Most people reading this book have likely had the experience of adjusting water temperature using two hand…
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A fundamental principle in instrumentation system troubleshooting is that every instrument has at least one…
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When a high-energy photon strikes an atom, it may eject one of the lower-level electrons from its shell,…
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Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…
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Up until this point, we have explored various types of instrumentation diagram, each one making reference to…
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A limitation inherent to pneumatic valve actuators is the amount of air flow required to or from the actuator…
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Area refers to the size of two-dimensional surface. Volume refers to the size of a three-dimensional space. To…
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The simple PLC ladder diagram (LD) commands consist of contacts and coils, arranged in sequences that mimic…
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One very convenient feature of waves is that their properties are universal. Waves of water in the ocean,…
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A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…
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Classical mechanics (often called Newtonian mechanics in honor of Isaac Newton) deal with forces and motions…
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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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A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path.…
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Suppose we wished to measure the rate of propane gas flow through a hose to a torch: Flowmeters appropriate…
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Current is the name we give to the motion of electric charges from a point of high potential to a point of low…
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The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…
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Fluid pressure exerts force on any surface area it contacts, as described by the formula \(F = PA\). One…
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As a general rule, high achievement only takes place in an atmosphere of high expectations. Sometimes these…
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Constructing PID control systems using discrete components is a fairly simple method involving operational…
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Modern analog-to-digital converters are phenomenally accurate, dependable, repeatable, and surprisingly…
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The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…
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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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Imagine a major marathon race, where hundreds of runners gather in one place to compete. When the starting gun…
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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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As defined previously, calibration means the comparison and adjustment (if necessary) of an instrument’s…
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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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The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…
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As we have seen, feedforward control is a way to improve the stability of a feedback control system in the…
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Non-dispersive analysis, while newer in discovery than dispersive analysis (Isaac Newton’s 17th-century…
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Two extremely important principles in electric circuits were codified by Gustav Robert Kirchhoff in the year…
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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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A very simple device used to measure pressure is the manometer: a fluid-filled tube where an applied gas…
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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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A pneumatic controller receives a process variable (PV) signal as a variable air pressure, compares that…
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Although it seems each model of PLC has its own idiosyncratic standard for programming, there does exist an…
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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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An extremely important topic in engineering is that of transfer functions. Simply defined, a transfer function…
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The term “grid” refers to the conductors and equipment interconnecting power sources to power…
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Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…
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Human-machine interfaces, or HMIs, are a critical part of nearly all control systems, complementing the…
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When control valves operate between fully open and fully shut, they serve much the same purpose in process…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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A proximity switch is one detecting the proximity (closeness) of some object. By definition, these switches…
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A technological advance introduced in the late 1980’s was HART, an acronym standing for Highway…
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There is much to be said for neatness of assembly in electrical signal wiring. Even though the electrons…
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Some analyzers measure the composition of a process stream by directly immersing the sensing element in that…
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Some of the simplest types of digital communication networks found in industry are defined by the EIA…
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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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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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Valve actuators provide force to move control valve trim. For precise positioning of a control valve, there…
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In November of 2007 a new computer virus was submitted to a virus scanning service. The purpose of this new…
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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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Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float sets the…
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In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…
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So far we have just looked at instruments that sense, control, and influence process variables. Transmitters,…
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A simple control system drawn in block diagram form looks like this: Information from the measuring device…
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An important design parameter of a control valve is the position it will “fail” to if it loses…
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Impedance in a series circuit is the orthogonal sum of resistance and reactance: \[Z = \sqrt{R^2 + (X_L -…
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I remember first learning about the world-wide Internet, and wondering what it actually looked like. The first…
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A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…
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