The primary need for the safety monitoring software is to safeguard the plant personnel and machinery. The safety monitoring system needs to be implemented with robustness and reliability to provide adequate protection. Different plant sections require different degrees of protection, and the safety monitoring system needs to be flexible to allow configuration to provide a cost-effective safety solution. Configuration of the safety monitoring system to provide optimum safety is the main objective of the system in this research. This is achieved by defining the hazardous zones of the plant and applying the safety monitoring system using a risk assessment approach. Flexible configuration of the system is enabled by designing the safety monitoring system as a set of programmable function blocks. These function blocks will utilize input/output data from the plant Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) to manipulate the safety system for required functionality. The function block approach takes advantage of the easy debugging and modification of control algorithms and provides an easy-to-understand configuration maintenance standard for the safety system.
The existing techniques for safety monitoring in a plant have been reviewed and compared with the system requirements. The system should be able to detect a wide range of potential hazards that may arise in the plant, particularly the release of dangerous substances through inadvertent operations or equipment failure. It should be capable of distinguishing between safe operating states and hazardous states, and able to initiate the appropriate control actions to prevent the hazardous states. Monitoring should be automatic and continuous requiring minimum input from operations personnel. When an alarm is raised, the system should i) locate the source of the alarm, ii) assess the potential impact of the alarmed event, and iii) provide information to the operators to allow them to manage the situation and make informed decisions regarding the state of the plant (e.g. temporary shut down of a particular plant area). An alarm is no good unless the operators are aware of it and know what actions to take. The alarm and its consequences should be logged for later review. These attributes of the monitoring system should correspond to the overall plant-wide safety management system. Configuration of alarm and zone regions should coincide with the plant’s structure as defined by its safety instrumented system and safety critical control systems. This will require further information about these control systems from industrial partners. For Indonesia customer please don’t hesitate to contact us at PT.Felcro Indonesia