TCE 2207: Instrumentation, Measurement and Process Dynamics Control

Topic 1.0: Introduction to Instrumentation and Measurement

1.1Introduction
1.2Instrumentation and control objectives

1.3Basic principles of measurement

1.4Measuring instruments and their properties

1.5Process measurements

Instructional Objectives:

The student after going through the lesson would be able to:
1. Name different types of measuring instruments and their process
measurements in chemical processing industries
2. Explain the basic meaning of different types of measuring instruments in
control systems of chemical industrial process variables
3. Distinguish between the principles of operation of different instrument
measurements in control of process variables in chemical process industries
4. Differentiate characteristics of different measurement instruments in control
systems of chemical industrial processes
5. Select the proper instrument for a particular range of measurement in control
process systems of chemical industrial processes
6. Evaluate and design appropriate measuring devices for control of chemical
industrial processes

Text books

1. D. A. Mellichamp and D.E Edgar: Process Dynamics and Control, John

Wiley and Son, NY; 1989
2. G. Stephanopoulos: Chemical Process Control and Chemical Modelling,
3rd Edition; 2008
3. R.K. Sinnot: Coulson and Richardson: Chemical Engineering Series; Vol.
6: 4th Edition; 2005
4. S.G. Rabinovich, Evaluating Measurement Accuracy: A Practical
Approach, Springer Science + Business Media New York 2013

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1.1Introduction

You cannot control what you cannot measure.

Instruments are provided to monitor the key process variables during plant
operation, i.e.
 may be incorporated in automatic control loops, or used for the manual
monitoring of the process operation
 may also be part of an automatic computer data logging system
Instruments monitoring critical process variables will be fitted with automatic
alarms to alert the operators to critical and hazardous situations.
Measuring instruments are the technical objects that are specially developed for
the purpose of measuring specific quantities.
An instrument is a device that measures a physical quantity such as flow,
temperature, level, distance, angle, or pressure from an environment, or from a unit
under test, and to display information to a user based on the collected or measured
data. The instrument employ a transducer to sense changes in a physical parameter,
such as temperature or pressure, and to convert the sensed information into
electrical signals, such as voltage or frequency variations.
Instruments are part of control systems in industrial processes: in refineries,
factories, and vehicles (For example, gas emission, a smoke detector or
breathalyzer).
Instrumentation is the variety of measuring instruments to monitor and control a
process. It is the art and science of measurement and control of process variables
within a production, laboratory, or manufacturing area.
In this sense, instruments and systems of measurement constitute the “tools” of
measurement and metrology.
Instrumentation engineering is the engineering specialization focused on the
principle and operation of measuring instruments that are used in design and
configuration of automated systems in electrical, pneumatic domains etc.
Measurement is defined as a set of operations having the object of determining
the value of a quantity or is the evaluation of a quantity made after comparing it to
a quantity of the same type which we use as a unit.
Metrology is defined as the field of knowledge concerned with measurement.
Standardized measurement units mean that scientific and economic figures can be
understood, reproduced and converted with a high degree of certitude.

Measurement instruments have three traditional classes of use:

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 Fundamental data for experimental engineering analysis , research, design
and development
 Control and monitoring of processes and operations
 Data for safe and economic performance of systems

1.2 Instrumentation and control objectives

The primary objectives of the designer when specifying instrumentation and

control schemes are:
1. Safe plant operation:
 To keep the process variables within known safe operating limits.
 To detect dangerous situations as they develop and to provide alarms and
automatic shut-down systems.
 To provide interlocks and alarms to prevent dangerous operating procedures.
2. Production rate:
 To achieve the design product output.
3. Product quality:
 To maintain the product composition within the specified quality standards.
4. Cost:
 To operate at the lowest production cost, commensurate with the other
objectives.

1.3 Basic Principles of measurements

The primary objective in any measurement system is to establish the value or the
tendency of some variable.
Measurement provides quantitative information on the actual state of the physical
variables and processes that otherwise could only be estimated.
General measurement system:
 Detector – transducer or sensor stage
 Intermediate or signal conditioning stage
 Terminating or readout stage
 Feedback control stage (optional)

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Fig 1.1 General measurement system
These stages form the bridge between the input to the measurement system and the
system output, a quantity that is used to infer the value of the physical variable
measured.

Fig 1.2 Components of a general measurement system

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1.4. Measuring Instruments and Their Properties

1.4.1. Types of Measuring Instruments

Measuring instruments are divided into:

1. material measures or sensors,
2. measuring transducers,
3. indicating instruments,
4. recording instruments, and
5. measuring systems

1. A material measure or sensors is a measuring instrument or device that

reproduces one or more known values of a given quantity and are the
foundation of Feedback Control (Examples of measures are balance weights,
measuring resistors, measuring capacitors, and reference materials).
When measures are used to perform measurements, the measurands are
compared with a comparator which is a measuring device that makes it
possible to compare similar quantities and has a known sensitivity (simplest
comparator is the standard equal-armed pan balance).
2. A measuring transducer is a measuring instrument that converts the
measurement signals into a form suitable for transmission, processing, or
storage.
Common Types of Measuring transducers are: Thermocouples, resistance
thermometers, measuring shunts, and the measuring electrodes of pH meters,
etc.
3. An indicating instrument is a measuring instrument that is used to convert
measurement signals into a form that can be directly perceived by the
observer.
A common feature of all indicating instruments is that they all have readout
devices (examples are analog and digital instruments).
4. Recording instruments are measuring instruments designed to record their
indications (automatic plotting instruments and printing instruments).
5. A measuring system is a collection of functionally integrated measuring,
computing, and auxiliary devices connected to each other with
communication channels (Feedback, Feedforward, Cascade, Scada, PLC).

A sensor and transducer may be packaged together as shown in Figure 1.3.

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Fig 1.3 Sensor and transducer packed together

Or the transducer may be part of the controller as shown in Figure 1.4.

Fig 1.4 Transducer as part of the controller

1.4.2. Metrological Characteristics of Measuring Instruments

Metrological characteristics of a measuring instrument mean the characteristics

that make it possible to judge the suitability of the instrument for performing
measurements in a known range with known accuracy.
A simple example of a metrological characteristic common to all measuring
instruments except single measures is the measurement range of the instrument.
Some of the metrological instrument properties that can affect the performance of a
control system include:
 The instrument’s range and span.
 The resolution of the measurement and sensitivity.
 The instrument’s accuracy and precision, gain, bias, calibration, conformity
 The instrument’s dynamics (error, gain, linearity, tolerance, rise and dead
time, time constants, noise).

Accuracy of a measurement describes how close the measurement approaches the

true value of the process variable.
Accuracy is often expressed as a % error over a range or an absolute error over a
range.
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Precision is the reproducibility with which repeated measurements can be made
under identical conditions and may also be referred to as stability or drift.
Precision is always required for good control, even when accuracy is not required.

Fig 1.5 Accuracy vs. precision

The distinction between accuracy and precision is illustrated in Figure 1.5.
The dashed line represents the actual temperature being measured.
The upper line represents a precise but inaccurate value from an instrument; the
lower line represents an accurate but imprecise measurement from an instrument.
“Precision is the more important characteristic of an instrument”.

1.4.3. Dynamic Characteristics of Measuring Instruments

The dynamic characteristics of measuring instruments reflect the relation between

the change in the output signal and an action that produces this change.
The most important such action is a change in the input signal (the dynamic
characteristic for the input signal).
The complete dynamic characteristics determine uniquely the change in time of the
output signal caused by a change in the input signal or by other action (differential
equation, transfer function, amplitude-and phase-frequency response, and the
transient response).
If x(t) is the signal at the input of a measuring instrument and y(t) is the
corresponding signal at the output, then the relation between them can be
expressed with the help of first-order (eqn1) or second-order (eqn2) differential
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equations, respectively, which reflect the dynamic properties of the measuring
instrument:

T is the time constant of a first-order device, K is the transduction coefficient in

the static state, ωo is the angular frequency of free oscillations, and β is the
damping ratio.
An example of a real instrument whose properties are specified by the second-
order differential equation is a moving-coil galvanometer.
In this instrument type, ωo = 2π/To, where To is the period of free oscillations (the
reverse of the natural frequency) and β is the damping ratio, which determines how
rapidly the oscillations of the moving part of the galvanometer will subside.
Equations (1) and (2) reflect the properties of real devices, and for this reason, they
have zero initial conditions: for; t ≤ 0, x(t) = 0 and y(t) =0, y΄(t) = 0 and y΄΄(t) =0.
To obtain transfer functions from differential equations, it is first necessary to
move from signals in the time domain to their Laplace transforms, and then obtain
the ratio of the transforms.
Thus,

where, s is the Laplace operator.

For the first-order system, in accordance to (1), we obtain

and for the second-order system, from (2), we obtain

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Let us consider the second-order equation in more detail, and in the transfer
function, the operator s is replaced by the complex frequency jω (s = jω), then we
obtain the complex frequency response.
Studying the relation between the named characteristics for a second-order system,
from (eqn2) and (eqn3), we obtain:

where, ω = 2πf is the running angular frequency.

The complex frequency response is often represented with its real and imaginary
parts,

In this case:

The complex frequency response can also be represented in the form:

where, A(ω) is the amplitude-frequency response and φ(ω) is the frequency

response of phase.

In the case at hand,

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Equations (5 & 6) have a well-known graphical interpretation using the notion of
transient response.

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1.5Process Measurements

1.5.1Level measurement and Control

Some of the most commonly used liquid-level measurement methods are:

 Dipstick and sight glass types
 FLOAT type
 Radio Frequency (RF) Capacitance/Resistance
 Conductance (conductivity)
 Hydrostatic head/tank gauging
 Radar
 Ultrasonic
Before you can decide which one is right for your application, however, you need
to understand how each works and the theory behind it.

Fig 6.0 (a). Dipstick (b). Sight glass (c). Level control

Fig1.6.0 (d) A level loop

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1.5.2Temperature Measurement and Control:

Temperature is measured via different diverse array of sensors and all of them infer
temperature by sensing some change in the physical characteristic.
There are four basic types of temperature measuring devices:
1. Mechanical (liquid-in- Glass tube thermometers, bimetallic strips, bulb and
capillary, pressure type, etc.)
2. Thermo-junctive (Thermocouples)
3. Thermo-resistive (RTD and Thermistors)
4. Radiative (infrared and optical pyrometers)

Fig 1.6.1Temperature control for a heat exchanger

Fig 1.6.1 (b). A Temperature loop

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Resistance Thermometers: RTD
The variation of resistance of metals with temperature is normally modeled in the
form:

Where; R1and Ro are the resistance values at t°C and t0°C, respectively;α, β, etc.
are constants that depends on the metal.

For a small range of temperature, the expression can be approximated as:

For copper, α = 0.00427/°C

Thermistor

They are semiconductor type resistance thermometers, have very high sensitivity
but highly nonlinear characteristics (NTC and PTC thermistors).

Their characteristics can be expressed as:

where,
RT is the resistance at temperature, T (K)
Ro is the resistance at temperature, To (K)
To is the reference temperature, normally 25°C
Β is a constant, its value is decided by the characteristics of the material, and the
nominal value is taken as 4000.
From equation 3, the resistance temperature coefficient can be obtained as:

Thermocouple
The emf generated can be approximately expressed by the relationship:

where,
T1 and T2 are hot and cold junction temperatures in K
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C1 and C2 are constants depending upon the materials, for Copper/Constantan
couple; C1 = 61.1 and C2 = 0.045

1.5.3Pressure Measurement and Control

Fig 1.6.2 (a). Manometer pressure (b).Pressure control

Fig 1.6.2 (c). A Pressure loop

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Static Pressure measurement

Fluid Pressure calculation

1.5.4Flowrate Measurement and Control

 Volumetric flowmeters (positive displacement, magnetic, orifice, venture,

nozzle, pitot tube)
 Mass fowmeters (coriolis, thermal mass)

Fig 1.6.2 (a). Orifice Plate (b). Flowrate control for a

reciprocating pump
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Fig 1.6.3 (c). A Flow loop

Volumetric flowrate(Q): Qv = Av ---- 1 (m3/s)

where, Qv is the volumetric flow through the pipe, (m3/s);

A is the cross-sectional area of the pipe, m2
v is the average velocity of the fluid, m/s
Applying Bernoulli's equation relating the conservation of energy at two points in
the fluid flow:

where,

Cd is the discharge coefficient

A1 cross-sectional area of the pipe (m2),
A2 cross-sectional area of the orifice (m2),
H is change in depth of liquid (m)

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