Læringsutbytte

A candidate who has successfully completed the course will have a learning outcome in the form of aquired knowledge, skills, and general competence, as described below.

Knowledge:

The student will have knowledge about

• how control engineering can be applied to solve industrial and environmental problems,
• characterization of process dynamics,
• the structure of a feedback control loop,
• how the PID controller works,
• which factors influence control system stability,
• the principles of a number of different methods for controller tuning,
• the principle of and applications of cascade control,
• the principle of and applications of feedforward control,
• the basic principles of control structures for industrial processes,
• how control structures are documented with Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs),
• the principle of and applications of sequential control,
• the physical components of a feedback control loop, including automation devices, actuators and sensors,
• the principles of PC-based measurement, control and data logging with LabVIEW.

Skills

The student will be able to

• characterize process dynamics in terms of gain, time-constant, integrator (accumulator) gain, and time-delay from a given dynamic model in the time-domain (differential equations),
• design the structure of feedback control loops,
• explain how a PID controller works,
• identify factors which typically influence control system stability,
• apply various methods for controller tuning on a simulator and on a physical system,
• design the structure of cascade control systems,
• design feedforward controllers,
• design the structure of control systems for industrial processes in terms of a process and instrumentation diagrams to obtain specifications related to mass balances, production rate, temperature (energy) control, and quality control,
• design sequential control systems using sequential function chart (SFC),
• identify physical components of a feedback control loop, including automation devices, actuators and sensors,
• identify the components needed to implement a PC-based system for measurement, control and data logging with LabVIEW,
• do practical work with a given PC-based system for measurement, control and data logging with LabVIEW,
• identify the function blocks for PID control, measurement filtering (smoothing), scaling, analog input from sensors, analog output to actuators, and writing data continuously to a logfile in a given LabVIEW program for measurement and control.

General competences

The student will

• be able to evaluate the benefits of implementing control systems industrial processes and environmental engineerings systems,
• be able to communicate with control engineers,
• know how control systems are documented with block diagrams and process and instrumentation diagrams,
• master basic control systems terminology,
• be able to write a report for laboratory assignment and for a project task.

Innhold

Importance of control engineering for solving industrial and environmental problems. Characterization of process dynamics. Feedback control with PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller. Factors influencing control system stability. Controller tuning. Cascade control. Feedforward control. Control structures for industrial processes. Sequential control. Automation technology. Sensors. Actuators. PC-based measurement, control and data logging with LabVIEW.

Arbeids- og læringsformer

Self-study. Lectures. Exercises. Project work. Laboratory work.

Vurderingsformer

The project and the laboratory assignment must be accomplished satisfactorily to pass the course. Once this requirement is fullfilled, the grade is given 100% by the results of the individual written examination which takes place without aids.

Det tas forbehold om mindre justeringer i planen.