CHE184-1P Process Dynamics and Control

2nd Quarter SY 2018-2019

On/Off Level Control of a Water Tank

Amador, Adrian M., Dela Cruz, Napoleon Christian E., Estanislao, Gabriel

Nicos B

School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

On/ Off control system is a temperature controller system that controls the heat of the process. When
the process variable is below the corresponding set point, the heat was turned on while if the process variable
is above the set point then the controller will turn the heat off. These controllers normally include a delay,
hysterisis and or a cycle time to reduce the cycling or "hunting" when the process variable is close to the set
point. In truth, they are closer to thermostats than controllers, because they do not balance heat loss with heat
gain at the desired value. The Water Tank Level Control System has two interactive systems that is being
considered, three-point control is carried out using a proposed algorithm. SCADA system or Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition System and software will be carried out to manage the water level control
system and to simulate the left and the right tanks.

Keywords: Controller, Level, Process Variable

I. Introduction control system is consist of actuators, sensors and

ON/OFF control is a type of control method
commonly applied to process control applications
such as liquid level control. It is the simplest and
often least expensive type of automatic process
control. ON/OFF control, or two-position control,
examines the value of a process variable and gives
an output that is either fully on (I00%) or fully off
(0%). There are no intermediate settings with
ON/OFF control.
controllers. The interface between the plant and the
controller requires actuators (control elements) to
provide control action where in this experiment
SCADA is used to gather data’s and control
instructions where they control a wide variety of
operations such as pipelines,chemical plants,
power plants, water management systems and
other industrial operation that can be harmful or
hazardous for the operator.

Process control is very essential in most of

the industrial processes such as: water purification
systems and nuclear power plants. Although, most
industrial problems such as: controlling the speed
of motor, or fluid level in a tank, or temperature of
the furnace are due to the installation of control
process when the control concepts had not been
properly understood.

A plant can either be managed by

controlling it manually or automatically, whereas a Figure 1. Relay-Based On/Off Controller
 II. Methodology

2.1) Equipment Utilized

The main equipment used in the

experiment was the EDIBON UCP Process Control
Systems Module it has a process module and a
control panel which was connected to a National
Instruments Acquisition board to a computer that
runs SCADA, which is the user interface for the
automated control of the UCP.

SCADA is used to gather data’s or send

control instructions to one or more distant facilities, Figure 3. Base Unit of the UCP
it allows to widely distribute process such as an oil
or gas field, pipeline system, or hydroelectric
2.2) Procedure
generating complex, to make set point changes on
distant process controllers, to open or close valves
Experiment 1 was in on/off level control
or switches, to monitor alarms, and to gather
mode, it was set up by having a level set point at
measurement information.
100mm under control 2 tab and on-off 1 tab. Then
the right tank labeled as AB-2 was turned on
having a tolerance of 3. The level sensor (SN-1) was
also turned on while the actuators such as
resistance, stirrer and left pump of the tank was
turned off. Finally, the solenoid valve AVS-1 and
AVS-2 was turned on leaving AVS-3 closed.

As the students started the experiment, they

noted what happened to the data’s gathered in
level sensor and flow sensor for five minutes with
10 seconds intervals and has observed that while
the level sensor data drops the flow sensor
increases from 0 to 0.81 with respect to time.

2.3) Treatment of Results

The obtained data of SN-1 on the

experiment was graphed with respect to time.

The graph that was generated was made

using the MS Excel.

Figure 2. EDIBON UCP Process Control Systems There are no equations used in this
Module experiment.
 III. Results and Discussion

In this experiment, level sensor values were

obtained from an interval of 10 seconds for the Based on the data gathered,
whole 5-minute run.
SN-1 vs Time
SN-1 SN-1 110
Time (s) Time (s)
(mm) (mm)
0 99 2:40 98 108
10 109 2:50 108
106
20 106 3:00 107

SN-1 (mm)
30 103 3:10 104 104
40 101 3:20 102
50 98 3:30 99 102
1:00 109 3:40 100
100
1:10 107 3:50 108
1:20 104 4:00 105 98
1:30 102 4:10 103
1:40 99 4:20 100 96
1:50 98 4:30 97 0 100 200 300 400

2:00 109 4:40 109 Time (s)

2:10 106 4:50 106
Graph 1. SN-1 vs Time
2:20 103 5:00 104
2:30 100
Table 1. Data obtained from the experiment
Graphing the data’s will result to Graph 1
that shows a rising of level starting from the
process variable and a falling of level when it
reaches the maximum level. For this experiment the
For this experiment the setpoint that the
recorded maximum level was 109 mm at the 10-
students used was 100 mm, at time 0 the level starts
second, 1 minute, 2 minutes and 4:40 marker while
rising as the temperature rises. But since there will
the minimum was at 4:30 marker which was 97
be a delay for heating up and for the expansion of
mm.
mercury therefore the change of level (increase or
decrease) will start as time passes by. Table 1
shows the cycle of the level in on-off control mode,
IV. Conclusion
it shows a pattern less data’s where the data for on-
off control should be alternating from high data
On-Off controller was a simple type of
and low data, this is caused by dead band where is
control where the output flow from the tank was
defined as the time delay that is happening during
managed and controlled by a solenoid-operated
the process.
valve. High and Low limit are positioned where if
the high limit was reached then the manipulated
variable was fully on then it continues to drop until
it reaches the lower limit and the cycle just
continues until it was turned off, the control circuit
maintains the level between the level limits where
the range was known to be the dead band or
neutral zone. On/ Off control system is necessary if
the dead band is too narrow that causes the control
element to frequently turn off that may cause
reduced life, therefor the system prevents frequent
oscillation and still controls the process variable
with acceptable limits. On-Off Controller is
observed to not be very accurate in maintaining the
set point that can be used only in places that is not
focusing on a very prompt control such as a
domestic overhead water tanks.

The flow rate from the tank should change

gradually to avoid upsetting downstream process
units therefor steady state mass balance should be
applied so the input and output stream will be
equal. These will be obtained if and only if the
liquid level is allowed or is freely rising or falling
with respect to the inlet flow disturbance.

V. References

[1] Essays, UK. (November 2013). Water Level

Control System Of The Tank Engineering Essay.
Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/engineering/
water-level-control-system-of-the-tank-
engineering-essay.php?vref=1

[2] R. N. Bateson, Introduction to Control System

Technology, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ,
1999, 6th Ed., pp. 304–307.

[3](Al-Najim, 2016)
http://www.spu.edu.sy/downloads/files/149596
5644_1111.pdf

[4] Sun, H., Yan, D., Li, B.: The Level Control of Three
Water Tanks Based on Self-Tuning Fuzzy-PID
Controller. Electrotechnical Application 25(8), 97–99
(2006).

[5]https://levelprocesscontrolsystem2.weebly.com
/relay-based-onoff-controller.html