Na literatura há vários trabalhos elucidando a importância de ferramentas para auditar malhas de controle. Na indústria, o interesse por esse tipo de software é crescente, devido ao benefício trazido: garantir o exato desempenho para cada controlador significa atingir pontos de operação mais lucrativos. Todavia, as metodologias disponíveis na literatura e nas ferramentas comerciais não provêm medidas conclusivas das características da malha. Conseqüentemente, a análise muitas vezes é confusa e difícil, acarretando um diagnóstico difícil. Reduzir a distância entre a auditoria e o diagnóstico, propondo novas métricas para ajudar o engenheiro no gerenciamento de malhas é o foco central deste trabalho. A presente tese é segmentada em duas partes: auditoria e diagnóstico, dentro das quais se inserem as principais contribuições deste trabalho. A primeira contribuição deste trabalho é a proposição de uma metodologia para decompor o impacto da velocidade do controlador, tempo morto e ruído branco sobre a variância total da malha, auxiliando o engenheiro de processos a tomar uma ação: trocar os parâmetros de ajuste, aumentar a ordem do controlador, substituir o medidor, reduzir o tempo morto, entre outros. O método proposto requer apenas dados de operação normal e o tempo morto da malha, não sendo necessários testes intrusivos, sendo possível a aplicação industrial. O conjunto de métricas propostas foi aplicado em três casos de estudo, fornecendo resultados promissores. Dentro do campo de auditoria, se insere a segunda contribuição: a proposição de uma metodologia para estimação de parâmetros conclusivos (ou determinísticos) para avaliação da performance e robustez de controladores (Máxima Sensibilidade, razão entre o tempo de subida de malha aberta e fechada, razão entre o tempo de assentamento de malha aberta e fechada, entre outros), baseado em índices estocásticos (i.e. métricas que podem ser computadas em tempo real, sem testes intrusivos) e parâmetros da malha (tempo morto, constante de tempo). O modelo de inferência para desempenho e robustez, chamado PRIM, é proposto. Este modelo fornece uma clara indicação do real desempenho e robustez da malha, facilitando a análise e tornando o diagnóstico direto. Além disso, visando elucidar a vantagem dos índices determinísticos sobre os estocásticos, ambos serão aplicados a um conjunto de casos de estudo. A última contribuição no campo de auditoria está na estimação do potencial impacto econômico de cada malha, como ferramenta para hierarquizar sua manutenção. Considerando que uma típica planta química possui centenas ou milhares de malhas e que a maioria delas possui significativo potencial de melhora, a priorização da manutenção é essencial. O impacto econômico é baseado no conceito de Matriz de Variabilidade (VM), que é uma matriz que mostra o impacto da melhora da performance de um controlador sobre a variabilidade de toda a planta. A segunda parte deste trabalho aborda o diagnóstico de algumas avarias comuns em controladores. A primeira metodologia visa quantificar a banda de agarramento em válvulas de controle, que apresentam este fenômeno, através de um modelo de inferência chamado SIM. A metodologia proposta requer apenas dados de operação normal do controlador e planta. A contribuição final deste trabalho é um método simples para avaliação do modelo em controladores preditivos MPCs, baseado na Análise de Componentes Independentes (ICA). Esta análise é bastante útil para indicar os canais que possuem modelo pobre em relação à planta. O trabalho finaliza com as conclusões finais e os trabalhos futuros relativos a esta tese. / Many works available in the literature support the importance of control loop performance assessment (CLPA) tools. Industrially, there is an increasing interest in this area and the reason is trivial: ensuring the exact performance for each loop means allowing it to operate in a high profitable operating point. However, the available methodologies in commercial tools and literature do not provide clear and conclusive metrics of the actual loop performance. Consequently, the diagnostics is not easy, making the analysis sometimes difficult and confusing. The aim of this thesis is to reduce the gap between assessment and diagnostics by proposing a set of metrics to help the engineer in control loop performance management. The thesis is divided into two sections: Assessment and Diagnostic. The first contribution of this work is the proposition of a new methodology to decompose the impact of control loop performance, time delay, and white noise in the total control loop variance, helping the engineer to diagnose the loop performance problem and take the right action to achieve the desired product variability (by changing tuning parameters, changing controller type, replacing instrument, or changing the process, among others). The proposed method does not require any invasive tests, only control loop routine operating data and process time delay, allowing the industrial application of the proposed indices in real time. The methodology was applied in three case studies, providing very good results. The second contribution is propose a methodology to estimate conclusive indices (also called deterministic indices) to evaluate loop performance and robustness (maximal sensitivity, ratio between open and closed loop rise time, settling time, among others), based on stochastic indices (i.e. indices that can be computed using only normal operating data) and process parameters (time delay and time constant). A performance and robustness inferential model (PRIM) for loop assessment will be shown. The PRIM provides a clear picture of loop performance and robustness, making the analysis easier and the diagnostics straightforward. Moreover, this section highlights the limitation and drawbacks of stochastic metrics for CLPA. The last contribution of the Assessment section proposes a method to prioritize loop maintenance, based on the economic impact of each loop. Assuming that a typical process plant has hundreds or thousands of loops and most of them have significant impact over loop variability, prioritizing loop maintenance is essential. The economic impact is based on the concept of Variability Matrix (VM), which is an array that shows the impact of performance improvement of a given loop on the whole plant. The second section of this work is the Diagnostics of some controller problems. The first methodology aims to quantify the stickband in a sticky valve, using only normal operating data of controller output and process variable. An analogous inference model, called Stiction Inference Model (SIM), is proposed to estimate the stickband. In the final contribution, it is proposed a simple method to evaluate the Model Plant Mismatch (MPM) based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA). This analysis is very useful to point out the poor channels models in Model Predictive Controllers. The work ends with concluding remarks and further work.

