Ch.

# 3
Hardware in process control system
• Physical elements(hardware) consisting a control system as it is implemented in
practice for the control of real processes
• Process control systems (PCS), also called industrial control systems (ICS),
function as pieces of equipment along the production line during manufacturing
that test the process in a variety of ways and return data for monitoring and
troubleshooting.
• Many types of process control systems exist, including
i. supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA),
ii. programmable logic controllers (PLC),
iii. distributed control systems (DCS),
• The system works to collect and transmit data obtained during the
manufacturing process..
 Hardware element of a control system
• The hardware elements are the components of a loop i.e., controller, the measuring
instrument and the actuator.
• In every control configuration, it can be distinguished w.r.t. the following hardware
elements:
1. The chemical process
2. The measuring instruments
or sensors
3. Transducers
4. Transmission lines
5. The controller
6. The final control element
7. Recording elements
1. The chemical process:

• A chemical process means changing one or more chemicals or chemical

compounds.
• In "engineering" sense, a chemical process is a method intended to manufacture on
an industrial scale products by changing the composition/ nature of chemical(s) or
material(s), using technologies related to the transformation process.
• This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing
chemicals, using basic processes e.g., Synthesis, thermal cracking and
distillation.
• Materials produced in chemical & process industries are usually based on various
elements or separated chemically-defined compounds.
2. The measuring instruments or sensors:

• The instruments used to measure fluctuations, disturbances in process

variables, e.g., controlled input/output variables or secondary output variables
and other sources of information/data, related to a process, e.g., pressures,
level, flow, temperature, density, PH(acidity or alkalinity), mass,
conductivity etc.
• Good measurements are very crucial for good control, the measuring
devices should be rugged and reliable for industrial environment.
• Thermocouples, or resistance thermometers for temperature measurement,
Venturi meter for flowrate including many other measuring instruments and
devices like Gas chromatographs, atomic absorption unit, for measuring
composition of streams, etc.
 3. Transducers:
• The primary function of transducers is to convert a physical force into an electrical
signal so that it can be easily handled and transmitted for measurement.
• Transducers are used to convert one type of signal to another type (e.g., analog-to-
digital, pneumatic-to-electric etc.).
• Many variables cannot be controlled until the signals are converted to physical/
numerical quantities (such as electric current or voltage, or a pneumatic signals i.e.,
compressed air or liquid)
• e.g., strain gauge are metallic conductors whose
electric resistance changes when they are
subjected to mechanical strain.
• Such variations can be used to convert pressure
signal to an electric signal or vice versa.
• Amplifiers are used to enhance weak signals,
records, safety switches, alarms etc.
4. Transmission lines:

• Transmission lines convey the measured variables from measuring device to the
controller.
• Previously the pneumatic (compressed air or compressed liquids) signals are used
but with the advent of electronic or analog controllers and especially the
expanding use of digital computers for control, transmission lines carry electric
signals.
• Many times, the measurement signal coming from a measuring device is very
weak and cannot be transmitted over a long distance.
• In such cases the transmission lines are equipped with amplifiers which raise the
level of the signal.
• For example, the output of a thermocouple is of the order of a few millivolts.
Before it is transmitted to the controller, it is amplified to the level of a few volts.
 5. The controller:
• An hardware element that has "intelligence.“
• Controller receives the information from the measuring devices and decides
what action should be taken.
• Formerly, the controllers had limited intelligence, could
perform very simple operations, and implement simple
control rules.
• Latest controllers along with digital computers as the
controllers are more intelligent devices and their
applications have expanded tremendously, and very
complicated control laws/ rules can be implemented.
• Digital controllers have superior performance, low cost
and design flexibility is now available to improve control
systems and has significantly increased the popularity of
digital controllers over analogue controllers in many
applications.
• In principle, a digital control system is similar to an
analogue control system.
6. The final control element: The hardware element that implements in real life the decision
taken by the controller.
• For example, if the controller "decides" that the flow rate
of the outlet stream should be increased (or decreased) in
order to keep the liquid level in a tank at the desired
value (see Figure),
• It is the valve (on the effluent stream) that will
implement this decision, opening (or closing) by the
commanded amount.
• The control valve is the most frequently encountered
final control element but not the only one. Other typical
final control elements for a chemical process are:
 Relay switches, providing on-off control
 Variable speed pumps
Figure. Stirred tank Heater
 Variable speed compressors
7. Recording elements:
• These are used to provide a visual demonstration of how a chemical process
behaves.
• Usually, the variables recorded are the variables that are directly measured as part
of the control system.
• Various types of recorders (temperature, pressure, flow rate, composition, etc.)
can be seen in the control room of a chemical plant, continuously monitoring the
behavior of the process.
• The recent introduction of digital computers in the process control has also
expanded the recording opportunities, through video display units (VDUs).
 Use of digital computers in process control
• Large chemical plants such as petroleum refineries, ethylene plants, ammonia
plants, and many others are under digital computer control.
• The effects have been very substantial, leading to better control and reduced
operating costs.
• In the past the control laws that could be implemented by a controller were very
simple, such as the proportional or proportional-integral control.
• The fundamental revolution introduced by the digital computer in the practice of
process control is the virtually unlimited intelligence that can be exhibited by
such units.
• The digital computer, with its easily programmed inherent intelligence, "can learn
as it receives measurements from the process, and it can change the control law
that is implementing during the actual operation of the plant.
• The digital computers have found very diversified control applications in the
process industry.
 • Following are some applications characteristic of the diverse usage of digital computers.
Direct digital control (DDC):
• In such applications the computer receives directly the measurements from the process
and based on the control law, which is already programmed and resides in its memory,
calculates the values of the manipulated variables.

1. These decisions are now implemented directly on

the process by the computer through the proper
adjustment of the final control elements (valves,
pumps, compressors, switches, etc.). This direct
implementation of the control decisions gave rise to
the name direct digital control, or simply DDC.

Typical DDC configuration

 2. Supervisory computer control:
• One of the incentives for process control is the optimization of the plant’s economic
performance.
• Many times, the human operator does not or
cannot find the best operating policy for a
plant which will minimize the operating
cost.
• This deficiency is due to the enormous
complexity of a typical chemical plant.
• In such cases we can use the speed and the
programmed intelligence of a digital
computer to analyze the situation and
suggest the best policy. In doing so the
computer coordinates the activities of the
basic DDC loops.
Figure. Structure of Supervisory computer control
3. Scheduling computer control:
• Finally, the computer can be used to schedule the operation of a plant.
• For example, the conditions in the market (demand, supply, prices) change with
time, requiring the management of the chemical plant to change its operational
schedule by cutting production to avoid overstocking, increasing production to
meet the demand, changing over to a new production line, and so on.
• These decisions can be made rationally with the aid of a digital computer, which
in turn will communicate these decisions to the supervisory computer
controllers.
• Finally, the supervisory controllers will implement these decisions on the
chemical plant through the DDCs.
Thank You