Process Control: Modeling, Design, and Simulation

1.1. Introduction

Process engineers are often responsible for the operation of chemical processes. As these processes become larger scale and/or more complex, the role of process automation becomes more and more important. The objective of this textbook is to teach process engineers how to design and tune feedback controllers for the automated operation of chemical processes.

A conceptual process block diagram for a chemical process is shown in Figure 1-1. Notice that the inputs are classified as either manipulated or disturbance variables and the outputs are classified as measured or unmeasured in Figure 1-1a. To automate the operation of a process, it is important to use measurements of process outputs or disturbance inputs to make decisions ...