Unit 6

Distributed Control System

Distributed Control System is most popular which is specially designed with redundancy and diagnostic
capabilities to improve control reliability and performance. It gives greater flexibility to control distributed
discrete field devices and its operating stations.
In this era of revolution technology, industrial automation system deals with advanced automation control
technologies to have better control performance over complex processes.

Distributed
Control System
To increase reliability, productivity and quality while minimizing the production cost, process control industries
must be driven by integrated controllers with high distributed control capability.

What is Distributed Control System:

Distributed Control System is a specially designed control system used to control complex, large and
geographically distributed applications in industrial processes. In this, controllers are distributed throughout the
entire plant area.

These distributed controllers are connected to both field devices and operating PCs through high speed
communication networks as shown in figure.

Discrete Field devices such as sensors and actuators are directly connected to input and output controller
modules through communication bus. These field devices or smart instruments are capable of communicating
with PLC’s or other controllers while interacting with real world parameters like temperature, pressure, etc.
 DCS Architecture

Controllers are distributed geographically in various section of control area and are connected to operating and
engineering stations which are used for data monitoring, data logging, alarming and controlling purpose via
another high speed communication bus.

These communication protocols are of different types such as foundation filed bus, HART, Profibus, Modbus,
etc. DCS provides information to multiple displays for user interface.

Basic Elements of Distributed Control System

Distributed Control System continuously interacts with the processes in process control applications ones it gets
instruction from the operator. It also facilitates to variable set points and opening and closing of valves for
manual control by the operator. Its human machine interface (HMI), face plates and trend display gives the
effective monitoring of industrial processes.
Elements of DCS:

Engineering PC or controller: This controller is the supervisory controller over all the distributed processing
controllers. Control algorithms and configuration of various devices are executed in this controller. Network
communication between processing and engineering PC can be implemented by simplex or redundant
configurations.

Distributed controller or Local control unit: It can be placed near to field devices (sensors and actuators) or
certain location where these field devices are connected via communication link. It receives the instructions
from the engineering station like set point and other parameters and directly controls field devices.

It can sense and control both analog and digital inputs / outputs by analog and digital I/O modules. These
modules are extendable according to the number of inputs and outputs. It collects the information from discrete
field devices and sends this information to operating and engineering stations.

In above figure AC 700F and AC 800Fcontrollers acts as communication interface between field devices and
engineering station. Most of the cases these act as local control for field instruments.

Operating station or HMI: It is used to monitor entire plant parameters graphically and to log the data in plant
database systems. Trend display of various process parameters provides the effective display and easy
monitoring.

These operating stations are of different types such as some operating stations (PC’s) used to monitor only
parameters, some for only trend display, some for data logging and alarming requirements. These can also be
configured to have control capabilities.

Communication media and protocol: Communication media consists of transmission cables to transmit 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.

For example, RS232 supports only for 2 devices and Profibus for 126 devices or nodes. Some of these protocols
include Ethernet, DeviceNet, foundation filed bus, modbus, CAN, etc.

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.

Important features of DCS:

• To handle complex processes: In factory automation structure, PLC-Programming Logic Controller is used to
control and monitor the process parameters at high speed requirements. However due to limitation of number of
I/O devices, PLC’s cannot handle complex structure.
Handling Complex Processes: Hence DCS is preferred for complex control applications with more number of
I/O’s with dedicated controllers. These are used in manufacturing processes where designing of multiple
products are in multiple procedures such as batch process control.

System redundancy:

System Redundancy

DCS facilitates system availability when needed by redundant feature at every level.

Redundancy raises the system reliability by maintaining system operation continuously even in some
abnormalities while system is in operation.

Lot of Predefined function blocks:

Predefined Function block: DCS offers many algorithms, more standard application libraries, pre-tested and
pre-defined functions to deal with large complex systems. This makes programming to control various
applications being easy and consuming less time to program and control.

Powerful programming languages: It provides more number of programming languages like ladder, function
block, sequential, etc for creating the custom programming based on user interest.

More sophisticated HMI: Similar to the SCADA system, DCS can also monitor and control through HMI’s
(Human Machine Interface) which provides sufficient data to the operator to charge over various processes and
it acts as heart of the system. But this type of industrial control system covers large geographical areas whereas
DCS covers confined area.

Sophisticated HMI

DCS completely takes the entire process plant to control room as a PC window. Trending, logging and graphical
representation of the HMI’s give effective user interface. Powerful alarming system of DCS helps operators to
respond more quickly to the plant conditions

Scalable platform: Structure of DCS can be scalable based on the number I/O’s from small to large server
system by adding more number of clients and servers in communication system and also by adding more I/O
modules in distributed controllers.

System security: Access to control various processes leads to plant safety. DCS design offers perfect secured
system to handle system functions for better factory automation control. Security is also provided at different
levels such as engineer level, entrepreneur level, operator level, etc.

