Overview

The material in this book stems from research and development (R&D) activities as well as measurements and diagnostics performed by the author and his associates at the Analysis and Measurements Services Corporation (AMS) from 1975 through 2006. This book complements the author's previous book, Sensor Performance and Reliability, published by the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA) in 2005.[1] That earlier work presented the fundamentals of process instrumentation. This book will focus on process instrumentation testing and diagnostics, using actual examples and practical data from testing and diagnostic measurements performed in the process industries, aerospace applications, nuclear power plants, and simulated process conditions at the AMS laboratories.

The activities from which the material in this book are drawn have been performed in association with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (UT), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and its Nuclear Maintenance Assistance Center (NMAC), Electricit de France (EdF), the Saclay laboratories of the Commissariat 1'Energie Atomique (CEA) of France, the NRC, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Air Force, and utilities around the world that operate nuclear power plants. Moreover, the author's association with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and ISA has enabled him to help develop several national and international standards and guidelines for testing the instrumentation and control (I&C) systems of nuclear power plants. This book also draws from these activities.

A bibliography is provided in Appendix A that lists...