As we have seen, the concept of integration is finding the accumulation of one variable multiplied by another…
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While 50 and 51 (instantaneous and time overcurrent) relay functions monitor line current magnitude and guard…
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A technological advance introduced in the late 1980’s was HART, an acronym standing for Highway…
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When control valves operate between fully open and fully shut, they serve much the same purpose in process…
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Valves can experience a number of problems, most of them either preventable or repairable. These problems can…
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As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, instrumentation safety may be broadly divided into two…
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As we have seen, the concept of differentiation is finding the rate-of-change of one variable compared to…
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An extremely important topic in engineering is that of transfer functions. Simply defined, a transfer function…
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Perhaps the most basic and necessary protective relay function is overcurrent: commanding a circuit breaker to…
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Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…
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“Radio” systems use electromagnetic fields to communicate information over long distances through…
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An engineer named Bob Metcalfe conceived the idea of Ethernet in 1973, while working for the Xerox research…
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One of the fundamental laws of electric circuits is Kirchhoff’s Current Law, which states the algebraic…
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Instrument technicians should not have to concern themselves over the programming details internal to digital…
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Perhaps the most valuable skill an instrument technician can possess is the ability to efficiently diagnose…
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Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…
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Imagine a major marathon race, where hundreds of runners gather in one place to compete. When the starting gun…
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Although analog electronic process controllers are considered a newer technology than pneumatic process…
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Phasors are to AC circuit quantities as polarity is to DC circuit quantities: a way to express the…
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The efficient identification and correction of instrument calibration errors is an important function for…
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Thermodynamics is the study of heat, temperature, and their related effects in physical systems. As a subject,…
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Most pneumatic instruments use a simple but highly sensitive mechanism for converting mechanical motion into…
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In some process applications, it is important that the control valve be able to completely stop fluid flow…
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Control strategies such as cascade, ratio, feedforward, and those containing limit and selector functions can…
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Some problem-solving techniques are unique to quantitative problems, involving mathematical calculations. In…
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The purpose of a control valve actuator is to provide the motive force to operate a valve mechanism. Both…
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A unique form of technical diagram for describing the abstract functions comprising a control system (e.g. PID…
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Electrical Resistance Resistance (\(R\)) is the dissipative opposition to an electric current, analogous to…
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“Polyphase” means “many phases,” describing a form of AC electrical system where…
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Area refers to the size of two-dimensional surface. Volume refers to the size of a three-dimensional space. To…
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An important design parameter of a control valve is the position it will “fail” to if it loses…
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In November of 2007 a new computer virus was submitted to a virus scanning service. The purpose of this new…
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The next level of detail is the Process and Instrument Diagram, or P&ID. Here, we see a “zooming…
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(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)
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“Feedforward” is a rather under-used control strategy capable of managing a great many types of…
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The fundamental principle of electromagnetism is that an electric current will create a magnetic field at…
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In a manually-controlled process, a human operator directly actuates some form of final control element…
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Calculus has a reputation for being difficult to learn, and with good reason. The traditional approach to…
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Fieldbus devices require far more attention in their initial setup and commissioning than their analog…
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A very simple device used to measure pressure is the manometer: a fluid-filled tube where an applied gas…
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