that some process variables (output as well as input variables) are
directly available for measurement while some are not. Those process variables whose
values are made available by direct on-line measurement are classified as measured
variables; the others are called unmeasured variables, (see Figure 1.10.)

Although output variables are defined as measurements, it is possible that some outputs are
not measured on-line, but require infrequent samples to be taken to the laboratory for analysis.
Thus for control system design these are usually considered unmeasured output in the sense that
the measurements are not available frequently enough for control purposes.

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Figure 1.10. The variables of a process.

1.4 THE CONCEPT OF A PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM

As earlier noted, the dynamic (i.e., ever changing) nature of processes makes it
imperative that we have some means of effectively monitoring, and inducing change in
the process variables of interest.

In a typical process, the process control system is the entity that is charged with the
responsibility for monitoring outputs, making decisions about how best to manipulate
inputs so as to obtain desired ouput behaviour, and effectively implementing such
decisions on the process.

It is therefore convenient to break down the responsibility of the control system

into the following three major tasks:

• Monitoring process output variables by measurement

• Making rational decisions regarding what corrective action is needed on the basis of
the information about the current and desired state of the process.
• Effectively implementing these decisions on the process.
When these tasks are carried out manually by a human operator we have a manual
control system; on the other hand, a control system in which these tasks are carried out in
an automatic fashion by a machine is known as an automatic control system; in
particular, when the machine involved is a computer,, we have a computer control
system.

With the possible exception of the manual control system, all other control systems require
certain hardware elements for carrying out each of the above itemized tasks. Let us
now introduce these hardware elements, reserving a more detailed discussion of the
principles and practice of control system implementation to next chapters.

1.4.1 Control System Hardware Elements

The hardware elements required for the realization of the control system's tasks of
measurement, decision making, and corrective action implementation typically fall into the
following categories: sensors, controllers, transmitters, and final control elements.
Sensors
The first task, that of acquiring information about the status of the process output
variables, is carried out by sensor (also called measuring device or primary elements). In

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most process control applications, the sensors are usually needed for pressure,
temperature, liquid level, flow, and composition measurements. Typical
examples are: thermocouples (for temperature measurements), differential
pressure cells (for liquid level measurements), gas/liquid chromatographs (for
composition measurements), etc.
Controllers
The decision maker, and hence the "heart" of the control system, is the controller; it
is the hardware element with "built-in" capacity for performing the only task requiring
some form of "intelligence."
The controller hardware may be pneumatic in nature (in which case it operates on
air signals), or it may be electronic (in which case, it operates on electrical signals).
Electronic controllers are more common in more modern industrial process control
applications.
The pneumatic and electronic controllers are limited to fairly simple operations
which we shall have to discuss more fully later. When more complex control
operations are required, the digital computer is usually used as a controller.
Transmitters
How process information acquired by the sensor gets to the controller, and the
controller decision gets back to the process, is the responsibility of devices known as
transmitters. Measurement and control signals may be transmitted as air pressure
signals, or as electrical signals. Pneumatic transmitters are required for the former, and
electrical ones for the latter.
Final Control Elements
Final control elements (or actuators) have the task of actually implementing, on the
process, the control command issued by the controller. Most final control elements are
control valves (usually pneumatic, i.e., they are air-driven), and they occur in various
shapes, sizes, and have several modes of specific operation. Some other examples of
final control elements include: variable speed fans, pumps, and compressors; conveyors;
and relay switches.
Other Hardware Elements
In transmitting information back and forth between the process and the controller,
the need to convert one type of signal to another type is often unavoidable. For
example, it will be necessary to convert the electrical signal from an electronic
controller to a pneumatic signal needed to operate a control valve. The devices used for
such signal transformations are called transducers, and various types are available for
various signal transformations.

Also, for computer control applications, it is necessary to have devices known as

analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters. This is because while
the rest of the control system operates on analog signals (electric voltage or pneumatic
pressure), the computer operates digitally, giving out, and receiving, only binary
numbers. A/D converters make the process information available in recognizable form
to the computer, while the D/A converters make the computer commands accessible to
the process.

