Introduction

Control systems are essential and are found everywhere around and within us (Bateson, 2001, Pg 2). An
example of one is the homeostatic control found in the human body. Here, the temperature, water, salt
and sugar concentration are regulated so as to prevent damage to the body and ensure the normal
functioning of the body. Control systems are also found to be useful in chemical plants as the quality of
the output of a process depends on the process conditions. A process is often defined as a dynamic
system whose behavior changes with time (Häggblom, 2010). This means that there will always be
disturbances that will affect the process conditions. For example the ambient temperature around a
reactor may drop or increase drastically thereby affecting the temperature in the reactor. Therefore,
there is a need for a response to this change and this is when a control system comes into play.
Understanding the process dynamics is an important criterion when designing the control system.

A control process has been described as a process that involves measuring the variable required to
control (controlled variable), comparing this measurement to a value which is desired (set point) and
adjusting some further variable (manipulated variable) which has a direct effect on the controlled
variable (Richardson &Peacock, 1994, Pg 560). Control may occur manually by a human operator or by
automatically. According to Richardson & Peacock (1994, Pg 560), it is highly desired to have automatic
control rather than manual control by a human operator as the observation of the manual controller will
fall with time.

The main aim of the experiment was to study the sensor, actuator and a controller which are the main
components in a feedback loop control system. The plant used consisted of a liquid tank (with a sensor)
whose level was to be controlled, a control valve at the outlet of the tank and a controller which aided
this. The experiment was carried out in two sessions. The objectives of the first session were to
calibrate both the level sensor and the control valve and access the hysteresis error in the two
instruments. The objective of the second session was to understand the dynamic behavior of the system
evaluate manual control, evaluate the tuning of a PID control via manual and automatic tuning, evaluate
the effect of positive or negative feedback on the closed-loop system.
Theory

Feedback control system also known as a closed loop control system is a type of control system. A
feedback control system operates by measuring the output of the system and comparing this to the set
point. The difference (error) is used to drive the output to the set point (Bateson, 2001. Pg 8). This
process is called feedback as the measured signal travels backwards. An illustration of a feedback system
is shown in figure 1;

Disturbances

Set point Controlled variable

Controller Manipulating element Process
Input Output

Feedback path
Sensor

Figure 1: Block Diagram of a Feedback Control System

From the figure 1 above, it can be seen that the feedback path forms a loop with the system. For this
reason, it is called a closed loop system. The sensor measures the controlled variable and sends the
signal to the controller. The controller detects the difference between the output of the system and the
set point. It uses this information to produce a control action which is transmitted to the manipulating
element. The manipulating element uses this control action to changes a variable in the process in a way
as to minimize this difference.

A level sensor consists of two main elements, the primary sensing element which measures the level of
the liquid and a signal transmitter which converts this information to a usable signal that is transmitted
to the controller. Most level sensors output signal is of an electrical nature and works within a given
range. Level sensors are linear devices such that level (input) has a linear proportional relationship with
the output electrical signal. The equation relating the level measured in % the maximum level to the
output signal measured in volts is given below;

Voltage(V )  Ks  Level(%)  Z s (1)

Where Voltage is the output signal of the sensor, Ks is the gain of the sensor and defined as the ratio of
the change in the output to the change in the input and Zs is the zero of the instrument i.e the voltage
when the level is 0%.
Due to linearity of the level sensor, calibration can be easily achieved for a level sensor. Calibration is the
procedure of determining the accuracy of a measuring instrument (Bateson, 2001. Pg 159). Calibration is
achieved for a given sample experimentally by recording the output of the instrument for each input
variable and deriving a relationship between them. Typically a graph of the output signal against the
measured variable (input) is plotted and it is called calibration curve for the instrument. Plotting a graph
of Voltage against the level will give the calibration curve and the Ks and Zs values can be found from the
graph. For an instrument there exist some non-linearity examples of which are hysteresis and dead
band. Hysteresis occurs when there are two different curves are produced when there is an increased
and decreased direction change of the input. A loop is usually formed between the two curves and the
the hysteresis error can be determined by;

Maximum output error difference

hysteresis error   100 (2)
Output range

Dead band occurs for a range of values through which a change in the input does not produce any
observable change in output (Bateson, 2001. Pg 18).

The valve act as a manipulating element which varies the flow rate. The control valve varies the flow
rate by changing the area of flow within the valve. A control valve consists of two parts; an actuator and
a final controlling element also known as the valve body. The valve body consists of a moveable plug on
the valve stem which by varying the position changes the area of flow. The actuator receives the
controllers signal and converts it into a force which moves the valve plug. A typical type of control valve
is a pneumatic valve which uses the air pressure to change the valve stem position. A control valve can
be seen in figure 2 below;

Signal from controller

Diaphragm
Actuator

Stem
Body

Moveable Plug
Fluid

Figure 2: A control valve

From figure 2, it could be seen that moving the stem downwards causes the moveable plug to decrease
the area of flow and vice versa. Therefore, the area of flow depends on the stem position. For a linear
valve actuators, the equation relating the input signal, u (in % closed) from the controller to the valve
stem position, x is given below;

x  a u  b (3)

Where, a and b are constants

The stem position varies from valve to valve and the range of stem positions for a particular valve is
0  x  xmax . For this reason a dimensionless stem position, l was created such that;

x
l (4)
xmax

Therefore at the maximum area of flow, l  1 and at the minimum area of flow, l  0 .

