BASICS OF PID CONTROLLER

The PID is basically a control concept used for control purposes .

The concept of controller is briefly given as follows:
A controller is basically a comparator. Ie it compares a minimum of two
signals. variable which need to be controlled is called Measured variable or
process variable. The value at which this variable is to be controlled is known
as set variable or desired variable. This is also called set point. The control
works based on the difference between these two variables called error. The
controller generates an output based on this difference called manipulated
variable. To summarise a controller has one input called error which is the
difference between process variable and setpoint. The controller output
which is called manipulated variable is based on the error. The objective of
the controller is to make the error zero.
Error in industrial applications is a number and any number has the following
attributes namely sign magnitude and units.
When a controller performs based on the sign of the error and not magnitude
an on-off control action results. On – off control has basically two output
states namely on or off. Some times it is called open/close, 0/1, True/False
etc. This type of control is normally called logic controls. They are normally
used to start stop and trip an electrical equipment . Trip is a special
condition of stop wherein the equipment goes to stop mode automatically
because of fault. Any logic control obeys a truth table. Truth table is a chart
that defines the relation between the various inputs and outputs.
An on/off controller cannot make the error zero. It produces oscillation of
process valuable over the set point since it does not respond to magnitude of
the error. All on/off controllers are invariably in the form of switches.
The maximum deviation over the set point on the positive side is called over
shoot and the maximum deviation over the setpoint on the negative side is
called under shoot.
The change In process variable required to produce a change in control action
ie on-off or vice versa is called differential gap or hysteresis.
To ensure that the error becomes zero we need a control action which will
respond to the sign and magnitude of the error. Such an action is called
proportional action.
In proportional action the controller gives a small change in output if the error
is small and gives a big change in output if the error is big. Ie the output of the
controller is proportional to error and hence the name proportional action. The
output of the controller is the product of proportional gain and error.
Here the input/output relationship is linear. Ie a straight line. The proportional
action though reduces the error significantly but it cannot make it zero
resulting in offset due to the following reason.
When the error becomes small the correction also becomes small and hence
unable to produce any effect. However this action is the back bone of the
control system.
Offset is nothing but the constant small error produced by the proportional
action.
To reduce this offset integral control action is used.
In integral action the output of the controller is proportional to integral of the
error with respect to time. Hence even a small error the output becomes big
over a period of time.
Integral action produces an output equal to product of error and time and
reset gain.
Since the time cannot be made zero the action stops only when the error
becomes zero. Else it becomes infinity.
Integral action is added to proportional action to get the combination of P+I
controller. This combination will nullify the error (error made zero) subject to
tuning.
The proportional and reset action functions only upon generation of error.
Hence in temperature control applications sometimes they are not effective.
To handle such situation only derivative (rate) control action is used.
In this action output is proportional to the differential of process variable with
respect to time. Ie action is perfomed without waiting for error. The output is
the product of differential gain and rate of change of process variable.
It may be noted that P+I control is suited for majority of the applications and
derivative action is optionally used only in temperature control applications if
necessary.
Tuning of pid controller:
This refers to proper adjustment of proportional integral and differential gain
for a particular application without which the error cannot become zero. If we
are using say 10 controllers in a plant invariably these settings will be different
in all cases.
Proportional gain:
This is a constant which is a ratio of output and input. In some controllers this
represented in percent.Then it is called proportional band.
Proportional band in %= 1*100/gain
Hence whenever tuning is done it is a must check whether the controller
accepts as number or gain in proportional band. For example in a controller
which accepts only proportional band to set a gain of 1 we have to set 100.
similarly to set a gain of 2 we have to set pb 50%.
Normaliy we start with a gain of 1 or less to ensure that there is no oscillation
of process variable.
Reset gain :
This parameter controls the reset action. It is represented in controllers in two
forms.
repeats/min
minutes
Hence prior to tuning we must to check which form the controller accepts
this value. A setting 2 repeats/min means integral action is performed 2 times
in a minute. A setting of 2 minutes mean that once in two minutes the integral
action is carried out.
Rate gain:
In all controllers it is given as minutes.
A proper combination of pid parameters is a must to ensure that error is zero.
In microprocessor based controllers alone self tuning facility is available. If this
facility is used then these parameters change automatically based on any one
of the following.
Error or measured variable or set point