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1.4.2 Control System Configuration

Depending primarily upon the structure of the decision-making process in relation
to the information-gathering and decision-implementation ends, a process control
system can be configured in several different ways. Let us introduce some of the most
common configurations.

Feedback Control
The control system illustrated in Figure 1.12 operates by feeding process output
information back to the controller. Decisions based on such “fed back” information are
then implemented on the process. This is known as a feedback control structure, and it
is one of the simplest, and by f a r the most common, control structures employed in
process control. It was introduced for the furnace example in Figure 1.6(a).

Figure 1.12. The feedback control configuration.

Figure 1.13. The feedforward control configuration.

It is important to point out the intuitively appealing nature of this control structure.
Observe that it makes use of current information about the output of the process to
determine what action to take in regulating process behavior.. We must note, however,
that with such a structure, the effect of any disturbance entering the, process must first
be registered by the process as an upset in its output before corrective control action can
be taken; i.e., controller decisions are 'taken "after the fact."

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Feed forward Control

In Figure 1.13 we have a situation in which it is information about an incoming
disturbance that gets directly communicated to the controller instead of actual system
output information. With this configuration, the controller decision is taken before the
process is affected by the incoming disturbance. This is the feedforward control
structure (compare with Figure 1.12) since the controller decision is based on
information that is being "fed forward." As we shall see later, feedforward control has
proved indispensable in dealing with certain process control problems.
The main feature of the feedforward configuration is the choice of measuring the
disturbance variable rather than the output variable that we desire to regulate. The
potential advantage of this strategy has already been noted. Further reflection on this
strategy will, however, also reveal a potential drawback: the controller has no
information about the conditions existing at the process output, the actual process
variable we are concerned about regulating.
Thus the controller detects the entrance of disturbances and before the process is
upset attempts to compensate for their effects somehow (typically based on an
imperfect process model); however, the controller is unable to determine the accuracy
of this compensation, since this strategy does not call for a measurement of the process
output. This is often a significant disadvantage as was noted before.

Open-Loop Control

When, as shown in Figure 1.14, the controller decision is not based upon any
measurement information gathered from any part of the process, but upon some sort of
internally generated strategy, we have an open-loop control structure. This is because
the controller makes decisions without the advantage of information that "closes the
loop" between the output and input variables of the process, as is the case with the
feedback control configuration (see Figure 1.12.) This loop is "open." However, this
does not necessarily constitute a handicap.

Figure 1.14. The open loop control configuration.

Perhaps the most common example of an open-loop control system can be found in in
the simple timing device used for some traffic lights. Regardless of the volume of traffic, the
timer is set such that the period of time for which the light remains green, yellow, or red is
predetermined. We shall study these and other control system structures in greater detail
later.

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1.4.3 Some Additional Control System Terminology

Important process variables that have been selected to receive the attention of the control
system typically have target values at which they are required to be maintained. These target
values are called set-points. Maintaining these process variables at their prescribed set-
points is, of course, the main objective of the process control system, be it manual or
automatic. However, output variables deviate from their set-points:

1. Either as a result of the effect of disturbances, or

2. Because the set-point itself has changed.
We have regulatory control when the control system's task is solely that of counteracting
the effect of disturbances in order to maintain the output at its set-point (as was the case in
the furnace example of Section 1.2). When the objective is to cause the output to track the
changing set-point, we have servo control (see Figure 1.15).

Figure 1.15. Possible process responses under (a) servo; (b) regulatory control.

1.5 OVERVIEW OF CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN

The design of effective control systems is the main objective of the process control
engineer. The following is an overview of the steps involved in successfully carrying out
the task of control system design.

1.5.1 General Principles

1.5.2
Step 1. Assess the process and define control objectives. The issues to be resolved in this
step include the following:
1. Why is there a need for control?
2. Can the problem be solved only by control, or is there another alternative (such
as redesigning part of the process)?
3. What do we expect the control system to achieve?

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Step 2. Select the process variables to be used in achieving the control objectives
articulated in Step 1.

