Introduction

The objectives of this experiments are to control the Air-Heater process using PID
controller, tune the PID controller by Ziegler-Nichols open-loop method and control the Air-
Heater process using ON-OFF controller. The experiment is conduct by using the equipment
model AT922 where its uses air to stimulate a gas or vapor phase temperature process on
purpose that the gas temperature process control can be determine.

The temperature process is a multicapacity lag/dead time process with no noise. The
dead time is define as the amount of time taken after a change is done in the input to the
process before there is a change in the process output measurement (G.Goodwin, 2001). The
dead time is determined by using formula:

[𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑚 𝑥 3600𝑠 ]
Dead time =
𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 ,500 𝑚𝑚/𝐻𝑟

It uses a transistor to adjust the heat flow to the heater. The air flow rate is measured
using a rotameter. A selective control technique is employed here that automatically select
only a less heat demanding output to manipulate only one final control element (the
transistor/heater). This system requires a high gain PID controller.

The PID controller is known as proportional–integral–derivative controller. It is use as

a control loop feedback mechanism to control process variables (G.Goodwin, 2001). It is
common control algorithm used and well accepted in industries control.

There are three types of responses in PID controller (Webb, 1994). First, the
proportional response. The component depends only on the difference between the setpoint
and the process variable. Next is Integral response, the integral components sum the error
terms over time. A small error term will cause the integral component to increase slowly over
time unless the error is zero. Third is derivative response, where the response is proportional
to the rate of change of the process variable.
 The setting process for the optional gain for P, I and D to get an ideal response from a
control system is known as tuning. The method of tuning is known as Ziegler-Nichols method.
The method is performed by setting the Integral and Derivative gains to zero. While the
Proportional gain, kp where increased from zero until it reaches the ultimate gain, ku at point
where the output of the control loop has stable and consistent oscillations.

Furthermore, the other objective of this experiment is to control the Air-Heater process
using ON-OFF controller. The on-off controller is a simplest temperature control device. There
are only two output for this which are on or off. Generally, the on-off controller will switch its
output when the setpoint is exceed. This controller uses a latching relay, which must be
manually reset and is used to shut down a process when a certain temperature is reached
(PID & Process Temperature Controllers, n.d.).
REFERENCES

1. G.Goodwin, S. G. (2001). Control System Design. Prentice Hall.

2. PID & Process Temperature Controllers. (n.d.). Retrieved from Omega:

https://sea.omega.com/my/prodinfo/temperaturecontrollers.html

3. Webb, J. W. (1994). Programmable logic controller: principle and application. Prentice Hall
College Div .