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Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Any physical location in an industrial facility harboring the potential of explosion due to the presence of…


Textbook

Chemical Reactor Temperature Control Example

Chemical Reactor Temperature Control Example

Sometimes we encounter a diversity of instrument signal standards in one control system. Such is the case with…


Textbook

Ladder Diagram (LD) Programming Contacts and Coils

Ladder Diagram (LD) Programming Contacts and Coils

In the United States, the most common language used to program PLCs is Ladder Diagram (LD), also known as…


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Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

The digital multimeter (DMM) is quite possibly the most useful tool in the instrument technician’s…


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

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Any physical location in an industrial facility harboring the potential of explosion due to the presence of…


Textbook

Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…


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Ladder Diagram (LD) Structure Commands

Ladder Diagram (LD) Structure Commands

The simple PLC ladder diagram (LD) commands consist of contacts and coils, arranged in sequences that mimic…


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Fluid Mechanics

Fluid Mechanics

A fluid is any substance having the ability to flow: to freely change shape and move under the influence of a…


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Electrical Signal and Control Wiring

Electrical Signal and Control Wiring

There is much to be said for neatness of assembly in electrical signal wiring. Even though the electrons…


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Auxiliary and Lockout (86) Relays

Auxiliary and Lockout (86) Relays

An important type of “accessory” relay, especially for legacy electromechanical protective relays,…


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Relay Circuits and Ladder Diagrams

Relay Circuits and Ladder Diagrams

Electromechanical relays may be connected together to perform logic and control functions, acting as logic…


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Non-contact Temperature Sensors

Non-contact Temperature Sensors

Virtually any mass above absolute zero temperature emits electromagnetic radiation (photons, or light) as a…


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Instantaneous and Time-overcurrent (50/51) Protection

Instantaneous and Time-overcurrent (50/51) Protection

Perhaps the most basic and necessary protective relay function is overcurrent: commanding a circuit breaker to…


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ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…


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Gas Filter Correlation (GFC) Spectroscopy

Gas Filter Correlation (GFC) Spectroscopy

Using filter cells to eliminate wavelengths associated with interfering gases is called positive filtering in…


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Pressure-based Flowmeters

Pressure-based Flowmeters

All masses require force to accelerate (we can also think of this in terms of the mass generating a reaction…


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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…


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Valve Positioners

Valve Positioners

The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…


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Use of Line Reactors

Use of Line Reactors

Regulating the electric power sent to an electric motor is a task performed by high-speed switching…


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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…


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Distance (21) Protection

Distance (21) Protection

A form of protection against faults on long-distance power lines is called distance relaying, so named because…


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Structured Text (ST) Programming

Structured Text (ST) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


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Fluid Power Systems

Fluid Power Systems

Given the ability of pressurized fluids to transmit force over long distances, it is not surprising that many…


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Basic Feedback Control Principles

Basic Feedback Control Principles

Feedback Control System Components Before we begin our discussion on process control, we must define a few key…


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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

FOUNDATION Fieldbus Function Blocks

FOUNDATION Fieldbus Function Blocks

Data-processing modules within FF systems are known as function blocks. Sometimes these blocks serve merely to…


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Non-dispersive Luft Detector Spectroscopy

Non-dispersive Luft Detector Spectroscopy

Non-dispersive analysis, while newer in discovery than dispersive analysis (Isaac Newton’s 17th-century…


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“Normal” status of a Process Switch

“Normal” status of a Process Switch

Perhaps the most confusing aspect of discrete sensors is the definition of a sensor’s normal status.…


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Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…


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Basics of pH Measurement in Industrial Control

Basics of pH Measurement in Industrial Control

Hydrogen ion activity in aqueous (water-solvent) solutions is a very important parameter for a wide variety of…


Textbook

EIA/TIA-232, 422, and 485 Networks

EIA/TIA-232, 422, and 485 Networks

Some of the simplest types of digital communication networks found in industry are defined by the EIA…


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Introduction to Calculus

Introduction to Calculus

Few areas of mathematics are as powerfully useful in describing and analyzing the physical world as calculus:…


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Resistance, Reactance and Impedance

Resistance, Reactance and Impedance

Electrical Resistance Resistance (\(R\)) is the dissipative opposition to an electric current, analogous to…


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Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Measuring the flow rate of liquid through an open channel is not unlike measuring the flow rate of a liquid…


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Digital PID Controllers

Digital PID Controllers

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


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Problem-solving by Simplification

Problem-solving by Simplification

A whole class of problem-solving techniques focuses on altering the given problem into a simpler form that is…


Textbook

Basic Components Common to all Radio Systems

Basic Components Common to all Radio Systems

“Radio” systems use electromagnetic fields to communicate information over long distances through…


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Symbolic Versus Numerical Calculus

Symbolic Versus Numerical Calculus

Calculus has a reputation for being difficult to learn, and with good reason. The traditional approach to…


Textbook

Different PID Equations

Different PID Equations

For better or worse, there are no fewer than three different forms of PID equations implemented in modern PID…


Textbook

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Any physical location in an industrial facility harboring the potential of explosion due to the presence of…


Textbook

Laminar Flowmeters

Laminar Flowmeters

A unique form of differential pressure-based flow measurement deserves its own section in this flow…


Textbook