This application claims the benefit of priority of Japanese Application No. 2011-214453, filed Sep. 29, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an operation status monitoring apparatus and the like for monitoring the operation status of a plant via a display screen.
2. Related Art
A display screen of an operation monitoring apparatus that monitors the operation status of a plant generally displays various plant information and operation information such as (1) flow processes, (2) measurement points (tag names) such as an amount of flow, temperature, and the like, and their current values, (3) operation status of pumps, and (4) abnormal value warnings (alarms).
An operator ascertains the plant status based on the status of and changes in individual variables such as changes in individual data that is displayed and trend graphs displayed separate from the data, abnormal tags and abnormal values for which an alarm is displayed, and the like. The operator makes a judgment in response to such conditions and operates the plant based on such a judgment.
In a plant control monitoring apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3,848,920, the operation statuses of devices, equipment, and processes included in the plant are displayed. Thereby, the plant can be controlled and monitored.
An operation status monitoring apparatus for monitoring an operation status of a plant via a display screen, includes: an inflow acquisition means that acquires an amount of material or heat flowing into a predetermined region of plant facilities, an outflow acquisition means that acquires an amount of material or heat flowing out of the predetermined region, a calculation means that calculates a balance between an amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and an amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means or a balance between an amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and an amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means, and a display means that graphically displays the balance calculated by the calculation means on a display screen.
In the following detailed description, for purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
In a large-scale plant, it is difficult to display all of the plant facilities on one display screen in an operation monitoring apparatus. In this case, in the operation monitoring apparatus, the plant facilities are divided and displayed in accordance with a process flow. However, in a divided screen in accordance with the process flow, a tag corresponding to a measurement result of a feed flow amount entering a certain device and a flow amount discharged from the device to the outside of the system may not be displayed on the same screen as the device. Therefore, there has been a problem in that it is difficult to ascertain a balance between an amount of inflow material and outflow material of the device on a divided screen. Further, even if the parameters used for ascertaining the material balance are displayed on the same screen, it is difficult to ascertain the material balance based on the display screen. In addition, if an abnormality occurs in the material accumulation in the device, the operator is alerted as, for example, a drum level abnormality. However, if the drum level gauge that measures the hydrocarbon amount in the drum breaks down or malfunctions, abnormalities in the material balance such as hydrocarbon accumulation in the drum may not be ascertained. Further, for the same reasons, it is difficult to ascertain the heat balance for a certain device or system in a conventional operation monitoring apparatus.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide an operation status monitoring apparatus in which the material balance or the heat balance can be easily ascertained.
An operation status monitoring apparatus for monitoring an operation status of a plant via a display screen according to the present disclosure, includes: an inflow acquisition means that acquires an amount of material or heat flowing into a predetermined region of plant facilities, an outflow acquisition means that acquires an amount of material or heat flowing out of the predetermined region, a calculation means that calculates a balance between an amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and an amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means or a balance between an amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and an amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means, and a display means that graphically displays the balance calculated by the calculation means on a display screen.
According to the above-described operation status monitoring apparatus, a balance between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated, or a balance between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated. The calculated balance is graphically displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the material balance or the heat balance can be easily ascertained.
The calculation means can also calculate as the balance an integrated value of the difference between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means, or an integrated value of the difference between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means.
The operation status monitoring apparatus can further include a reset accepting means that accepts an instruction for resetting the calculation means so that the current value of the integrated value becomes zero.
The calculation means can continuously calculate the balance, and the display means can graphically display a trend of the balance that is calculated by the calculation means.
The display means can align a facility in the predetermined region among the plant facilities next to the balance, or overlay the facility in the predetermined region over the balance, and graphically display them on the display screen.
The operation status monitoring apparatus can further include a region accepting means that accepts an instruction that sets the predetermined region via an operation on a graphical display of the plant facilities displayed on the display screen.
An operation status monitoring method according to the present disclosure is an operation status monitoring method for monitoring an operation status of a plant using a display screen. The operation status monitoring method includes the following steps executed by a computer: an inflow acquisition step for acquiring an amount of material or heat flowing into a predetermined region of plant facilities, an outflow acquisition step for acquiring an amount of material or heat flowing out of the predetermined region, a calculation step for calculating a balance between an amount of material acquired in the inflow acquisition step and an amount of material acquired in the outflow acquisition step or a balance between an amount of heat acquired in the inflow acquisition step and an amount of heat acquired in the outflow acquisition step, and a display step for graphically displaying the balance calculated in the calculation step on a display screen.
According to the above-described operation status monitoring method, a balance between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated, or a balance between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated. The calculated balances are graphically displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the material balance or the heat balance can be easily ascertained.
In the calculating step, an integrated value of the difference between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means, or an integrated value of the difference between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means can also be calculated as the balance.
According to the operation status monitoring apparatus of the present disclosure, a balance between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated, or a balance between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated. The calculated balance is graphically displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the material balance or the heat balance can be easily ascertained.
