Information Technology Institute Intake32 - Mechatronics

Distributed Control System (DCS)

Submitted by : Mohamed Alaa El deen Hosney

Table of Contents Introduction : ......................................................................................................... 3 Distributed control system (DCS) Overview: .......................................................... 3 Distributed control system Description:................................................................. 3 Advantages of DCS: ................................................................................................ 5 Description of the DCS elements :.......................................................................... 6 DCS Application :.................................................................................................... 7 CONTROL NETWORK .............................................................................................. 8

Introduction : Generally, the concept of automatic control includes accomplishing two major operations; the transmission of signals (information flow) back and forth and the calculation of control actions (decision making). Carrying out these operations in real plant requires a set of hardware and instrumentation that serve as the platform for these tasks. Distributed control system (DCS) is the most modern control platform. It stands as the infrastructure not only for all advanced control strategies but also for the lowliest control system.

Distributed control system (DCS) Overview: Conceptually, the DCS is similar to the simple PC network. However, there are some differences: First, the hardware and software of the DCS is made more flexible, i.e. easy to modify and configure, and to be able to handle a large number of loops. Secondly, the modern DCS are equipped with optimization, high-performance model-building and control software as options. Therefore, an imaginative engineer who has theoretical background on modern control systems can quickly configure the DCS network to implement high performance controllers.

Distributed control system Description: A schematic of the DCS network is shown in figure 1. Basically, various parts of the plant processes and several parts of the DCS network elements are connected to each other via the data highway (fieldbus). Although figure 1 shows one data highway, in practice there could be several levels of data highways. A large number of local data acquisition, video display and computers can be found. They all communicate to each other through the data highway.

These distributed elements may vary in their responsibilities. For example, those closest to the process handle high raw data traffic to the local computers while those farther away from the process deal only with processed data but for a wider audience. The data highway is thus the backbone for the DCS system. It provides : information to the multi-displays on various operator control panels sends new data and retrieve historical data from archival storage serves as a data link between the main control computer and other parts of the network. On the top of the hierarchy, a supervisory (host) computer is set. The host computer is responsible for performing many higher level functions. These could include optimization of the process operation over varying time horizons (days, weeks, or months), carrying out special control procedure such as plant startup or product grade transition, and providing feedback on economic performance.

Advantages of DCS: A DCS is then a powerful tool for any large commercial plant. The engineer or operator can immediately utilize such a system to: Access a large amount of current information from the data highway. See trends of past process conditions by calling archival data storage. Readily install new on-line measurements together with local computers for data acquisition and then use the new data immediately for controlling all loops of the process. Alternate quickly among standard control strategies and readjust controller parameters in software. A sight full engineer can use the flexibility of the framework to implement his latest controller design ideas on the host computer or on the main control computer.

In the common DCS architecture, the microcomputer attached to the process are known as front-end computers and are usually less sophisticated equipment employed for low level functions. Typically such equipment would acquire process data from the measuring devices and convert them to standard engineering units. The results at this level are passed upward to the larger computers that are responsible for more complex operations. These upper-level computers can be programmed to perform more advanced calculations.

Description of the DCS elements : The typical DCS system shown in Figure 3 can consists of one or more of the following elements: Local Control Unit (LCU). This is denoted as local computer in Figure 3. This unit can handle 8 to 16 individual PID loops, with 16 to 32 analog input lines, 8 to 16 analog output signals and some a limited number of digital inputs and outputs. Data Acquisition Unit. This unit may contain 2 to 16 times as many analog input/output channels as the LCU. Digital (discrete) and analog I/O can be handled. Typically, no control functions are available. Batch Sequencing Unit. Typically, this unit contains a number of external events, timing counters, arbitrary function generators, and internal logic. Local Display. This device usually provides analog display stations, analog trend recorder, and sometime video display for readout. Bulk Memory Unit. This unit is used to store and recall process data. Usually mass storage disks or magnetic tape are used. General Purpose Computer. This unit is programmed by a customer or third party to perform sophisticated functions such as optimization, advance control, expert system, etc. Central Operator Display. This unit typically will contain one or more consoles for operator communication with the system, and multiple video color graphics display units. Data Highway. A serial digital data transmission link connecting all other components in the system may consist of coaxial cable. Most commercial DCS allow for redundant data highway to reduce the risk of data loss. Local area Network (LAN). Many manufacturers supply a port device to allow connection to remote devices through a standard local area network.

DCS Application :

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the process sequence of a paper production process and each control element in the process.The control objective is to obtain flat profile in the cross direction .The control technology is the same for the different types of actuators in each part of the process a schematic of the control is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3

CONTROL NETWORK The control network is a core communication network in a plant. It is a highreliable network used in the system for protection and control. It also plays a role of the source for monitoring and alarm in the information network. The control network connects distributed controllers and makes communication between them possible. It can affect the overall operation of the DCS. Therefore, the safe and stable operation of a control network is very important for a DCS used in a plant. Network protocols that can be used as control network require real-time property, high-speed, reliability, and maintainability. As well-known high-speed networks, there are IEEE 802.3u Fast Ethernet (or Gigabit Ethernet), Fiber-channel, ATM, and FDDI. FDDI can support real-time communication using a token mechanism, however, the number of its vendors is decreasing sharply. Ethernet is the most popular highspeed network protocol because it is very cheap and easy to implement. So, it has a largest number of vendors than other kinds of network protocols.

DCS Hierarchal control network

Reliability of the Ethernet is very important requirement. It has been studied by many studies and has been verified by test of many vendors and use of users. Maintainability is also very important requirement because it affects availability of the system. Though the Fast Ethernet has many advantages, it is known that it cannot guarantee real-time communication since it is based on CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access / collision detection) protocol. So, in order to apply it to control network, we have developed a control network interface card (CNIC) based on the microprocessor MPC8260 with Fast Ethernet controller. By adding a reliable token passing algorithm, it can support a real-time data exchange. The additive token passing method does not produce a nondeterministic delay at a loss of the token since it is treated by predefined restoration mechanism for the token loss.