Here we must answer the following questions:

1. Which output variables are crucial and therefore must be measured in order to
facilitate efficient monitoring of process conditions?
2. Which disturbances are most serious? Which ones can be measured?
3. Which input variables can be manipulated for effective regulation of the process?
Step 3. Select control structure.
What control configuration is chosen depends on the nature of the control problem posed
by the process system. The usual alternatives are: Feedback, Feedforward, Open Loop,
and others which we shall discuss later.

Step 4. Design controller.

This step can be carried out to varying degrees of sophistication, but it essentially
involves the following:

Obtain a control law by which, given information about the process (current and past
outputs, past inputs and disturbances, and sometimes even future predictions of the
system output), a control decision is determined which the controller implements by
adjusting the appropriate manipulated variables accordingly.

The process control engineer requires a thorough understanding of the process itself as
well as a proper understanding of the principles of Process Dynamics and Control in order
to accomplish these steps to a successful control system design.

Some Concluding Remarks

In order not to encourage an unduly false, and simplistice, view of process control
problems on the basis of the some simple illustrative examples, the following is just a
sample of some typical complications one would normally expect to encounter in
practice.

1. Nonlinearities
The process model equations we have dealt with have been linear, and thus easy to
analyze. This is not always the case.

2. Modeling Errors
With the exception of the most trivial process, it is impossible for a mathematical model
to represent exactly all aspects of process behavior. This fact notwithstanding, however,
the usefulness of the mathematical model should not be underestimated; we just need to
keep its limitations in proper perspective. The effectiveness of any control system
designed on the basis of a process model will, of course, depend on the integrity of such a
model in representing the process.

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3. Other Implementation Problems

The simple illustrative examples are strictly trivial processes.
Observe that were we dealing with a thermal system, in which liquid streams at different
temperatures are moved around in the pipes, or if our system were to involve mixing
streams of different liquid compositions, then the situation would be different. To effect
temperature, or composition, changes by moving such liquids around, we must now
consider the fact that the time it takes to flow from one point to the other within a pipe can
quite often be so significant as to introduce a delay in the system's response to the effect of
control action. As we will see later, the influence of such delays can become a most serious
consideration in the design of a control system.

Even when a control system is impeccably designed, perfect implementations may be

limited by, among other things, such factors as imperfect measurements, inaccurate
transmission, or control valve inertia (leading to inaccurate valve actuation), factors that
by and large are unavoidable in practice.
4. Complicated Process Structure

In many processes, the variables involved are usually more numerous, and their
interrelationships more complicated. It is in fact not unusual to have to deal with an
integration of severeal such processes. Nevertheless, the knowledge gained from
investigating simple processes can be gainfully applied to the more complicated
versions, sometimes with only minimal, quite often obvious, additional considerations,
and sometimes with considerable modifications that may not be immediately obvious.
Figure 1.16 shows a typical example.

Figure 1.16. Dual liquid level and temperature control system.

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 Industrial Control Chapter 1
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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What are the three broad objectives on which the basic guiding principles of process
operation are based?
2. Based on the guiding principles in operating a chemical process, can you guess why
pneumatic controllers, actuators, and transmitters can be found in many plants?
3. What are the main concerns of Process Dynamics and Control as a subject matter
within the process engineering discipline?
4. What is the difference between the input and the output variables of a process?
5. What is a state variable? How are they related to output variables?
6. How can you distinguish a manipulated (control) variable from a disturbance
variable?
7. What are the three main responsibilities of the control system? Assign to each of
these responsibilities the hardware elements required for carrying out the indicated tasks.
8. Differentiate between a manual and an automatic control system.
9. What makes an automatic control system a computer control system?
10. What are transducers used for?
11. What differentiates a feedback control system configuration from the feedforward
configuration?
12. What is unique about the open-loop control system configuration?
13. Differentiate between a servo control problem and a regulatory control problem.
Can you guess which will be more common in a plant in which the processes operate
predominantly in the neighborhood of steady-state conditions for long periods of time?

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