Introduction to Industrial Automation and Control

Introduction

Globalization has placed increasing demands on modern process control in terms of quality, safety, flexibility, and costs. However, more efficient control can only be achieved through better measurement “when the process instrumentation provides the correct information. The field of process measurement and control is changing at a dramatic rate. Measurements and accuracies that would have been thought of as impossible to achieve are now commonplace.

Further, for many years chemical measurement has remained the preserve of the analytical chemist. More and more, however, on-line analytical measurement is being applied in process control and is increasingly becoming the responsibility of the instrumentation and control technologist.

This workshop, PRACTICAL Process Instrumentation, Measurement, and Sensors are designed to provide engineers and technicians with the basic theoretical and practical knowledge involved in the selection, application, installation, and commissioning of industrial instrumentation and on-line analytical instrumentation.

Objectives

This workshop, PRACTICAL Process Control: Loop Tuning and Analysis, is designed to provide engineers and technicians with the basic theoretical and practical understanding of the process loop and how this can be applied to optimize process control in terms of quality, safety, flexibility, and costs.

On successful completion of this workshop delegates will be able to:

• Understand the major technologies used in the measurement of flow, temperature, pressure, and level
• Review the construction and operation of the most important process instruments
• Evaluate and select the appropriate instrumentation system
• Install process equipment correctly
• Optimize control with effective selection and installation of your process equipment
• Calibrate and troubleshoot instrumentation systems
• Isolate and rectify instrumentation faults
• Appreciate the basics of chemistry and how to read the chemical formula
• Understand how analytical chemistry is applied in industry
• Review the construction and operation of the most important analytical instruments
• Value the science and capabilities of on-line analytical chemistry
• Troubleshoot problems in the measurement of pH,
• Conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, chlorine, etc.
• Implement procedures for testing and calibration of analytical instruments
• Understand the basics of process analysis using IR spectroscopy and chromatography

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

• Professionals involved in designing, selecting, sizing, specifying, installing, testing, operating, and maintaining process instrumentation and control systems
  • Automation Engineers
  • Chemical Engineers
  • Consulting Engineers
  • Design Engineers
  • Electrical Engineers
  • Electricians
  • Installation and Maintenance Technicians
  • Instrument and Process Control Engineers and Technicians
  • Instrument Fitters
  • Maintenance Engineers
  • Mechanical Engineers and Technicians
  • Operations Engineers
  • Process Engineers
  • Process Operators
  • Production Professionals
  • Project Professionals
  • System Integrators
• Professionals with little to moderate production facility design and/or operations background
• Other professionals who want a better understanding of the subject matter

Course Outline

DAY 1: Introduction to Sensors, Transducers, and Instrumentation Systems

• Course schedule and layout
• Introduction to Sensors, Transducers, and Instrumentation Systems
• Examples
• Terms and definitions associated with Instrumentation systems, including;
  • Maximum error,
  • Hysteresis,
  • Repeatability,
  • Sensitivity,
  • Resolution,
  • Span,
  • Response time
• Examples
• Process Variables explained – Mass flow, Volumetric flow rate, Pressure, Viscosity, Turbidity
• Examples

Temperature and Strain Measurement Techniques (also begin practical activities)

• Temperature scales
• Devices; the principle of operation, application and installation considerations of:
• Resistance temperature detectors
• Thermistors
• Thermocouples
• Radiation Pyrometers
• Principle of Strain Measurement – tension, compression, stress, strain, Youngs modulus
• Principle of operation, application, and installation considerations
• Gauge types – the principle of operation and configurations
• Examples
• Practical activity – design and calibrate process measurement system 1

DAY 2: Pressure and Flow Measurement

• Principles of Pressure measurement
• Devices; the principle of operation, application, and installation considerations of:
  • Diaphragms
  • Bellows
  • Capacitive devices
  • Fibre Optic pressure measurement techniques
• Principles of flow measurement
• Reynolds number
• Devices; the principle of operation, application and installation considerations of Invasive types:
• Coriolis Flowmeter
• Differential Pressure type flowmeters
  • Orifice plate
  • Venturi tube
  • Flow nozzle
  • Dall flow tube
• Devices; the principle of operation, application and installation considerations of Noninvasive types:
• Electromagnetic flowmeters
• Practical activity – design and calibrate process measurement system 2

Ultrasonic Techniques for non-Invasive Measurement and Optical Digital Encoders

• Principles and applications of Ultrasonic techniques for non-invasive measurement
• Doppler shift and transit techniques
• Principle of operation, application, and installation considerations of Non-invasive flow measurement
• Ultrasonic flowmeters
• Devices; the principle of operation, application and installation considerations of:
  • Absolute optical digital encoders

Binary coded discs v Gray coded discs

• Incremental optical digital encoders
• Moiré Fringe incremental encoders

• Practical activity – design and calibrate process measurement system 2

DAY 3: Level measurement and Turbidity measurement

• Principle of single point and continuous level measurement techniques
• Direct and indirect level measurement techniques
• Devices; the principle of operation, application and installation considerations of:
  • Ultrasonic techniques
  • Capacitive techniques
  • Pressure techniques
• Introduction to Turbidity measurement – optical properties of materials
• Methods used; principle and application
• Practical activity – design and calibrate process measurement system 3

Basic process considerations

• Definition of terms
• Process lag, capacitance, and resistance
• Process reaction curve
• 1st and 2nd order reactions

Process measurement

• Instrumentation cabling
• Filtering
• • Aliasing
  • Reaction masking
• Sensor placement
• Correct PV
• Effect of span

DAY 4: Final control element

• Choked flow
• Pressure recovery
• Flashing and cavitation
• Valve construction
• Valve characteristics
  • Inherent
  • Profiling
  • Installed
  • Cavitation control
• Actuators
• Diaphragm
• Cylinder
• Electric
• Valve positioners
• Deadband and hysteresis
• Stick-slip
• Testing procedures and analysis
• Effect of valve performance on controllability

Fundamentals of Process Control

• ON/OFF control
• Proportional control
• Proportional band vs. proportional gain
• Proportional offset
• Reset
• Integral action
• Integral windup
• Stability
• Bode plot
• Nyquist plot
• Derivative action
• PID control
• Control algorithms
• Load disturbances and offset
• Speed, stability, and robustness

DAY 5: Fundamentals of Tuning

• Basic principles
• Open-loop reaction curve method (Ziegler-Nichols)
• Default and typical settings
• Closed-loop continuous cycling method (Ziegler-Nichols)
• Lambda tuning
• Fine-tuning
• Tuning for load rejection vs. set-point rejection
• Tuning according to Pessen
• Tuning for different applications
• Speed of response vs. robustness
• Surge tank level control

Automated tuning systems

• Self-tuning loops
• Adaptive control

Advanced control algorithms

• Cascade systems
• Feedforward and combined systems
• Ratio control
• Adaptive control systems
• Deadtime compensation
• Fuzzy logic control