Top 5 Control Engineering articles, November 30 to December 6: Fixing PID, Engineers’ Choice finalists, oil and gas simulation, more

Articles about fixing PID, the Engineers' Choice finalists; oil and gas simulation, overlooked safety aspects, and a blast furnace retrofit were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from November 30 to December 6. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra December 7, 2015

The top 5 most read articles online, for Nov. 30-Dec. 6 for Control Engineering 
covered fixing PID, the Engineers’ Choice finalists; oil and gas simulation, overlooked safety aspects, and a blast furnace retrofit. Link to each article below. 

1. Fixing PID, Part 3

PID: Proportional-integral-derivative controllers may be ubiquitous, but they’re not perfect. Consider how deadtime affects integral action.

2. 2016 Engineering Choice Awards’ Finalists  

The Control Engineering Engineers’ Choice Awards highlight some of the best new control, instrumentation and automation products as chosen by Control Engineering’s print and online subscribers. 

3. Simulation: A game-like approach to innovation

The low price of oil has caused hydrocarbon companies to look at innovative ways of reducing their costs. Simulation modeling has recently emerged as a way of minimizing operating overhead or removing unnecessary scope from capital projects.

4. Four overlooked aspects of risk management, process safety

Process safety trends in risk management and functional safety: The basic process control system (BPCS) focuses on optimizing the process for business continuity. Risks mitigated through “after-the-fact” measures try to minimize an event’s impact.

5. Blast furnace and stove control systems see a retrofit

A major Midwestern steel producer sees a sequenced changeover of all process control parameters, which yields successful implementation of a system upgrade with minimal downtime. 

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, November 30 to December 6, for articles published within the last two months.  

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