Advanced Process Control

Sanjeev Sharma

Contents
Process control Advanced Process Control (APC) Defined Applications, Advantages & Limitations Basic Process Control Feedback Control Feedforward Control Advanced Process Control Instrumentation in APC Upkeep methods Summary

Process Control
Process : Process is any method of converting a raw material into end products Process Control : Methods that are used to control process variables when manufacturing a product Why Process Control?? Reduce Variability

Increase Efficiency
Ensure Safety

Simple Loops
Open Loops
HIC-1105 MV xxxx

FI-1101 m3/hr
Crude 80 % Crude Naphtha Naphtha

Closed Loop

FIC-1101 SV xxxx m3/hr PV xxxx m3/hr

AL

FI-1101 m3/hr Naphtha Naphtha 80 % FIC-1101 SV xxxx m3/hr PV xxxx m3/hr AL

Cascaded Loop

LIC-1101
SV xxxx %

AL

PV xxxx %

FI-1101 m3/hr Naphtha 80 % Naphtha

Control Strategies: Real Life example

Regulatory Control
PID control : PID control is most popular as
It gives good performance for single loops It is applicable for wide range of processes by changing

its tuning parameters

+ Hot Fluid

PID MV Cold Fluid

Error

SP

Sensor

Steam

Condensate

Regulatory Control
Feed forward Control
Feed forward control is a control system that anticipates load disturbances and controls them before they can impact the

process variable. For feed forward control to work, the user must have
a mathematical understanding of how the manipulated variables will impact the process variable.

Fig. shows a simple feed forward loop in which a flow transmitter opens or closes a hot steam valve based on how much cold fluid passes through the flow sensor

Combined Feedforward/Feedback
Combinations of feedback and feedforward control are used
Benefits of feedback control: controlling unknown disturbances and not having to know exactly how a system will respond

Benefits of feedforward control: responding to disturbances before they can affect the system

Multivariable Control
Most complex processes have many variables that have to be regulated To control multiple variables, multiple control loops must be used
Example is a reactor with at least three control loops: temperature, pressure and level (flow rate) Multiple control loops often interact causing process instability Multivariable controllers account for loop interaction Models can be developed to provide feedforward control strategies applied to all control loops simultaneously

Advanced Process Control

State-of-the-art in Modern Control Engineering Appropriate for Process Systems and Applications APC: systematic approach to choosing relevant techniques and their integration into a management and control system to enhance operation and profitability

Advanced Process Control

APC is a step beyond Process Control Built on foundation of basic process control loops Process Models predict output from key process variables online and real-time Optimize Process Outputs relative to quality and profitability goals

Management Objectives

Key process variables

Instrumentation in APC
APC instrumentation defines, creates and maintains an APC system. It also allows controlled access to various tools & data in the database. It is a combination of many components: APC

APC SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

> 1 min.

< 1 min.

between 2-5 sec.

1sec. screen refresh rate

250msec-1sec.

14.13

APC System Architecture

APC cannot be implemented as a standalone system without the base networks where speed plays an important role. Field Instrument Network based on IEEE 802.4 (ISO 8802/4). It operates at a 5 megabit/second rate using efficient message structures to support the high-speed communications requirements of a process network. Process Control Network such as Device Level ring network operates at 100Mbps. Process Information Network such as Historian System such as dedicated Ethernet network operates at 100Mbps. Enterprise Network e.g. Local Area Network (LAN). Speed is 1000Mbps.

Field Instrumentation
A Solid Field Instrumentation is Essential to the Success of Any APC project.

The core of a solid foundation is good measurements and final elements.

Deficiencies in the measurement and final element can increase the time required for process testing and identification by a factor of 5 or more and can significantly reduce the improvement in process capacity and efficiency provided by APC.

Field Instrumentation Rules Of Thumb

The largest opportunity for final elements if to eliminate stickslip (spontaneous jerking) and deadband. The largest opportunity for measurements is the selection and installation of sensors. Check the life-cycle cost, including the cost of variability before choosing a less expensive control valve or measurement. Use smart transmitters. The improved accuracy and diagnostics are worth the extra cost. Use Fieldbus for major upgrades and new installations.

APC Hardware

Gateway
Gateway station acts as a gateway between DCS and

APC with the latest OPC Technology. As Gatway station is a node on the control bus itself and hence no additional communication programming is required. This also reduces the loading on the control bus.

