LECTURE

INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL

BASIC CONTROL PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTION

Control of the processes in the plant is an essential part of the plant operation.

Example: Power Plant

There must be enough water in the boilers to act as a heat sink for the reactor
but there must not be water flowing out the top of the boilers towards the turbine.

The level of the boiler must be kept within a certain range.

The heat transport pressure is another critical parameter that must be controlled.
If it is too high the system will burst, if it is too low the water will boil. Either
condition impairs the ability of the heat transport system to cool the fuel.
BASIC CONTROL PRINCIPLES

 Consider a an open tank, which supplies

a process, say, a pump, at its output.
The tank will require a supply to maintain its level (and therefore the pump’s
positive suction head) at a fixed predetermined point.
This predetermined level is referred to as the setpoint (SP) and it is also the
controlled quantity of the system.
The controlled variable - in our example this will be level.
The manipulated variable . the inflow or outflow from the system.
Assuming the level is at the setpoint, the inflow to the system and outflow are
balanced. Obviously no control action is required whilst this status quo exists.
 Control action is only necessary when a difference or error exists between
the setpoint and the measured level.
Henceforth, the error will always take the form of:
Error = Setpoint - Measured Quantity or e = SP - M
The control action will be either to vary the inflow or outflow from the system
in order to keep the level at the setpoint..
General Format For Achieving The Objectives

The process can be represented by a closed loop.

The system output (level) is monitored by a process sensor and the measurement
signal is feedback to a comparator at the input of the system.
The second input to the comparator is the setpoint signal; the comparator’s output
being the difference or error signal.
The amplifier, at present just a black box, will provide the appropriate correction to
maintain the process at its setpoint despite disturbances that may occur.
It can be seen that if the system were being operated in manual control the
feedback path would not be present.
The operator would provide this feedback and apply the necessary correction to the
system whilst observing the effect on the controlled variable. This is termed open
loop operation.
Feedback Control

The concept discussed justifies the use of the word negative in three
ways:

• The negative aspect of feeding the measured signal backwards from

the output to the input of the system. (Actual definition of negative
feedback control).

• The control correction must be negative in that a correction rather

than a compounding of error must occur.

• The fact that an error must occur before a correction can take place,
i.e., retrospective or negative control action.
Feedforward Control

If we wish to control our process without an error first occurring, we

must base our control on correction of the disturbances, which will
eventually, cause a process error. This is termed feedforward control.

Feedforward control is rarely if ever used on its own but is used in

conjunction with feedback control to improve the response of control
to process disturbances.
Summary