JP2006285321A - Safe instrumentation system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a safe instrumentation system for sharply reducing the labor of an operator by automatically executing proper processing corresponding to the contents of generated abnormality. <P>SOLUTION: A detection means 101 detects the abnormality of a plant. A storage means 102 stores the detected abnormality. An execution means 103 executes processing decided by a user according to the contents of the detected abnormality. A presentation means 104 presents the generation of abnormality through a man/machine interface for monitoring the plant. In this case, the execution means 103 makes the presentation means 104 present the generation of abnormality. A transfer means 105 transfers the abnormality detected by another field controller to the execution means 103. In this case, the execution means 103 executes processing corresponding to the contents of abnormality transferred by the transfer means 105. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a safety instrumented system that detects an abnormality of a plant and executes a predetermined process.

  Abnormalities occurring in an industrial plant are detected by a field controller that controls field devices, and are notified to an operator through a man-machine interface for plant control as a system alarm. The operator confirms the contents of the system alarm, identifies the location of the abnormality and the range of influence based on the notified alarm type and contents, and notifies the contact department.

JP 2004-54555 A

  The degree of importance of abnormalities occurring in the plant varies. For example, the safety instrumented system has a function of executing necessary measures (shutdown operation) when an abnormality occurs. For this reason, when an abnormality occurs in the equipment of the safety instrumentation system itself, a quick response is required. On the other hand, in a place where the plant facilities are duplicated, even if the operation side device fails, the standby side device is automatically activated. For this reason, the abnormality of such a location is a relatively minor abnormality with low urgency. Therefore, the appropriate coping method is different depending on the importance of the abnormality.

  When an abnormality occurs, in the conventional system, an alarm is notified to the man-machine interface monitored by the operator, and the alarm history is also stored in the man-machine interface. Therefore, in order to notify a worker on the field side of the occurrence of the failure, it is necessary to notify the operator of the failure from the operator. However, it may be difficult to determine whether or not there is a need for notification to the site, and there are factors that cause problems such as false alarms and notification delays due to manual intervention.

  Thus, the treatment to be performed by the operator when an abnormality occurs differs depending on the situation, and the contents are also complicated. The operator is forced to make an appropriate decision instantly in an urgent situation where an alarm sounds, and the burden is very large.

  Moreover, since the circumstances in the plant are different from each other, it is desirable that the processing at the time of occurrence of an abnormality can be finely set by the user.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a safety instrumented system that can significantly reduce the burden on an operator by automatically executing appropriate processing according to the content of an abnormality that has occurred.

The safety instrumented system of the present invention detects a plant abnormality by a field controller that controls a field device, and in the safety instrumented system that executes a predetermined process, the field controller detects a plant abnormality. And storage means for storing the detected abnormality, and execution means for executing processing determined by the user according to the content of the detected abnormality.
According to this safety instrumented system, the detected abnormality is stored in the field controller, so that processing according to the content of the abnormality can be reasonably executed at the plant site. Moreover, since the process defined by the user is executed according to the content of the detected abnormality, an appropriate process according to the circumstances of the plant can be executed.

  The execution means may execute a process reflecting the importance of the detected abnormality.

  The storage means may store the abnormality and its importance in association with each other.

  The execution means may notify the occurrence of an abnormality to the plant site.

  Presenting means for presenting the occurrence of abnormality via a man-machine interface for monitoring the plant may be provided, and the execution means may cause the presenting means to present the occurrence of abnormality.

  The execution means may execute a process reflecting the importance of the detected abnormality.

  The execution means may cause the presenting means to display the occurrence status of the abnormality together with its importance.

A transfer means for transferring an abnormality detected by another field controller to the execution means may be provided, and the execution means may execute a process according to the content of the abnormality transferred by the transfer means.
In this case, even when a process required by another field controller cannot be executed, such a process can be executed by the execution unit.

  According to the safety instrumented system of the present invention, since the detected abnormality is stored in the field controller, processing according to the content of the abnormality can be rationally executed at the plant site. Moreover, since the process defined by the user is executed according to the content of the detected abnormality, an appropriate process according to the circumstances of the plant can be executed.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a safety instrumented system according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a detecting means 101 detects a plant abnormality. The storage unit 102 stores the detected abnormality. The execution means 103 executes the process determined by the user according to the content of the detected abnormality.

  The presenting means 104 presents the occurrence of an abnormality via a man-machine interface for monitoring the plant. In this case, the execution unit 103 causes the presentation unit 104 to present the occurrence of the abnormality.

