Category Archive: Process Control

May
20

Surge Tank Control

Surge Tank Level Control

Intermediate liquid storage tanks (surge tanks) are commonly installed between processing areas of the plant. Under normal operating conditions, these storage buffers allow each process area to be operated independently of the other process areas. Any imbalance in the area production rates within a plant will be reflected by a change in level of the …

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May
13

Easy to Apply Tuning Rules

Tuning PI Controller

Older control systems may not include tools that allow the PID tuning to be automatically established. In such cases, the following procedure outlined in Chapter 12 of Control Loop Foundation – Batch and Continuous Processes may be quickly applied to determine the tuning of a self-regulating process for PI control. In Chapter 4 of Advanced …

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May
06

On-demand Tuning Example

On-Demand Tuning Example

Control system manufacturers have adopted different technologies to implement on-demand tuning. Because these tools are designed to work in a noisy process measurement environment, the tuning results are usually better than those achieved through manual tuning techniques. To illustrate the features that may be included in on-demand tuning capability, the on-demand tuning capability of the …

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Apr
29

Selecting Control Response

After the process characteristics are identified, the information is then used to calculate the recommended loop tuning. The tuning rules used to derive controller parameters from process characteristics can be chosen as appropriate for the specific process and the desired speed of response. As addressed in Chapter 4 of Advanced Control Foundtion – Tools, Techniques, …

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Apr
22

Capturing Process Dynamics

Structuring On-demand Tuning

When the on-demand tuning application resides in a DCS workstation, communications between the controller and the workstation can introduce variable delay and jitter in the observed process response. As addressed in Chapter 4 of Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques, and Applications, the process may be more accurately identified by distributing the on-demand tuning functionality …

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Apr
15

On-Demand Tuning

Self Regulating Response

During the commissioning of feedback control based on the PID algorithm, the PID tuning parameters (that is, the proportional, integral, and derivative gain) must be set to specific values to achieve the best controller response to setpoint and disturbance input changes. To minimize process variations and the response time to setpoint and disturbance input changes …

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Apr
09

Performance Monitoring Tools

Performance Monitoring Overview

Many control system manufacturers and third party companies now offer tools that are designed to monitor process control and instrumentation performance. In addition to providing on-line information that summarizes control utilization, the user may access other information that may be helpful in determining the cause of, and solution to, poor control utilization. In section 3.4 …

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Apr
01

Addressing Loop Interaction

Interactive Loop Example

In some cases, the manipulated parameter of one control loop can impact the controlled parameter of another control loop as illustrated below. To allow both loops to operate in automatic mode, loop interaction is most often addressed by simply detuning one of the control loops by reducing the proportional gain. The valve (or another final …

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Mar
25

Split Range Setup

Split Range Control

One of the most common ways of addressing multiple process inputs is split range control. A splitter block, which appears as one valve to the PID block, can be used in the control strategy to define a fixed relationship between the controller output and each manipulated process input. In Advanced Control Foundation – Tools, Techniques, …

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Mar
18

Impact of Changing Process Gain

non-linear valve characteristics

From a control perspective, it is highly desirable that the process gain is constant. If the process gain is constant, then the same proportional gain can be used over the entire operating range of the control loop. Using a control valve as an example, if the valve characteristic was not properly selected based on the …

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