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Basic Components Common to all Radio Systems

Basic Components Common to all Radio Systems

“Radio” systems use electromagnetic fields to communicate information over long distances through…


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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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Dampers and Louvres

Dampers and Louvres

A damper (otherwise known as a louvre) is a multi-element flow control device generally used to throttle large…


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Tube and Tube Fittings

Tube and Tube Fittings

Tube, like pipe, is a hollow structure designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow. In the case…


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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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Chromatography: Methods, Detectors and Species

Chromatography: Methods, Detectors and Species

Imagine a major marathon race, where hundreds of runners gather in one place to compete. When the starting gun…


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Instruction List (IL) Programming

Instruction List (IL) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


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Common Educational Fallacies

Common Educational Fallacies

When I began teaching full-time in 1998, most of what I thought I understood about good teaching was actually…


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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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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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Instrument Turndown (Rangedown)

Instrument Turndown (Rangedown)

An important performance parameter for transmitter instruments is something often referred to as turndown or…


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National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Traceability

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Traceability

As defined previously, calibration means the comparison and adjustment (if necessary) of an instrument’s…


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FOUNDATION Fieldbus Design Philosophy

FOUNDATION Fieldbus Design Philosophy

To understand just how different FOUNDATION Fieldbus is from other digital instrument systems, consider a…


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Level Gauges (Sightglasses)

Level Gauges (Sightglasses)

Level gauges are perhaps the simplest indicating instrument for liquid level in a vessel. They are often found…


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Periodic Table of the Ions

Periodic Table of the Ions


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Resistance, Reactance, and Impedance

Resistance, Reactance, and Impedance

Electrical Resistance Resistance (\(R\)) is the dissipative opposition to an electric current, analogous to…


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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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Directional Overcurrent (67) Protection

Directional Overcurrent (67) Protection

While 50 and 51 (instantaneous and time overcurrent) relay functions monitor line current magnitude and guard…


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Vibration Physics

Vibration Physics

One very convenient feature of waves is that their properties are universal. Waves of water in the ocean,…


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Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

As previously defined, calibration refers to the checking and adjustment of an instrument so that its output…


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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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Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

Calibration Standards to Produce and Measure Physical Quantities

As previously defined, calibration refers to the checking and adjustment of an instrument so that its output…


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Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

Digital Multimeter (DMM) Tips and Tricks

The digital multimeter (DMM) is quite possibly the most useful tool in the instrument technician’s…


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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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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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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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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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Rotating Magnetic Fields in Three-phase AC Induction Motors

Rotating Magnetic Fields in Three-phase AC Induction Motors

The following animation shows how the “rotating” magnetic field of a three-phase AC induction…


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Thermistors and Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs)

Thermistors and Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs)

One of the simplest classes of temperature sensor is one where temperature effects a change in electrical…


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Insertion Flowmeters

Insertion Flowmeters

This section does not describe a particular type of flowmeter, but rather a design that may be implemented for…


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Laser Spectroscopy

Laser Spectroscopy

A laser is a light source emitting waves of light that not only share the exact same frequency (color)…


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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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Vibration Monitoring Hardware

Vibration Monitoring Hardware

The following photograph shows a large air blower in a wastewater treatment facility equipped with a…


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Mechanical Pressure Elements

Mechanical Pressure Elements

Mechanical pressure-sensing elements include the bellows, the diaphragm, and the bourdon tube. Each of these…


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Sequential Function Chart (SFC) Programming

Sequential Function Chart (SFC) Programming

(Will be addressed in future versions of this book)


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Instrument and Process Equipment Symbols

Instrument and Process Equipment Symbols

This section shows some of the many instrument symbols found in different types of technical diagrams used to…


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Fundamental Principles of Industrial Instrumentation

Fundamental Principles of Industrial Instrumentation

Shown here is a partial listing of principles applied in the subject matter of this chapter, given for the…


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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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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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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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