Welcome

Process Control
Department of IAC, Lean Institute of Technology
Course: PGDIAC-1909
Instructor: Jamal Safdar
https://www.lit.leanautomation.com/Courses/PGDIAC

29/11/2019© Lean Institute of Technology BAT-01 PGDIAC-1909

What we’ll cover this morning

• Control Strategies

29/11/2019 © Lean Institute of Technology

PGDIAC-1909
Basic Control Concepts

INTRODUCTION

• This chapter introduces the basic concepts encountered

in Process Control.
• Some of the standard terminology is also presented
Different Types of Controls
Manual Control.
Automatic Control.
Types of Automatic Controls:
On-Off Control
Gap Control
Proportional Control
Capacity Control
Split Range Control
Cascade Control
Ratio Control

4
On-Off Control System

In this system, the final control element will close fully or

open fully even for small changes of the PV.
When the PV changes a little (pre-determined) from the
setpoint, the controller will either close or open fully the
final control element.
Gap control system also is On-Off control
 Level Control
By Pump On-off
Drain Vessel LC H
L ON-OFF CONTROLLER

Saver pit Level Controllers, Drain vessel Level Controllers

are examples.
High level make the contact to start the Pump.
Low level break the contact to stop the pump.
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Gap Control System
 In Gap control system the final control element will be
either fully open or in fully close position.
 When the level reaches 70% the valve opens fully, level
will start going down. When the level reaches 30%,
valve closes fully.
 Gap control system is used to control the level of oil in
the test separator. This is very useful in getting good
separation of oil and gas by increasing the retention
time in the separator at the period when the LCV is
closed
Gap Control System

SP-(30-70)
LT

LI
LC
LCV
8
 Gap Control System

70 %
Level

50%

30%

Time

9
Proportional Control
 In the proportional control system the output of the
controller will be proportional to the change in process
( Measured) variable.
 In the proportional control system, the response of the
controller depends upon the width of the proportional
band.
 If the proportional band is narrow, a small change in the
PV will change the output of the controller to maximum
or minimum. If the band is wide then the controller
output will change only for wider changes in the PV
 Compared with ON-Off system, this type gives a better
control on the process variable.

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Proportional-Speed Control
HIGH LEVEL
LOW SPEED
POWER

HIGH SPEED LOW LEVEL

VARIABLE SPEED FLOAT

MOTOR

M
Proportional-Speed Control
In the above example the motor speed varies in
proportion to the level variations. When the level goes
high the motor speed will be maximum and when the
level is low the motor speed will be minimum. The
motor is a variable speed motor

The controller is a proportional controller

 Discharge
Suction CAPACITY CONTROL
SYSTEM

(0-100) (100-0)
Speed
governor
LSS
Gas turbine
controls

suction
Recycle
valve
FR

Discharge
Gas cooler
compressor
Capacity Control System
In the above example two controllers - Suction pressure
controller and discharge pressure controller are there.
Suction controller range is 0 to 100, whereas Discharge
controller range is 100 to 0. Both the controller's output is
given to a Low Selector Switch (LSS). The LSS will select
the lower output signal controller. Output from the LSS is
given to the final control element - the Speed Governor
to control the speed of the machine. For example if the
suction pressure is below the set point, the output signal
of that controller will be low and the LSS will select it and
the speed will come down.
Capacity Control System

Or if the discharge pressure is above the set point, the

controller output signal will be lower and LSS will select
the discharge controller output and the speed of the
machine will come down. Like wise the capacity of the
machine is controlled for Low suction pressure, high
suction pressure, High discharge pressure and Low
discharge pressure.
Split Range
Scalar
Control System (0 -30)
(0-100)

Suction PC PRC-
01/1 Recycle valve
(30-80) control
(0-100)
(0 -100)
PRC-01/2
Turbine speed
PRC-01/3 control
(80 -100) (100-0)
PRC-01 Air to close
valve

Flare
Split Range Control System
A controller output controlling three different function
with three scalers is shown above.
PRC -01 is the L.P header pressure controller of a
station.
The output of the controller is splitted into three
ranges. 0 to 30 % is given to PRC -01/1, 30 to 80% is
given to PRC - 01/2 and 80 to 100 % to PRC - 01/3.
Scalar PRC-01/1 converts the input signal (0 - 30%) to 0
to 100% and goes to the station recycle valve.
Split Range Control System

When PRC-01 output is 30 or more the recycle will

close fully. When the PRC-01 output is 80% the Gas
Compressor speed will be 100%.
If the PRC-01 output is >80% the flare valve will start
opening and at 100% it will go full open.( Flare valve is
Air fail to open Valve).
Cascade Control System secondary
Primary

FRC

LRC
Output from
the master
controller

LI
 Cascade control systems uses two or more controllers,
interconnected in series to provide better control of a
process variable.
 When two different process variables are so related
that a change in one affects the control of the other,
cascade control is required to make a closer control.
 In the cascade control system the output of the primary
or major controller is taken as the setpoint of the
secondary controller.

