‫‪Basics of Control Theory and Examples of Process Control Instrumentations and Applications‬‬

‫الجزء األول )‪ :Part(I‬إسم المقرر‪ -‬مكق ‪ 561‬التحكم األوتوماتيكى‪ -‬النظرية والتطبيق فى نظم القوى الميكانيكية‪:‬‬
‫محتوى وأھداف الجزء األول‪ :‬وص‪,‬ف وتعري‪,‬ف أن‪,‬واع نظ‪,‬م ال‪,‬تحكم‪ ،‬تحدي‪,‬د المكون‪,‬ات الميكانيكي‪,‬ة والھوائي‪,‬ة والھيدروليكي‪,‬ة والكھربائية‪،‬تحدي‪,‬د‬
‫طرق النمذجة ودالة التحويل‪،‬وصف النظام ذوالحلقة المغلقة‪،‬تحديداالستجابةالوقتية‪،‬تطبيقات وأمثلةعملية‪.‬‬

‫القياس عملية مھمة‬

‫وجوھريةبصفة عامة وللتحكم‬
‫اآللى خاصةً ويوجد مقررإجبارى‬
‫للقياسات بكل جوانبھا النظرية‬
‫والعملية الوحدة الثانية يتم‬
‫تغطيتھا مع المزيد من التفاصيل‬
‫فى مقررالقياسات ‪MEP 560‬‬

‫محتوى وأھداف الجزء الثانى )مكق ‪ 581‬موضوعات مختارة وتطبيقات عملية فى نظم التحكم(‪:‬‬
‫وصف إختباراالتزان واإلستقرار‪ .‬وصف تصميم نظم التحكم‪ ،‬وصف ودراسة وتحليل عناص‪,‬ر ال‪,‬تحكم ف‪,‬ى بع‪,‬ض التطبيق‪,‬ات ف‪,‬ي خط‪,‬وط‬
‫األنابيب واآلالت التوربينية ومعدات إنتقال الحرارة ونظم اإلحتراق‪....‬إلخ‬
About the Course: It provides valuable & essential information about basics of Automatic Control
Theory. We cover both theoretical & technical subjects. We discuss basic elements of practical control
systems, different control functions &relevant terminology, with emphasis on safety, stability, efficiency
&accuracy of control systems. PID controller is examined & discussed as example. This is essential for
newcomers to Control Theory. Real-life examples are included in this course which is prerequisite or
must be completed before attempting to study about more advanced Automatic control systems &DCS.

4 Dr. Mohsen Soliman

What is a control system or control process?
Control system is a process with some of its
parameters/variables are to be controlled
(i.e., Toilout). 1st, these variables have to be
measured by sensors. The sensors output
signals (usually electric) are to be sent to a
controller unit to do one or more control
actions based on some preset data along
with the measured output values. This ex.
is also called a cooling process control. On
fig., the controller unit may do the needed
control actions by controlling flow rate of
either water or oil by using variable flow
valves, or by changing the rpm of variable
speed pump or by both methods as nedded

What do we study in Process Control or Automatic Control Systems?

See the 2-pdf References:“Modern Control Engineering” & “Process Control Fundamentals”
6 Dr. Mohsen Soliman
7 Dr. Mohsen Soliman
8 Dr. Mohsen Soliman
OnOffController.mp4
Model Reference Adaptive Control
MRAC
‫نظرة عامة على كل أنواع وتقسيمات نظم التحكم‬

Example: control
problems in simple
elevator

Sub-control system versus Main control system ( Actual Industrial View): a heat
exchanger control system may be just a small part of a bigger group of processes which
might have many steps/operations before the hot oil comes to the heat exchanger. We
have sub-control system as part of main or general control system. In General, for any
process it might be divided into many sub-processes, each one of the sub-processes
performs a certain small operation or can also be divided into many sub-sub-process
Example2-Weighting Process: to weight a fixed amount Note that: most Hydraulic or Pneumatic
of material to use in next industrial step. The control systems are considered as sub-control sys
action is done by the weighting controller, when the and we study them as separate systems.
batch weight reaches the required value the controller
closes the upper feeding gate and opens the lower
discharging gate after starting the discharge belt.
Two Types of main Process control Operations
1-Parameter Control: is to control one parameter in a
process. This parameter can be directly measured as
pressure, temp,...Or can be calculated from others as
density, viscosity. In heat exchanger cooling process, we
just need to measure and control temperature of oil (Toilout)
2-Sequence Control: certain sequence of operations to be
done correctly. In the weighting process, the sequence in
operations: -Open the feeding valve; -Wait till the weight
reaches the required value; -Close the feeding gate; -Start
the discharge belt; -Open discharge valve; -Wait till weight
is zero; -Close discharge valve; -Stop discharge belt
Most of the complex industrial processes contain both operations, so in order to make efficient
automatic control there are ready made controllers for each type of operations. Using the ready made
controllers decrease the complexity of measuring or controlling single or multiple parts of the big
complex process.
Example: For measuring weights in industry there are Load Cells which use physical properties (like
tension or compression) to measure the weight, for each type of load cells it has its electronic controller
which directly deal and interface it and gives an electric signal corresponding to the measured weight.
So, here we haven’t to deal with the physical properties and its complexity and problems (like un-
stability, zero offset, accuracy, surrounding effects) and we only deal directly with an electrical signal.
 Computer Applications in Control Systems ‫إستخدام تطبيقات الحاسب اآللى فى التحكم‬

