Explore fundamental process control concepts through real-time interactive simulations.
This platform provides an interactive, browser-based environment for learning and teaching Process Dynamics & Control. Instead of reading static derivations, learners manipulate system parameters, gains, time constants, dead times, controller settings, and immediately observe how the process responds.
The goal is to build intuition for the dynamic behaviour of chemical and process systems, and for the design and tuning of feedback controllers, by connecting theory directly to visual, real-time simulation.
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Course website, slides & supplementary material | chemeng.aut.ac.ir/content/9277 |
| Code & simulation library (PSE @ AUT) | pseaut.github.io/pcl/ |
The course website hosts lecture slides, notes, problem sets, and additional reading. The
pclrepository provides the underlying process-control library used by the simulations.
- Real-time simulation — parameter changes are reflected instantly in the response plots.
- Hands-on tuning — adjust P, PI, PID, and advanced controller settings and compare results.
- Side-by-side comparison — overlay multiple responses (e.g. open-loop vs. closed-loop).
- Disturbance testing — inject step, ramp, impulse, and sinusoidal disturbances.
- Zero installation — runs entirely in the browser.
- Open and extensible — add your own models and modules.
| # | Module | Key Concepts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Process Modelling | Conservation laws, lumped vs. distributed systems, linearization |
| 2 | First-Order Systems | Time constant, steady-state gain, step response |
| 3 | Second-Order Systems | Damping ratio, natural frequency, overshoot, oscillation |
| 4 | Dead Time & Inverse Response | Transport delay, non-minimum-phase behavior |
| 8 | PID Controllers | Proportional, integral, derivative actions and their effects |
| 12 | Multivariable Systems | Interaction, relative gain array (RGA), decoupling |
Clone the repository and open the index.html with your browser. Or simply go to pseaut.github.io/pcl/.