Chapter # 15 Process control

In Industry, a process is refers to mixing, heating , cracking , refining etc. These processes must be
accurately controlled. Process control is defined as the control on physical or chemical changes in a
process. Typical parameter to be controlled include temperature, flow rate , pressure and level. There
are four types of control action
1. on-off or two-position control
. proportional control
!. integral control
". derivative control
or various combinations of these.
Set point (SP)# The set point is a value for a process variable that is desired to be maintained.
Process Variable (PV)# $ process variable is a condition of the process fluid %a li&uid or gas' that can
change the manufacturing process in some way. e.g temperature, level etc.
Error (e)# Error is the difference between the measured variable and the set point and can be either
positive or negative. e%t' ( )P-P*
ON/OFF or two-position control
In many control applications it is satisfactory for the controller to operate at either of two levels rather
than over a continuous range. In many applications the two levels are simple +,-+.., e.g. valve open
or closed. /owever, the two levels may not be +,-+.., e.g two settings of a heater or forward-reverse
of a motor. 0onsider a thermostat controlling a heater that controls the room temperature. The user sets
the re&uired room temperature %the set point'. 1hen the room temperature falls below this the heater is
switched on and when it gets to the re&uired temperature it is switched off. The operation may appear
so#
The ma2or disadvantage with this type of control is that the controller output bears no relationship to
the error signal, i.e. the output is +,-+.., no matter how high the error. The control is either non or
too much.
0onsider the following tank supplying water#

The aim is to maintain the level / in the header tank regardless of the flow out. This is done by
switching the control valve on-off to allow water to flow into the header tank, i.e. when the level in the
tank falls the valve is opened. when the level reaches the 3set point4 it is closed.
If the response of the system was vary fast the level could be kept at / plus or minus a small amount.
/owever, the valve would be in continuous on-off operation and excess wear would result. Thus
3backlash4 is built in which is usually called differential gap.
On-off control will work where the overall system has a relatively long response time, but will result
in instability if the system being controlled has a rapid response time.
Proportional Control
The problem with on-off control is that the controller output bears no relationship to the magnitude of
the error in the output, i.e. the control is non at all or too much. $lthough such control is fine for many
simple applications a more continuous form of control is re&uired in more complex situations.
0onsider the water tank level control on the previous page. 1hen the level fell below the set point the
valve was opened and stayed open until the level rose to the set point. $ more useful form of control
would be to have a valve that could be open gradually to allow a varying flow of water. Thus when the
level was well below the set point the valve would be well open and the flow very high and as the
level reached the set point the flow would reduce to 5ero.
In this form of control the controller output xp is proportional to the error signal e. This can be
expressed so#
x
p
!e

where 6 is the constant of proportionality that is set according to the application. Thus the response of
a system would appear
It is seen that so long as the error persists the controller gives a corrective signal, the magnitude of
which is proportional to the error si5e. The proportionality constant 6 can be very important in the
response time of the system. If 6 is high a particular value of error e would generate a higher
correction signal than for small values of 6. If 6 is too high oscillations could +ccur so#
in this case the correction signal was so high the set point was overshot and had to be corrected again.
It is possible for 6 to be so high that the system is unstable and will oscillate continuously. In the case
of 6 being too small the correction signal would be too small to correct the error within the re&uired
time.
.or each control loop 6 must be chosen to give the re&uired system response to changes in output
without causing oscillation. It may well be necessary to mathematically analyse the system to various
inputs to determine 6 initially and then ad2ust it when the system is built.
"nte#ral Control$ The problem with proportional control is that for a given error the corrective signal
is constant and if this is insufficient to correct the problem the set point will never be reached In an
integral cntrol system, longer the error persists the more corrective signal is given, e.g. in a heating
system if the temperature remains low the bioler output increases with time.
In integral control the output of the controller is proportional to the time integral of the error signal e.
This can be written#

where 6 is the gain of the integral controller, i.e. the longer the error persists the higher becomes the
corrective signal. This could appear#
It is seen so long as the error signal is positive the correcting signal will occur at an increasing rate.
The problem is that when e returns to setpoint, a correction signal still exists so e must go negative to
reduce it to 7. This results in the tendency of integral control to overshoot the set point and cause
oscillations in the system output.
%eri&ati&e Control# In this case the faster the output deviates from the set point the higher the
corrective signal. 0onsider an aircraft where the wings are to be kept hori5ontal. It the aircraft starts to
tilt proportional control may not cope in that the aircraft may turn over before the tilt can be corrected.
In this case the higher the rate of tilt the higher the corrective signal the pilot would apply to correct it.
In this case the controller output xp is proportional to the rate of change of the error e. This can be
expressed
xp ( 6 de-dt
where 6 is the gain of the derivative controller. This could appear
Thus when the error is steady the controller output is 8 and only when e is changing will there be
controller output. /ence an error can exist without corrective action being taken as therefore it is
always used in con2unction with proportional or integral control or both. The advantage of this type of
control is that the faster the output deviates from the set point the higher will be the corrective signal.

P"% (Proportional "nte#ral %eri&ati&e) Control (calle' three ter( control)
It is possible to combine two of the control types to from two term control but most general control
systems use three term control expressed so#
where the 64s are the controller gains and e is the error signal. This is the general form of the PI9
e&uation used in control systems with the first term being the proportional control, the second the
integral control and the third the derivative control. The values of 6 can be ad2usted to change the
effect of each control type on the output. )he proportional &al*e 'eter(ines the reaction to the
c*rrent error+ the integral &al*e 'eter(ines the reaction base' on the s*( o, recent errors+ an'
the derivative &al*e 'eter(ines the reaction base' on the rate at which the error has been
chan#in#- )he wei#hte' s*( o, these three actions is *se' to a'.*st the process &ia a control
ele(ent s*ch as the position o, a control &al&e or the power s*ppl/ o, a heatin# ele(ent.