So, we inserted a volume booster between the pneumatic positioner and the valve motor. At first, this reduced the stroking time to 2 sec., but motion was very erratic. The booster has a bypass needle valve, which we adjusted to stabilize the motion and this left the stroking time at 4 sec.. We now, however, see a slow, triangular cycle in the pressure loop. Reducing the controller gain reduces its amplitude and extends its period, but at the cost of poorer load response. What's causing the cycle and how do we fix it?

-- From November's Chemical Processing 

Remove the booster

Consider a surge tank

Use an unloader

Integral time is too fast

The integral time must be larger than the product of the % upset, controller gain, and time to stroke, that is: Ti > Eo x Kc x Tv/100%

Installing a booster added a dead band that will cause cycling in a gas pressure loop. The pneumatic positioner has few tuning options. You are lucky if it still has held its calibration.

A better solution would be a smart digital positioner with advanced tuning capability and if necessary, one of the better doubling-acting pistons that are designed to respond to small changes in signal almost as well as the diaphragm actuator. Either way, you must still make sure the integral time is not too fast compared to whatever stroking time you end up with.
Greg McMillan, professor
Washington University, St. Louis

Is the downstream system high gain?
You don't indicate what the downstream system looks like. It sounds like it might be quite high gain, having rapid changes, which you are controlling with a valve with slow dynamics. Have you tried integral control action to recover faster from large upsets? Can you install a pressure receiver to smooth out rapid system changes? If this is a sizeable compressor, a variable-frequency drive should offer a very good payout, since a significant letdown and recycle stream is certainly an energy waster.
Matt Beasley, sr. process engineer
GEO Specialty Chemicals, Cedartown, Ga.

Look for a limit
The only way I can think of to get a true triangular cycle is to have some kind of discrete limit in the control algorithm or the system. Normally, a control oscillation should be a sine wave unless the process runs into limits. If there actually is a triangle wave, you need to determine what limits are causing this, either in the control loop or mechanically. Look hard for a limit, that's a huge clue.

Improving the control valve stroke by adding a volume booster is ok and 10 years ago was a very good idea. Conventional positioners would cause instability in a system that had to be very fast; so they were avoided like the plague in critical service. Instead, we would use volume boosters just as you describe to get the valves to move quickly. Lately, though, we have become big fans of the newer digital positioners. They have allowed us to eliminate the boosters on these sensitive services. The results are impressive, and we have been using them for control loops that need to be real fast. Besides moving the valve fast, you want to move it accurately and the newer positioners give you this. We have seen an improvement in both speed and accuracy of the valve position. This is somewhat contrary to logic, as you would expect an analog positioner to be more stable as you do not introduce the steps that occur in a digital system.