ABSTRACT

A process control loop consists of four control blocks which are controller, final control
element, process and sensor. When all these blocks connected, the process control loop is called
closed loop system. When any of the blocks is disconnected, the process control loop is called
open loop system. In closed loop system is basically the controller compares the process
measurement signal (PV) from set point (SP) and makes necessary corrective action to the final
control element. In the other hand, open loop system is the controller that has no control over the
final control element. The adjustment of the final control element is made manually by an
operator (Abdul Aziz & Zalizawati, 2013). The objectives of the experiments are to perform
open loop and closed loop test and to study the effect of load disturbance and set point change to
the process variable using Foxboro and Emerson controllers systems. The open loop test was
conducted first by set the set point and change the controller to auto mode then the manipulated
variable (MV) was then increased by 10-20%. After that the value of RR and Td were calculated
using reformulated tangent method for flow and tangent method for level. The value of P, I and D
were calculated using Ziegler-Nichols method and also CohenCoon. The closed loop test was
done by entering the P, I and D values calculated into the controller in auto mode. After the
response was stabilize, the load disturbance and set point test were performed and wait until the
response stable to make sure the value of P, I and D calculated was correct.

RESULTS
Ziegler-Nichols:

MODE
P
PI
PID

P
31.2
34.66
25.99

8.66
5.2

1.3

7.85
6.38

0.95

CohenCoon:

MODE
P
PI
PID

P
30.7
31.06
22.87

Load distribution

D,I,P

Tr

Ts

OV

US

UCL

LCL

15:02

50%

35%

2.2

2.0

Tr

Ts

OV

US

UCL

LCL

15:06

47%

34.5%

2.8

2.6

Graph
Type
QAD

Set point

D,I,P

Graph
Type
QAD

DISCUSSIONS
In open loop test, the controller has no effect to the final control element as the
adjustment must be conduct by the operator in order to see the differences. Flow is a self
regulating system and it has achieved the steady state. From the graph, we used reformulated
tangent method to determine the respond rate (RR), time delay (Td) and time constant (Tc) for
flow control. By doing some calculation, the value of RR is 0.12, Td is 2.6 s while Tc is 53.3 s.
Then, the values of RR and Td were used to calculate P and I values by using the Ziegler
Nichols method and also Cohent- Coon method. The values for PI mode using Ziegler nichols
were 34.66 and 8.66 while for cohent coon 31.06 and 7.85 for level control loop.

In closed loop test, the value of P and PI that have been calculated in the open loop test
are used as a base values to increase the accuracy with high integration activity. For load
distribution test, the values of rise time (Tr) is 15:02, the percentage overshoot (OV), is 50%, the
percentage of undershoot (US) is 35%, the upper control limit (UCL) IS 2.2 And the Lower
control limit is 2.0. There is no value for the Settilng time (Ts) because the line is not settled on
the set point. For set point test, the values of rise time (Tr) is 15:06, the percentage overshoot
(OV), is 47%, the percentage of undershoot (US) is 34.5%, the upper control limit (UCL) IS 2.8
And the Lower control limit is 2.6. There is also no value for the Settilng time(Ts) because the
line is not settled on the set point.

i.1 RECOMMENDATIONS
i.

Adjust P and I values one by one not simultaneously. Beacause by adjusting it

ii.

simultaneously it leads to worst oscillation of the process or even leads to offset.

Use other methods to calculate RR and Td for the open loop and compared with the

iii.

current method used in this experiment so that the data could be more feasible
Let the process in man mode for 3 second before turn it into auto mode after the

iv.

disturbance test are done to improve the response.

When fine tuning, adjust the P (by dividing by 4) if process oscillates and keep reducing

v.

the P if oscillation persists,

Values of RR should be four or more decimal places to give more accurate data and leads
to better values of P, I and D

CALCULATIONS
OPEN LOOP SYSTEM

Flow
Reformulated tangent method
RR=

tan a
MV b

RR=

tan 36 5.26
20 1.33

= 0.12
Dead time,
T d=T d ( length ) b
T d=2 1.3
=2.6
Time constant
T c =T c ( length ) b
T c =41 1.3
= 53.3