Nowadays, the assembly of small (<1mm) components has become an industrial reality. Many domains like MEMS, surgery, telecommunications, car industry, etc. now have large use of micro-parts. At this scale, predominant forces are different than in macroworld. The pieces often undergo adhesion problems. The adhesion forces can be splitted in different components :van der Waals, electrostatics and capillary condensation. This work focuses on capillary condensation as it often can be the major component of the adhesion force. <p><p>The first part of this work details a review of literature of different fields involved in capillary condensation. A simulation tool is then implemented and theoretically validated in the second part of the work. Finally, a test bed is presented; this bed is then used to experimentally validate the simulation results.<p><p>Experiments and simulation results are shown to concord. Therefore, the simulation tool can be used to model the force due to capillary condensation. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller tuning guidelines in process industry have been in place for over six decades. Nevertheless despite their long design history PID tuning has remained an ‘art’ and no single comprehensive solution yet exists. In this study various considerations, with new and different perspectives, have been taken into account in PID tuning design. This study explores the issue of PID tuning from a practical point of view with particular focus on robust design in the presence of typical problems in process industry: process changes, valve stiction effects and unmeasured disturbances. The IMC tuning rule is recommended for setpoint tracking, while in the case of regulation, a newly proposed tuning rule, based on a combination of IMC and Ziegler-Nichols method, is demonstrated to give satisfactory results. The results were evaluated by simulation and were also validated on a computer-interfaced pilot scale continuous stirred tank heater (CSTH) process. / Chemical Engineering

The present work is dedicated to the development of high performance integrated circuits for wireless communications, by acting of three different levels: technologies, devices, and circuits. Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) CMOS technology is used in the frame of this work. Micromachining technologies are also investigated for the fabrication of three-dimensional tunable capacitors. The reliability of micromachined thin-film devices is improved by the coating of silanes in both liquid- and vapor-phases. Since in telecommunication applications, distortion is responsible for the generation of spurious frequency bands, the linearity behavior of different SOI transistors is analyzed. The validity range of the existing low-frequency nonlinear characterization methods is discussed. New simple techniques valid at both low- and high-frequencies, are provided, based on the integral function method and on the Volterra series. Finally, the design of a crucial nonlinear circuit, the voltage-controlled oscillator, is introduced. The describing function formalism is used to evaluate the oscillation amplitude and is embedded in a design methodology. The frequency tuning by SOI varactors is analyzed in both small- and large-signal regimes.

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