Application of Distributed Control System:

DCS system can be implemented in a simple application like load management using network of
microcontrollers.
 Application of DCS

Here the input is given from a keypad to a microcontroller, which communicates with the other two
microcontrollers. One of the microcontrollers is used to display the status of the process as well as the loads,
while the other microcontroller controls the relay driver. The relay driver in turn drives the relay to operate the
load.

Benefits of using DCS include:

• It requires minimal troubleshooting
• It contains HMI graphics and faceplates
• Alarms
• Lends itself to better organization and consistency than a PLC/HMI combo
• Batch management is possible
• Reduced engineering time

Difference between PLC & DCS: (PLC vs. DCS)

To differentiate between PLC & DCS, there are five key factors to consider: They are:

1) Response Time: PLCs are fast, which make the PLC an ideal controller for real-time actions such as a safety
shutdown or firing control.
A DCS takes much longer time to process data, which made it not the right solution when response times are
critical.

2) Scalability: A few thousand I/O points can be handled by a PLC whereas DCS can handle many thousands
of I/O points and accommodate new equipment, process enhancements, and data integration.
DCS can be preferred when advanced process control is required and contain a large facility that’s spread out
over a wide geographic area with thousands of I/O points.

3) Complexity: The advanced process control capabilities of the DCS are required to carry out the complex
nature of many continuous production processes such as oil and gas, water treatment and chemical processing.

4) Frequent process changes:

PLCs are used for processes that will not change often. And, a DCS is the better solutions when the process is
complex and requires frequent adjustments or must analyze a large amount of data.

5) Vendor support:
 To provide integration services and implement process changes, DCS vendors require users to employ them.
System integrators perform similar functions for PLC-based systems. It has also become common for PLC
vendors to offer support services through their network of system integrator partners.

Overall, DCS tends to be used in large continuous process plants where high reliability and security is
important, and the control room is not geographically remote.

DCS Communication:

Communication system requirements:

 Transmission of control variables between local control units in the system. This is a requirement for all
applications in which the control strategy requires multiple interacting controllers. To minimize delays and
maximize the security of transmission, the LCUs should be able to communicate directly with one another and
not through an intermediary.
 Transmission of process variables, control variables, and alarm status information from the LCUs to the high-
level human interfaces and to the low-level human interfaces in the system.
 Communication of set-point commands, operating modes, and control variables from the high-level computing
devices and human interface devices to the LCUs for the purpose of supervisory control.
 Downloading of control system configurations, tuning parameters, and user programs from the high-level
human interfaces to the LCUs.

Maximum Size of the System: This specification includes two parameters, the geographical distances that the
communication system must cover, and the maximum number of devices allowed within the system. In some
communication systems, a third parameter, the maximum distance between devices, is also important.

Maximum Delay: Time Through the System As mentioned previously, the delay time across a hard-wired
connection is essentially zero on the time scale at which industrial processes operate since the signals travel at
the speed of light.
Interfacing Requirements: In most commercially available distributed control systems supplied by a particular
vendor, the communication facility is designed to interface only with elements supplied by the same vendor.
However, it is important that the vendor provide a mechanism (sometimes called a gateway) that allows
connection to other elements using a generally accepted interface standard such as the RS—232C, RS—422,
or IEEE 488 2 standards.

The natural communication system partitioning that results from these requirements has three levels:

1. A local bus or sub network in each cabinet allows the individual controllers to intercommunicate
without interfering with message traffic in other cabinets.
2. A local sub network in the central control room area allows the high level devices to intercommunicate.
3. A plant wide communication system interconnects the control room elements with the distributed
elements in the process areas.

Channel structure:

The first decision to make in evaluating or designing a communications facility is whether to choose a parallel
or serial link as the communication medium. In the parallel approach, multiple conductors (wires or fiber optic
links) carry a combination of data and handshaking signals (the latter control the flow of data between the nodes
in the system).

The serial approach uses only a single coaxial cable, fiber optic link, or pair of wires. Given the same
communication capacity on each link, it is clear that the parallel approach provides a higher message throughput
rate than does the serial approach.

An applications requiring high data transfers over relatively short distances (examples are local computer buses
and the IEEE 488 instrumentation interface standard) use the parallel approach. Most communication
subsystems used in distributed process control use the serial channel approach especially in the long-distance
plant wide communication subsystem.

Levels of Sub networks:

Connecting all the elements of the system multiple sub-systems are required. A sub network is defined to be a
self-contained communication system that:

1. Has its own address structure (that is, a numbering system that uniquely identifies each drop on the sub
network);

2. Allows communications among elements connected to it using a specific protocol (i e , data

interchange convention),

3. Allows communications between elements directly connected to it and elements in other sub networks
through an interface device that “translates” the message addresses and protocols of the two sub-
networks.

DCS Supervisory computer Task:

The DCS supervisory computer performs a number of distinct functions.

1. Provide information display: Display the function plan and process status to the operator in a
concentrated and easily understood form.
2. Generate massages: Message and alarm functions that explicitly notify the operator of certain events
and provide information to the central message and alarm processing system.
3. Generate and interpret reports: Recording and evaluating (interpreting) functions that retrieve,
evaluate, and print our archival and current data when a certain condition or command occurs.