Feedback Controllers for the Process Industries

This book brings together in one place operational and mathematical descriptions of all the various feedback controllers, which have been used in the process industries, comparing their performance and stability in many commonly encountered processes. It dispels misconceptions about the performance of some newer types of controllers, generally considered superior but, in some applications, actually inferior. The reader will see what today's role is for: the PID controller; the actual and more limited applications for the Ziegler-Nichols tuning rules; and manual and automated self-tuning controllers. The control theory is presented rigorous without being complex, and is illustrated by numerous simulations.