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Alarm and Display System Analysis Overview
The wide spread use and advances in distributed
control systems have focused attention on the design of the
operator-process interface. Numerous events have occurred at
refineries that were either caused or made worse by the alarm and/or
display system design. The propagation and proliferation of process
alarms has become a major burden and problem for DCS operators. In
man-machine system design, not only are more alarms/displays not
better, they are often the cause of "operator error".
Proper configuration of the interface eliminates
problems with alarm flooding/avalanche, excessive display paging,
and wasted CRTs. Unfortunately, most DCS configurations are not
developed with adequate forethought or care, potentially resulting
in a multitude of problems. Too often the thought behind DCS
configuration is to give the operators some blank paper to draw
displays and P&IDs to mark what they would like to have alarmed. The
fear of not alerting the operator to an off-normal event frequently
results in the creation of so many alarms that the operator can’t
properly diagnose the event when it does occur.
Proper alarm and display system design is a two
step process: (1) determining the
content (what to display/alarm), and
(2) determining the form (how it should
look). Selection of alarms and the content of the displays is
critical to the success of the system. Presentation of the
information becomes extremely difficult if the "right" information
has not been chosen and/or properly organized.
A flowchart of display system development is shown
below.
Flowchart of Display System
Development
Click image for full-sized version
For further information, visit the
links below.
Alarm Management /
Display Design
/ Alarm
& Display Design Seminar /
Alarm Response Analysis
Webcasts /
Shape Calculator /
Alarm
Distribution Estimator (excel - new window)
View all related
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clicking here
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