Feedback Control Principle

Before we begin our discussion on process control, we must define a few key
terms. First, we have what is known as the process: the physical system we wish
to monitor and control. For the sake of illustration, consider a heat exchanger
that uses high-temperature steam to transfer heat to a lower temperature liquid.
Heat exchangers are used frequently in the chemical industries to maintain the
necessary temperature of a chemical solution, so the desired blending,
separation, or reactions can occur.

A very common design of heat exchanger is the “shell-and-tube” style, where a

metal shell serves as a conduit for the chemical solution to flow through, while a
network of smaller tubes runs through the interior of the shell, carrying steam or
some other heat-transfer fluid. The hotter steam flowing through the tubes
transfers heat energy to the cooler process fluid surrounding the tubes, inside
the shell of the heat exchanger:

In this case, the process is the entire heating system, consisting of the fluid we
wish to heat, the heat exchanger, and the steam delivering the required heat

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 energy. In order to maintain steady control of the process fluid’s exiting
temperature, we must find a way to measure it and represent that measurement
in signal form so it may be interpreted by other instruments taking some form of
control action. In instrumentation terms, the measuring device is known as a
transmitter, because it transmits the process measurement in the form of a
signal.

Transmitters are represented in process diagrams by small circles with

identifying letters inside, in this case, “TT,” which stands for Temperature
Transmitter:

The signal output by the transmitter (represented by the “PV” dashed line),
representing the heated fluid’s exiting temperature, is called the process
variable. Like a variable in a mathematical equation that represents some story-
problem quantity, this signal represents the measured quantity we wish to
control in the process.

In order to exert control over the process variable, we must have some way of

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 altering fluid flow through the heat exchanger, either of the process fluid, the
steam, or both. Generally, it makes more sense to alter the flow of the heating
medium (the steam), and let the process fluid flow rate be dictated by the
demands of the larger process. If this heat exchanger were part of an oil refinery
unit, for example, it would be far better to throttle steam flow to control oil
temperature rather than to throttle the oil flow itself, since altering the oil’s flow
will also affect other process variables upstream and downstream of the
exchanger. Ideally, the heat exchanger temperature control system would
provide consistent temperature of the exiting oil, for any given incoming oil
temperature and flow-rate of oil through it.

One convenient way to throttle steam flow into the heat exchanger is to use a
control valve (labeled “TV” because it is a Temperature Valve). In general terms,
a control valve is known as a final control element. Other types of final control
elements exist (servo motors, variable-flow pumps, and other mechanical
devices used to vary some physical quantity at will), but valves are the most
common, and probably the simplest to understand. With a final control element
in place, the steam flow becomes known as the manipulated variable, because it
is the quantity we will manipulate in order to gain control over the process
variable:

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 Valves come in a wide variety of sizes and styles. Some valves are hand-
operated: that is, they have a “wheel” or other form of manual control that may
be moved to “pinch off” or “open up” the flow passage through the pipe. Other
valves come equipped with signal receivers and positioner devices, which move
the valve mechanism to various positions at the command of a signal (usually an
electrical signal, like the type output by transmitter instruments). This feature
allows for remote control, so a human operator or computer device may exert
control over the manipulated variable from a distance. In the previous illustration,
the steam control valve is equipped with such an electrical signal input,
represented by the “control signal” dashed line.

This brings us to the final component of the heat exchanger temperature control
system: the controller. This is a device designed to interpret the transmitter’s
process variable signal and decide how far open the control valve needs to be in
order to maintain that process variable at the desired value.

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 Here, the circle with the letters “TC” in the center represents the controller.
Those letters stand for Temperature Controller, since the process variable being
controlled is the process fluid’s temperature. Usually, the controller consists of a
computer making automatic decisions to open and close the valve as necessary
to stabilize the process variable at some predetermined setpoint.

Note that the controller’s circle has a solid line going through the center of it,
while the transmitter and control valve circles are open. An open circle
represents a field-mounted device according to the ISA standard for
instrumentation symbols, and a single solid line through the middle of a circle
tells us the device is located on the front of a control panel in a main control
room location. So, even though the diagram might appear as though these three
instruments are located close to one another, they in fact may be quite far apart.
Both the transmitter and the valve must be located near the heat exchanger (out
in the “field” area rather than inside a building), but the controller may be
located a long distance away where human operators can adjust the setpoint
from inside a safe and secure control room.

These elements comprise the essentials of a feedback control system: the

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 process (the system to be controlled), the process variable (the specific quantity
to be measured and controlled), the transmitter (the device used to measure the
process variable and output a corresponding signal), the controller (the device
that decides what to do to bring the process variable as close to setpoint as
possible), the final control element (the device that directly exerts control over
the process), and the manipulated variable (the quantity to be directly altered to
effect control over the process variable).

Feedback control may be viewed as a sort of information “loop,” from the

transmitter (measuring the process variable), to the controller, to the final control
element, and through the process itself, back to the transmitter. Ideally, a
process control “loop” not only holds the process variable at a steady level (the
setpoint), but also maintains control over the process variable given changes in
setpoint, and even changes in other variables of the process:

Specifically, the type of feedback we are employing here to control the process
is negative or degenerative feedback. The term “negative” refers to the direction
of action the control system takes in response to any measured change in the
process variable. If something happens to drive the process variable up, the
control system will automatically respond in such a way as to bring the process

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 variable back down where it belongs. If the process variable happens to sag
below setpoint, the control system will automatically act to drive the process
variable back up to setpoint. Whatever the process variable does in relation to
setpoint, the control system takes the opposite (inverse, or negative) action in an
attempt to stabilize it at setpoint.

