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HomeISAPublicationsInTechMagazine2014/NovDecAutomationBasics:Distillationcolumnlooptuning
Previouslooptuninghadresultedinexcessivemovementstothebottomsflowthatadversely MoreAutomationBasics
loadedthedownstreamcolumn.Thus,theoperatorsrantheleveltoflowcascadecontrolloopsin PropermotorprotectionwithIEC
manualandconstantlymanipulatedtheoutflowtomaintainthebottomslevelwithinthedesired versusNEMA
range.Ofcourse,asothermattersrequiredoperatorattention,thebottomslevelwoulddrift.When Controlvalvesanupdate
theoperatorintervenedfortherequiredcorrection,theresultantupsetofthecolumnsaffected
TheArtofinstrumentselection
productionrateandquality.
AnhourwithDoctorFlowmeter
Discussionswithoperatingpersonnelrevealedthattheytypicallyletthelevelfloatwithinacomfort Hybridtemperaturecontrollers
range,becausetheprocesswouldfluctuatebutnottothepointofconcern.Ifitlookedlikeanupor offermoreversatility
downtrendwasdeveloping,thenasmallbumpwasmadetotheoutletflow,andtheywaitedfor ThermocouplesversusRTDs
correction.Ifthedeviationfromsetpointbecamegreater,thenlargerbumpstotheoutflowwere SeeallAutomationBasics
performed,andtheyagainwaitedforcorrection.Whenaskedtoplacethelevel/flowincascade Articles
operatingmode,thelevelloopwouldtypicallyovercorrectandbegintocycle.Theoutletflowloop
wasconsideredtobeworkingwelleventhoughitwasmanipulatedinmanual.
ReaderFeedback
Theoperatorshadlearnedfromexperiencewhatappearedtobeanonlineargaincontrolstrategy. Wewanttohearfromyou!Please
Trustingtheirjudgment,wethenproceededtoverifythebasicsbeforeimplementingthestrategy. sendusyourcommentsand
questionsaboutthistopicto
InTechmagazine@isa.org.
Basics Loop tuning and performance
Plant walk through
Thefirststepforloopperformancebenchmarkingiswalkingthroughtheprocesstoinvestigatethe
typeandinstallationoftheprocessmeasurementandfinalcontrolelements.Then,returningtothe
controlroom,werecordedthedistributedcontrolsystem(DCS)controlstrategyandtuning.The
loopinspectiondataformswereusedtodocumenttheasfoundcontrol(figure1).The
measurementswereselectedwiththelatesttechnologiesandappearedtobeinstalledwithgood
practices.Thecontrolvalveswereahighperformancedesignandofferednoconstraintstopush
loopresponseifneeded.Theasfoundtuningparameterswerequestionableandtherefore
confirmedourprocessofverifyingbaselevelloopperformance.
Figure1.Loopinspectiondataforms
TheDCSconfigurationapplicationwastracedtoverifyatypicalleveltoflowcascadestrategyper
figure2.TheDCSalsohasseveralbuiltincascadeapplicationenhancementsthatweactivated.
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29/3/2015 AutomationBasics:DistillationcolumnlooptuningISA
Figure2.Bottomsleveltoflowcascadestrategy
Figure3.CollectinganalogdatafromFoundationfieldbusdevices
Withthetoolkitgatheringprocessdata,wecouldcollecttimeseriesshorttermdataandovernight
runsforlongertermdataandsawthedisturbancetothelevelandvariousoperatorresponses.The
loopbumptestingconfirmedthattheslaveflowloopwascapableofaggressivetuningwithgood
responseto0.5percentbumps(figure4).
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Figure4.Flowloopbumptest
Figure5.Nonlineargainalgorithm(NLG)
integratingprocesswithalongdeadtime.Thelevelcontrollerwasretunedwithincreasedgainand
veryslowreset.Withtherevisedtuning,thelevelcontrollerwasthenputinautomaticwiththeflow
loopincascade.Wemonitoredtheperformance.Theresultsshowedcyclingwasminimized,and
thesetpointwasmaintainedwithinthedesiredlimits.
However,thestandardproportional,integral,derivative(PID)leveltoflowcascademanipulatedthe
flowtomaintainthesetpointwiththesameresponseforsmalldeviations,aswellaslargerones.
Thisdegreeofflowchangetothedownstreammovementcauseddisturbancestothehighly
interactivedistillationprocess.
Theoperatormethodlookedlikeagoodexampleofthenonlineargaincontrolalgorithm(figure5).
Thistechniqueusesagaparoundthesetpointwheresmallgainisineffect.Thisisequivalentto
theoperatornotchangingtheoutletflowiftheleveliswithinhisorhercomfortzone.However,as
thePVSPerrorincreases,thegainisincreasedtomaketheappropriatecorrectionagain,asthe
operatorseesthatthelevelis,infact,headedtoaconstraint,thenadditionaloutletflowisusedto
correctthelevel.
TheDCShasabuiltinNLGfunctionthatcanbeenabledonthePIDalgorithm:
NL_MINMODisthegainappliedwhentheabsolutevalueoftheerrorislessthanNL_GAP.To
getdeadbandbehavior,setNL_MINMODto0.
NL_GAPisthecontrolgap.WhentheabsolutevalueoftheerrorislessthanNL_GAP,KNL=
NL_MINMOD.
NL_TBANDisthetransitionbandoverwhichKNLislinearlyadjustedasafunctionoferror.
NL_HYSTisahysteresisvalue.UntiltheabsolutevalueoftheerrorexceedsNL_GAP+
NL_HYST,KNL=NL_MINMOD.OncetheabsolutevalueoftheerrorhasexceededNL_GAP+
NL_HYST,theabsolutevalueoferrormustreturntoavaluelessthanNL_GAPbeforeKNL
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returnstoavalueofNL_MINMOD.IfNL_GAPis0,thenthevalueofNL_HYSThasnomeaning
(effectivelyassumedtobe0).
Wethenenabledthisfeatureandcollectedadditionaldata/observationsinordertotunethegap,
transitionband,minmod(gain),andhysteresis.Ingeneral,wetriedtomimictheoperatorsmethod
andaddasmootherimplementationoftheflowsetpointchanges.
Results
Placingthebottomslevelmastercontrollertoautomaticandtheslaveoutletflowcontrollerto
cascadewiththenonlineargainenabledandtuned,thelevelwasmaintainedwithacceptablelimits
aroundsetpointwhileminimizingtheflowtothedownstreamdistillationprocess.Recentfollowup
withtheplantsiteindicatedthattheloopsarestillinautomatic,allowingoperatorstospendtimein
moreproductiveefforts.
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