The need to apply modern signal processing and analysis techniques to enhance the performance of process instrumentation systems has been identified as one of the priority areas for research and development in process instrumentation and process control. This enhancement of performance can be in the form of extracting additional information from flow sensors beyond the customary requirements of the basic process measurement, that is, flow rate. In conjunction with, and within the expert systems approach, an enhanced flowmeter can, for example, be utilised for condition monitoring purposes and, for diagnostic engineering management and optimisation of process plant operations. This thesis demonstrates the new importance of flow measurement signals from the point of view of extracting additional information which include: - (i) the basic process measurement value (ii) a quality or validity index associated with the basic measurement value, (iii) any other information which can be used to characterise the operational status of the plant and associated instrumentation. The signal processing tasks involve spectral analysis and spectrum estimation, system identification and parametric time series modelling techniques. Qualitative signatures which have been identified for different flowmeters operating under a wide variety of conditions in different process flow rigs are described. The utilisation of the results towards enhancing the performance the of the process instrumentation system is emphasised and demonstrated throughout the thesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:385674 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Amadi-Echendu, Joe E. |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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