There are two types of valve fail actions. The first type is the fail closed (FO). As the name suggests it
closes when it fails and the minimum signal produces a minimum flow rate. The second type is fail open
(FO) which produces a maximum flow rate when there is a minimum input signal. The equation relating
the dimensionless stem position to the signal for a fail open valve is;

umax  u
l (5)
umax  umin

Where umin and umax are the minimum and maximum signal from the controller that will cause a change
in the stem position respectively.

The characteristic of a control valve is the relationship between the valve position and the flow rate
through the valve (Bateson, 2001. Pg 347). The inherent characteristics of a valve is the measure of the
theoretical performance of a valve (Richardson & Peacock, 1994, Pg 723) and it is obtained when there
is a constant pressure drop across the valve for all stem positions. This varies with valves as this
characteristic depends on the geometry of the plug and orifice. There are three types of inherent
characteristics namely, the decreasing, linear and increasing sensitivity type. But the type to be
considered here is the linear sensitivity type which has a linear relationship between the stem position
and the flow rate;

q x
 l (6)
q max x max

q
Q (7)
qmax
Where q is the flow rate at the stem position x , qmax is the maximum flow rate and Q is the
fractional flow. The inherent characteristic linear valve is;

Cv  Cv ,max  l (8)

Where C v is the sizing coefficient defined as the flow of water per unit drop of pressure across the valve
body.

The installed characteristic occurs when a valve is part of a system and it depends on the fraction of the
pressure drop across the valve to the total pressure drop across the system. As there are resistances to
flow by other components in the system, the pressure drop across the valve will vary and depend on the
flow rate. Therefore the inherent characteristic depends on both the inherent characteristic of the valve
and the flow characteristics of the system. Also, if the valve inherent characteristic is linear the installed
characteristic will be linear as well (Richardson & Peacock, 1994, Pg 724). The installed characteristic for
linear valve and a system with turbulent flow, a constant resistance and a centrifugal pump is giving by;
l
Q (9)
(1   )l 2  
Where  is the relative control valve resistance and can be defined as;
 Energy dissipated by the valve 
   (10)
 Energy dissipated by the system  maximum flow
Rearranging equation 10 gives;
(Q 2  1)   (l 1  1) (11)

The controller has two stages in which it acts. The first stage being error detection and the second stage
is control mode implementation. This can be illustrated below;

Error Controller
detection

Set point + Error Control Controller Output

modes


Measured variable

Figure 3: Block diagram of the Controller

Figure 3 shows a detailed block diagram of the controller pieced from figure 1. The error (e(t)) is defined
as the difference between the measured value of the controlled variable (y(t)) and the set point (SP).
This is represented in the equation below;
e(t )  SP  y (t ) (12)
After detecting the error, the controller uses its control modes to convert the error to a control action
which aims to minimise the error. There are three types of control modes that determine the control
action to be taken by the controller. The three modes are proportional mode (P), integral mode (I) and
derivative mode (D).

The proportional mode produces a control action that is proportional to the error (Bateson, 2001. Pg
13). This means that if the error is large the control action by the proportional mode will be large. The
proportional mode control action can be obtained by multiplying the error by a constant known as the
proportional gain constant, Kc. Kc is defined as the percentage of change in the controller output
relative to the percentage change in the controller output. For the P mode there is always an offset (i.e.
a difference in the set point and controlled variable) at steady state. Mathematically the proportional
mode can be represented by;
c(t )  cs  K c e(t ) (13)
Where, c(t) is the control signal and cs is the steady state output
The integral mode produces a control action that continues to increase its corrective effect affect as
long as the error persists i.e. if the error is small the integral mode will increase the correction slowly
(Bateson, 2001. Pg 13) and vice versa if the error is large. What I mode does mainly is to eliminate an
offset. Mathematically the integral mode by represented by;
Kc
c(t ) 
I  e(t )dt (14)

Where τI is the integral time

The derivative mode produces a control action that is proportional to the rate at which the error is
changing (Bateson, 2001. Pg 13). This mode attempts to predict a future error by comparing it to the
rate at which the error is changing thereby producing a control action before the future error occurs.
Mathematically the derivative mode can be represented by;
de(t )
c(t )  K c D (15)
dt
Where, τD is the derivative time.
These three modes are seldom used separately but are often combined together depending on
requirements of the system. For example PI mode is used when there is a need for an accurate and the
response time is not critical. Mathematically the control signal for the PI mode is equal to adding
equations 13 and 14 and can be seen below;
Kc
c(t )  cs  K c e(t )
I  e(t )dt (16)

And the control signal of the PID controller is represented by;

Kc de(t )
c(t )  c s  K c e(t )
I  e(t )dt  K  c D
dt
(17)

