Abu Dhabi University MEC 412 – Dynamic and Control Systems Lab

Experiment 5

Water Level Control

Figure 1: Water Level Control Virtual Lab

Objectives:

1- Control the level of the water level in the process vessel by adjustment of the pump power
to adjust the water flow rate into the tank.
2- Study the closed-loop control system performance in controlling the water level.
3- Implement the Proportional controller and study its effect on the system.
4- Implement the PID controller and study its effect on the system.
Abu Dhabi University MEC 412 – Dynamic and Control Systems Lab

Theory:

The working principle behind a PID controller is that the proportional, integral, and
derivative terms must be individually adjusted or "tuned". Based on the difference
between these values, a correction factor is calculated and applied to the input. For
example, if an oven is cooler than required, the heat will be increased. Here are the
three steps:

1. Proportional Tuning involves correcting a target proportional to the

difference. Thus, the target value is never achieved because as the difference
approaches zero, so too does the applied correction.

2. Integral Tuning attempts to remedy this by effectively cumulating the error

result from the "P" action to increase the correction factor. For example, if the
oven remained below temperature, "I" would act to increase the head delivered.
However, rather than stop heating when the target is reached, "I" attempts to
drive the cumulative error to zero, resulting in an overshoot.

3. Derivative Tuning attempts to minimize this overshoot by slowing the

correction factor applied as the target is approached.

Table 1: Theoretical effect of P, I & D controllers on the performance of the system.

Procedure:

1) Run the Water Level Control application.

2) It is recommended to keep the required value at 100 so that it is converted easily to
percentage and voltage scale.
3) Leave the valve open to have a disturbance in the system that the PID controller has to
account for.
 Abu Dhabi University MEC 412 – Dynamic and Control Systems Lab

4) Implement the proportional controller by changing only the P Controller gain using the
slider.
5) Use the values 10, 25, 40 & 100 for the P controller.
6) Wait for the system to be steady and then extract the graphs.
7) Implement the proportional-integral controller with the value 40 for the P controller and
1, 10, 50 for the I controller.
8) Wait for the system to be steady and then extract the graphs.
9) Implement the proportional-integral-derivative controller with the value 40 for the P
controller, 10 for the I controller, and 50 for D Controller.
10) Wait for the system to be steady and then extract the graphs.

Data Analysis:

 Calculate the rise time, overshoot, settling time, and the steady-state error for each of the
extracted graphs.

Discussion & Results

 Sketch the Block Diagram for the process control system.

 Fill the table below:
Rise Percent Steady-
Desired Measured Settling
Kp Ki Kd Time Overshoot State
Level Level time (s)
(s) (%) Error

100

 Write a concise account of the experiment and the results obtained.

 Compare the experimental results with the theoretical effect described in Table 1.