Features of Gateway
Data Thru-put: 2000 data per second. Interconnecting to other third party soft wares like Scheduling, planning, Data Reconciliation, SAP extremely easy. Communication is an Event based, which reduces the busload as well as the Client application will not be always busy polling data request. The protocol is standard OPC specifications. Message transfer from DCS is also as per the standard OPC specifications OPC A&E Version 1.0. User has the authority to select. Communication interface for each DCS system is same (OPC).

Features of Gateway
OPC Server maintains history. There is no limit of history duration, it only depends upon the hard disk capacity of the OPC server. Quality flag is always associated with each data. User will immediately know the quality of the information. Every time the tag database is changed, client applications will get the information from the OPC server itself so absolutely no need to reconfigure the database. Database Equalization is the main positive point of OPC station.

APC Operator/Engineering Station

Man Machine Interface Parameters are monitored / changed from this station It maintains history too. Accordingly Hard Disk Drive is sized. HMI displays form integral part of the APC station. Parameter changes from this station are reflected in DCS operator station through OPC server. Hardware of APC station & Gateway is generally same.

Specifications of Gateway & APC station

Firewall
Introduction Type of Firewalls

Introduction
Firewalls control the flow of network traffic Firewalls have applicability in networks where there is no internet connectivity Firewalls operate on number of layers Can also act as VPN gateways Active content filtering technologies

Type of Firewalls
Firewalls fall into four broad categories Packet filters Circuit level Application level Stateful multilayer

Packet Filter
Work at the network level of the OSI model Each packet is compared to a set of criteria before it is forwarded Packet filtering firewalls is low cost and low impact on network performance

Packet Filtering

Circuit level
Circuit level gateways work at the session layer of the OSI model, or the TCP layer of TCP/IP Monitor TCP handshaking between packets to determine whether a requested session is legitimate.

Circuit Level

Application Level
Application level gateways, also called proxies, are similar to circuit-level gateways except that they are application specific Gateway that is configured to be a web proxy will not allow any ftp, gopher, telnet or other traffic through

Application Level

Stateful Multilayer
Stateful multilayer inspection firewalls combine the aspects of the other three types of firewalls They filter packets at the network layer, determine whether session packets are legitimate and evaluate contents of packets at the application layer

Stateful Multilayer

General Performance

Important parameter of APC Gateway & APC HMI station

APC machines are built on strong and rugged hardware with more emphasis on availability R A I D configuration of hard disks is preferred. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
Types of RAID What type we Use

RAID
Redundant Array of Independent Disks Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 3 RAID 5 RAID 6

Types of redundancy
There are different levels of redundancy: none if a disk crashes, data is lost
disk DATA

RAID1 2 disks are mirrored, data is written to both disks at any time. One disk can be lost without losing data.
DATA disk

DATA

disk

Types of redundancy
RAID3, RAID5 data is distributed across several disks, data parity (error protection scheme), used to rebuild a defective drive, is either placed on a dedicated drive (RAID3) or across all drives (RAID5):

DATA disk

DATA disk

PARITY

DATA DATA PARITY

DATA PARITY DATA

PARITY DATA DATA

disk

disk

disk

disk

RAID3

RAID5

RAID 5
Striping+Distributed Parity (error protection scheme)
Data is written across multiple disks (striping). Parity is written across all disks (usually XOR based).

Commonly RAID Controller Failure

What is the problem? Failure of RAID card Reason:
Earthing problem Ageing of components.

Precautions:
Ensure proper earthing. Wear anti-static wrist band while doing maintenance. Keep a hot spare RAID Card in hand.

APC Software
Software for Gateway & APC station includes Interface package for DCS

along with HMI application software, OPC client and Antivirus software.

Other APC software details

Backup
What is backup?
backup is part of a larger domain called data security: integrity, protection: cryptography availability, redundancy: mirroring / RAID

Why Backup?
Software and Hardware failures are a common thing in the computer world. Any number of occurrences can cause loss of valuable data.

Why the data is lost?

Due to failures
Power failures (software/hardware failure) Security incidents Hardware Failures (disk crash)

Followed backup strategy

This is driven by many variables. Such as:
Levels of backup:
Daily Quarterly Annually

Daily: Tuning parameters or after modification Quarterly: Major parameter backup during AMC visit Annually: Complete backup of the system

Virus
What is Computer virus Types of viruses Introduction to Antivirus Program How an Antivirus works General precautions you should take

What is a Computer Virus?