According to the operation status monitoring method of the present disclosure, a balance between the amount of material acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of material acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated, or a balance between the amount of heat acquired by the inflow acquisition means and the amount of heat acquired by the outflow acquisition means is calculated. The calculated balances are graphically displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the material balance or the heat balance can be easily ascertained.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the operation status monitoring apparatus according to the present disclosure will be explained.
As shown in
In the process example shown in
Next, the operation of the operation status monitoring apparatus of the present embodiment will be explained.
In
As shown in
When a user wants to know a balance between an amount of inflow material and outflow material (hereinafter referred to as “material balance”) of the device 21, the user designates the device 21 displayed on the display screen 15 by an instruction via the operation accepting part 16 or the display screen 15. Thereby, the calculation means 13 can calculate the material balance of the designated range. Further, the calculation result can be displayed on the display screen 15. For example, in
The calculation range of the material balance is not limited to a single device, and can be designated as a wide range in accordance with a plurality of devices and/or facilities. In this case, for example, a wide range can be designated by an operation such as widening the display frame 51. If a region of the plant facilities displayed on the display screen 15 is set, a main device within this region can be automatically set as the calculation range of the material balance.
In step S1 of
In step S2, the calculation means 13 accesses the facility data 18 and acquires information used in the calculation of the material balance. This information includes information used for calculating the material balance for the designated calculation range. For example, if the device 21 has been designated, the information includes calculation formulas using the flow amounts of “Feed 1”, “Feed 2”, “Prod. 1”, and “Prod. 2” and/or information stating that the flow amounts are obtained as flow amounts of the flowmeters 22, 23, 24, and 25.
Next, in step S3, it is determined whether the calculation range of the material balance has been modified. If YES, the calculation means 13 returns to step S2 and acquires information used in the calculation of the material balance for the modified calculation range. On the other hand, If NO is determined in step S3, the calculation means 13 proceeds to step S5.
In step S5, the calculation means 13 acquires the most recent process values for use in the calculation of the material balance via the inflow acquisition means 11 and the outflow acquisition means 12 based on the information acquired in step S2. For example, if the device 21 has been designated, the flow amounts of the flowmeters 22 and 23 are acquired via the inflow acquisition means 11. Further, the flow amounts of the flowmeters 24 and 25 are acquired via the outflow acquisition means 12.
Next, in step S6, the calculation means 13 executes an arithmetic operation for calculating the material balance based on the information acquired in step S2 and the process values acquired in step S5. Here, the following are calculated: the total material inflow amount for the designated calculation range of the material balance, the total material outflow amount from the calculation range, the difference between the total inflow amount and the total outflow amount, the integrated value (time-integrated value) of the difference, and the like.
Next, in step S7, the calculation result in step S6 is graphically displayed on the display screen 15 by the display means 14.
As shown in
In this way, the total inflow amount into the device 21 and the total outflow amount from the device 21 are displayed side-by-side from left to right. Therefore, it is immediately clear whether the inflow amount and the outflow amount are balanced or unbalanced. As a result, it can be easily recognized whether the material balance is normal or abnormal. For example, in the example in
As explained above, in the example of
In this way, the difference between the total inflow amount and the total outflow amount and the integrated value of the difference are displayed as trend graphs. Therefore, a change in the balance or unbalance between the inflow amount and the outflow amount can be immediately confirmed. In particular, the integrated value of the difference between the total inflow amount and the total outflow amount is an index that accurately indicates the material balance within a fixed period of time. Therefore, a change in the integrated value can be easily ascertained from the display of the trend graphs, and this is extremely useful. For example, by monitoring the integrated value, dangerous conditions or the like such as overflow of a material that has gradually accumulated over a long period of time in the device can be detected. Further, abnormalities in the measurement instruments can also be easily ascertained.
Also, the period for displaying the integrated value, or in other words the period of time from the time T1 to the current time T in
Next, in step S8 of
If YES is determined in step S8, the current value of the integrated value displayed as the trend graph 53b in step S6 is reset to zero.
If the reset button displayed in the region 54 is operated, in step S6, the calculation means 13 shifts the integrated value so that the current value of the integrated value becomes zero. Thereby, as shown in
A setting can be made so that an alarm is generated if the difference between the total inflow amount and the total outflow amount or the integrated value of this difference exceeds a certain value. Thereby, the burden of the monitoring tasks can be lightened. For example, if the difference between the inflow amount and the outflow amount in the device 21 or the integrated value of this difference increases, it is expected that the retention of the material will change in the calculation range of the material balance. However, if the measurement value of a drum level gauge 26 (
In the above embodiment, the balance and unbalance of the inflow amount and the outflow amount was displayed with a bar graph. The present embodiment is not limited thereto, and a bar showing an integrated value (time-integrated value) of the inflow amount for a certain period of time and a bar showing an integrated value (time-integrated value) of the outflow amount for a certain period of time can be displayed next to each other. There are cases in which the balance status between the integrated value of the inflow amount and the integrated value of the outflow amount over a certain period of time is more important information than the instantaneous balance status between the inflow amount and the outflow amount. In such cases, the balance status of the integrated values can be displayed with a bar graph. Of course, the instantaneous balance status between the inflow amount and the outflow amount and the balance status between the integrated value of the inflow amount and the integrated value of the outflow amount can be displayed together.
