Fundamentals of Process Control, Communication, and Instrumentation

Abstract

There are a number of situations in nature where the principles that govern process control are applied. More specifically, in many human actions, such as walking or putting a spoon to one's mouth, we can define the procedure as measuring, comparing, deciding, and acting.

Certainly, history knows many examples of feedback control, which is almost instinctively used by many living creatures. One of the first scientific mechanisms of measurement and control was developed for use in Watt's steam engine. Much later, in the 1940s, industrialization forced companies to increase productivity and maintain optimal performance, which eventually led to the appearance of the first electronic automatic controllers.

In addition, an important part of the chapter concerns instrumentation. Instrumentation refers to all electronic, electrical, mechanical, or any kind of equipment used in a process for control purposes. That is, meters record the state of the process, actuators modify the control resources, and controllers command the action of the actuators.

Due to the descriptive nature of this chapter, there are no quantitative problems, but five conceptual questions are analyzed and discussed.

The ideal engineer is a composite … He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems .

N. W. Dougherty

Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man .

Ralph J. Smith