Design and implementation of PID based flow rate control using PLC

Industrial systems require efficient techniques to observe the stable operation of various industrial processes and to achieve optimal control. Considering the importance of industrial processes, Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID), Adaptive PID, and fuzzy logic are the most utilized control systems. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a low-cost solution for the industrial processes requiring control and having the flexibility of graphical user interface. In this paper, an experimental study on flow rate control system for water flowing in a vessel is realized and implemented using Proportional (P), Proportional Derivative (PD), Proportional Integral (PI), and PID controllers with Programming Logic Controller (PLC). For optimal control, the constants for the PID controller are calculated based on Zeigler-Nichols (ZN) rules. ZN tuning rules can be used to find controller constants where the plant dynamics are not available. The experimental analysis is performed to validate the theoretical concepts. The achieved results and analysis demonstrate that the process variable, which is water inflow rate 4.92L/minute, is equal to the set point without any overshoot and remains controllable at every set point change.