Educational Resources

Categories

Radio-energy Pulse in Guided-wave Radar Level Measurement

Radio-energy Pulse in Guided-wave Radar Level Measurement

The following animation shows how a radio-energy pulse travels down and then up the waveguide of a guided-wave…


Textbook

Vibration Physics

Vibration Physics

One very convenient feature of waves is that their properties are universal. Waves of water in the ocean,…


Textbook

High-reliability Control Systems

High-reliability Control Systems

As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, instrumentation safety may be broadly divided into two…


Textbook

Split-range Control

Split-range Control

There are many process control applications in the industry where it is desirable to have multiple control…


Textbook

Legal Code

Legal Code

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License By exercising the Licensed Rights (defined…


Textbook

Digital Data Communication Theory

Digital Data Communication Theory

One of the great benefits of digital technology is the ability to communicate vast amounts of information over…


Textbook

What are Simple Machines?

What are Simple Machines?

A machine in the broad sense of the word is any device designed to translate some form of energy into useful…


Textbook

Velocity-based Flowmeters

Velocity-based Flowmeters

The Law of Continuity for fluids states that the product of mass density (\(\rho\)), cross-sectional pipe area…


Textbook

Vibration Sensors

Vibration Sensors

Sensors used to measure vibration come in three basic types: displacement, velocity, and acceleration.…


Textbook

Mechanical Vibration Switches

Mechanical Vibration Switches

A much simpler alternative to continuous vibration sensors (displacement or acceleration) and monitoring…


Textbook

Vibration Monitoring Hardware

Vibration Monitoring Hardware

The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…


Textbook

True Mass Flowmeters

True Mass Flowmeters

Many traditional flowmeter technologies respond to the volumetric flow rate of the moving fluid.…


Textbook

Control Valve Sizing

Control Valve Sizing

When control valves operate between fully open and fully shut, they serve much the same purpose in process…


Textbook

4-wire “Passive” Versus “Active” Output Transmitters

4-wire “Passive” Versus “Active” Output Transmitters

Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…


Textbook

Feedforward with Dynamic Compensation

Feedforward with Dynamic Compensation

As we have seen, feedforward control is a way to improve the stability of a feedback control system in the…


Textbook

Feedforward Control

Feedforward Control

“Feedforward” is a rather under-used control strategy capable of managing a great many types of…


Textbook

Introduction to Capacitors and Capacitance

Introduction to Capacitors and Capacitance

Capacitance Any two electrical conductors separated by an insulating medium possess the characteristic called…


Textbook

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Another category of control strategies involves the use of signal relays or function blocks with the ability…


Textbook

Understanding the Calculus Concepts of Differentiation and Integration

Understanding the Calculus Concepts of Differentiation and Integration

The following animation shows the calculus concepts of differentiation and integration (with respect to time)…


Textbook

Relation Control

Relation Control

A control strategy similar to ratio control is relation control. This is similar to ratio control in that a…


Textbook

Single-line Electrical Diagrams

Single-line Electrical Diagrams

Electrical power grids primarily consist of three-phase AC circuits. This means most power lines (transmission…


Textbook

Conservation Laws

Conservation Laws

The Law of Mass Conservation states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The Law of Energy…


Textbook

Ratio Control

Ratio Control

Most people reading this book have likely had the experience of adjusting water temperature using two hand…


Textbook

Proportional-only Offset

Proportional-only Offset

A fundamental limitation of proportional control has to do with its response to changes in setpoint and…


Textbook

Differential (87) Current Protection

Differential (87) Current Protection

One of the fundamental laws of electric circuits is Kirchhoff’s Current Law, which states the algebraic…


Textbook

Digital PID Algorithms

Digital PID Algorithms

Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…


Textbook

LRV and URV Settings, Digital Trim (Digital Transmitters)

LRV and URV Settings, Digital Trim (Digital Transmitters)

The advent of “smart” field instruments containing microprocessors has been a great advance for…


