1

Introduction

Automation is essential for the operation of chemical, petrochemical, and

refining processes. It is required to maintain process variables within safe
operating limits while maintaining product purity and optimum operating
conditions. Because all processes are different in their speed of response and
sensitivity to control adjustments and disturbances, the parameters of the
automatic controllers must be adjusted to match the process characteristics.
This procedure is known as tuning. The purpose of this book is to provide
you, the reader, with an understanding of the most commonly used and suc-
cessful tuning techniques for the various control strategies used in industry.

This first chapter presents a general discussion of the goal of tuning, a descrip-
tion of feedback control—the most common strategy—and a brief introduc-
tion to other common control strategies.

Learning Objectives — When you have completed this chapter, you should be
able to

A. Define the main goal of tuning a control system.

B. Understand the feedback control strategy.

C. Identify the various components of a feedback control loop.

1
2 Tuning of Industrial Control Systems, Third Edition

1-1. The Goal of Tuning

The goal of tuning is to produce a smoothly operating process. One common

misconception is that every process variable should be brought to its desired
value as quickly as possible and closely maintained at that value. When a con-
troller is “tightly” tuned to maintain close control of a process variable, it must
make large, fast changes in its output, which usually causes disturbances to
other variables in the process. As the controllers of these other variables take
action they, in turn, cause further disturbances that affect other variables.
Before long the entire process is in a state of continuous change, which is
undesirable and may be unsafe in some occasions. The situation worsens
when the controllers cause oscillatory process responses, because then the
process variables will be continuously changing.

The following heuristics (“rules of thumb”) may prove helpful to those just
starting in the tuning of processes:

• The variability of the controller output should not be excessive; how-

ever, keeping the output variability low must be balanced against the
precision with which the process variable is to be controlled.

• Some variables do not have to be maintained at their desired values.

The most common example of this is liquid levels, which usually only
need to be kept within a safe range.

• The controller cannot move the process variable faster than the process
can respond, so the controller speed must be matched to the speed of
response of the process. Some processes respond in a matter of min-
utes, while others may take close to an hour or longer to respond. Not
many processes respond in a matter of seconds.

One more item to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as fine-tuning a
controller, particularly a feedback controller. In most cases the tuning parame-
ters need only be adjusted to one, or at most, two significant digits. There are
two reasons for this. One is that feedback controllers are not that sensitive to
variations in the third digit of their tuning parameters. The other is that the
characteristics of most processes—that is, speed of response and sensitivity to
changes in controller output—vary with operating conditions, sometimes
slightly and other times not so slightly. This means that the controller tuning
Introduction 3

parameters are usually compromises selected to work in the range of operat-

ing conditions, and so their values are not precise.

Understanding this simplifies the task of tuning because it reduces the num-
ber of values of the tuning parameters to be tried. For example, it is a lot easier
to decide between gain values of 1.0 or 1.5 than to try to find out whether the
gain should be 1.276. In practice, all three of these values will work about the
same.

Armed with these heuristics and basic concepts, we are now ready to look at
the feedback control strategy.

1-2. Feedback Control

Feedback control is the basic strategy for the control of industrial processes. It
consists of measuring the process variable to be controlled (the controlled
variable), comparing the measurement with its desired value or set point, and
taking action based on the difference between them to reduce or eliminate the
difference—that is, to bring the controlled variable to its desired value. The
action taken results in the adjustment of a process flow, such as the steam flow
to a heater, which has a direct effect on the controlled variable, such as the
outlet process temperature. The three instrumentation components required
for feedback control are:

• A sensor/transmitter to measure the process variable and send its

value to the controller (Measurement)

• A controller to compare the value of the process variable to its desired

value, determine the required control action and send it to the final
control element (Decision)

• A final control element, usually a control valve or variable speed drive,

to vary the manipulated process flow (Action).