Software/programs
Note: Computer is also a
device for Input/output
signals (digital/analogue)

Automatic Control Using Computers: When using # of controller units we deal directly with electric
signals that have to be managed and controlled automatically. But, when we have a big process we also
get a lot of electric signals which we have to deal with correctly and efficiently. Correctly means to do
what is required from process to do. And Efficiently means to deal with other problems such as:
•What happen if a controller fails? What if we have an overload in the system? How to manage and
monitor all the process parts? So, Modern control architecture with PCs is built on the following:
1-Each part of the process has its own controller which has a program to fully control this part of the
process. This controller has output signals to control the elements (like motors, valves) and has input
signals to interface the sensors signals coming from the elements (like thermometer, potentiometer).
2-Then through connecting many controllers together with a PC by a network, the main PC can
manage the controllers (by sending set points for the controllers and the PC receives signals from the
controllers to monitor the status of each controller) ‫توزيع للكھرباء من أكثر من محطة‬/‫تحكم مركزى فى شبكة توليد‬:‫مثال‬
So, the PC can solve the problem of system overload by re-distributing the loads on the controllers, also
the PC can take advanced actions in case of controller failure or emergency conditions.
Also the PC can store large amount of information about the process in database and make statistical
calculations or charts which is useful for process enhancement.
Types of Controllers There are many types of controllers
but we are going to focus only on two of them.
1) PID Controller:
PID (Proportional Integral Differential) controller is
mainly used in Parameter Control. To do a control on a
parameter in a process we use the shown control loop.
Digital PID controller has software performs normal control equations but in a digital form. So to do
changes by this loop, the modern digital PID controller has to work with electrical digital signal

