Terrence L. Blevins – författare

In this book, the authors address the concepts and terminology that are needed to apply advanced control techniques in the process industry. The book is written for the process or control engineer that is familiar with traditional control but has little or no experience in designing, installing, commissioning and maintaining advanced control applications. Each chapter of the book is structured to allow a person to quickly understand the technology and how it is applied. Application examples are used to show what is required to address an application. Also, a section of each chapter is dedicated to a more in-depth discussion of the technology for the reader that is interested in understanding the mathematical basis for the technology. A workshop is provided at the end of each chapter that explores the technology. The reader may view the workshop solution by going to the web site that accompanies the book.The book provides comprehensive coverage of the major advanced control techniques that are most commonly used in the process industry. This includes tools for monitoring control system performance, on-demand and adaptive tuning techniques, model predictive control, LP optimization, data analytics for batch and continuous processes, fuzzy logic control, neural networks and advancements in PID to use with wireless measurements. Since many readers may work with an existing DCS that does not support advanced control, a chapter of the book is dedicated to tools and techniques that the authors have found useful in integrating advanced control tools into an existing control system. Also, one chapter of the book addresses how dynamic process simulations may be easily created in a DCS to support checkout and operator training on the use of advanced control.

In this in-depth book, the authors address the concepts and terminology that are needed to work in the field of process control. The material is presented in a straightforward manner that is independent of the control system manufacturer. It is assumed that the reader may not have worked in a process plant environment and may be unfamiliar with the field devices and control systems. Much of the material on the practical aspects of control design and process applications is based on the authors personal experience gained in working with process control systems. Thus, the book is written to act as a guide for engineers, managers, technicians, and others that are new to process control or experienced control engineers who are unfamiliar with multi-loop control techniques. After the traditional single-loop and multi-loop techniques that are most often used in industry are covered, a brief introduction to advanced control techniques is provided. Whether the reader of this book is working as a process control engineer, working in a control group or working in an instrument department, the information will set the solid foundation needed to understand and work with existing control systems or to design new control applications. At various points in the chapters on process characterization and control design, the reader has an opportunity to apply what was learned using web-based workshops. The only items required to access these workshops are a high-speed Internet connection and a web browser. Dynamic process simulations are built into the workshops to give the reader a realistic hands-on experience. Also, one chapter of the book is dedicated to techniques that may be used to create process simulations using tools that are commonly available within most distributed control systems. As control techniques are introduced, simple process examples are used to illustrate how these techniques are applied in industry. The last chapter of the book, on process applications, contains several more complex examples from industry that illustrate how basic control techniques may be combined to meet a variety of application requirements.

In this in-depth book, the authors address the concepts and terminology that are needed to work in the field of process control. The material is presented in a straightforward manner that is independent of the control system manufacturer. It is assumed that the reader may not have worked in a process plant environment and may be unfamiliar with the field devices and control systems. Much of the material on the practical aspects of control design and process applications is based on the authors personal experience gained in working with process control systems. Thus, the book is written to act as a guide for engineers, managers, technicians, and others that are new to process control or experienced control engineers who are unfamiliar with multi-loop control techniques. After the traditional single-loop and multi-loop techniques that are most often used in industry are covered, a brief introduction to advanced control techniques is provided. Whether the reader of this book is working as a process control engineer, working in a control group or working in an instrument department, the information will set the solid foundation needed to understand and work with existing control systems or to design new control applications. At various points in the chapters on process characterization and control design, the reader has an opportunity to apply what was learned using web-based workshops. The only items required to access these workshops are a high-speed Internet connection and a web browser. Dynamic process simulations are built into the workshops to give the reader a realistic “hands-on” experience. Also, some information is provided on the web site that may be helpful in exploring basic and advanced control techniques.In addition to the online workshops, one chapter of the book is dedicated to techniques that may be used to create process simulations using tools that are commonly available within most distributed control systems.As control techniques are introduced, simple process examples are used to illustrate how these techniques are applied in industry. The last chapter of the book, on process applications, contains several more complex examples from industry that illustrate how basic control techniques may be combined to meet a variety of application requirements.