Controller Tuning 1

Controller Tuning

© 1999 AEA Technology plc - All Rights Reserved. 1

DS+PC 6_1.pdf
2 Controller Tuning

Introduction
One of the greatest benefits of dynamic simulations is that they allow
the process designer to tune the plant controllers before the plant is
actually constructed. This will save time (and money) during plant
start-up and will help the plant operators to maintain the plant at a
suitable operating point.

Controllers in HYSYS are tuned in a manner that is very similar to the

way that they are tuned in the real world. There are three common
tuning methods used to tune process controllers.

• The Direct Synthesis method - controller parameters are

calculated based on a model of the process dynamics. The
model could be chosen as a simple first order plus delay type
model. Based on the values of the process parameters and
one additional user specification, the controller design can be
carried out.
• The Internal Model Control (IMC) method - considered to be
a more general control design methodology than the direct
synthesis design, and often leads to higher ordered or
advanced controllers.
• The Autotuning method - can be used for most processes.
Controllers tuned using this method, in general, will give better
performance than the Ziegler-Nichols method. Because this
method can be used for systems with some dead time, most
process controllers (where some dead time is inevitable) are
tuned using this method.

In this module, we will use the Autotuning method to tune the

temperature controller in the HYSYS case that was used in the previous
modules.

Learning Objectives
In this module, you will learn about the autotuning technique, and how
to tune controllers in HYSYS using this technique.

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Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this module; however, you should have
some knowledge of the concept of dead time, and how it affects the
behaviour of the process.

Basic Controller Tuning

At this point in the course, you have already installed several controllers
and you have adjusted the tuning parameters on one or more. You
should now see the relationship between the various parameters and
the behaviour of the controller.

The various terms that will be dealt with in this module will now be
defined:

• Kc - Controller Gain - this is the gain of the controller and one

of the most important parameters when tuning any type of feed
back controller.
• Ti - Integral Time Constant - this is the denominator of the
coefficient for the integral term in the controller’s equation.
Note that the relationship between this value and the integral
effect is an inverse relationship. This means that a small Ti
term will result in a larger integral effect.
• Td - Derivative Time Constant - this is part of the coefficient
for the derivative term in the controller’s equation. Normally
derivative action is only applied to processes with high
capacitance.
• Ku - The Ultimate Gain - this is the value of Kc that will result
in a controller response that is "just" stable. If the value of Kc
exceeds Ku, the controller will become unstable. This term is
used in determining appropriate values for Kc.
• Pu - The Ultimate Period - this is the period of oscillations
when the control loop is in a stable limit cycle.

In the vast majority of situations, especially in the simulation

environment, it is necessary to tune every controller. There are several
guidelines and "rules-of-thumb" to help you choose appropriate values
for each term in the controller equation. The value of the controller
parameters (Kc, Ti, Td) will depend on the characteristics of the
process.

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The following table contains these terms, use the higher Kp values for
processes with little or no dead time, and the lower values for processes
with lots of dead time. Likewise, the Ti and Td terms should be chosen
with the process’ characteristics in mind.

Ti Td
Type of Process Kc
(minutes) (minutes)

Temperature 2 - 10 2 - 10 0-5

2 - 10 10 - 50 (not used)
Pressure
(optional)

Liquid Level (P only) 2 (never < 1) (not used) (not used)

<1 1-5 (not used)

Liquid Level (PI)
(0.5 - 1.0)

Flow 0.4 - 0.65 0.05 -0.25 (never used)

Please note that the table above gives only approximate

guidelines for the tuning parameters. You may find that
these values will not provide adequate control for your
particular process. Generally, a smaller value for Kc will
provide slower, but more robust control, while a higher Dc
value will provide faster, but less robust control.

These four process types will cover most of the types encountered in
common situations; there are others, but they are less common.

Notice that derivative action is only recommended in one type of

process, and then only to a small extent. This is because PI control is
usually enough to provide adequate control to most processes.

