Tuning a PID controller requires patience and technique.

The goal of tuning a

PID loop is to make it stable, responsive and to minimise overshooting. There are two
tuning methods that can be used to tune a PID loop: trial and error method, Ziegler-
Nicholsmethod and Tyreus-Luyben Method.

Trial and error method is a tuning method that requires the system to be online.
This method begins by setting and values to zero. Only proportional gain, is
set and changed by increasing or decreasing the value until an acceptable oscillatory
output is produced. A small overshoot and then obtains a well damped response is
considered as a good oscillation output. As the flow process control unit used in this
experiment has a similar and values, the and values must be set
simultaneously. Besides that, increasing or decreasing the values of and can be
set and done by using trial and error method to obtain a faster stability .

Ziegler-Nicholsmethod can also be used to tune a system. It is trial and error

tuning method based on sustained oscillations and is probably most widely used
method. It also known as continuous cycling or ultimate gain tuning method. Firstly,
similar to trial and error method, and values to zero. Only is set by increasing
or decreasing the value until an sustained periodic oscillation is produced. Then, the
ultimate gain and ultimate period : Ku and Pu is recorded and using the Table 5, the
control parameter can be obtained. However, there are some disadvantages of this
technique. Firstly, it is time consuming because a trial and error procedure must be
performed. Besides, it forces the process into a marginal stability condition which may
lead to unstable operation due to the set point changes or external disturbance. This
method is not applicable for processes that are open loop unstable.

Table 5:Formulas for the controller parameters in Ziegler-Nichols method.

Controller
PID 0.6 0.5 0.125

For Tyreus-Luyben Method, the procedure is quite similar to the Ziegler-

Nichols method but the final controller settings are different. This method also based
on ultimate gain and period are given in Table 6.This method is also time consuming
and force the system to margin if instability occur.
 Table 6:Formulas for the controller parameters in Ziegler-Nichols method.
Controller
PID 0.3125 2.2 0.16

There are several precaution steps and recommendations to improve the results
for this experiment. First of all, the pressure value should not be adjusted more than
0.4MPa to the electro-pneumatic proportional valve and the system tanks. Next,
manual valves should be in correct operation whether open or close. This is to ensure
that more accurate result can be obtained. The reading of the manual valve and
pressure valve must in range so that there will no error occurred during the
experiment. When changing a new value or value, the time interval should be
as long as possible in order to get an accurate stable system. Lastly, the setting of the
sensor and the control valve should not be changed because it may disturb both sensor
and valve because it may affect the performance and operation range.