CHE184-1P Process Dynamics and Control

2nd Quarter SY 2018-2019

On/Off Level Control of a Water Tank

Cuenca, Ashley Mae; Diaz, Danica R.; Sollano, Lorraine Joy

School of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering and Sciences

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abstract

On/ Off control system is a temperature controller system that controls the heat of the process. When
the process variable is below the corresponding set point, the heat was turned on while if the process variable
is above the set point then the controller will turn the heat off. These controllers normally include a delay,
hysterisis and or a cycle time to reduce the cycling or "hunting" when the process variable is close to the set
point. In truth, they are closer to thermostats than controllers, because they do not balance heat loss with heat
gain at the desired value. The Water Tank Level Control System has two interactive systems that is being
considered, three-point control is carried out using a proposed algorithm. SCADA system or Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition System and software will be carried out to manage the water level control
system and to simulate the left and the right tanks.

Keywords: Controller, Level, Process Variable

I. Introduction controller requires actuators (control elements) to

ON/OFF control is a type of control method
commonly applied to process control applications
such as liquid level control. It is the simplest and
often least expensive type of automatic process
control. ON/OFF control, or two-position control,
examines the value of a process variable and gives
an output that is either fully on (I00%) or fully off
(0%). There are no intermediate settings with
ON/OFF control.
provide control action where in this experiment
SCADA is used to gather data’s and control
instructions where they control a wide variety of
operations such as pipelines,chemical plants,
power plants, water management systems and
other industrial operation that can be harmful or
hazardous for the operator.

Process control is very essential in most of

the industrial processes such as: water purification
systems and nuclear power plants. Although, most
industrial problems such as: controlling the speed
of motor, or fluid level in a tank, or temperature of
the furnace are due to the installation of control
process when the control concepts had not been
properly understood.
Figure 1. Relay-Based On/Off Controller
A plant can either be managed by
controlling it manually or automatically, whereas a
control system is consist of actuators, sensors and
controllers. The interface between the plant and the
 II. Methodology

2.1) Equipment Utilized

The main equipment used in the

experiment was the EDIBON UCP Process Control
Systems Module it has a process module and a
control panel which was connected to a National
Instruments Acquisition board to a computer that
runs SCADA, which is the user interface for the
automated control of the UCP.

SCADA is used to gather data’s or send

control instructions to one or more distant facilities,
it allows to widely distribute process such as an oil
or gas field, pipeline system, or hydroelectric
generating complex, to make set point changes on
Figure 3. Base Unit of the UCP
distant process controllers, to open or close valves
or switches, to monitor alarms, and to gather
measurement information. 2.2) Procedure

Experiment 1 was in on/off level control

mode, it was set up by having a level set point at
100mm under control 2 tab and on-off 1 tab. Then
the right tank labeled as AB-2 was turned on
having a tolerance of 3. The level sensor (SN-1) was
also turned on while the actuators such as
resistance, stirrer and left pump of the tank was
turned off. Finally, the solenoid valve AVS-1 and
AVS-2 was turned on leaving AVS-3 closed.

As the students started the experiment, they

noted what happened to the data’s gathered in
level sensor and flow sensor for five minutes with
10 seconds intervals and has observed that while
the level sensor data drops the flow sensor
increases from 0 to 0.81 with respect to time.

2.3) Treatment of Results

The obtained data of SN-1 on the

experiment was graphed with respect to time.

Figure 2. EDIBON UCP Process Control Systems The graph that was generated was made
Module using the MS Excel.

There are no equations used in this

experiment.

III. Results and Discussion

 continues until it was turned off, the control circuit
In this experiment, level sensor values were maintains the level between the level limits where
obtained from an interval of 10 seconds for the the range was known to be the dead band or
whole 5-minute run. neutral zone. On/ Off control system is necessary if
the dead band is too narrow that causes the control
Time SN-1 Time SN-1 element to frequently turn off that may cause
0 99 2:40 98 reduced life, therefor the system prevents frequent
10 109 2:50 108 oscillation and still controls the process variable
20 106 3:00 107 with acceptable limits. On-Off Controller is
30 103 3:10 104 observed to not be very accurate in maintaining the
40 101 3:20 102 set point that can be used only in places that is not
50 98 3:30 99 focusing on a very prompt control such as a
1:00 109 3:40 100 domestic overhead water tanks.
1:10 107 3:50 108
1:20 104 4:00 105 The flow rate from the tank should change
1:30 102 4:10 103 gradually to avoid upsetting downstream process
units therefor steady state mass balance should be
1:40 99 4:20 100
applied so the input and output stream will be
1:50 98 4:30 97
equal. These will be obtained if and only if the
2:00 109 4:40 109
liquid level is allowed or is freely rising or falling
2:10 106 4:50 106
with respect to the inlet flow disturbance.
2:20 103 5:00 104
2:30 100
Table 1. Data obtained from the experiment
V. References

[1] Essays, UK. (November 2013). Water Level

Control System Of The Tank Engineering Essay.
Based on the data gathered, Retrieved from
110 https://www.ukessays.com/essays/engineering/
108 water-level-control-system-of-the-tank-
106 engineering-essay.php?vref=1
SN-1 (mm)

104
102 [2] R. N. Bateson, Introduction to Control System
100 Technology, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ,
98 1999, 6th Ed., pp. 304–307.
96
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 [3](Al-Najim, 2016)
Time (s) http://www.spu.edu.sy/downloads/files/149596
5644_1111.pdf
Graph 1. SN-1 vs Time
[4] Sun, H., Yan, D., Li, B.: The Level Control of Three
IV. Conclusion Water Tanks Based on Self-Tuning Fuzzy-PID
Controller. Electrotechnical Application 25(8), 97–99
On-Off controller was a simple type of (2006).
control where the output flow from the tank was
managed and controlled by a solenoid-operated [5]https://levelprocesscontrolsystem2.weebly.com
valve. High and Low limit are positioned where if /relay-based-onoff-controller.html
the high limit was reached then the manipulated
variable was fully on then it continues to drop until
it reaches the lower limit and the cycle just