Long-haul safety system trips

Abstract

A long-haul process control plant includes a process control system which controls industrial processes running within the plant, and a safety instrumented system, servicing the process control system, which detects safety-related problems within the plant and communicates safety messages within and between portions of the process plant, e.g., to effect a trip or other mitigating action. To transmit safety messages between remotely located portions of the process plant via a low-bandwidth long-haul link, a safety data concentrator combines individual safety messages generated by the safety logic solvers disposed at one portion of the plant into a concentrated safety message, and transmits the concentrated safety message to a safety data de-concentrator in the remote portion of the plant. The safety data de-concentrator recovers the individual safety messages from the concentrated safety message and communicates the recovered safety messages to recipient safety logic solvers disposed atthe remote portion of the plant.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for transmitting safety messages between remotely located portions of safety instrumented systems operating in process plants. Background technique [0002] A distributed process control system ("PCS") or process control network (such as those used in chemical, petroleum, industrial, or other process plants for manufacturing, refining, converting, generating, or producing physical materials or products) typically includes one or more A process controller communicatively coupled to one or more field devices via an analog, digital, or combined analog / digital bus and / or via one or more wired and / or wireless communication links or networks and other components. Field devices, which may be, for example, valves, valve positioners, switches, and transmitters (e.g., temperature, pressure, liquid level, and flow sensors) are located within a process environment (herein interchangeably referred to a...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, such high-bandwidth links are expensive to use and, in the case of satellite communications, rely on third-party suppliers

Also, for some lower-rate, slow-communication security messages (e.g., heartbeat messages, etc.), the amount of bandwidth provided by a high-bandwidth link appears excessive, so the use of a high-bandwidth link is not a prudent financial decision

On the other hand, while lower bandwidth or "slower" transmission links are less expensive for data transmission between parts of a safety system separated by long distances, usually lower bandwidth links are not sufficient Effectively and efficiently transmit large or frequently generated safety messages over long distances with the highest fidelity and within the time constraints required to maintain the safe operation of the process plant

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