  Further, the transfer unit 105 transfers the abnormality detected by another field controller to the execution unit 103. In this case, the execution unit 103 executes processing according to the content of the abnormality transferred by the transfer unit 105.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the safety instrumented system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the safety instrumented system according to the first embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the safety instrumented system of the present embodiment includes field controllers 2, 2,... Connected to field devices 1, 2,. And a man-machine interface 3 for monitoring the field devices 1, 1,... Via the field controllers 2 arranged in a distributed manner. The field controllers 2, 2,... And the man-machine interface 3 are connected to each other via a control bus 5.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the field controller 2 includes a CPU 21 that controls the operation of the field controller 2 and an input / output device 22 that communicates with the field devices 1, 1,. The input / output device 22 is mounted with an input / output module 22a responsible for communication with each field device 1.

  In this system, the field devices 1, 1,... Are controlled by the control function provided in the man-machine interface 3 through the field controllers 2, 2,. Various manual operations on the plant can be performed via the man-machine interface 3.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when an abnormality is detected in the safety instrumented system of the present embodiment.

  This procedure is executed according to the control of the CPU 21 of the field controller 2. The CPU 21 constantly monitors for abnormalities based on signals from the input / output device 22. The abnormalities to be monitored include failure of the field device 1 and the input / output device 22, abnormalities of various wirings, and the like.

  In step S1 of FIG. 3, the CPU 21 waits for the occurrence of an abnormality to be detected, and then proceeds to step S2.

  In step S2, a system alarm is notified to the man-machine interface 3 through the control bus 5. The system alarm is for notifying the plant operator of the occurrence of an abnormality. For example, when the input / output module 22 a (FIG. 2) fails, the CPU 21 creates a system alarm indicating the failure and transmits it to the man-machine interface 3. The man-machine interface 3 displays a message indicating the failure of the input / output module 22a.

  Next, in step S3, the detected abnormality alarm information (information indicating the content of the abnormality) is stored in a buffer in the CPU 21.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the contents of alarm information stored in the buffer. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the alarm information stored in the buffer includes an “alarm number” that identifies an abnormality, an “occurrence time” that indicates the occurrence time of the abnormality, an “alarm class” that indicates the importance of the abnormality, It consists of “alarm” as a record consisting of “location of occurrence” indicating the location and “alarm content” indicating the content of the abnormality. For example, any one of 1 to 3 is selected as the “alarm class”, and the importance of the abnormality is decreased in order from 1.

  Next, in step S4 of FIG. 3, a predetermined process according to an application program installed in the CPU 21 is executed. The contents of this process are defined through an application program created by the user. For example, the user can define a process according to the importance of the abnormality that has occurred as a process to be executed when the abnormality occurs.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of a function block (SYS_ALARM) defined by the application program. In this example, the function block has an output terminal for each alarm class (CLS1, CLS2, CLS3) and an output terminal (SUM) for outputting the logical sum of all alarm classes. The function block is notified of an alarm currently stored in the buffer, for example, at regular intervals. Since each abnormality is associated with the importance level of each abnormality for each alarm, the user uses the output from each output terminal (“FALSE” or “TRUE”) according to the importance level of the abnormality. Processing can be specified.

  For example, when an abnormality occurs, an algorithm for turning on the alarm lamp 11 (FIG. 2) at the plant site or sounding an alarm sound according to the importance of the abnormality is incorporated in advance as processing in the field controller 2. be able to.

  Further, the presence or content of information to be transmitted to the man-machine interface 3 can be changed according to the importance of the abnormality. For example, in the case of a serious abnormality, the operator may be notified promptly by an alarm sound or a predetermined display via the man-machine interface 3, and the alarm sound may not be sounded when urgent treatment is not required. . For example, a predetermined notification may be executed separately from the above system alarm if it is a serious abnormality (for example, level 1) that affects the safety instrumentation system itself that ensures the safety of the plant. Also, in a duplex system that automatically switches to the standby side device, such a notification should not be given if the abnormality is relatively minor (for example, level 3), such as when a failure occurs in the active side device. Can also be set.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, by counting the number of alarms of each alarm class stored in the buffer, the number of abnormalities that have occurred can be tabulated according to the importance of the abnormality. For this reason, the alarm occurrence status can be displayed by a method according to the degree of urgency. By displaying the occurrence status of the abnormality on the man-machine interface 3 together with its importance, the operator can easily determine the necessary treatment.

