Top 5 Control Engineering articles, June 1-7: Dual split-range control strategy, BP Texas City, energy-efficient machines, more

Articles about a dual split-range control strategy, BP Texas City 10 years later, energy-efficient machine best practices, predictive analytics, and the Control Engineering salary and career survey were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from last week, June 1-7. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra June 8, 2015

Control Engineering Top 5 most read articles online, for Jun. 1-7, covered a dual-split range control strategy, BP Texas City 10 years later, energy-efficient machine best practices, predictive analytics, and the Control Engineering salary and career survey. Link to each article below.

1. A dual split-range control strategy for pressure and flow processes

Maintaining setpoint for two-mode or wide-range operations can be much easier when there are two control devices. Split-range control has been widely used in industrial processes for controlling pressure, temperature, and flow. See diagrams. 

2. 10 years later: BP Texas City and the inevitable cost of an incident

This unfortunate incident from 2005 is familiar to many working in process industries and especially in the U.S., where an extensive investigation and its associated report have been used to illustrate the importance of process safety management. 

3. Best practices for energy-efficient machines

Machine control designs are changing to integrate best practices in energy management. These steps include measurement and monitoring of energy use and control and optimization to minimize energy consumption. 

4. Predictive analytics hit the midstream

Model-based, predictive analytics lends itself to crunching multiple data sources to pinpoint risks for pipeline integrity management, while analytics for process monitoring and measurement evolve to better discover crucial variances. 

5. Control Engineering salary and career survey, 2015

Control Engineering research: While slightly less is expected for salary and significantly more for bonuses in 2015 compared to 2014, concerns about shortages of skilled workers remained highest on the list of challenges. 

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, June 1-7, for articles published within the last two months.

– Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com