(334e) A Visual Demonstration of Process Control Principles

Students often struggle with understanding basic principles of process control.  This experiment uses simple equipment to easily demonstrate principles of control including the destabilizing effect of dead time as well as the interchangeable effects of dead time and first order systems.  The experiment can also illustrate the issues that can arise even with simple 2x2 pairing problems (using the relative gain array).  Because the hurdle for many students involves the associated mathematics, the experiment is framed to allow understanding of the control principles without the necessity of mathematical analysis (or supporting such analysis).  Finally, the experiment uses a visual format so that students can literally see the changes in a process in addition to monitoring instrument readings.