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Advanced Controller Tuning

The Ultimate Gain and Period
The ultimate gain (Ku) is defined as the stability limit for the Kc term. If
the Kc is increased above Ku, the controller will become unstable, if it is
below Ku, the controller will be stable.

Traditionally, the Ku was determined by attaching a P-only controller to

the process and increasing the value of Kc until the stability limit was
reached. (This is what was done for the Optional Exercise on page 7 in
module 3.) The ultimate period was also determined in a similar
manner.

The autotuning method allows you to determine all controller

parameters automatically.

The Autotuning Method

The new autotuner function provides tuning parameters for the PID
controller based on gain and phase margin design. The autotuner itself
can be viewed as another controller object that has been embedded
into the PID controller. The autotuner is based on a relay feedback
technique and by default incorporates a relay with hysteresis (h). The
figure below shows an example of a relay with an amplitude (d) and
hysteresis (h), where e(t) is the error and u(t) is the relay output.

This type of relay is a double-valued nonlinearity, sometimes referred

to as having memory, i.e., the value of the output depends on the
direction from which the process error is coming. Relays are quite
common in automation and control, and this technique for tuning PID
controllers has been around at least 10 years now (see Cluett and
Goberdhansingh, Automatica, 1992). The technique has a strong

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theoretical base and in general works well in practice but it is not a

panacea.

The PID controller parameters that are obtained from the autotuner are
based on a design methodology that makes use of a gain margin at a
specified phase angle. This design is quite similar to the regular gain
and phase margin methodology except that it is more accurate since
the relay has the ability to determine points in the frequency domain
accurately and quickly. Also, the relay experiment is controlled and
does not take a long time during the tuning cycle.

In the Autotuner Parameter group, you can specify the controller type
by selecting the PID or PI radio button for the Design Type. In the
present autotuner implementation there are four parameters that you
must supply which are as follows:
In the present version of the
software there are default
values specified for the PID Parameter Range
tuning. Before starting the
autotuner the you must ensure Ratio (Ti/Td) (a) 3.0 ≤ α ≤ 6.0
that the controller is in the Gain ratio (b) 0.10 ≤ β ≤ 1.0
manual or automatic mode
and the process is relatively Phase angle (f ) 30° ≤ φ ≤ 65°
steady. Relay hysteresis (h) 0.01% ≤ h ≤ 5.0%
Relay amplitude (d) 0.5% ≤ d ≤ 10.0%
If you move the cursor over the
tuning parameters field, the
The results then appear in the Autotuner Results group. You then have
Status Bar will display the
parameters range. the option of setting the resulting controller parameters as the current
values by activating the Automatically Accept check box, or clicking the
Accept button.

Workshop
In this workshop, we will use the autotuning method in HYSYS to tune
the TIC-100 controller in the Starter.hsc simulation case that was used
in the previous modules.

1. To begin this workshop, save and close all previous HYSYS cases.
Open the Starter.hsc case located on the course disk.
2. Change the Delay Time for the Deadtime Model to 5 minutes.

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3. Create a new strip chart called Tuning, and add the following
variables to this chart.
• TIC-100 - PV
• TIC-100 - SP
• TIC-100 - OP
4. With the new strip chart open and sized to cover most of the
screen, (make sure that the faceplate for the TIC-100 controller is
still visible,) let the process run until the process approaches
steady state.
5. Leaving all autotuner parameters at their default values, click the
Start Autotuner button.
6. Determine the values for Kp and Ti.

What is the value of Kp determined using the autotuning

method? __________
What is the value of Ti determined using the autotuning
method? __________

7. Accept these new controller parameters by clicking the Accept

button. Test the behaviour of the controller by changing the set
point to -10 oC (14 oF).

Do the autotuning parameters result in good controller

behaviour? __________

Optional Exercise

Change to amount of dead time in the Dead Time Model to 10 minutes

and repeat steps 4 - 7.

What Kp value is determined if the dead time is 10

minutes? __________
What Ti value is determined in the dead time is 10
minutes? __________

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