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Velocity-based Flowmeters

Velocity-based Flowmeters

The Law of Continuity for fluids states that the product of mass density (\(\rho\)), cross-sectional pipe area…


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Safety Instrumented Functions and Systems

Safety Instrumented Functions and Systems

A Safety Instrumented Function, or SIF, is one or more components designed to execute a specific…


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Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…


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Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Teaching Diagnostic Principles and Practices

Diagnostic ability is arguably the most difficult skill to develop within a student, and also the most…


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Physics and Chemistry Terminology and Definitions

Physics and Chemistry Terminology and Definitions

Atom: the smallest unit of matter that may be isolated by chemical means. Particle: a part of an atom,…


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Teaching Technical Theory

Teaching Technical Theory

Learning is not merely a process of information transfer. It is first and foremost a transformation of…


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Introduction to Capacitors and Capacitance

Introduction to Capacitors and Capacitance

Capacitance Any two electrical conductors separated by an insulating medium possess the characteristic called…


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Null-balance Voltage Measurement

Null-balance Voltage Measurement

A number of different sensors used in instrumentation generate DC voltage signals proportional to the process…


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Open-ended, Shorted, and Properly Terminated Transmission Lines

Open-ended, Shorted, and Properly Terminated Transmission Lines

Many years ago, when I was first learning about electricity, I happened to discover a length of coaxial…


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Auxiliary and Lockout (86) Relays

Auxiliary and Lockout (86) Relays

An important type of “accessory” relay, especially for legacy electromechanical protective relays,…


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Dimensional Analysis

Dimensional Analysis

An interesting parallel to the “unity fraction” unit conversion technique is something referred to…


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General Problem-solving Techniques

General Problem-solving Techniques

A variety of problem-solving techniques have been presented for students over the years which are all helpful…


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Process Flow Diagrams

Process Flow Diagrams

To show a practical process example, let’s examine three diagrams for a compressor control system,…


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Periodic Table of the Ions

Periodic Table of the Ions


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Analog Signal Conditioning and Referencing

Analog Signal Conditioning and Referencing

Modern analog-to-digital converters are phenomenally accurate, dependable, repeatable, and surprisingly…


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Numerical Integration

Numerical Integration

As we have seen, the concept of integration is finding the accumulation of one variable multiplied by another…


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Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Classified Areas and Electrical Safety Measures

Any physical location in an industrial facility harboring the potential of explosion due to the presence of…


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Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

Using Manometers for Measuring Pressure

A very simple device used to measure pressure is the manometer: a fluid-filled tube where an applied gas…


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Derivative (Rate) Control

Derivative (Rate) Control

The final element of PID control is the “D” term, which stands for derivative. This is a calculus…


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Velocity-based Flowmeters

Velocity-based Flowmeters

The Law of Continuity for fluids states that the product of mass density (\(\rho\)), cross-sectional pipe area…


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Introduction to Modbus

Introduction to Modbus

Developed by the Modicon company (the original manufacturer of the Programmable Logic Controller, or PLC) in…


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Digital Representation of Text

Digital Representation of Text

Binary patterns are not just able to represent numerical values. Given a standardized code, they may represent…


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Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

Atomic Theory and Chemical Symbols

The three “elementary” particles of matter comprising all atoms are electrons, protons, and…


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Chemiluminescence Measurement

Chemiluminescence Measurement

Recall that an exothermic chemical reaction is one that releases a net sum of energy, as opposed to an…


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Basic Feedback Control Principles

Basic Feedback Control Principles

Feedback Control System Components Before we begin our discussion on process control, we must define a few key…


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4-wire “Passive” Versus “Active” Output Transmitters

4-wire “Passive” Versus “Active” Output Transmitters

Some self-powered (4-wire) analog electronic transmitters are designed to behave as electrical loads rather…


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the Negative Consequences of Poor PID Controller Tuning

the Negative Consequences of Poor PID Controller Tuning

Much has been written about the benefits of robust PID control. Increased productivity, decreased equipment…


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Weight-based Level Measurement

Weight-based Level Measurement

Weight-based level instruments sense process level in a vessel by directly measuring the weight of the vessel.…


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Bi-metal Temperature Sensors

Bi-metal Temperature Sensors

Solids tend to expand when heated. The amount that a solid sample will expand with increased temperature…


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Root Mean Square (RMS) Quantities

Root Mean Square (RMS) Quantities

It is often useful to express the amplitude of an alternating quantity such as voltage or current in terms…


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The International System of Units

The International System of Units

The very purpose of physics is to quantitatively describe and explain the physical world in as few terms as…


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Design-based Fortifications

Design-based Fortifications

A design-based fortification is one rooted in technical details of system architecture and functionality. Some…


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On/off Electric Motor Control Circuits

On/off Electric Motor Control Circuits

An electric motor is often used as a discrete control element in a control system if driving a pump, conveyor…


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Dispersive Spectroscopy

Dispersive Spectroscopy

The dispersion of visible light into its constituent colors goes all the way back to the 17th century with…


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Digital Representation of Numerical Data

Digital Representation of Numerical Data

Process measurements are often of an analog nature: the temperature of a furnace, the rate of fluid flow…


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Positive Displacement Flowmeters

Positive Displacement Flowmeters

A positive displacement flowmeter is a cyclic mechanism built to pass a fixed volume of fluid through with…


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Active Reading and Outlining Documentation

Active Reading and Outlining Documentation

Learning from reading printed text is a kind of problem-solving activity it is own right. The problem is how…


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Fluid Power Systems

Fluid Power Systems

Given the ability of pressurized fluids to transmit force over long distances, it is not surprising that many…


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Digital PID Controllers

Digital PID Controllers

The vast majority of PID controllers in service today are digital in nature. Microprocessors executing PID…


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Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale

Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale


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Basics of Bridge Circuits

Basics of Bridge Circuits

A bridge circuit is basically a pair of voltage dividers where the circuit output is taken as the difference…


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Ethernet networks: Repeaters, Cabling and Switching Hubs

Ethernet networks: Repeaters, Cabling and Switching Hubs

An engineer named Bob Metcalfe conceived the idea of Ethernet in 1973, while working for the Xerox research…


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FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Physical Layer

FOUNDATION Fieldbus H1 Protocol Physical Layer

Layer 1 of the OSI Reference Model is where we define the “physical” elements of a digital data…


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