CHE 184-1P Process Dynamics and Controls

1st Quarter SY 2017-2018

EXPERIMENT NO. 1
First Order System: Response Time of Mercury-in-glass Thermometer
Cadiz, Pria Mae1

School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Mapa Institute of Technology.

ABSTRACT

In designing control systems, it is important to first analyze the dynamic behavior of a given system by
correlating the transient response of the system to any disturbance or forcing function. Several common
forcing functions are step, pulse, impulse, ramp, and sinusoidal but this experiment focused on step and
pulse function only. The Transfer function is basically the relationship of the systems output to its input. In
first order systems, the transient response is characterized by a parameter called time constant or the
response time. Thermometer is a first order linear instrument used in measuring temperature or
temperature gradient and in this case, the surrounding temperature is the input whereas the thermometer
reading is the output or response. It was found out that the system attains the final temperature value under
step disturbance than in pulse disturbance by having higher time constant than the other.

Keywords: step, pulse, time constant, forcing function, transient response

INTRODUCTION as time approaches infinity or when the set point

In process control systems, performance of
various control systems is measured by
determining the response time. Response time is
the duration of how the system (e.g. fluid) reacts
to the disturbance being applied to it (e.g.
temperature changes). These disturbances are
often referred to as forcing functions, common
forcing functions include: Step function, ramp
function, impulse function, and sinusoid function.
But in the experiment, only the step and pulse
function will be considered. The response time of
a control system consists of two parts: the
transient and the steady-state response.
Transient response corresponds to the behavior
of the system from the initial state to the final
state. On the other hand, the system is said to be
in steady state when the system output behaves
is attained [1].
The thermodynamic instrument used in the
experiment is a Thermometer. It is a first order
linear instrument with a high conductivity which
lets it reacts immediately when there is a sudden
change in surrounding temperature allowing the
heat to flow all throughout which causes the
liquid to expand or contract. It is mathematically
expressed as a non-homogeneous first order
linear differential equation or simply the heat
capacity equation:
( ) (1)
where is the convective coefficient, is the
area of bulb for heat transfer, is mass of the
mercury, is the heat capacity of the mercury,
is the bulk temperature of the fluid surrounding
the bulb, and is the uniform temperature of the
mercury. For the steady state condition, equation
(1) can be written as:

( ) (2)

When the thermometer is subjected to some

change in surrounding temperature, deviation
variables will then be introduced. Deviation
variables are the differences between the Figure 1. Step Input
variables and their steady state values:

(3)

(4)

Subtracting equations (1) and (2) and substituting

the deviation variables gives:

( ) (5)

If we let , where represents the time

Figure 2. Pulse Input
constant of the system, equation (5) becomes:
The transient response of a Mercury-in-glass
(6) Thermometer to step and pulse disturbance is
given as:
Applying Laplace Transform will give the Transfer
Function of a first order system: ( ) ( ) (8)
( )
( ) ( )
(7) ( ) (9)
( )

In a Mercury-in-glass Thermometer, step function

is a sudden change in temperature from initial
steady state to another set point until it attains
steady state. On the other hand, pulse function is
a temporary change in temperature. Graphical
representation of step and pulse function is
shown in Figure 1 and 2.
METHODOLOGY
A. Materials and Procedures
The materials used in the experiment are: 500
mL beaker, Mercury thermometer, hot plate, ice
bath and stop watch.
Step Input B. Treatment of Results

In the first part of the experiment, the transient
response of thermometer to a step disturbance
was analysed. The beaker was filled with tap
water and let it boil using a hot plate. Using the
thermometer, the temperature of the water was
monitored until it reached a constant temperature
of 90 . Another beaker was filled with ice and
water mixture, the thermometer was then dipped
immediately into the ice bath until such time that
it achieved steady state and a constant
temperature of 0 . The thermometer reading
was recorded every 5 seconds.
The data gathered in this experiment was
temperature and the time corresponding to each
reading. But the objective of the experiment was
to determine the time constant for both step and
pulse disturbance. Since the given equations
were in non-linear form, linearizing the equation
will make the equation more workable. The steps
in linearizing response equations to step and
pulse input are as follows:
Step Function:
( ) ( )

( )

()
( ) (10)

where is the slope, is the x variable, and

()
( ) is the y variable.

Pulse Function:
Figure 3. Set up used for the experiment.
( )
Pulse Input
( )
For pulse disturbance, the thermometer was first
dipped into the ice bath having the reading of 0
as the initial temperature. It was then dipped into ( ) (11)
the boiling water until it reached a constant
temperature of 100 . After 40 seconds, the where is the slope, is the y-intercept,
thermometer was immersed back into the ice is the x variable, and ( ) is the y variable.
bath to reach 0 again.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the experiment were plotted to
analyse the dynamic behaviour of Mercury-in-
glass thermometer when different type of
disturbances were applied. The following are the
graphs generated from the gathered data:
equation (11) and performing linear regression,
18.8565 seconds time constant was attained.
Based from the calculated values, the pulse
function has higher time constant compared to
step function.
CONCLUSION

Time constant is an important parameter to be

Temperature vs Time
100 considered in analysing the different control
systems or instruments such as thermometer.
80
The dynamic behaviour or response of
60 thermometer was evaluated by introducing
T (oC)

40 different forcing functions namely, the step and

20
pulse function. The time constant shows how the
systems response lags in attaining steady state
0
or a set point. As a result, the pulse function has
0 20 40 60 80
t (s) a time constant value of 18.8565 seconds which
is relatively higher than the time constant for step
Figure 4. Negative Step Response
function which is 14.6955 seconds. This means
that the system (thermometer) reached the
63.2% (1-1/e) of the final temperature value
Temperature vs Time faster than when step disturbance is applied as
120
compared to a pulse disturbance.
100
80 REFERENCES
T (oC)

60
40
20
0 Third Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
0 50 100
t (s)
Figure 5. Pulse Response
It was clearly observed through the graphs how a
thermometer response to any disturbance. For
response function, using equation (10) the slope
of the line was calculated by linear regression
and thus 14.6955 seconds time constant was
attained. And for the pulse function, using
1. Coughanowr, D.R., LeBlanc, S.E. (1991).
Process Systems Analysis and Control,
150 2. BME, Department of Hydrodynamics
Systems. (n.d.). Thermometer's
response to step function. Measurement
technique of process, 1-4.
3. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
4. Seborg, D. E. Et. Al. 2004. Process
Dynamics and Control. 2nd Edition.
APPENDIX

Raw data for Step Input:

t T
0 90
5 52
10 42
15 32
20 28
25 22
30 18
35 8
40 4
45 0
50 0
55 0
60 0
65 0
70 0

Raw data for Pulse Input:

t T
0 0
10 62
20 100
30 100
40 100
50 100
60 100
70 1.8
80 1.6
90 1.2
100 1
110 0.8
120 0