Issues in modeling stiction in process control valves

Stiction has been reported as the most commonly occurring nonlinearity in control valves. In the literature, mechanistic and data based models have been proposed to characterize stiction. In this paper, the available models are critically analyzed. The complexities associated with modeling stiction are highlighted. It is shown through experiments on industrial valves that in the presence of static and dynamic friction, the valve behavior is dependent on the rate of the valve input. An approach to model this rate dependent valve behavior - which is not considered in existing data driven models - is proposed.