As we know that any process is in a physical analog mode, and the sensors supply very small signals
(voltage or current) so we need an electric interface circuit to convert the signal to the suitable electric
mode (voltage 0-10 V, current 4-20 mA), the sensor and the converter are called Transmitter.
Also, in order to drive physical outputs we need a converter to change the electrical signal to the
suitable physical action (like pressure, displacement, rotation, heat) and this converter is called
Actuator. But now, Most of industrial elements have their own Transmitter and Actuator. Example:
An electrically controlled valve has electric input signal (volt or current) to control the valve opening,
the percentage of opening corresponds to the electric signal.
How the PID controller works? Basic function
of controller is to execute algorithm on the
control engineer's input (tuning constants), the
operator desired operating value & current plant
process values. The basic process variables are:
Set Points (SP):The final or fixed value required
for certain parameter (e.g., required Toilout)
Manipulated Variables (MV):variables which we can change in process (e.g., oil & water flow)
Controlled Variables (CV) or Process Variables (PV): variables which need to control its values
(e.g, measured Toilout). In most cases, requirement for this controller is to act so that the PV is as
close as possible to SP (e.g., required Toilout). In a basic process control loop, the control engineer
utilizes PID algorithms to achieve this through changing the values of MV. The PID controller is
looking at is the difference between the PV and the SP. It looks at the absolute error and the rate
of change of error.
Overshooting versus Steady control: When there is a "process upset", meaning the process
variable or the setpoint quickly changes, the PID controller has to quickly change the output to
get the process variable back equal to the setpoint. If you have a room with a walk-in cooler
using a PID controller and someone opens the door and walks in, the temperature (process
variable) could rise very quickly. Therefore the PID controller has to increase the cooling
(output) to compensate for this rise in temperature.
Once the PID controller has the process variable equal to the setpoint, a good PID controller will
not vary the output. You want the output to be very steady (not changing). If the valve (motor or
other control element) is constantly changing, instead of maintaining a constant value, this could
cause more wear on the control element.
So there are these two contradictory goals. Fast response (fast change in output) when there is a
 2) Automatic Control Using PLC (Programmable Logic Controller)
A PLC is an industrial computer control system that continuously monitors the state of input devices
and makes decisions based upon a custom program, to control the state of devices connected as
outputs. Almost any production line, machine function or process can be automated using a PLC. The
speed and accuracy of the operation can be greatly enhanced using this type of control system.
A PLC consists of following main parts: Memory Unit: To store the program of the
process&any other setting of the PLC
CPU Unit: It executes the program stored
in memory
Power Supply Unit
It supplies the necessary power to feed
each part of the PLC with its needs
(voltage and current), also the power
supply unit regulates the electric AC
input voltage (110/220 ACV) and removes
any spikes in the signal to protect the
PLC from damage by higher voltage.
Also the power supply unit can supply
DC voltage (12/24 DCV) which can be
used for supplying other extension units
or modules.
Communication Unit
It is responsible of the communication between the PLC and the PC. Communication is needed to
program the PLC (stores the program written on the PC in the PLC memory), also communication can
be used to send or receive any data required by the user during operations (as set-point, monitoring
input/output states by the PC).
How PLC works: All PLCs have four basic stages of operations that are repeated
many times per second:
Self Test: Checks to see if all cards error free, reset watch-dog timer, etc. (A
watchdog timer will cause an error, and shut down the PLC if not reset within a
short period of time - this would indicate that the ladder logic is not being scanned
normally).
Input Scan: Reads input values from the chips in input cards, &copies their values
to memory. This makes the PLC operation faster, and avoids cases where an input
changes from the start to the end of the program (e.g., an emergency stop). There
are special PLC functions that read the inputs directly, and avoid the input tables.
Logic Solve/Scan: Based on the input table in memory, the program is executed 1
step at a time, and outputs are updated.
Output Scan
The output table is copied from memory to the output chips. These chips then
drive the output devices.
Note: All the successive four operations are called 1 Scan Cycle.
Open loop: output information about Controlled variable (i.e, temp of
liquid in tank) is not used to control/adjust any system inputs (liquid/
steam) in order to compensate for any variations in process variables.
How to Control: A prediction/guess is made about what the input (i.e.,
opening of the steam manual valve) should be to get a desired output.
This Prediction is based on some past experience or knowledge about
the system or is based on trial & error to get the desired output.
Examples:
1-Toasters: the quality of toast (i.e, the output) will vary with type of bread, initial temp. of toaster.
2-Automatic Washing Machine: the cleanliness of clothes depends on correct assessment of amount
of the soap & the used program or the length of used washing cycle & its temperature required.
Note: in both examples, we can not or do not measure exact values of the required output.
Disadvantage of Open loop: is frequently unsatisfactory because any unexpected
disturbance to the system inputs can cause large deviation in the desired output.
Advantages :Less expensive than closed loop; No need to measure actual results;
Controller is much simpler because corrective action based on error is not needed
Often human operator must do correction by slowly changing output disturbance
by manual adjustment. In this case, the operator is actually closing the loop by
providing both the output measurement, feedback signal and error comparison.
Closed loop: it uses information about a Controlled
variable(i.e, temp of liquid in tank)to control/adjust
system inputs(liquid/steam) in order to compensate for
any variations in the process output variable.
How to Control: a temperature sensor produces an
electric/pneumatic signal proportional to output temp.
Controller compares feedback signal to desired set point. If difference/error exists, controller sends signal to
control valve to change the size of valve opening to be appropriate to necessary temp. correction action
Example: Objective is control rudder position, and the
reference input is set by the steering wheel. Error bet.
Relative positions of wheel &the rudder is the signal that
actuates controller & the motor. If rudder is finally
aligned with desired reference direction, the output of
error sensor is zero. For step input R, 1st fig. shows
rudder position f(t) depending on system characteristics.

In general, 2nd fig. shows adequate

parameters used to describe a
time domain output or the
performance characteristics of 2nd
order closed loop control systems
as shall be discussed later.
‫)‪Sensors & Transducers (as part of control systems‬‬
‫القياس عمليةمھمةوجوھريةبصفة‬
‫ً‬
‫خاصةويوجد‬ ‫عامةوللتحكم اآللى‬
‫مقررإجبارى للقياسات بكل جوانبھا‬
‫النظريةوالعملية‪ -‬الوحدة الثانية يتم‬
‫تغطيتھا مع المزيد من التفاصيل‬
‫فى مقررالقياسات ‪MEP 560‬‬
‫يوجد ملف منفصل‬
‫لتقريرصفر متكامل‬