Instrumentation

and
Process Control
Lecture – 5
Classification of Process Variables – Control configurations

Dr. Hemanth Kumar Tanneru

Department of Chemical Engineering
IIPE Visakhapatnam
Summary of previous lectures

• Why is process control needed?

• Main components needed to implement control?

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 2

Summary (cont…) 1. Effect of disturbances 2. Change in set-point

• Control problems Causes output variables to deviate

from their setpoints
• Servo

Regulatory
Servo Control
Control

• Regulatory

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 3

Summary (cont…)

• SISO

• MISO

• SIMO

• MIMO

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 4

Summary (cont..)
• The set points for the individual process variables of equipment
• Approach 1:

• Approach 2:

• MIMO to SISO

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 5

Summary: Controllers in process industry

The controller chooses the values that the manipulated variables need to attain given the setpoints (obtained from optimization of the control
objectives) that the controlled variables should follow

c1 m1

Controlled Variables cr mr Manipulated Variables

Controller

cn mn

• If the controller is designed to manipulate all the variables (𝑚1 , 𝑚2 , … , 𝑚𝑟 , … 𝑚𝑚 ) at the same time to keep all the controlled variables at
their respective setpoints, then such a controller is a multivariable controller.

• Multivariable controllers are often broken down to simple single variable controllers which manipulate
only one variable at a time to control one output variable.

• Single-input Single-output controllers (SISO) are the most prevalent in the industry:
➢ The analysis and design of multivariable controllers is complex
➢ High reliability of SISO controllers
➢ Simple advanced concepts (Cascade, Ratio, Feed-forward) can be easily incorporated
into the SISO controller framework

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 6

 Summary: Multivariable control problem to a group of SISO control problems – How ?

Perform “Pairing” of manipulated and controlled variables through a series of heuristics (such as closeness of
C.V to M.V to minimize delay in response, sensitivity of C.V to changes in M.V and so on), prior knowledge and

sound mathematical principles

Consider a simple 2 x 2 case to illuminate how the different blocks in a SISO control loop flow out of a multivariable control problem

Disturbance d1
m1 Process

m2
SISO Decomposition
c1

Controller
c2

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 7

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 8
 Loop 1 is isolated where changes in 𝑐1 due to changes
in 𝑚2 are also viewed as a disturbance.
m2 d1

Loop1 Loop1
Disturbance (m2) Disturbance (d1)
d

Loop1 Set point for c1 Disturbance

process model

Loop1 Set point for c1

Controller process

Controller

The interactions between the loops are taken into

account by modeling them as disturbances

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 9

In this lecture

Classification of Control
Process General strategies (Feed
General Variables back and Feed
framework of
General forward)
classification of • Examples Feed back,
representation
process • Liquid level Feed forward • Example:
of a process
variables tank and inferential Stirred tank
• Stirred Tank control heater
heater

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 10

Classification of process variables
Process
variables

Inputs Outputs

Manipulated
Disturbances Measured Unmeasured
variables

Measured Unmeasured

11
Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control
Definitions
Manipulated Disturbance
Process variables Inputs Outputs
variables variables
• Physical or • The variables • The variables • Input variables • External factors
chemical that can affect that can be used that can be or the input
quantities which the process as probes to manipulated variables on
indicate the understand the which we have no
current process internal control
conditions of a conditions of a
typical processing system
unit • Could represent
state variables
that are
measured or a
combination of
state variables
measured

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 12

Example 1: Liquid level tank
• Liquid level system
Fi (m3/s)
• Inputs

• Outputs
h (m)
Fo (m3/s)

A (m2) • CV| MV
Fi = Inlet flow rate
FO = Outlet flow rate
A = Area of cross-section of tank
h = Liquid level in tank
• Disturbances

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 13

Example 2: Stirred tank heater
• Stirred Tank heater
• Input variables

• Output variables

• CV, MV

• Disturbances

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 14

General representation of a process

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 15

Feedback control configuration
• Salient features

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 16

Feed forward control configuration
• Salient features

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 17

Inferential control configuration
• Salient features

Lecture 5 : Instrumentation and Process control 18