A fourth element of the loop is the process itself, through which the manipu-
lated flow affects the controlled variable. The controlled variable is also
known as the process variable (PV), its desired value is the set point (SP), and the
signal from the controller to the final control element is the controller output
(OP).
4 Tuning of Industrial Control Systems, Third Edition

It is important to realize that a feedback controller does not use a model of the
process to compute its output. It takes action by trial and error. Tuning the
controller is the procedure of adjusting the controller parameters to ensure
that the controller output converges quickly to its correct value.

In order to better understand the concept of feedback control, consider as an

example the process heater sketched in Figure 1-1. The process fluid flows
inside the tubes of the heater and is heated by steam condensing on the out-
side of the tubes. The objective is to control the outlet temperature T of the
process fluid in the presence of variations in process fluid flow (throughput or
load) F and in its inlet temperature Ti. This is accomplished by manipulating
or adjusting the steam flow to the heater Fs and with it the rate at which heat is
transferred into the process fluid, thus affecting its outlet temperature.

Figure 1-1. Feedback Temperature Control of a Process Heater

SP
Steam

OP
TC
Fs
PV

F TT
Ti

Process T
fluid

Steam
trap

Condensate
Introduction 5

In this example, the outlet temperature T is the (controlled) process variable

PV, the steam flow Fs is the manipulated variable, and changes in the process
flow F and inlet temperature Ti are the disturbances that cause the tempera-
ture to deviate from its desired value or set point SP. The job of the feedback
controller is to bring the temperature back to the set point by adjusting the
steam flow whenever variations in the process flow or inlet temperature cause
the outlet temperature to deviate.

In Figure 1-1 the sensor transmitter is shown as a circle with the letters TT in it
and the feedback controller is a circle with the letters TC in it. This follows the
standard ISA instrumentation notation1 in which the first letter denotes the
variable being measured or controlled, in this case “T” for temperature, and
the second letter is “T” for the transmitter and “C” for the controller. The con-
trol valve is represented by the symbol shown on the steam line to the heater.
Its purpose is to adjust the flow of steam (Fs) in response the controller output
signal (OP).

The transmitter and the control valve are located in the field while the control-
ler is located in a central control room. Today, the signals between the trans-
mitter and the controller and between the controller and the control valve are
typically digital signals transmitted through a fieldbus or by wireless transmis-
sion. The control function is carried out by a computer or distributed control
system (DCS) that receives the transmitter signal and transmits the controller
output to the control valve. The control valve is usually pneumatically oper-
ated, requiring that the controller output be converted to an air pressure sig-
nal. This is done by a current-to-pressure (I/P) transducer.

This book uses the instrumentation symbols recommended by the ISA-5.1-

1984 standard for conceptual diagrams, that is, diagrams that convey the basic
control concept without regard to the specific implementation hardware. In
these diagrams the signals are represented as percent of range. To facilitate
understanding we will deviate slightly from the standard ISA notation for sig-
nals and show the signals as arrows to indicate the direction in which the sig-
nals travel, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-2 is a block diagram of the feedback control loop for the process
heater. It graphically shows the loop around which signals travel: a change in
outlet temperature T causes a proportional change in the signal PV to the con-
troller; the summer (circle), a part of the controller, calculates the error E or
6 Tuning of Industrial Control Systems, Third Edition

deviation of the process variable from the set point SP and acts on this error
by changing the signal OP to the control valve; the control valve position
changes, causing a change in steam flow Fs to the heater; this in turn causes a
change in the outlet temperature T which then starts a new cycle of changes
around the loop.

Figure 1-2. Block Diagram of the Temperature Control Loop of the Process
Heater

F Ti

- +
SP + E + OP+ Fs + T
Controller Control Valve Heater
-

PV Sensor
+

Transmitter

The signs in Figure 1-2 represent the action of the various input signals on the
output signal; that is, a positive sign means that an increase in input causes an
increase in output—direct action—while a negative sign means that an increase
in input causes a decrease in output—or reverse action. For example, the nega-
tive sign by the process flow into the heater means that an increase in flow
results in a decrease in outlet temperature. Notice that by following the sig-
nals around the loop, there is a net reverse action in the loop. This property is
known as negative feedback and is a required characteristic of a feedback loop
for the loop to be stable. In this example it means that an increase in heater
outlet temperature results in a decrease in controller output, which in turn
closes the control valve and reduces the steam flow. This results in a decrease
in outlet temperature, as desired.