A computer virus is a small program written to alter the way a computer operates, without the permission or knowledge of the user. With an ability to replicate itself, thus continuing to spread. Also, known as Malicious Software, a program that can cause damage to a computer. The computer viruses can damage or corrupt data, modify existing data, or degrade the performance of the system by utilising resources such as memory or disk space.

Classification of Computer viruses:

Boot sector virus Master Boot Record (MBR) virus File infector virus Multipartite virus Macro virus

Boot sector virus

Boot sector viruses generally hide in the boot sector, either in the bootable disk or the hard drive. It attaches itself to the first part of the hard disk that is read by the computer upon boot up. These viruses are spread rapidly by floppy disks and not on CD-ROMs. Once copied to the memory, any floppy disks that are not write protected will become infected when the floppy disk is accessed. Error message Invalid system disk E.g. Form, Disk Killer, Michelangelo, Stoned.

Master Boot Record (MBR) virus

MBR viruses are memory-resident viruses that infect disks in the same manner as boot sector viruses. However it, infects the MBR of the system, gets activated when the BIOS activates the Master boot code. MBR infectors normally save a legitimate copy of the master boot record in an different location. E.g. AntiEXE, Unashamed, NYB

File infector virus

File infector viruses infect program files. Normally infect executable code, such as .COM, .SYS, .BAT and .EXE files. They can infect other files when an infected program is run from floppy, hard drive, or from the network. Many of these viruses are memory resident. After memory becomes infected, any uninfected executable file that runs becomes infected. E.g. Snow.A, Jerusalem, Cascade.

Multipartite virus
Multipartite (also known as polypartite) viruses infect both boot records and program files. These are particularly difficult to repair. If the boot area is cleaned, but the files are not, the boot area will be reinfected. The same holds true for cleaning infected files. If the virus is not removed from the boot area, any files that you have cleaned will be reinfected. E.g. One_Half, Emperor, Anthrax, Tequilla.

Macro virus
Macro are mini-programs which make it possible to automate series of operations so that they are performed as a single action, thereby saving the user from having to carry them out one by one. Macro viruses infect files that are created using certain applications or programs that contain macros. They are platform-independent since the virus itself are written in language of the application and not the operating system.

They infect documents created from Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access files.
E.g.W97M.Melissa, Bablas, WM.NiceDay, W97M.Groov.

In addition to Computer viruses, there are two more types of malicious software. These are :
Worms and Trojans

Computer Worms
Worms are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file. The worms are spread through networks like LAN, WAN and also through Internet. There are various ways by which a worm spreads, through Internet like E-mails, Messaging and Chats. Worms almost always cause harm to the network, like consuming network bandwidth.

E.g.W32.Mydoom.AX@mm

Computer Trojans
Trojan horses are impostors: files that claim to be something desirable but, in fact, are malicious. Trojan horse programs do not replicate themselves. Trojan horses contain malicious code that when triggered cause loss, or even theft, of data. E.g. Trojan.Vundo
Retrieving users critical information. i.e. name, password. Spreading malware programs i.e. dropper or vector.

Erasing or overwriting data on a computer.

Spying on a user to gather his information like browsing habits, sites visited etc. These are called Spyware.

General precautions we take

When inserting removable media (floppy, CD, flash drive etc.) we scan the whole device with the antivirus software before opening it. If with internet access, we use internet security software. Regularly check Windows updates. Dont open any unknown exe file. From time to time, update our installed software to their latest version. E.g. (MS Office, Adobe Reader, java, Flash player etc.)

Summary
The advent of powerful and friendly integrated software has moved advanced process control (APC) from the realm of consultants into the arena of the average process control engineer. There is a opportunity of the engineers closest to the process and daily operation to take a much more active role in the development and support of APC applications. The core of a solid foundation is good measurements and final elements.

Summary
Use smart transmitters. The improved accuracy and diagnostics are worth the extra cost. Use Fieldbus for major upgrades and new installations. Examines how to identify advanced process control opportunities, estimate benefits, select the best technology, sustain the solution, track the benefits. Industry is driven by cost and benefit analysis and is generally not interested in a great technology looking for an application.

Thanks
Questions??