Most pneumatic instruments use a simple but highly sensitive mechanism for converting mechanical motion into…
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Those familiar with industrial instrumentation will find much within the electric power industry remarkably…
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Modern DC and AC motor drives provide features useful when using electric motors as final control elements.…
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A very common method for directly controlling low flow rates of fluids is to use a device known as a metering…
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Tube, like pipe, is a hollow structure designed to provide an enclosed pathway for fluids to flow. In the case…
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The following animation shows how a radio-energy pulse travels down and then up the waveguide of a guided-wave…
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Impedance in a series circuit is the orthogonal sum of resistance and reactance: \[Z = \sqrt{R^2 + (X_L -…
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A level switch is one detecting the level of liquid or solid (granules or powder) in a vessel. Level switches…
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pH is the measurement of the hydrogen ion activity in a liquid solution. It is one of the most common forms of…
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Perhaps the most important rule to obey when using pneumatic instruments is to maintain clean and dry…
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Weight-based level instruments sense process level in a vessel by directly measuring the weight of the vessel.…
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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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Finally, we arrive at the loop diagram (sometimes called a loop sheet) for the compressor surge control system…
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There are several different methods useful for causing an AC induction motor to brake, or slow down: DC…
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An extremely important topic in engineering is that of transfer functions. Simply defined, a transfer function…
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In this section I will show screenshots from a process loop simulation program illustrating the effectiveness…
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Since we often use electricity to convey energy from one location to another, it is important to be able to…
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Atom: the smallest unit of matter that may be isolated by chemical means. Particle: a part of an atom,…
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Imagine a liquid-level control system for a vessel, where the position of a level-sensing float directly sets…
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Suppose we wished to measure the rate of propane gas flow through a hose to a torch: Flowmeters appropriate…
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Like many other mathematical operations, the derivative and the integral perform inverse operations from each…
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A number of different sensors used in instrumentation generate DC voltage signals proportional to the process…
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Circuit breakers used in residential, commercial, and light industrial service are self-tripping devices: they…
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Fluid pressure exerts force on any surface area it contacts, as described by the formula \(F = PA\). One…
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A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…
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Light is known to interact with matter in very specific ways, which may be exploited as a means of measuring…
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A positive displacement flowmeter is a cyclic mechanism built to pass a fixed volume of fluid through with…
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Any conductor possesses a characteristic called inductance: the ability to store energy in the form of a…
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By definition, a source is a device delivering energy into a system, while a load is a device extracting…
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Once while working as an instrument technician in an aluminum foundry, a mechanic asked me what it was that I…
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Visualizing the actions of P, I, and D tuning parameters using graphs is extremely useful in predicting the…
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The following animation shows the calculus concepts of differentiation and integration (with respect to time)…
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The advent of “smart” field instruments containing microprocessors has been a great advance for…
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Binary patterns are not just able to represent numerical values. Given a standardized code, they may represent…
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There is much to be said for neatness of assembly in electrical signal wiring. Even though the electrons…
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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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Suppose we wished to measure the rate of propane gas flow through a hose to a torch: Flowmeters appropriate…
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Converting between disparate units of measurement is the bane of many science students. The problem is worse…
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Control strategies such as cascade, ratio, feedforward, and those containing limit and selector functions can…
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An variable-area flowmeter is one where the fluid must pass through a restriction whose area increases with…
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