Encyclopaedia of Industrial Instrumentation and Control (Industrial Control Systems) (ePub)

Technological advancements in process monitoring, control and industrial automation over the past decades have contributed greatly to improve the productivity of virtually all manufacturing industries throughout the world. While 90% of global production is still controlled by analog instrumentation, almost all the controls installed as a part of a new plant or plant expansion are Digital Control Systems DCS connect-ted by digital networks. Nowadays, in this era of digital buses, one can plug in a laptop or use a wireless hand tool, to in instantly establish access to all the data, displays and intelligence that resides anywhere on the DCS network. This capability, in combination with the self-tuning, self diagnosing and optimizing features of modem process control, makes both startup activity and operational routines much easier and more efficient. Similarly, Distributed Control Systems DCS offer process modeling and simulation, something that can improve operator training a great deal. An accurate simulation model allows operators to train under "live' conditions without exposing the plant to the consequences of their mistakes. Over the past 40 years, much have been written about advanced process control; the underlying theory implementation studies, statements about the benefits that its applications will bring and projections of future trends. During the 1960s, advanced process control was taken to mean any algorithm or strategy that deviated from the classical three. term, Proportional-integral-Derivative (PlD), controller. The advent of process computers meant that algorithms that could not be realized using analog technology could now be applied. Feed forward control, multivariable control and optimal process control philosophies became practicable alterative. indeed, the modem day proliferation of so called advanced control methodologies can only be attributed to the advances made in the electronics industry, especially in the development of low cost digital computational devices. Nowadays, advanced control is synonymous with the implementation of computer based technologies. This encyclopaedia has been designed as a reference book for the students of Electronics and instrumentation Engineering instrumentation and Control Engineering and Chemical Engineering courses offered in technical universities all over world.