Textbook

Techniques for Analyzing Control Strategies

Techniques for Analyzing Control Strategies

Control strategies such as cascade, ratio, feedforward, and those containing limit and selector functions can…


Textbook

Digital PID Controllers

Digital PID Controllers

The vast majority of PID controllers in service today are digital in nature. Microprocessors executing PID…


Textbook

Structured Text (ST) Programming

Structured Text (ST) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


Textbook

Quantitative PID Tuning Procedures

Quantitative PID Tuning Procedures

A quantitative PID tuning procedure is a step-by-step approach leading directly to a set of numerical values…


Textbook

Antennas and Resonant Circuits (Tank Circuits)

Antennas and Resonant Circuits (Tank Circuits)

Capacitors store energy in electric fields, proportional to the square of voltage. Inductors store energy in…


Textbook

Calibration Procedures in Linear, Non-Linear and Discrete Instruments

Calibration Procedures in Linear, Non-Linear and Discrete Instruments

As described earlier in this chapter, calibration refers to the adjustment of an instrument so its output…


Textbook

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

A great many precision instruments use the principle of balance to measure some quantity. Perhaps the simplest…


Textbook

Flow Switches

Flow Switches

A flow switch is one detecting the flow of some fluid through a pipe. Flow switches often use…


Textbook

Classical Mechanics

Classical Mechanics

Classical mechanics (often called Newtonian mechanics in honor of Isaac Newton) deal with forces and motions…


Textbook

Electrical Resistance and Ohm’s Law

Electrical Resistance and Ohm’s Law

To review, voltage is the measure of potential energy available to electric charges. Current is the uniform…


Textbook

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Segment Troubleshooting

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Segment Troubleshooting

Feedback obtained from industrial users of FF reveal a common pattern: Fieldbus is a powerful and reliable…


Textbook

Process/Instrument Suitability

Process/Instrument Suitability

Every flow-measuring instrument exploits a physical principle to measure the flow rate of fluid stream.…


Textbook

Equivalent Series and Parallel Circuits

Equivalent Series and Parallel Circuits

Impedance in a series circuit is the orthogonal sum of resistance and reactance: \[Z = \sqrt{R^2 + (X_L -…


Textbook

Open-ended, Shorted and Properly Terminated Transmission Lines

Open-ended, Shorted and Properly Terminated Transmission Lines

Many years ago, when I was first learning about electricity, I happened to discover a length of coaxial…


Textbook

Introduction to Protective Relaying

Introduction to Protective Relaying

Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…


Textbook

Continuous Float Level Transmitters

Continuous Float Level Transmitters

Perhaps the simplest form of solid or liquid level measurement is with a float: a device that rides on the…


Textbook

Force-balance Pressure Transmitters

Force-balance Pressure Transmitters

An important legacy technology for all kinds of continuous measurement is the self-balancing system. A…


Textbook

Proximity Switches

Proximity Switches

A proximity switch is one detecting the proximity (closeness) of some object. By definition, these switches…


Textbook

Error Corrections

Error Corrections

Abdelaziz, Ahmed (June 2014) Identified numerous typographical errors throughout the book, mostly repeated…


Textbook

Basics of Bridge Circuits

Basics of Bridge Circuits

A bridge circuit is basically a pair of voltage dividers where the circuit output is taken as the difference…


Textbook

Electromagnetism Basics

Electromagnetism Basics

The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…


Textbook

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Data Link Layer

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Data Link Layer

Like so many other industrial data networks, FOUNDATION Fieldbus is an “unswitched” or…


Textbook

Logic Programming in PLCs

Logic Programming in PLCs

Although it seems each model of PLC has its own idiosyncratic standard for programming, there does exist an…


Textbook

Periodic Table of the Elements

Periodic Table of the Elements

All substances are comprised of various elements in various combinations and proportions. Elements may thus be…


Textbook

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Limit, Selector, and Override Controls

Another category of control strategies involves the use of signal relays or function blocks with the ability…


Textbook