Detection and Diagnosis of Stiction in Control Loops

Book excerpt: In the process industries, stiction is the most common performance-limiting valve problem and over the last decade numerous different techniques for overcoming it have been proposed. This book represents a comprehensive presentation of these methods, including their principles, assumptions, strengths and drawbacks. Guidelines and working procedures are provided for the implementation of each method and MATLAB®-based software can be downloaded from www.ualberta.ca/~bhuang/stiction-book enabling readers to apply the methods to their own data. Methods for the limitation of stiction effects are proposed within the general context of: oscillation detection in control loops, stiction detection, diagnosis and stiction quantification and diagnosis of multiple faults. The state-of-the-art algorithms presented in this book are demonstrated and compared in industrial case studies of diverse origin – chemicals, building, mining, pulp and paper, mineral and metal processing.