LEARNING ABOUT DCS

Objective
To learn the basics of DCS
Summarizing today’s work/learning
Distributed Control System refers to a control system usually of a manufacturing System,
process in which the controller elements are not central in location but are distributed throughout
the system with each component sub-system controlled by one or more controllers. Actually
DCS (Distributed Control System) is a computerized control system used to control the
production line in the industry. The entire system of controllers is connected by networks for
communication and monitoring. DCS is a very broad term used in a variety of industries, to
monitor and control distributed equipment.

Following are the main components of DCS:

i. Power Supply Modules
ii. CPU
iii. Input / Output Modules
iv. Communication Modules
v. Communication Network
vi. Servers
At PM7, there are multiple types of PLCs used such as:
i. SIEMENS S300 series,
ii. SIEMENS S400 series,
iii. SIEMENS S700 series and
iv. ABB series for DCS
There is nothing substantially distinguishable that differs the SIEMENS series from one another
except that as the series number increases, the number of bits available for I/O, the amount of RAM,
CPU processing power etc. increases simultaneously. The programming, layout, placing and internal
circuitry is basically the same.
ABB is a Swiss owned Electronics Company and although in physicality they look very different
compared with SIEMEN’s series, their working principle is the same. They are primarily used in
DCS. DCS software comes along with the installed ABB system.
The DCS present at PM7 control a large number of parameters such as:
i. Indicator lights,
ii. Valves,
iii. Motor speed (in VFD),
iv. Also used in turning ON/OFF motors through DCS (remotely) etc.
The below block diagram shows the basic working process of the common PLC used at PM7 and
elsewhere.

The input (or state) is the incoming value (signal) from the field. In our case it can be either a digital
or an analogue signal depending on the source of the signal; examples can be:
i. Digital signal from a valve (OPEN/CLOSE ↔ 1 or 0)
ii. Analogue signal from a motor feedback representing motor speed
The inputs are then processed by the CPU unit (Program Execution). The CPU is programmed
according to desired outputs, meaning a desired output is generated from incoming inputs using a
program entered post installment of the PLC at the PLC rack. There are multiple programming
languages available, which are:
.
To program a DCS in this software we need to find three things:
i. The model,
ii. The model number,
iii. The version of the CPU and I/O modules.
This data is used by the PLC CPU to correctly identify itself and the number of input and output
modules connected to it.
E.g. the SIEMENS S300. In this model, only a total of eight input or output modules can be connected to
one CPU. Hence, entering the correct data of the CPU as described above, also helped the software to
recognize the system we intended to use and hence assign the correct number of modules per rack.
The input and output module data also helps in the PLC CPU and the software to recognize the
correct number of bits present per module. In our case this was x32bits.
The modular data also contains information about the voltage our system worked on (24V).
DCS can also process and control analog inputs and outputs. To achieve this, ADCs and DACs are
utilized at the inputs and outputs respectively. The ADCs convert the analogue signal to digital using
a technique known as scaling.
For example, a valve gives an analogue input between 4-20mA depending on the position of the valve
where a fully closed valve transmits a signal of 4mA and a fully open one, a signal of 20mA.
Depending on control requirements, we can scale this range accordingly. We divide the signal and
assign a digital value to each step/division. The more the steps, the more accurate and sensitive the
control and vice versa.
The PLCs for DCS at PM7 are organized together in a rack. The diagram below, simplifies and shows
this:

This is the actual placement of PLC modules here at PM7. The function of each block has been
describe thoroughly previously in this report.
The power supply is an AC – DC converter since our PLC cannot run on 220V AC voltage but
instead work on 24V DC.
Wires lead to and from the field and the rack connecting the inputs and outputs to the PLC and
the components.