Course Description
With the rapid advances in process automation technologies, modern plants today are operated from control rooms that may be quite far from the equipment being operated, depending on the size of the plant. Equipment is started, stopped, and controlled by personnel on computers communicating with field control stations, to which all I/O connections are made. Such control systems in the past were largely centralized, but today many companies have discovered the advantages of decentralizing that control in what is known as distributed control systems (DCS). Of course, the underlying DCS programming is responsible for the complete plant operation design, equipment startup and shutdown conditions, inter-relationships between equipment, and other elements of operations control. This includes logic charts and control drawings with detailed, control and sequential function loops, in addition to controller parameters and tuning, graphics, etc. Understanding all that programming is immensely beneficial to plant operators, maintenance personnel, and managers attempting to troubleshoot problems, improve process control, optimize operations, and modify the underlying plant logic. Without that detailed understanding and ability, plant troubleshooting and improvement will be that much more abstract and obscure. Tying that appreciation of DCS software programming with its hardware components will then close the loop. This is what this course offers to its attendees.
Course Objectives
- Explaining how to read DCS logic charts and control drawings
- Developing participants’ confidence to troubleshoot plant operation failures through DCS logic
- Identifying relevant logic/control diagrams when confronted with equipment and/or plant failure
- Elucidating the process of bypassing ostensibly unsurmountable obstacles due to DCS logic
- Understanding process fluctuations and controller tuning, and consequently, plant optimization
- Mastering modification of plant logic charts, and possibly, creation of new programs if needed
- Designing process trends and historical reporting according to process and management needs
- Clarifying DCS hardware fundamentals for system choice, maintenance, and improvement purposes
Who Should Attend?
- Plant operators
- Operations managers
- Instrumentation and electrical personnel
Course Details/Schedule
- Distributed control systems – philosophy and types
- DCS fundamentals and programming basics
- Logic charts, truth tables, gates, latches, etc.
- Function block diagrams and SFC (sequential function charts)
- Graphics building and features
- Troubleshooting operations through logic charts & control drawings
- RTS and SD conditions, bypass loops
- Interconnections and collective signals
- Cross-utilization of logic/control and process alarms/trends
- Case studies and real examples
- Conflicting signals, sudden trips, and delays
- Signal inspection at every station
- New programs creation and modification
- Virtual and actual testing of programs
- Case studies and real examples
- Introducing new instruments/modules
- PID controllers configuration and tuning
- Main parameters control
- Process & system alarms management
- Diagnostics, reporting, and events recording
- DCS hardware/architecture and I/Os
- Configuration of field control (FCS) and human interface (HIS) stations
- Critical spare parts
- Security and redundancy configuration
- UPS and backup protection
