Practical 10

Using the Process Control Trainer, implement P Controller and P.I

Controller

Objective:

 To understand the working and characteristics of P Controller

 To understand the working and characteristics of PI Controller

Tools/Software Requirement

 Process Control Trainer (PCT-100)

 A PC with PCT – 100 software installed and connected to trainer

Recommended Books:
 Feedback Control Systems by Charles L. Phillips & Royce D. Harbor
 Control Systems by Norman Nise

Activity Time Boxing

Task Activity Name Activity Time

No.
Brief Lecture on P Controller and P.I
1 10 ~ 15 mins
Controller
2 Performing Experiment 120 ~ 125 mins
Results & Evaluation (signed by the
3 30 ~ 40 mins
instructor)
Total Time: 180

Theory
Temperature, Level, Flow and Pressure are the four most common process
variables. Similar to temperature, pressure is key process variable because
pressure provides a critical condition for boiling, chemical reaction, distillation,
extrusion, vacuuming, and air conditioning. Poor pressure control can cause
major safety, quality, and productivity problems. Overly high pressure inside a
sealed vessel can cause an explosion. Therefore, it is highly desirable to keep
pressure under control and maintained within its safety limits.
High productivity and consistent products reliability have become vital to
industrial success. In particular, high reliability of the manufacturing process is
important in the ‘process industry’ as any faults in the system can produce large
volumes of a defective product in a very short time.

The development of microprocessor based control systems built around PLCs,

industrial PCs, and embedded micro-controllers, has been largely responsible
for the huge increases in productivity seen in many plants. Micro-electronics
has replaced manpower for monitoring and controlling both the product and the
manufacturing process. The proliferation of modern micro-electronics based
control systems has resulted in a great demand for high quality training in this
field. The development of suitable equipment to allow for teaching in these
areas was required as industrial installed production equipment could not be
used because of the downtime cost, safety considerations and the difficulty in
getting a good overview of a large plant. One of the major benefits of PCT –
100 is to illustrate the advantages offered by the application of microprocessor
based controllers to process automation and also to provide a realistic set of
control problems which may be used as the basis of exercises for PLC
programmers and software engineers.
The PCT-100 software allows the investigation of the following subject areas:
 Control of rate of flow of water from the sump to the process tank.
 Control of temperature of the body of water in the process tank.
 Control of water level in the process tank.
 Control of pressure in the process tank

It is sometimes necessary to assess the performance of a process control loop,

(plant, sensor, controller and actuator) in order to ascertain whether it may be
improved. The best method is to obtain a response curve, (sometimes called a
process reaction curve), for the type of input disturbance expected in normal
operation. Typically the input disturbance might be a step change e.g. increase
the flow rate set point by 15% or reduce the temperature set point by 10%. In
general a control loop’s response to a disturbance includes both transient and
steady-state components. Given enough time, the transient component will
eventually die away completely and the difference between the measured value
of the process variable before the disturbance and after the transient has faded,
represents the steady-state element of the response.

Figure 10.1 Typical System Responses

Flow Measurement
The flow rate of the water is measured by a Hall Effect turbine flow rate sensor.
The water flows through the meter and rotates an impeller, this produces a pulse
train output, the frequency of which is proportional to the flow rate. Input is 5 to
24 VDC @ 8mA, output is NPN sinking open collector @ 50mA maximum (Hz
Output) and repeatability is 0.5% of full scale
This voltage is used to drive the digital flow rate display on the rig and
converted to digital form by an ADC for input to the controller. This is all
shown diagrammatically below.

Figure 10.2 Diagrammatic Representation of Working of Flow Rate Sensor

The Set Point (SP)
The Set Point is the process variable desired value that the controller is trying to
achieve and maintain. It can either be a fixed value or a square, saw-tooth, ramp
or sinusoidal waveform for the flow and level experiments. For the temperature
and pressure experiments only fixed value set points are available.

The Sample Time

The Sample Time is an important factor which affects the performance of a pc
based controller. It is the time interval between successive samples of the
measured value. A long period between samples reduces the need for rapid
analogue to digital conversion and reduces the computational load, but as the
sample time is increased a number of degrading effects become significant. If
the sampling frequency is too low then important high frequency information
will be lost.
The Trend
The Trend windows show the results of the experiments. To display more data
on the screen the user may adjust the slider to the top right of the trend window.
This slider varies the timebase of the trend. The arrows to the left of the trend
allow the data to be scrolled left or right. Direct numerical input equivalents for
these two features are also provided.
The Experiment Time
The Experiment Time for the batch volume experiment may be varied between
60 and 600 seconds. This is the period over which the target volume (set point)
of water should be ‘delivered’ at the overflow outlet of the process tank.
Auto Drain Auto Drain is an optional function which automatically sets the
drain valve open and close in a repeating cycle if the measured level is greater
than the set point in fluid level experiments.
Procedure
Proportional Control for Flow Rate
1. Before using, check the drain valve is closed.
2. Fill the sump tank to the fill mark with distilled or deionized water and
ensure the overflow valve on the top of the process tank is open. Close
the needle valve and run the pump using the control module.
 3. Remove the tick again I and D, set SP and PG as in the tables below and
record results to implement proportional only control of the flow loop.
4. Record the eventual ‘steady state’ flow rate values in liters/min in the
tables below.
5. Also, write your observations as to the nature of the response.

