With the recent acquisition of a process control trainer, the Department of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina A&T University is adding completely instrumented laboratory experiments to its process control laboratory. The trainer provides for the control of flow rate, level, temperature and pressure, and interfacing to an IBM-PC provides computer control capability. Advanced control strategies such as cascade control, feedforward control, flow ratio control and dead time compensation can be studied. All juniors will study computer control as part of their required laboratory experience in process control. In addition, seniors will be able to develop and test control strategies on the trainer as part of the required Plant Design course and the elective Independent Study course. The enhanced education will provide chemical engineers with better preparation for work in industry.
