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Tip for Using Control Valve Positioners in Fast Loops
by Jim Cahill
John Egnew, a training consultant and instructor in Emerson's Educational Services has posted another tip in his series of looptips. John's looptip #12 is entitled Don't Throw Away a Good Thing.
In it, he references how a positioner used on a control valve in a fast-acting loop may actually make the loop more unstable or difficult to control. The likely culprit may be too high of a loop gain. An example of this type of loop might be a fast fluid flow application.
If this is the case, the solution is having the travel feedback signal from the positioner be the inner loop of a cascaded loop. The inner loop of cascade control must be faster than the outer loop.
He also offers specific recommendations whether your loop is running under electronic or pneumatic control.
I hope these tips along with some of the wisdom conveyed by Terry Blevins and Greg McMillan over on the ModelingAndControl.com blog help you tackle some of these situations which can impact the performance of your process.
Tags: control valve
| positioner
| cascade control
| control loop
| loop gain
|
May 25, 2007 in Education , in Process Optimization | Comments (2)
Comments
how to perform pH control using control valve.
Posted by: bala at August 7, 2008 7:54 AM
Hi Bala, Thanks for your comment!
You'll want to visit the ModelingAndControl.com website. Greg McMillan frequently posts on the topic of pH Control.
I did a search of their site and found this article, Linear in a Nonlinear World – Part II with a link to a Linear Reagent Demand Control Example.
Good luck in your quest!
Posted by: Jim Cahill at August 7, 2008 8:46 AM