Table 10.1 Steady State Values when keeping Set Point (SP) constant
SP (l/min) PG Settling Time
2.0 0.5 0.96
2.0 1.0 1.25
2.0 1.5 1.40
2.0 2.0 1.50
2.0 2.5 1.57
2.0 3 1.62

Table 10.2 Steady State Values when keeping Proportional Gain (PG)
constant
SP (l/min) PG Steady State
0.5 1.0 0.38
1 1.0 0.71
1.5 1.0 0.98
2 1.0 1.26
2.5 1.0 1.52
3 1.0 1.71
Graph 10.1

PG values Vs Steady state keeping SP

1.8 contant
1.6 1.62
1.57
1.5
1.4 1.4

1.2 1.25
Steady state

1 0.96
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
PG values

Graph 10.2

Steady State vs Set point by keeping PG constant

1.8
1.71
1.6
1.52
1.4
1.26
1.2

1 0.98
Steady State

0.8
0.71
0.6

0.4 0.38

0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Set Point
Observations / Analysis
For a given set point, the final steady state value increases as the proportional gain
is increased.
However, there is no value of proportional gain for which the steady state value is
exactly equal to the set point because with proportional control there must always
be some error in order for there to be a controller output. As the proportional gain is
increased, there is also an increase in the magnitude and duration of the initial
oscillations and if the proportional gain is too high, many systems will oscillate
continuously and never settle to a steady state.

Proportional and Integral Control

1. Before using, check the drain valve is closed.
2. Fill the sump tank to the fill mark with distilled or deionized water and
ensure the overflow valve on the top of the process tank is open. Close
the needle valve and run the pump using the control module.
3. Remove the tick again I and D, set SP and PG as in the table below.
4. Start the flow loop experiment initially using proportional control.
5. Place the tick against I adding in an element of integral action. According
to the table below.
6. To turn off the integral action, you can either remove the tick against I
from the white box or you can set the I term to 999.
7. Record the final steady state flow value (if the flow actually does settle)
in the table below.
8. Also, write you observations as to the nature of the response.
Note that integral action takes account of the recent history of the error,
whereas, proportional action only reacts to the current value of the error.
For the PCT-100 with I = 3, the response is rapid with little or no oscillation.
Increasing the integral action above that, which is suitable for a given system
can lead to instability and the possibility of gross oscillations in the values of
the process variable.
With the integral action time set to around 0.2 seconds the response is
‘lightly damped’ which means that while the control loop is not unstable, i.e.
continuous large amplitude and/or growing oscillations, the controller is not
optimally ‘tuned’ for critical or near critical damping.
Table 10.3 Steady State Values for PI controller when keeping Set Point (SP)
constant
SP (l/min) PG I Steady State Steady State
Value Error (%)
(l/min)
2.0 1.0 0.5 1.98 1%
2.0 1.0 1.0 1.94 3%
2.0 1.0 1.5 1.92 4%
2.0 1.0 2.0 1.89 5.5%
2.0 1.0 2.5 1.89 5.5%
2.0 1.0 5.0 1.86 7%
2.0 1.0 10 1.86 7%
2.0 1.0 15 1.84 8%

Graph 10.3

Integrator vs Steady State Error With Constant Set

Point
8
8 = 2 l/min and Constant Proportional Gain = 1
7 7
7

5.5 5.5
Steady State Error (%)

5
4
4
3
3

2
1
1
0.5 2.5 4.5 6.5 8.5 10.5 12.5 14.5
Integral Value

Observations / Analysis
The integral action takes account of the recent history of the error, whereas,
proportional action only reacts to the current value of the error. For the PCT-100
with I = 1.5, the response is rapid with little or no oscillation.
Increasing the integral action above that, which is suitable for a given system can
lead to instability and the possibility of gross oscillations in the values of the
process variable.
 Post Lab Activity
1. What conclusions about the nature of proportional control can be
drawn from your observations?
P controller gives the output which is proportional to the error signal. The error
signal is the difference between the set point and the current process value.
Proportional action is the term given to a controller action when the output
signal is proportional to the deviation of the measured value from the desired
value. Proportional control operates with a constant gain or proportionality
constant. This means that the ratio of the change in the control output to the
change in the error remains constant. Proportional control alone may not
eliminate steady-state error entirely, especially in systems with significant
disturbances or nonlinearities. While it can reduce steady-state error, it may not
drive it to zero. The effectiveness of proportional control heavily depends on the
appropriate selection of the proportional gain. Tuning this gain is essential to
achieve desired system performance, balancing between stability and
responsiveness. Proportional control alone might not provide robust stability
margins, especially in systems with uncertain dynamics or delays. Combining it
with other control techniques can enhance stability.
2. What conclusions about the effects of integral action upon the nature
of PI controller can be drawn from your observations?

Integral controllers can reduce the error to zero thereby eliminating the problem with
proportional controllers. Caution mist be taken in implementing an integral controller to
avoid continuous increase in the control action caused by the integration of error.
Integral action in a PI controller ensures the elimination of steady-state error, even in
systems with constant disturbances or set point changes. This is because the integral
term continuously accumulates the error over time and adjusts the control output
accordingly. The integral action enhances the stability of the control system by
effectively eliminating any long-term offsets or biases in the system response. It helps
in maintaining the system's equilibrium over time, reducing oscillations and improving
transient response. PI controllers exhibit robustness to parameter variations and
changes in the system dynamics. The integral term adapts to system changes by
continuously integrating the error signal, providing consistent control performance
across different operating conditions. While integral action improves steady-state
performance and stability, it introduces challenges in controller tuning. Improper tuning
of the integral gain can lead to sluggish response, overshoot, or even instability. Careful
tuning is necessary to achieve the desired balance between stability and responsiveness.
Evaluation Criteria:

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Lab Instructor: