Numerical Integration

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

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FOUNDATION Fieldbus Design Philosophy

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

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Single-line Electrical Diagrams

Electrical power grids primarily consist of three-phase AC circuits. This means most power lines (transmission…

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A Comparison of PID Controller Tuning Techniques

In this section I will show screenshots from a process loop simulation program illustrating the effectiveness…

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Understanding Electrical Power Grids

The term “grid” refers to the conductors and equipment interconnecting power sources to power…

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Electrical Sensors: Potential Transformers (PTs) and Current Transformers (CTs)

The two “process variables” we rely on most heavily in the field of electrical measurement and…

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Pneumatic Actuator Response

A limitation inherent to pneumatic valve actuators is the amount of air flow required to or from the actuator…

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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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Periodic Table of the Ions

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Rotating Phasor in Three-dimensional Form

The following animation shows a rotating phasor in three-dimensional form. The phasor rotates in a complex…

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Pilot Valves and Pneumatic Amplifying Relays

Self-balancing mechanisms consisting solely of a baffle/nozzle detector coupled to a feedback bellows, while…

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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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Control Valve Characterization

Control valves are supposed to deliver reliable, repeatable control of process fluid flow rate over a wide…

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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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Weighfeeders

A special type flowmeter suited for powdered or granular solids is the weighfeeder. One of the most common…

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Practical Measures of Reliability

In reliability engineering, it is important to be able to quantity the reliability (or conversely, the…

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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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Cascade Control

A simple control system drawn in block diagram form looks like this: Information from the measuring device…

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Ladder Diagram (LD) Programming Contacts and Coils

In the United States, the most common language used to program PLCs is Ladder Diagram (LD), also known as…

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Electrical Signal and Control Wiring

There is much to be said for neatness of assembly in electrical signal wiring. Even though the electrons…

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