Sicherung chemischer Produktionsanlagen mit Mitteln der Elektro-/Meß-, Steuerungs- und Regelungstechnik

Safeguarding of chemical production plant by means of control engineering . Control equipment is becoming increasingly important for safeguarding of plant. According to VDI/VDE 2180, sheet 3, control equipment is classified as operational equipment, as monitoring equipment, or as protective equipment. Operational and monitoring control equipment serves the proper operation of plant in its correct state or in a faulty but still acceptable state. Protective control equipment is intended to prevent occurrence of an unacceptable faulty state of the plant. It is helpful if the control equipment is classified at an early stage of planning. Preferably the protective control equipment should be considered separately from the other control equipment. It is then possible to design it in such a way that its behaviour in the event of faults can be clearly defined. A distinction is made between active faults (or functiontriggering faults) and passive faults (or function-inhibiting or blocking faults). An active fault reduces the availability of chemical plant for production by inadvertent shut-down. Passive faults of protective equipment prevent triggering of the protective function, even though the conditions for triggering are fulfilled. They adversely affect the safety of the plant. Passive faults of control equipment must therefore by prevented or kept under control. A selection of appropriate measures for achieving this is presented.