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Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Circuit Breakers and Disconnects

Disconnect Switches Disconnects are switches designed to isolate sections of a power system in case of damage…


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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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Valve Positioners

Valve Positioners

The reason why a pneumatic control valve’s stem position corresponds linearly to the amount of air…


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Analysis of Practical Pneumatic Instruments

Analysis of Practical Pneumatic Instruments

To better understand the design and operation of self-balancing pneumatic mechanisms, it is helpful to examine…


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Pneumatic Sensing Elements

Pneumatic Sensing Elements

Most pneumatic instruments use a simple but highly sensitive mechanism for converting mechanical motion into…


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Fluid Mechanics

Fluid Mechanics

A fluid is any substance having the ability to flow: to freely change shape and move under the influence of a…


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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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Pneumatic Actuator Response

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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Pressure Sensor Accessories

Pressure Sensor Accessories

Multiple accessories exist for pressure-sensing devices to function optimally in challenging process…


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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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Mathematical Problem-solving Techniques

Mathematical Problem-solving Techniques

Some problem-solving techniques are unique to quantitative problems, involving mathematical calculations. In…


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Introduction to Power System Automation

Introduction to Power System Automation

Those familiar with industrial instrumentation will find much within the electric power industry remarkably…


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Valve Seat Leakage

Valve Seat Leakage

In some process applications, it is important that the control valve be able to completely stop fluid flow…


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Cascade Control

Cascade Control

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


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Sliding-stem Valves

Sliding-stem Valves

A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…


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Ratio Control

Ratio Control

Most people reading this book have likely had the experience of adjusting water temperature using two hand…


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Solenoid Valves

Solenoid Valves

A very common form of on/off valve used for pneumatic and hydraulic systems alike is the solenoid valve. A…


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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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Rotary-stem Valves

Rotary-stem Valves

A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path.…


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Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

A great many precision instruments use the principle of balance to measure some quantity. Perhaps the simplest…


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Continuous Float Level Transmitters

Continuous Float Level Transmitters

Perhaps the simplest form of solid or liquid level measurement is with a float: a device that rides on the…


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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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Polyphase AC Power

Polyphase AC Power

“Polyphase” means “many phases,” describing a form of AC electrical system where…


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Capacitive Level Measurement

Capacitive Level Measurement

Capacitive level instruments measure electrical capacitance of a conductive rod inserted vertically into a…


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Feedforward Control

Feedforward Control

“Feedforward” is a rather under-used control strategy capable of managing a great many types of…


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Interconnected Generators

Interconnected Generators

Any power grid large enough to meet the demand of an entire nation must have multiple generators drawing from…


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Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

Self-balancing Pneumatic Instruments Principles

A great many precision instruments use the principle of balance to measure some quantity. Perhaps the simplest…


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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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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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Vibration Sensors

Vibration Sensors

Sensors used to measure vibration come in three basic types: displacement, velocity, and acceleration.…


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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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Different PID Equations

Different PID Equations

For better or worse, there are no fewer than three different forms of PID equations implemented in modern PID…


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Unit Conversions and Physical Constants

Unit Conversions and Physical Constants

Converting between disparate units of measurement is the bane of many science students. The problem is worse…


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Rotating Phasor in Three-dimensional Form

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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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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AC Motor Speed Control

AC Motor Speed Control

AC induction motors are based on the principle of a rotating magnetic field produced by a set of stationary…


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A Comparison of PID Controller Tuning Techniques

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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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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Antennas and Resonant Circuits (Tank Circuits)

Antennas and Resonant Circuits (Tank Circuits)

Capacitors store energy in electric fields, proportional to the square of voltage. Inductors store energy in…


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Advantages and Disadvantages of Pneumatic Instruments

Advantages and Disadvantages of Pneumatic Instruments

The disadvantages of pneumatic instruments are painfully evident to anyone familiar with both pneumatic and…


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Ratio Control

Ratio Control

Most people reading this book have likely had the experience of adjusting water temperature using two hand…


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Techniques for Analyzing Control Strategies

Techniques for Analyzing Control Strategies

Control strategies such as cascade, ratio, feedforward, and those containing limit and selector functions can…


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Colorimetric and Potentiometric pH Measurement

Colorimetric and Potentiometric pH Measurement

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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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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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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Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale

Metric Prefixes and Prefix Scale


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Sliding-stem Valves

Sliding-stem Valves

A sliding-stem valve body is one where the moving parts slide with a linear motion. Some examples of…


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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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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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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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Basics of pH Measurement in Industrial Control

Basics of pH Measurement in Industrial Control

Hydrogen ion activity in aqueous (water-solvent) solutions is a very important parameter for a wide variety 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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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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Solenoid Valves

Solenoid Valves

A very common form of on/off valve used for pneumatic and hydraulic systems alike is the solenoid valve. A…


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Troubleshooting Current Loops

Troubleshooting Current Loops

A fundamental principle in instrumentation system troubleshooting is that every instrument has at least one…


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Industrial Instrumentation Summary for Teachers

Industrial Instrumentation Summary for Teachers

To summarize some of the key points and concepts for teaching: Do not waste class time transmitting facts to…


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Loop Diagrams (Loop Sheets)

Loop Diagrams (Loop Sheets)

Finally, we arrive at the loop diagram (sometimes called a loop sheet) for the compressor surge control system…


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Introduction to Calculus

Introduction to Calculus

Calculus. Few areas of mathematics are as powerfully useful in describing and analyzing the physical…


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ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

ANSI/IEEE Function Number Codes

In the United States, the ANSI and IEEE organizations have standardized a set of numerical codes referring to…


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Displacement and Displacer Level Instrumentation

Displacement and Displacer Level Instrumentation

Displacer level instruments exploit Archimedes’ Principle to detect liquid level by continuously…


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