Instrumentation (and Process

Control
Process Control)
Fall 1393
Bonab University
Principles and Basic Definitions Process
Control

• A process = a set of interrelated tasks that, together, transform inputs into

outputs
• These tasks may be carried out by:
• people, nature, or machines using resources
• Engineering process must be considered in the context of the agents carrying
out the tasks, and the resource attributes involved

• Reference:
 1388 ‫ سید علی اکبر صفوی‬:‫اصول و روشهای کنترل صنعتی‬

• Start with an example: Oil refinery

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Example: Oil refinery Process
Control

• Crude oil (primary input) pumped to pre-heating

boiler (to boiling point)
• Sent to distillation column
• Final products are separated:
• Heavy fuel oil (Naphta)
• Gas oil, etc.
• Operational units:
• Oil Tanks
• Furnace/boiler
• Distillation/fractionating column

• Input material:
• Crude oil
• Fuel
• Air

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Control system duties Process
Control

• Basic principles:
• Safe operation
• Stabilizing production rate
• Output products quality
• Example:
• In crude oil distillation, rate and quality are
inter-related
• Main tasks of control system:
• Displaying status of process using variable
measurements
• Changing the process variables in order to
improve the conditions

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Overview of a process control problem: Part of Oil refinery Process
Control

• Consider the boiler part

• Solving the process control problem:
• Plant Engineer (PE) – Control Engineer (CE)
• They discuss  find the solution
• Fuel enters:
• Rate: Fi
• Temp: Ti (have fluctuation)
• Boiler output:
• Rate: Fo
• Temp: To
• Goal:
• Irrespective of crude oil condition and
fluctuations, output oil temp = T*
• Boilere temp max = Tm
• (fuel temp and fuel tank pressure is variable)
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Finding an effective solution Process
Control

• The 3 control objectives are evident:

• Safety
• Output product quality
• Product rate (different crude oils boiling
temp will be different)
• Finding the solution:
• Stepwise
• PE responsible for the whole process
• PE – CE discuss issues:

• Stage-1:introductory notes:
• CE: Goals?
• PE: Oil gets to column at T* (oil type changes
every 2-3 days  T* change) – also Tm
• CE: OK, so from 2 output parameters T is
defined by the column, and we care more about
Fo
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Finding an effective solution Process
Control

• PE: Yes
• CE: So, control goal = regulate output T, and since every 2-3 days set-point changes  servoing
as well?
• PE: Yes
• CE: What input variable is under your control?
• PE: Air flow, Fuel* flow
• CE: So, other inputs like crude oil flow & its temp are disturbances?
• PE:Yes
• CE: Is there another important process variable that I should know?
• PE: Yes, fuel tank pressure (Pt), the heat energy it brings to boiler (λf)
• CE: What instrumentation? What actuators are available?
• PE: Thermocouple (Ti, T); flowmeter (Fi, Qf), control valve on fuel, a pyrometer to measure
surface temp for boiler, and alarm

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Finding an effective solution - Stage-2: (modeling) Process
Control

• Stage-2: (modeling)
• CE: Do you have a model of the process?
• PE: No, but the operator knows the behavior well. We have tried Manual control  not very
satisfactory:
• The strip chart recorder shows a sample output temp
• This is response to step change in Fi
• Lots of oscillation around the set-point
• The control is not fast and accurate

• CE: Any idea why the problem exists?

• PE: we believe it’s
• human accuracy and speed limit
• Although a good prediction of disturbance input
• The same problem exist with other disturbances:
• Fuel pressure
• Fuel Temp.

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Stage-3: Control scheme Process
Control

• CE: Let’s start with a simple feedback loop:

• Measures output temp
• Controls fuel flow
• We’ll use a PID controller (with Td=0)

• The performance is shown

• Less oscillation
• Slower

• Stage-3: (Choice/evaluation of control

scheme)
• PE: Although the performance is a bit better than
Manual:
• For a long time the crude oil enters the boiler with
inappropriate temp.
• For a few hours output quality is affected

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Stage-3: Control scheme Process
Control

• CE: I think we can sense the disturbance

input :
• Proposing a feed-forward controller
• Counter-acting (reducing) its effect before
entering the process

• Figure shows the detail of the scheme

• Stage-4: (design of controller)

• CE: with this scheme:

• Good compensation at the beginning
• But since there is no sampling from output Temp:
• Gradually, an offset forms
• Seems that we can combine feedback
scheme with it
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Stage-4: controller design Process
Control

• Combined Feedforward & feedback

• The decision on what command to send to
the valve:
• Comes from TC & FC
• The performance is better than the previous
ones
• PE: there is still a problem:
• Oscillations in the output temp.
• Part of that may be due to fuel tank
pressure change
• CE: so, the controller sends the
command to the valve, but:
• Assumes the tank pressure is constant
• Pressure change  fuel flow changes
• Let’s put a controller on the fuel flow

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Stage-4: controller design Process
Control

• The final controller:

• With an inner-loop control
• The previous controller’s output:
• Is set-point for the inner-loop controller

• The gradual improvement in the schemes is

clear
• Compare performance from the simple
controllers

• Visualize a case (with tank pressure change)

• Input flow change  output temp change
• FFC has partly compensated the effect
• If still temperature in the output changes TC
compensates it
• Correct command is given to FC regardless
of pressure in the tank
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Process variables Process
Control

• Input variables
• Can independently affect the system
• Those who are readily available: control
variables
• Output variables
• Information about the inner states
• State variables
• The minimum variables that completely
define the inner states (detectors)
• Variables:
• Measureable online
• Non-measureable (at least not with enough
frequency, say chromatography)

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The hardware needed for the control system Process
Control

• Sensors
• Measuring elements: Temp, pressure, liquid
level, flow…
• Controllers
• System heart: the only intelligent element
• With hydraulic, pneumatic, electric signals
• Transmitters
• Sensors  to controller
• Controller 
• Final elements (actuators)
• The control command is applied to system with
these elements (valves, fans, pumps,…)
• Other hardware elements
• D/A, A/D
• Transforming signals (say, pneumatic)
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 Open-loop & Feed-forward schemes Process
Control

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Example: Complexity & Inter-dependency of variables Process
Control

• A Controlled Flow & Temperature system:

• D: Disturbance
• C: Cold
• H: Hot
• T: Temperature
• L: Level

• Cold Water (and its control loop)

• Adjusts level (and hence flow)
• But affects temperature as well

• Hot water (controller)

• Adjusts temperature
• But affects level as well

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A useful summarizing video Process
Control

• Loop tuning

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