  As described above, in this embodiment, since alarm information is stored in the field controller 2, notification to the site of occurrence of an abnormality using the alarm lamp 11 (FIG. 2) or the like can be quickly executed. Therefore, the safety of the site can be ensured reliably. In addition, the execution of necessary processing can be automated by programming the processing when an abnormality occurs in advance by an application program. For this reason, it is possible to prevent human error when an abnormality occurs.

  Furthermore, since the user can create a program, a process reflecting the state of the plant can be executed when an abnormality occurs. For example, according to the circumstances of the plant, alarm notification / non-notification, alarm method, etc. can be arbitrarily selected according to the importance of abnormality. For example, in the function block, the output is distinguished according to the importance of the alarm, so that it is possible to select an appropriate process according to the urgency at the time of occurrence of an abnormality.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the safety instrumented system according to the second embodiment. The same elements as those in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in the second embodiment, the field controller 2 and the field controller 2 </ b> A are connected to each other via the control bus 5. The field controller 2 </ b> A is configured in the same way as the field controller 2, and the two controllers mutually monitor an abnormality occurrence state using the control bus 5.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when an abnormality is detected in this embodiment.

  The processing in steps S11 to S14 in FIG. 7 is processing in the field controller 2A that is executed based on the control of the CPU 21A of the field controller 2A. Moreover, the process of step S21-step S22 is a process in the field controller 2 performed based on control of CPU21 of the field controller 2. FIG.

  In step S1 of FIG. 7, the CPU 21A monitors a signal from the input / output device 22A. If an abnormality is detected on the field controller 2A side, the process proceeds to step S12.

  In step S12, a system alarm is notified to the man-machine interface 3 via the control bus 5.

  Next, in step S13, an alarm is transmitted to the field controller 2 via the control bus 5. The alarm is information corresponding to each record of the alarm information (FIG. 4) in the first embodiment.

  Next, in step S14, alarm information is stored in a buffer in the CPU 21, and the process in the field controller 2A is terminated.

  On the other hand, when the field controller 2 receives an alarm from the field controller 2A in step S21, the process according to the application program installed in the CPU 21 is executed in step S22. In this process, for example, the alarm lamp 11 connected to the field controller 2 is turned on to notify the plant site of the occurrence of an abnormality.

  In this embodiment, an alarm indicating an abnormality detected by a field controller is transferred to another field controller, and predetermined processing is executed by the transfer destination field controller. For this reason, for example, even when the field controller that detected the abnormality cannot execute the processing for dealing with the occurrence of the abnormality due to the failure of the CPU or the like, it is necessary to use an alarm lamp or the like by the destination field controller. Can be executed. As other processes, various processes shown in the first embodiment may be executed.

  The scope of application of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The present invention is widely applicable to a safety instrumented system that detects a plant abnormality and executes a predetermined process.

The block diagram which shows the safety instrumentation system by this invention functionally. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a safety instrumented system according to a first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when an abnormality is detected in the safety instrumented system of the first embodiment. The figure which illustrates the contents of the alarm information stored in a buffer. The figure which illustrates the function block defined by the application program. The block diagram which shows the structure of the safety instrumentation system of Example 2. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when an abnormality is detected in the safety instrumented system of the second embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

3 Man-machine interface (presentation means)
21 CPU (detection means, storage means, execution means)
21A CPU (transfer means)
101 Detection means 102 Storage means 103 Execution means 104 Presentation means 105 Transfer means

Claims (8)

In a safety instrumented system that detects abnormalities in a plant by a field controller that controls field devices and executes predetermined processing,
The field controller is
Detection means for detecting plant abnormalities;
Storage means for storing the detected abnormality;
Execution means for executing processing determined by the user according to the content of the detected abnormality;
A safety instrumentation system comprising: The safety instrumentation system according to claim 1, wherein the execution unit executes a process reflecting the importance of the detected abnormality. The safety instrumentation system according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit stores the abnormality and its importance in association with each other. The safety instrumentation system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the execution unit notifies the occurrence of an abnormality to a plant site. A presentation means for presenting the occurrence of an abnormality via a man-machine interface for monitoring the plant;
The safety instrumentation system according to claim 1, wherein the execution unit causes the presentation unit to present an occurrence of an abnormality. 6. The safety instrumented system according to claim 5, wherein the execution unit executes a process reflecting the importance of the detected abnormality. The safety instrumentation system according to claim 5, wherein the execution unit causes the presenting unit to display an occurrence state of the abnormality together with an importance level thereof. Transfer means for transferring an abnormality detected by another field controller to the execution means,
The safety instrumentation system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the execution unit executes a process according to the content of the abnormality transferred by the transfer unit.

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