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Formulae for Common Chemical Compounds

Formulae for Common Chemical Compounds

Most of these formulae appear in molecular chemical form rather than structural form. For example, ethanol…


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Safety Instrumented Functions and Systems

Safety Instrumented Functions and Systems

A Safety Instrumented Function, or SIF, is one or more components designed to execute a specific…


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Wastewater Disinfection Example

Wastewater Disinfection Example

The final step in treating wastewater before releasing it into the natural environment is to kill any harmful…


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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…


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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…


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Energy in Chemical Reactions

Energy in Chemical Reactions

A chemical reaction resulting in a net release of energy is called exothermic. Conversely, a chemical reaction…


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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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Safety Gas Analyzers

Safety Gas Analyzers

Process analyzers measure the concentration of specific substances for the purpose of measuring and/or…


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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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Colorimetric and Potentiometric pH Measurement

Colorimetric and Potentiometric pH Measurement

pH is the measurement of the hydrogen ion activity in a liquid solution. It is one of the most common forms of…


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Analytical Measurements of Chemical Compositions

Analytical Measurements of Chemical Compositions

A great many chemical composition measurements may be made indirectly by means of electricity, if those…


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Electrical Pressure Elements

Electrical Pressure Elements

Several different technologies exist for the conversion of fluid pressure into an electrical signal response.…


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Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

At the next OSI Reference Model layer (layer 4) is a set of protocols specifying how reliable communication…


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Introduction to Inductors and Inductance

Introduction to Inductors and Inductance

Any conductor possesses a characteristic called inductance: the ability to store energy in the form of a…


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Cascade Control

Cascade Control

A simple control system drawn in block diagram form looks like this: Information from the measuring device…


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Digital PID Algorithms

Digital PID Algorithms

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


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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…


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Principles, not Procedures

Principles, not Procedures

One of the marks of a successful problem-solver is a habit of applying general principles to every new problem…


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Standardized Volumetric Flow

Standardized Volumetric Flow

The majority of flowmeter technologies operate on the principle of interpreting fluid flow based on the…


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Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Cyber-security seems to have its own vocabulary, ranging from unwieldy technical acronyms to slang terms…


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Measuring Electrical Conductivity

Measuring Electrical Conductivity

The electrical conductivity of liquids is an important analytical measurement in many industrial processes.…


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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…


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The Basics of Control Relays

The Basics of Control Relays

An electromechanical relay is an electrical switch actuated by an electromagnet coil. As switching devices,…


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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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Structured Text (ST) Programming

Structured Text (ST) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


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Electrical Sensors: Potential Transformers (PTs) and Current Transformers (CTs)

Electrical Sensors: Potential Transformers (PTs) and Current Transformers (CTs)

The two “process variables” we rely on most heavily in the field of electrical measurement and…


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Policy-based Fortifications

Policy-based Fortifications

These fortifications focus on human behavior rather than system design or component selection. In some ways…


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Chemiluminescence Measurement

Chemiluminescence Measurement

Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…


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Level Switches

Level Switches

A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…


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Weight-based Level Measurement

Weight-based Level Measurement

Weight-based level instruments sense process level in a vessel by directly measuring the weight of the vessel.…


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Process and Instrument Diagrams

Process and Instrument Diagrams

The next level of detail is the Process and Instrument Diagram, or P&ID. Here, we see a “zooming…


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Basic Operation of a Gas Chromatograph

Basic Operation of a Gas Chromatograph

This animation shows the basic operation of a gas chromatograph, showing the separation of different molecular…


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Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale

Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale


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the Negative Consequences of Poor PID Controller Tuning

the Negative Consequences of Poor PID Controller Tuning

Much has been written about the benefits of robust PID control. Increased productivity, decreased equipment…


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Understanding How Three-phase Electric Motors Work

Understanding How Three-phase Electric Motors Work

The key to understanding how three-phase electric motors work is to have an accurate mental picture of the…


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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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Functional Diagrams: the Flow of Information within a Control System

Functional Diagrams: the Flow of Information within a Control System

A unique form of technical diagram for describing the abstract functions comprising a control system (e.g. PID…


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Physics and Chemistry Terminology and Definitions

Physics and Chemistry Terminology and Definitions

Atom: the smallest unit of matter that may be isolated by chemical means. Particle: a part of an atom,…


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What is Internet Protocol (IP)?

What is Internet Protocol (IP)?

I remember first learning about the world-wide Internet, and wondering what it actually looked like. The first…


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References

References

Lipták, Béla G. et al., Instrument Engineers’ Handbook – Process Measurement and Analysis Volume I,…


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Error Corrections

Error Corrections

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


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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…


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Valve Failure Modes

Valve Failure Modes

An important design parameter of a control valve is the position it will “fail” to if it loses…


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Actuator Bench-set

Actuator Bench-set

Valve actuators provide force to move control valve trim. For precise positioning of a control valve, there…


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Numerical Integration

Numerical Integration

As we have seen, the concept of integration is finding the accumulation of one variable multiplied by another…


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Control Valve Actuators

Control Valve Actuators

The purpose of a control valve actuator is to provide the motive force to operate a valve mechanism. Both…


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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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Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Glossary of Cyber-security Terms

Cyber-security seems to have its own vocabulary, ranging from unwieldy technical acronyms to slang terms…


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Teaching Technical Practices (Labwork)

Teaching Technical Practices (Labwork)

Labwork is an essential part of any science-based curriculum. Here, much improvement may be made over the…


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Level Switches

Level Switches

A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…


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Dispersive Spectroscopy

Dispersive Spectroscopy

The dispersion of visible light into its constituent colors goes all the way back to the 17th century with…


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