20
 Primary controller should be on auto and the secondary
controller should be on cascade to operate like this.
 In the given situation, secondary variable setpoint is
adjusted from the deviation of primary variable (level),
and secondary control action results from a
combination of flow and level deviation.

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Gas & Liquid to Separator
Gas cooler

PT
TT

Slave (secondary)
motor
column

TRC
Master (primary)
PRC

Output from the primary controller

Gas & Liquid to Separator

Pressure of the column is controlled by increasing and

decreasing the outlet temperature of the cooler.
Cooler temperature is controlled by varying the speed of
the cooler fan motor.

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We have to control both pressure and temperature of the
above system.
Pressure control is the master ( primary )control and
temperature control is secondary control. The output of
the PRC is going as the input (setpoint) of the TRC
TRC is cascaded to PRC, as the pressure changes, the
output from the PRC also changes and the setpoint of TRC
also changes.

24
The output of the TRC is used to vary the speed of the
cooler fan motor.
Pressure is controlled by controlling the temperature.
Cascade control is used
1) when changes in process condition causes serious
upsets in controlled variable.
2) When process variable is slow to respond to process
disturbances

25
Modes of Control

Ratio Control
Ratio Control
FT-1

SETPOINT B = A/4
A

FT-2

B
BLENDING OF CHEMICALS “A”& “B”.
CONTINIOUSLY ADJUSTS THE FLOW OF “B”.
1 PART OF “B” FOR EVERY 4 PARTS OF “A”.
NO MATTER HOW “A” FLOW VARIES.
RATIO CONTROL IS TO MAINTAIN-
A PREDETERMINED RATIO BETWEEN- A+B
2 OR MORE PROCESS VARIABLES.
Modes of Control
RATIO CONTROL

 The simplest form of feed-forward control is ratio

control.
 It consists simply of establishing a ratio between two
flows.
 The next slide shows an example of ratio control
between the steam and process flows of a steam
heater. In this example, the process flow is the
disturbance or “wild” flow, and the steam is the
manipulated flow.
Modes of Control
RATIO CONTROL

 The steam flow controller takes care of the control

valve’s non-linearity as well as variations in the
pressure drop across the control valve.
 By maintaining a constant ratio when the operator or
another controller changes the process flow, the outlet
process temperature is kept constant, as long as the
steam latent heat and process inlet temperature
remain constant.
Modes of Control
RATIO CONTROL
 Some engineers prefer to calculate the ratio by dividing
the manipulated flow by the wild flow and then
controlling the ratio with a feedback controller.
 This alternative has the advantage of displaying the ratio
directly but at the expense of creating a very nonlinear
feedback control loop. Notice that the gain of the
feedback loop in the example is inversely proportional to
the wild flow, which is the major disturbance.
 The ratio controllers in some computer and distributed
control systems (DCS) display the calculated ratio but do
not use it for control. Instead, the output is calculated by
multiplying the input or wild flow by the ratio set point.
Modes of Control
RATIO CONTROL

RATIO CONTROL BY FEEDBACK CONTROL OF THE CALCULATED RATIO

Modes of Control

Cascade Control
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL

A TYPICAL CASCADE CONTROL LOOP CONTROL

Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL

Cascade control can be defined as follows:

• Downstream or Secondary Controller, whose set-

point is driven by another controller’s output
• Upstream controller or Primary Controller, whose
output drives the set-point of a secondary controller
• Sometimes referred to as Master and Slave
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL
Feed Heater Control –Single Loop Control

 Controller output drives fuel valve position

independently of fuel flow pressure.
 Fuel flow pressure changes create disturbance on
outlet temperature.
 Add another control loop to keep fuel flow constant
under varying pressure.
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL

TWO CONTROLLER BASIC CASCADE CONTROL

Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL

Principles

 Second loop (Flow-FC) is introduced to monitor and

control the fuel flow.
 The Primary TC loop now drives Set Point of this
controller (drives true flow and not valve position)
 Output of FC now drives fuel valve position
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL
Advantages
 Any disturbances which affect the slave variable are
detected and compensated for by the slave controller
before they have time to affect the primary control
variable.
 The controllability of the outside loop is improved
because the inside loop speeds up the response of the
process’s dynamic elements between the control valve
and slave variable.
 Non-linearity of the process in the inner loop is handled
by that loop and removed from the more important
outer loop.
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL
Disadvantages

 More instrumentation is required therefore application

must be justified to gain the advantages already
listed.
 Inner loop must respond faster than the outer loop
otherwise advantages will not be achieved.
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL
Disadvantages

 If inner loop is not faster then three problems will be

experienced:
1. Disturbances in the inner loop will not be eliminated
quickly enough.
2. Speeding up the inner loop results in a decrease in
controllability.
3. Non-linearity would become a problem.
Modes of Control
CASCADE CONTROL

BLOCK DIAGRAM
Modes of Control

Application Examples
Modes of Control
FLOW CONTROL
 Flow control is the simplest and most common of the
feedback control loops. The schematic diagram of a flow
control loop in the following slide shows that there are no
lags between the control valve that causes the flow to
change and the flow sensor/transmitter (FT) that
measures the flow.
 Since most types of flow sensors (orifice, venturi, flow
tubes, magnetic flow-meters, turbine meters, Coriolis,
etc.) are very fast, the only significant lag in the flow
loop is the control valve actuator.
 Most actuators have time constants on the order of a few
seconds.
Modes of Control
FLOW CONTROL

A TYPICAL FLOW LOOP

Modes of Control
FLOW CONTROL

Several controller theories suggest that the controller for

a very fast loop should contain only integral mode.
IN PRACTICE, FLOW CONTROLLERS HAVE TRADITIONALLY
BEEN PI CONTROLLERS TUNED WITH LOW PROPORTIONAL
GAINS AND VERY FAST INTEGRAL TIMES, ON THE ORDER OF
A FEW SECONDS, WHICH ARE ESSENTIALLY PURE INTEGRAL
CONTROLLERS.
Modes of Control
FLOW CONTROL
 This traditional approach is acceptable when flow is
controlled so as to maintain a constant rate with few
manual changes in flow set point. However, when the
flow controller is the slave in a cascade control
scheme, it is important for the flow to respond quickly
to set point changes.
 This requires a proportional-integral controller that
has a gain near unity. To maintain stability, this
controller may require an increase in the integral time
from the few seconds normally used in flow
controllers.
Modes of Control
LEVEL & PRESSURE CONTROL

A TYPICAL LEVEL LOOP

Modes of Control
LEVEL & PRESSURE CONTROL

A TYPICAL PRESSURE LOOP

Modes of Control
LEVEL & PRESSURE CONTROL
Some notes which should be taken into account when
applying a PI controller in level loops:
 The level and the flow that is manipulated to control
the level oscillate with a long period of oscillation.
Sometimes the period is so long that the oscillation is
imperceptible, unless it is trended over a very long
time.
 The period of oscillation becomes shorter as the
integral time shortens.
 The level loop is unstable when the integral time is
equal to or shorter than the time constant of the
control valve.
Modes of Control
LEVEL & PRESSURE CONTROL

These characteristics lead to the following general rules

for tuning PI controllers for average level control:
 Set the integral time to sixty minutes or longer.
 Set the proportional gain to at least 1.0%C.O./%T.O.
Modes of Control
LEVEL & PRESSURE CONTROL
 There are intermediate situations that do not require a
very tight level control but where it is nevertheless
important to ensure that the level does not swing through
the full range of the transmitter as in averaging level
control.
 A typical example would be a blending tank, where the
level controls the tank volume and therefore the
residence time for blending.
 If a ±5 percent variation in residence time is acceptable,
a proportional controller with a gain of 5 to 10, or even
lower, could be used, as the flow would not be expected
to vary over the full range of the control valve capacity.
Modes of Control
TEMPERATURE CONTROL

 Temperature controllers are usually proportional-

integral-derivative (PID).
 The derivative mode is required to compensate for the
lag in the temperature sensor, which is usually
significant.
Modes of Control
TEMPERATURE CONTROL

 Temperature is the variable most often controlled.

 When the temperature controller manipulates the flow
of steam or fuel to a heater or furnace, the rate of
heat is proportional to the flow of steam or fuel.
 This is because the heat of condensation of the steam
and the heating value of the fuel remain approximately
constant with load.
Modes of Control

TEMPERATURE CONTROL OF A HEAT EXCHANGER

End of this
Section