Educational Resources

Categories

Troubleshooting Current Loops

Troubleshooting Current Loops

A fundamental principle in instrumentation system troubleshooting is that every instrument has at least one…


Textbook

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

Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

As previously defined, calibration refers to the checking and adjustment of an instrument so that its output…


Textbook

Electrical Sources and Electronic Load

Electrical Sources and Electronic Load

By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…


Textbook

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

Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Constructing PID control systems using discrete components is a fairly simple method involving operational…


Textbook

Phasors, Phase Shift and Phasor Algebra

Phasors, Phase Shift and Phasor Algebra

Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…


Textbook

Valve Failure Modes

Valve Failure Modes

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


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

Basics of Electrical Current

Basics of Electrical Current

Current is the name we give to the motion of electric charges from a point of high potential to a point of low…


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

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

Electromagnetism Basics

Electromagnetism Basics

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


Textbook

Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

A very simple device used to measure pressure is the manometer: a fluid-filled tube where an applied gas…


Textbook

Transfer Function Analysis

Transfer Function Analysis

An extremely important topic in engineering is that of transfer functions. Simply defined, a transfer function…


Textbook

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…


Textbook

Distance (21) Protection

Distance (21) Protection

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


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

Supervisory Control

Supervisory Control

In a manually-controlled process, a human operator directly actuates some form of final control element…


Textbook

“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.…


Textbook

Memory Maps and I/O Addressing

Memory Maps and I/O Addressing

A wise PLC programmer once told me that the first thing any aspiring programmer should learn about the PLC…


Textbook

Actuator Bench-set

Actuator Bench-set

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


Textbook

Ratio Control

Ratio Control

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


Textbook

Calibration Errors and Testing

Calibration Errors and Testing

The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…


Textbook

Radiative Temperature Measurement

Radiative Temperature Measurement

Temperature measurement devices may be classified into two broad types: contact and non-contact. Contact-type…


Textbook

Structured Text (ST) Programming

Structured Text (ST) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


Textbook

Process Flow Diagrams

Process Flow Diagrams

To show a practical process example, let’s examine three diagrams for a compressor control system,…


Textbook

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…


Textbook

Introduction to Optical Analysis

Introduction to Optical Analysis

Light is known to interact with matter in very specific ways, which may be exploited as a means of measuring…


Textbook

Level Sensor Accessories

Level Sensor Accessories

Disturbances in the liquid tend to complicate liquid level measurement. These disturbances may result from…


Textbook

Assessing Student Learning

Assessing Student Learning

As a general rule, high achievement only takes place in an atmosphere of high expectations. Sometimes these…


Textbook

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

Laser Spectroscopy

Laser Spectroscopy

A laser is a light source emitting waves of light that not only share the exact same frequency (color)…


Textbook

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

Ultrasonic (Sound) Echo Level Measurement

A completely different way of measuring liquid level in vessels is to bounce a traveling wave off the surface…


Textbook

Understanding Area, Volume and Common Geometry

Understanding Area, Volume and Common Geometry

Area refers to the size of two-dimensional surface. Volume refers to the size of a three-dimensional space. To…


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

Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…


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

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…


Textbook

Practical PID Controller Features

Practical PID Controller Features

In order for any PID controller to be practical, it must be able to do more than just implement the PID…


Textbook

Phasors, Phase Shift and Phasor Algebra

Phasors, Phase Shift and Phasor Algebra

Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…


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

Calibration Errors and Testing

Calibration Errors and Testing

The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…


Textbook

Valve Packing

Valve Packing

Regardless of valve type, all stem-actuated control valves require some form of seal allowing motion of the…


Textbook