Early control textbooks in Switzerland

Abstract

This chapter reviews Die Regelung von Dampfanlagen (Control of Thermal Power Plants) that is an early control textbook in Switzerland. The book by Paul Profos summarizes the practical and theoretical work done in industry with the goal to make it explicitly available to practicing engineers. The motivations to this book were the rapid changes in the construction of thermal power plants from 1945 to 1960. It marks the transition from traditional drum boilers with natural circulation to once-through steam generators, which opened the way to a substantial increase in steam pressure, steam temperature, and steam mass flow, and thus in unit power output. The book focuses on modeling and its main elements are transparent physics, and well chosen assumptions leading to simple mathematical models. They are given as low order differential difference equations and/or transfer functions. The control systems are described by structures and block diagrams, where Profos uses the then new IFAC graphic symbols.