Sensors used to measure vibration come in three basic types: displacement, velocity, and acceleration.…
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Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float directly sets…
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A quantitative PID tuning procedure is a step-by-step approach leading directly to a set of numerical values…
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Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…
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To show a practical process example, let’s examine three diagrams for a compressor control system,…
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The vast majority of modern process transmitters (both analog and digital) come equipped with a feature known…
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Process measurements are often of an analog nature: the temperature of a furnace, the rate of fluid flow…
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Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…
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Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…
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A machine in the broad sense of the word is any device designed to translate some form of energy into useful…
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Volumes could be written about poor diagnostic technique. The following mistakes are not intended to comprise…
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Filled-bulb systems exploit the principle of fluid expansion to measure temperature. If a fluid is enclosed in…
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Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…
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Finally, we arrive at the loop diagram (sometimes called a loop sheet) for the compressor surge control system…
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Feedback Control System Components Before we begin our discussion on process control, we must define a few key…
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Process analyzers measure the concentration of specific substances for the purpose of measuring and/or…
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As we have seen, the concept of integration is finding the accumulation of one variable multiplied by another…
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A variety of technologies exist to measure the quantity of stored material in a vessel. For liquid…
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A great many precision instruments use the principle of balance to measure some quantity. Perhaps the simplest…
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The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…
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Feedback Control System Components Before we begin our discussion on process control, we must define a few key…
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An important type of “accessory” relay, especially for legacy electromechanical protective relays,…
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Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…
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A number of different sensors used in instrumentation generate DC voltage signals proportional to the process…
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A laser is a light source emitting waves of light that not only share the exact same frequency (color)…
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As defined previously, calibration means the comparison and adjustment (if necessary) of an instrument’s…
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One of the great benefits of digital technology is the ability to communicate vast amounts of information over…
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Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float sets the…
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Imagine a major marathon race, where hundreds of runners gather in one place to compete. When the starting gun…
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Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…
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Another category of control strategies involves the use of signal relays or function blocks with the ability…
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Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…
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There are many process control applications in the industry where it is desirable to have multiple control…
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Volumes could be written about poor diagnostic technique. The following mistakes are not intended to comprise…
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By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…
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Valves can experience a number of problems, most of them either preventable or repairable. These problems can…
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One of the most important accessories for any temperature-sensing element is a pressure-tight sheath known as…
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A wise PLC programmer once told me that the first thing any aspiring programmer should learn about the PLC…
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Regardless of valve type, all stem-actuated control valves require some form of seal allowing motion of the…
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Learning how to tune PID controllers is a skill born of much practice. Regardless of how thoroughly you may…
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Self-balancing pneumatic instrument mechanisms are very similar to negative-feedback operational amplifier…
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Displacer level instruments exploit Archimedes’ Principle to detect liquid level by continuously…
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Modern analog-to-digital converters are phenomenally accurate, dependable, repeatable, and surprisingly…
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There are many process control applications in the industry where it is desirable to have multiple control…
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The electrical conductivity of liquids is an important analytical measurement in many industrial processes.…
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Steam boilers are very common in industry, principally because steam power is so useful. Common uses for steam…
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An interesting parallel to the “unity fraction” unit conversion technique is something referred to…
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Sample sizes of chemical substances are often measured in moles. One mole of a substance is defined as a…
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By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…
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Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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Calculus has a reputation for being difficult to learn, and with good reason. The traditional approach to…
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In this section I will show screenshots from a process loop simulation program illustrating the effectiveness…
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The Law of Mass Conservation states that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The Law of Energy…
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Virtually any mass above absolute zero temperature emits electromagnetic radiation (photons, or light) as a…
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A fundamental limitation of proportional control has to do with its response to changes in setpoint and…
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The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…
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As previously defined, calibration refers to the checking and adjustment of an instrument so that its output…
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A unique form of differential pressure-based flow measurement deserves its own section in this flow…
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