Automatic Process Control

Dr. Eng. Mohamed Salaheldin

Automatic Process Control

 Lecture 9

Control Modes

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Control Modes

Control Modes
◦ On/Off Control
◦ PID Control

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 Two Basic Modes of Control

▪ Two State Control

On / Off – The valve is either fully open or fully close, with no intermediate
state

▪ Continuous Control
The valve can move between fully open or fully close, or be held at any
intermediate position

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On-Off Control

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On-Off Control
▪ The thermostat would have an upper switching point at 61 deg C and
a lower switching point at 59 deg C to prevent over rapid cycling
▪ This 2 deg C (± 1 deg C) is known as the switching differential
▪ Advantages
◦ Cheap
◦ Easy troubleshooting

▪ Disadvantages
◦ The process oscillates.
◦ A control valve is subjected to excessive wear
◦ No fixed operating point

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On-Off Switching Action

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Tank Temperature Versus Time

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Continuous Control (PID control)
▪ Often called Modulating or Regulatory Control
▪ There are three basic control actions
◦ Proportional (P)
◦ Integral (I)
◦ Derivative (D)
▪ Combinations are used such as P+I, P+D, P+I+D
▪ Integral and derivative actions are corrective
functions of a basic proportional control action

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Typical Control System
▪ The controller processes the error and is vital in producing the
desired response from the system
▪ The symbol x indicate a signal
▪ The most common controller for analog systems is PID

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Three Term Control (PID)
▪ Enable a system to respond with respect to time in the best possible
way.
▪ The system must respond to the error signal Xe such that the error is
reduced to zero as quickly as possible with no oscillation
▪ The three terms are Proportional, Integral, and Differential;
abbreviated to PID control

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 Proportional Control (P)
▪ The correcting element is adjusted In proportion to the change in the
measured value from the set point
▪ The controller output is directly proportional to the input (error signal)
▪ So G1 = Kp
▪ The constant Kp is the gain and this controls the basic response speed of the
system

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 P only Control
▪ Increasing the gain may produce overshoot and hunting when a sudden (step)
change is made to the input.
▪ A system will not always settle at the correct level when a step input is applied
▪ For example, for a unity feedback of load change, the system settles at a level
less than unity
▪ Increasing the gain K brings the response closer to unity but introduces a
damped oscillation
▪ This is where integral control action is needed.

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Example to describe P-Control

SP = B
Both valves open 50%
PV = B
Balanced System; inlet = outlet

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Manual valve fully closed
Level increased to A
Control valve closed
PV above SP but the system is stable
Manual valve fully opened
Level decreased to C
Control valve fully opened
PV below SP but the system is stable
 Proportional Band

A controller's proportional band (PB) is:

the range of input values that will result in the controller's output sending
the correcting element from one extreme to another

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The analogy illustrates:
▪ The control valve is moved in proportion to the error in the water
level from the set point
▪ The set point can only be maintained for one specific load condition
▪ Whilst stable control will be achieved between points A and C, any
load causing a difference in level to that of B will always provide an
offset

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Demonstrating the relationship between PB
and offset

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 Controller Gain (K)
▪ Gain can be defined as the ratio between change in
output and change in input
▪ By inspection it can be seen that a PB of 100% is the
same as a gain of one since change of input equals
change in output.
▪ PB is the reciprocal of gain, expressed as a percentage

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 Response Versus PB for P-Control
▪ Wide proportional
bands produce slow
response to changes in
input but give a quick
settling time
▪ Narrow bands produce
quick response but
longer settling time

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Controller Action
▪ A direct acting controller's output increases as the input signal
increases, whereas a reverse acting controller's output decreases as
the input signal increases.

Reverse Acting Controller Direct Acting Controller

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 Integral Control (I)
▪ To avoid offset error
▪ Some systems will respond to a step input by settling at a
different level of the step value
▪ This might be due to the way the system is designed or
due to a disturbance added to the output
With integral action, the input Q will grow with time until the system responds
and reduces the error to zero

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Integral Control
▪ Integral action is more commonly know as RESET; this
comes from its action of resetting the error between
the actual value and the desired value to zero
▪ In the Tank Level example If we wish to restore the
process to the setpoint we must increase the inflow
over and above that required to restore a mass
balance. The additional inflow must replace the lost
volume and then revert to a mass balance situation
to maintain the level at the setpoint

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Equation for Integral Control

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 PI-Control
▪ PI controllers are more commonly used because of the
control system performance requirements of no offset, an
unfortunate by-product of the addition of integral action is
an increased settling time

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 Differential Control (D)
▪ The output of the controller is directly proportional to rate of change of the
error
▪ In the case of a step change, the rate of change is greatest at the start of the
change and so the system will respond quickest in the early stages.
▪ As the error reduces, the rate of change of errors also reduces and the system is
slowed down in anticipation of arriving at the correct level.
▪ This form of control enables quicker response without overshoot.

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 Equation for Differential Control

▪ Most system controller will have adjustments which enable the constants Kp,
Ti, Td to be set in order to optimize the system response.
▪ They are set to produce the fastest response time possible with no overshoot

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PD-Control
▪ PD controllers are very rarely found due to the offset problem of
proportional controllers and the susceptibility of derivative action to
noisy flow signals

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PID-Control
▪ PID controllers are only required where tight control over the process
variable, such as in temperature systems, is essential.
▪ This control mode will give you the best in terms of stability, settling
time and removal of offset, but three term controllers are notoriously
difficult to set up correctly

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Example
▪ The input and output of a PID controller is related by the equation

▪ Find the value of the proportional gain, the integral time constant
and the differential tine constant.

Solution

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Control Mode Comparison
Mode Advantages Disadvantages

On-Off Simple, Inexpensive Constant cycling

P Does not add lag Always has offset

I Eliminates offset Adds time lag to

system
D Speeds up response Responds to noise

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