Scribd
Upload
457 views6 pages

DCS System Layout and Its Different Parts

Distributed control systems (DCS) are used to control and manage industrial processes. A DCS has four levels - field devices at level 0, marshalling cabinets at level 1, system cabinets containing controllers and I/O cards at level 2, and operator workstations at level 3. Engineering workstations are used to configure the DCS, while switches connect networked devices to manage data flow across the system.

Uploaded by

Vraja Kisori
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
457 views6 pages

DCS System Layout and Its Different Parts

Distributed control systems (DCS) are used to control and manage industrial processes. A DCS has four levels - field devices at level 0, marshalling cabinets at level 1, system cabinets containing controllers and I/O cards at level 2, and operator workstations at level 3. Engineering workstations are used to configure the DCS, while switches connect networked devices to manage data flow across the system.

Uploaded by

Vraja Kisori
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

DCS System Layout and its Different Parts

In this article, we discuss the topic on different parts of DCS system layout and its
modules like processors & IO cards, marshalling & system cabinets, engineering &
operator workstations, and Switch.

Distributed Control Systems (DCS) plays a vital role in manufacturing, production


industries as they are used to control and manage the processes.

Distributed Control Systems are extension of traditional controllers. The major concept
of distributed control systems application is derived from the idea of decentralizing the
control unit and establishing a common network between the operator, engineering
stations. DCS tends to be used on large continuous process plants where high
reliability and security is important, and the control room is not geographically remote.
DCSs are connected to sensors and actuators and use set point control to control the
flow of material through the plant. Although 4–20 mA has been the main field signalling
standard, modern DCS systems can also support field bus digital protocols, such as
Foundation Fieldbus, profibus, HART, Modbus, PC Link, etc., and other digital
communication protocols such as modbus.
DCS System Layout

DCS System – Level 0


This level contains the field devices such as flow and temperature sensors, and final
control elements, such as control valves.

DCS System – Level 1


This level contains the marshalling cabinets where the field termination takes place.
Also houses the intrinsic safety barriers, relays, Terminal blocks, Isolators etc. from
here the signal travels from the Junction boxes wherein the signals are paired and
received from the appropriate sections in the field area.

DCS System – Level 2


This level contains the system cabinet which is designed to accormodate power
supply,controller and I/O cards. The field signals will be digitally processed by the I/o
cards and sent to the controller for further digital processing. This part will be located
in the top most part of the cabint and will be brain of the automatic system.

DCS System – Level 3


This level consists of visual disply unit or computer, is the operator interface. It is
production control level, which directly control the process. Plant operational
schematics are displayed. Alarm and interlock cause and effect diagrams are
displayed in different pages.
System Cabinets
In system cabinet, all electronic modules will be installed like processor cards (CPU),
input modules, output modules, serial communication cards, power supply modules,
rack to rack inter-communiacation modules, fieldbus cards, profibus cards, modbus
cards.

Main types of input modules are analog input (AI) cards, digital input (DI) cards. The
number of IO channels will vary depends on the user selection of these cards like 8
channel, 12 channel, 16 channel & 32 channel. Similarly output modules are analog
output (AO) cards, digital output (DO) cards.

Marshalling Cabinets
Marshalling cabinets shall be used to terminate all field cables as well as for grouping
of various signals from the field devices properly tagged.

Sometimes different marshalling cabinets can be allocated based on type of signals


like analog input/output signals, digital inputs, digital output and relays.
Operator WorkStation
The operator workstations are used for monitoring all system operations and for
effecting control actions and parameter adjustments.

There are normally multiple operator workstations, as illustrated in above figure, each
of which contains all of the process graphic displays and historical trend displays for
the system.

Some of the operations performed through the Operator workstations are listed below;

• Logging on and off the system using passwords and user names
• Invoking process displays to view the operations throughout the system
• Effecting control modes for various equipment in the system; for
example, Manual and Automatic modes, placing equipment in or out of
service
• Changing setpoint parameters, with appropriate security allowance
• Effecting manual control actions for equipment, such as start/stop and
open/close
• Viewing historical trend displays and transferring data to other files for
exporting
• Viewing the current alarm summary to identify alarm conditions requiring
attention.
• Viewing the alarm/event summary to view the chronological series of
events.

Fig: DCS TDC2000 operator workstation (old model)

Engineering WorkStation
• To build graphics using the graphic builder programme.
• The configure control loops/monitoring loops
• To assign I/Os to various I/O modules during generation of application
software.
• To configure shutdown logic/sequence logic.
• To write/edit user written program in higher level languages.
• To download the generated application software to various system
nodes. To generate “self documentation” i.e. it should be possible to
store the generated information on a CD as well as to enable user to
take a printout of the system configuration.
• To emulate generated control loops/scheme/graphics, etc. before it is
downloaded to any control processor or operator stations.
• The graphic and database equalization of all the operator station shall
be performed from engineering station with a single command. It should
not require manual copy/paste intervention by user.
Switch
A switch is a intelligent device on network. A switch is a device in a computer
network that connects other devices together. Multiple data cables are plugged into a
switch to enable communication between different networked devices.

Switches manage the flow of data across a network by transmitting a received network
packet only to the one or more devices for which the packet is intended.

Each networked device connected to a switch can be identified by its network address,
allowing the switch to direct the flow of traffic maximizing the security and efficiency of
the network.

Communication Media and Protocols


Communication media consists of transmission cable to transmitt the data such as
coaxial cables, copper wires, fiber optic cables and sometimes it might be wireless.

Communication protocols selected depends on the number of devices to be connected


to this network.

In DCS, two or more communication protocols are used in between two or more areas
such as between field control devices and distributed controllers and other one
between distributed controllers and supervisory control stations such as operating and
engineering stations.

You might also like