For example, if the unheated process fluid flow rate were to suddenly increase,
the heat exchanger outlet temperature would fall due to the physics of heat
transfer, but once this drop was detected by the transmitter and reported to the
controller, the controller would automatically call for additional steam flow to
compensate for the temperature drop, thus bringing the process variable back in
agreement with the setpoint. Ideally, a well-designed and well-tuned control loop
will sense and compensate for any change in the process or in the setpoint, the
end result being a process variable value that always holds steady at the
setpoint value.

The unheated fluid flow rate is an example of an uncontrolled, or wild, variable

because our control system here has no ability to influence it. This flow is also
referred to as a load because it “loads” or affects the process variable we are
trying to stabilize. Loads are present in nearly every controlled system, and
indeed are the primary factor necessitating a control system at all. Referring
back to our heat exchanger process again, we could adequately control the
operating temperature of it with just a manually-set steam control valve if only
none of the other factors (steam temperature, fluid flow rate, incoming fluid
temperature, etc.) ever changed!

Many types of processes lend themselves to feedback control. Consider an

aircraft autopilot system, keeping an airplane on a steady course heading
despite the effects of loads such as sidewinds: reading the plane’s heading
(process variable) from an electronic compass and using the rudder as a final
control element to change the plane’s “yaw.” An automobile’s “cruise control” is
another example of a feedback control system, with the process variable being
the car’s velocity, and the final control element being the engine’s throttle. The
purpose of a cruise control is to maintain constant driving speed despite the
influence of loads such as hills, head-winds, tail-winds, and road roughness.
Steam boilers with automatic pressure controls, electrical generators with
automatic voltage and frequency controls, and water pumping systems with

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 automatic flow controls are further examples of how feedback may be used to
maintain control over certain process variables.

Modern technology makes it possible to control nearly anything that may be

measured in an industrial process. This extends beyond the pale of simple
pressure, level, temperature, and flow variables to include even certain chemical
properties.

In municipal water and wastewater treatment systems, for example, numerous

chemical quantities must be measured and controlled automatically to ensure
maximum health and minimum environmental impact. Take for instance the
chlorination of treated wastewater, before it leaves the wastewater treatment
facility into a large body of water such as a river, bay, or ocean. Chlorine is added
to the water to kill any residual bacteria so they do not consume oxygen in the
body of water they are released to. Too little chlorine added, and not enough
bacteria are killed, resulting in a high biological oxygen demand or BOD in the
water which will asphyxiate the fish swimming in it. Too much chlorine added,
and the chlorine itself poses a hazard to marine life. Thus, the chlorine content
must be carefully controlled at a particular setpoint, and the control system must
take aggressive action if the dissolved chlorine concentration strays too low or
too high:

Now that we have seen the basic elements of a feedback control system, we will
concentrate on the algorithms used in the controller to maintain a process
variable at setpoint. For the scope of this topic, an “algorithm” is a mathematical
relationship between the process variable and setpoint inputs of a controller, and

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 the output (manipulated variable). Control algorithms determine how the
manipulated variable quantity is deduced from PV and SP inputs, and range from
the elementary to the very complex. In the most common form of control
algorithm, the so-called “PID” algorithm, calculus is used to determine the
proper final control element action for any combination of input signals.

Diagnosing feedback control problems

One of the basic diagnostic strategies for any instrumentation system is to

assess whether the input value(s) and output value(s) correspond for each
instrument. We may apply this same strategy to each of the four elements of a
feedback control “loop” to identify where the problem might exist. If you
encounter one of these four system portions whose output does not correspond
with its input, you know that portion of the system is faulted.

You can check each element of your feedback control loop by comparing its
input with its output to see if each element is doing what it should. I recommend
beginning with the controller (the decision-making element) because typically
those values are the most easily monitored:

• Decision-making: Carefully examine the controller faceplate, looking at the

values of PV, SP, and Output. Is the controller taking appropriate action to force
PV equal to SP? In other words, is the Output signal at a value you would expect
if the controller were functioning properly to regulate the process variable at
setpoint? If so, then the controller’s action and tuning are most likely not at fault.
If not, then the problem definitely lies with the controller.

• Sensing: Compare the controller’s displayed value for PV with the actual
process variable value as indicated by local gauges, by feel, or by any other
means of detection. If there is good correspondence between the controller’s PV
display and the real process variable, then there probably isn’t anything wrong
with the measurement portion of the control loop (e.g. transmitter, impulse lines,
PV signal wiring, analog input of controller, etc.). If the displayed PV disagrees
with the actual process variable value, then something is definitely wrong here.

• Influencing: Compare the controller’s displayed value for Output with the
actual status of the final control element. If there is good correspondence
between the controller’s Output display and the FCE’s status, then there

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 probably isn’t anything wrong with the output portion of the control loop (e.g.
FCE, output signal wiring, analog output of controller, etc.). If the controller
Output value differs from the FCE’s state, then something is definitely wrong
here.

• Reacting: Compare the process variable value with the final control element’s
state. Is the process doing what you would expect it to? If so, the problem is
most likely not within the process (e.g. manual valves, relief valves, pumps,
compressors, motors, and other process equipment). If, however, the process is
not reacting the way you would expect it to given the final control element’s
state, then something is definitely awry with the process itself.

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