The performance of the controller depends on the values of Kc, τI, and τD and each system has different
requirements for control. In order to get an optimum value of each of these parameters for a particular
system, it is important to tune the controller. Tuning is defines as the systematic determination of the
controller parameters (Dragosavac, 2013).
Experimental Procedure

Key
Pneumatic signal line
General signal line
Electrical signal line

LCV
101 V1

Tank 1 Tank 2
LIC
101

V2 LT
101

FI
Water in

Drain

Figure 4: Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up

The schematic diagram of the experiment is shown in figure 4. The aim of this set up is to make the
outlet flow rate of tank 1 depend on the level of tank 1 by control. The water inlet flow rate was varied
by the supply hand valve, V2. The inlet flow rate was adjusted to 380l/h and was kept constant in most
situations during the experiment unless stated. The water level sensor was located at the bottom of
Tank 1 and an overflow occurred just above the maximum level of tank water. Water flowing at the
overflow went to the drain and this is shown in figure 4. The output signal from the level sensor was
received by a computer which acted as the controller. The outlet flow rate was measured by a digital
flow meter shown as the flow indicator and this was varied by the action of the controller on the
pneumatic valve, V1.

The controller was set to an automatic mode and the desired water level was set to 100% which is the
maximum water level. After waiting for the system to stabilise, the input voltage signal was measured
at this level. This was repeated for the minimum level (0%) and the corresponding input voltage signal
was recorded.

Using an automatic control, the set point of the water level was changed to 20%. After waiting for the
system to stabilise the corresponding input voltage signal was recorded. This was repeated for water
level of 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% in this order. In order to identify hysteresis error of the
level sensor, this procedure was repeated in decreasing order starting with 80% and ending with 30%
(the water level could not go below this level due to the force at which the water was falling into the
tank which caused bubbles to form) with increments of 10%. The data recorded was used to calibrate
the level sensor.

For the valve calibration, a manual control mode was used. In order to maintain a steady state flow, the
inlet flow rate was increased so that there was an overflow of water in tank and the water level will
remain at maximum level of the tank. This was to ensure that there were no changes in water level. The
valve output variable was varied from 0% to 64% closed. It was found there was no change in outlet flow
rate of water in that range. As a result of this the valve output variable was set to 100% closed and the
corresponding outlet flow rate was recorded. This was repeated for 64-94% closed in the decreasing
order of % closed with increments of 4%. The outlet flow rate was measured at each point. Similarly, to
assess the hysteresis error the procedures described above was repeated for 66-100% close in order of
increasing % closed. The valve was identified to be a fail open valve.

To evaluate the effects of manual control, the controller was set to automatic mode and the water level
was set to a new set point. After the system stabilized, the controller was then changed to a manual
mode. The valve output variable was being varied by manual actions to achieve a set point of 40% water
level. This was repeated for another set point of 60% by manual actions. Observations were made.

The next stage of the experiment was to evaluate the tuning of a PID control by automatic control. At an
automatic mode, there was a change in the set point so that the performance of the default control
parameters with values of Kc=4, τI= 0.6, τD=0 was tested. The overshoot and time to reach equilibrium
was observed and the steady state error was recorded. In order to investigate the performance of the
proportional term, the Td and Ti were set to zero. Starting with Kc=2 the water level set point was
changed. After the system was stabilized, the steady state error was recorded and observations were
made on the overshoot and time to reach equilibrium. This was repeated for Kc values of 4 and 6. To test
the performance of the Integral term, Kc was kept constant at 4, τD at 0 and τI was varied with values of
0.4, 0.6, 0.8. The same procedure for Kc= 2 was repeated for this. Similarly, investigating the effect of the
Differential term, Kc=4, τI= 0.6 and τD was varied. A screenshot of this was recorded and an excel file was
exported.

The auto tuning wizard function on the controller was used to get the best possible control parameters
for P normal, PI normal, PI fast, PI slow and PID normal actions. For each combination (e.g. PI normal)
the control performance was tested by changing the set point.

The sign of the proportional gain, Kc was changed from a negative to a positive. The effect of this is
tested by changing the set point of the system. The system’s behavior and controller’s action were
observed and recorded.

References

1. Robert Bateson (2001). Introduction to control system technology. (7th edition). (pp:2-20, 159,
344-350). Prentice Hall.
2. Richardson, J.F.; Peacock, D.G. (1994). Coulson and Richardson's Chemical Engineering Volume 3 -
Chemical and Biochemical Reactors and Process Control (3rd Edition). (pp: 560, 723-724). Elsevier.
3. Seal, A. M. (1998). Practical Process Control. (pp: 49). Elsevier.
4. Kurt-Erik Häggblom. (2010). A Short Introduction to Process Dynamics and Control. Available:
http://www.users.abo.fi/khaggblo/PDC/PDC%20intro%20-%20longer.pdf . Last accessed
12/01/2014.
5. Dragosavac, M (2013). Lab Manual. Instrumentation and Control Laboratory Rigs 1-6.
Loughborough University. Unpublished

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