To ensure this self-regulating effect the controller must act in the correct direc-
tion when the process variable changes. In this example the controller action is
reverse, that is, an increase in process variable results in a decrease in control-
Introduction 7

ler output. Other processes may require direct action, for example when a tank
level controller adjusts the flow out of the tank. In this case, an increase in liq-
uid level in the tank requires that the exit control valve open to increase the
flow out of the tank and decrease the level. Consequently, the action (direct or
reverse) of the feedback controller is its most important characteristic.

1-3. Other Control Strategies

Although feedback control is by far the most common automatic control strat-
egy, there are other strategies that have been known to enhance control per-
formance in terms of improving loop stability, preventing initial deviation of
the process variable, and allowing tighter control. This section will briefly
introduce these strategies; their details and tuning procedures will be pre-
sented in later chapters.

• Cascade Control. This strategy consists of cascading feedback controllers

in a hierarchy with each controller adjusting the set point of the control-
ler below it in the hierarchy, the controller at the top of hierarchy, or
primary, controls the primary process variable while the output of the
controller at the bottom of the hierarchy adjusts the final control ele-
ment. The controllers below the master controller, called secondaries,
control variables that have an effect on the primary controlled variable.
The basic premise is that the secondary feedback loops improve the sta-
bility of the primary controller by speeding up the overall response of
the process.

• Feedforward and Ratio Control. This strategy consists of measuring the

disturbances that affect the controlled variable and adjusting the final
control element to prevent deviation from the desired value of the con-
trolled variable. In general the scheme requires a model of the process
to determine the control adjustment in the final control element. Feed-
back control is combined with the feedforward controller to correct for
errors in the process model. Ratio control is the simplest form of feedfor-
ward control in which the manipulated flow is ratioed to the flow
which constitutes the disturbance.

• Decoupling. This strategy consists of installing decouplers between the

output signals of two or more feedback controllers to reduce the effect
of interaction between the controllers. The interaction occurs through
8 Tuning of Industrial Control Systems, Third Edition

the process when each controller output affects the process variables
controlled by the other controllers.

1-4. Organization of the Book

The details of the PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controller are pre-

sented in Chapter 2, and tuning methods for feedback controllers are pre-
sented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. How to select the controller modes for various
types of control loops is the subject of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 presents the tun-
ing of loops in which the process variable must be sampled, such as composi-
tions measured by gas chromatographs and similar analyzers. Tuning of
cascade control systems is discussed in Chapter 7, design and tuning of feed-
forward and ratio controllers in Chapter 8, and design and tuning of decou-
plers in Chapter 9. Finally Chapter 10 presents the auto-tuning algorithms
available in current computer control systems.

1-5. Summary

This first chapter has presented the goals of the tuning procedure and has
introduced the feedback control strategy. A brief description of other common
control strategies has also been presented.

References

1. ANSI/ISA-5.1-2009 - Instrumentation Symbols and Identification, Interna-

tional Society of Automation, Research Triangle Park, NC.

Review Questions

1-1. What is the main goal of controller tuning?

1-2. Which two process characteristics must be considered when tuning the
controller?

1-3. What are the three instrumentation components of a feedback control

loop?

1-4. What is the fourth element of the feedback loop?

1-5. What is the most important characteristic of a feedback control loop?

Introduction 9

1-6. A controller controls the temperature in an exothermic reactor by manip-

ulating the flow of cooling water to the jacket around the reactor. What
should be the fail position of the cooling water control valve, open or
closed? What must be the action of the controller, direct or reverse?

1-7. A controller controls the level in a stirred tank reactor by manipulating

the flow of the reactants into the reactor. Recommend the fail position of
the reactants control valve, open or close, and the controller action, direct
or reverse.

1-8. A controller controls the composition of a caustic stream by manipulat-

ing the flow of the water that dilutes the concentrated caustic stream
entering a mixer. The control valve fails closed. What must be the con-
troller action, direct or reverse?