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The Stuxnet Virus

The Stuxnet Virus

In November of 2007 a new computer virus was submitted to a virus scanning service. The purpose of this new…


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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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Elementary Thermodynamics

Elementary Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is the study of heat, temperature, and their related effects in physical systems. As a subject,…


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Radiation Level Measurement

Radiation Level Measurement

Certain types of nuclear radiation easily penetrates the walls of industrial vessels, but is attenuated by…


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Chemical Reactor Temperature Control Example

Chemical Reactor Temperature Control Example

Sometimes we encounter a diversity of instrument signal standards in one control system. Such is the case with…


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Indicators, Recorders, Process Switches and Alarms

Indicators, Recorders, Process Switches and Alarms

So far we have just looked at instruments that sense, control, and influence process variables. Transmitters,…


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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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Self-regulating, Integrating, and Runaway Process Characteristics

Self-regulating, Integrating, and Runaway Process Characteristics

Perhaps the most important rule of controller tuning is to know the process before attempting to adjust the…


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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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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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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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Split-Range Control

Split-Range Control

There are many process control applications in the industry where it is desirable to have multiple control…


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Proportional-only Control

Proportional-only Control

Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float directly sets…


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Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Flow Measurement in Open Channels

Measuring the flow rate of liquid through an open channel is not unlike measuring the flow rate of a liquid…


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Numerical Differentiation

Numerical Differentiation

As we have seen, the concept of differentiation is finding the rate-of-change of one variable compared to…


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Feedforward with Dynamic Compensation

Feedforward with Dynamic Compensation

As we have seen, feedforward control is a way to improve the stability of a feedback control system in the…


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Practical PID Controller Features

Practical PID Controller Features

In order for any PID controller to be practical, it must be able to do more than just implement the PID…


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What is Electrical Power?

What is Electrical Power?

Since we often use electricity to convey energy from one location to another, it is important to be able to…


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Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Analog Electronic PID Controllers

Although analog electronic process controllers are considered a newer technology than pneumatic process…


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Indicators, Recorders, Process Switches and Alarms

Indicators, Recorders, Process Switches and Alarms

So far we have just looked at instruments that sense, control, and influence process variables. Transmitters,…


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Common Diagnostic Mistakes in Control Systems

Common Diagnostic Mistakes in Control Systems

Volumes could be written about poor diagnostic technique. The following mistakes are not intended to comprise…


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Examples of PLC Systems

Examples of PLC Systems

Programmable logic controllers are essentially nothing more than special-purpose, industrial computers. As…


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Control Valve Actuators

Control Valve Actuators

The purpose of a control valve actuator is to provide the motive force to operate a valve mechanism. Both…


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Memory Maps and I/O Addressing

Memory Maps and I/O Addressing

A wise PLC programmer once told me that the first thing any aspiring programmer should learn about the PLC…


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Process/Instrument Suitability

Process/Instrument Suitability

Every flow-measuring instrument exploits a physical principle to measure the flow rate of fluid stream.…


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Tuning PID Controllers

Tuning PID Controllers

Learning how to tune PID controllers is a skill born of much practice. Regardless of how thoroughly you may…


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Logic Programming in PLCs

Logic Programming in PLCs

Although it seems each model of PLC has its own idiosyncratic standard for programming, there does exist 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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Heuristic PID Tuning Procedures

Heuristic PID Tuning Procedures

In contrast to quantitative tuning procedures where definite numerical values for P, I, and D controller…


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Boiler Water Level Control System Example

Boiler Water Level Control System Example

Steam boilers are very common in industry, principally because steam power is so useful. Common uses for steam…


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WirelessHART Radio Communication Standard

WirelessHART Radio Communication Standard

An exciting development in industrial instrumentation is the WirelessHART radio communication standard,…


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