Designing & Tuning Feedback and Advanced Regulatory Control Strategies (EC05) is designed to provide students with a solid foundation of good process control techniques. The required field of knowledge for process control engineers has expanded significantly in recent years. What once was limited to measurement technology, signal transmission, and feedback control has now expanded to include alarm management, safety instrumented systems, integration of automation and business systems, plus a host of other technologies. EC05 will cover both the traditional and the expanded fields of knowledge enabling students to make appropriate use of all technologies available.
For those who select or design process control strategies, EC05 provides a thorough background in feedback control, plus a working knowledge of the application of advanced regulatory control strategies such as ratio, cascade, feedforward, override and decoupling. The course emphasizes the benefits of advanced regulatory control for improving the economics of process operations.
Who Should Attend EC05?
- Automation engineer
- Plant engineer
- Technicians that are responsible for tuning loops
- Engineering service providers that are paid to tune the system
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Classroom (EC05)Length: 3 days |
Visit our course formats page for a detailed description of each format.
Learning Objectives
- Determine process characteristics that are relevant to the design and/or troubleshooting of a control loop
- Define the functions and terminology for each mode of a feedback proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller
- Apply a variety of feedback controller tuning techniques, including intelligent trial and error tuning, and know the strengths and weaknesses of each
- Explain the feedback penalty concept, the motivation for applying advanced regulatory control
- Analyze process units for the potential application, feasibility and economic benefits of using one or more of the advanced regulatory control strategies.
- Select an appropriate control strategy for a given application
- Provide the engineering design for control strategies using a basic process control system (BPCS), Foundation Fieldbus or other platforms available at your plant
Topics Covered
- Process control symbols and diagrams
- Control loop block diagrams
- Determining process gain
- Set a controller for direct or reverse action
- Process control loop characteristics
- Steady state characteristics
- Dynamic characteristics
- Characteristics of flow
- Temperature pressure
- Level loops
- Feedback control
- Behavior and terminology of proportional, integral and derivative modes
- Modifications, options and features found in commercial system feedback controllers, including recent developments such as two-degree of freedom controllers
- Controller tuning
- Open and closed loop methods
- Intelligent trial-and-error
- Lambda and predictive level tuning
- Commercially available tuning aids
- Recognizing the difference between a control tuning problem and other control loop issues
- Advanced control strategies
- Basic concepts
- Design implementation
- Tuning
- Benefits and application examples using feedforward, override and decoupling techniques
- Overview of concepts, application and benefits of process model-based control techniques, including model predictive control
- Considerations for plant-wide control strategies
Classroom/Laboratory Exercises:
- Use a control loop simulation program for hands-on practice of several feedback controller tuning techniques
- Observe the effect of each topic, such as the behavior of cascade and feedforward control, by use of a simulation program demonstration
Resource Included
- Basic and Advanced Regulatory Control: System Design and Application, Third Edition by Harold L. Wade
Recommended Prerequisites
- Familiarity with:
- fundamental process measurement techniques, such as flow, temperature, pressure and level.
- signal transmission technologies used in the process industries, such as 4-20 mA analog, digital and wireless.
- some type of process operator (control room) workstation, such as a panel board or preferably an HMI display/command station
- Mathematical competency equivalent to high school algebra.
(Note: A brief review of mathematical concepts used in class will be provided at the beginning of the course.)