School of Chemical Engineering public seminar on Process control

Time: Monday, 17th of Aug, 12-1pm

Venue: 50-C207 (ELCX) (Seating limit to 100 only)

Topic: Analogue Computers Studying Control System Dynamics in the 1960s

Speaker: Emeritus Professor Michael Brisk, Monash University

About the Speaker

Emeritus Professor Michael Brisk is a chemical engineering graduate from the
University of Sydney with a PhD from the same university.

In the early sixties he lectured in chemical engineering at Sydney, returning

there in the seventies as a senior lecturer, after working in process control and
reaction engineering with ICI in the UK for six years.

He joined ICI Australia in 1983, managing applied research in Sydney, before transferring to ICI
Australia Engineering in Melbourne in 1988 to establish the Advanced Process Control Group in ICI.

Later, as International Technology Leader in advanced process control for the ICI Group worldwide,
he led the development of the Groups process control strategy, working with ICI engineers in the
UK, South Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

He joined Monash University from industry as Dean of Engineering in 1995, and retired from that
position at the end of 2002, having chaired the Australian Council of Engineering Deans in 1997-
1999.

He was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Chemical Engineers CHEMECA Medal
for outstanding service and contribution to Chemical Engineering in 2004, and is an Elected Fellow of
the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

In semi-retirement from 2003 he taught part-time in Chemical Engineering at Monash; was engaged
in industrial consulting in Process Control; and was the Honorary Chair of the Accreditation Board of
Engineers Australia for four years, followed by eight years as a part-time Accreditation Visit
Manager. He is now fully retired well almost !.

Talk summary:
Fifty-odd years ago digital computers were still in their early stages of development. There
was no MATLAB nor Simulink to assist the control engineer study dynamic systems. But
there were analogue computers. From the 1950s for nearly 30 years electronic analogue
computers, initially using thermionic valves, then transistors, and eventually early integrated
circuits, were the engineers tools for dynamic simulation. Then digital computers and
powerful software replaced them, and they faded into history, extinct, and existing only in
dusty storerooms or museums.

The author has recently acquired one of these dinosaurs, a 50-year old Electronic
Associates TR-20 transistorised analogue computer, amazingly in full working order. This talk
outlines how analogue computers work, and how they were programmed. Videos of the TR-
20 in operation are used to show the development of a simulation of a mechanical spring-
damper system, and the tuning of a simple feedback control system, the latter compared
with the use of a modern digital simulation package.