In the above embodiment, a numerical value indicating the material balance was graphically displayed next to a corresponding device in a region of the plant facilities. The present embodiment is not limited thereto, and the numerical value indicating the material balance can be graphically displayed by overlaying it on the corresponding device in a region of the plant facilities.
As described above, in the above embodiment, the material balance is nearly constantly indicated on the display screen by a graphical display with high visibility. Thereby, an operator can easily recognize a collapse in the material balance. For example, if a defect occurs in a level gauge, the operator can rapidly detect an abnormality. The operator can detect not only the abnormality in the level gauge, but can also easily detect a process abnormality such as leakage from a pipe. Thereby, the monitoring burden on the operator can be lightened. As a result, safer operation can be realized.
An operation status monitoring apparatus of the second embodiment graphically displays a heat balance. The operation status monitoring apparatus of this embodiment is a portion of an operation monitoring apparatus. The operation monitoring apparatus is used for monitoring the operation status of a plant via a display screen.
Heat may escape to the outside of a system due to heat release from a device. For example, if a device being monitored is a reactor, it generates reaction heat. Therefore, it is much more difficult to achieve a heat balance than a material balance. Further, the device itself has a heat capacity. Thus, it takes time from when heat is supplied to the device until the temperature of the device changes. Therefore, when the system is changing dynamically, the heat balance is not achieved. Although these factors of uncertainty exist, a graphical display of the heat balance with the material balance can provide various information that is useful for monitoring.
Below, the operation status monitoring apparatus of the second embodiment will be explained referring to
In the process example shown in
Among the calculations used in the graphical display shown in
In the example shown in
In this way, the total amount of heat entering the system 26 and the total amount of heat exiting the system 26 are displayed side-by-side from left to right. Therefore, it is immediately clear whether the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting are balanced or unbalanced. As a result, it can be easily recognized whether the heat balance is normal or abnormal. For example, in the example in
As shown in
In this way, the difference between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting and the integrated value of the difference are displayed as trend graphs. Therefore, a change in the balance or unbalance between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting can be immediately confirmed. In particular, the integrated value of the difference between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting is an index that indicates the amount of heat accumulated or released within a fixed period of time. Therefore, a change in the integrated value can be easily ascertained from the display of the trend graphs, and this is extremely useful. For example, the amount of excessive heat added into a system is normally detected as a rise in the temperature and/or a rise in the pressure within the system. If there are defects in these measurement instruments, the system may be damaged. Similar to monitoring the material balance, monitoring the heat balance can serve as a backup of the measurement instruments and contribute to early discovery of process abnormalities and the like. Further, by analyzing the heat balance, opportunities for energy conservation can be discovered.
By making the period for displaying the integrated value selective, or in other words, by changing the starting time T1 and the ending time T in
A setting can be made so that an alarm is generated if the difference between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting or the integrated value of the difference exceeds a certain value. Thus, the burden of plant monitoring can be lightened.
Similar to the first embodiment, in the present embodiment, the display of the integrated value of the difference between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting can be reset.
If the reset button displayed in the region 54 is operated, the calculation means 13 shifts the integrated value so that the current value of the integrated value becomes zero. Thereby, as shown in
In the above embodiment, the balance or unbalance of the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting was displayed with a bar graph. The present embodiment is not limited thereto, and a bar showing an integrated value (time-integrated value) of the amount of heat entering for a certain period of time and a bar showing an integrated value (time-integrated value) of the amount of heat exiting for a certain period of time can be displayed next to each other. In particular, regarding the heat balance, there are many cases in which the balance status between the integrated value of the amount of heat entering and the integrated value of the amount of heat exiting over a certain period of time is more important information than the instantaneous balance status between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting. In such cases, the balance status of the integrated values can be displayed with a bar graph. Of course, the instantaneous balance status between the amount of heat entering and the amount of heat exiting and the balance status between the integrated value of the amount of heat entering and the integrated value of the amount of heat exiting can be displayed together.
In the above embodiment, a numerical value indicating the heat balance was graphically displayed next to a corresponding device in a region of the plant facilities. The present embodiment is not limited thereto, and the numerical value indicating the heat balance can be graphically displayed by overlaying it on the corresponding device in a region of the plant facilities.
As described in the above embodiment, the heat balance is nearly constantly indicated on the display screen by a graphical display with high visibility. Thereby, an operator can easily recognize a collapse in the heat balance.
In the embodiments explained above, the material balance or the heat balance was expressed by bar graphs lined up side-by-side from left to right. However, the mode of the graphical display showing the material balance or the heat balance is arbitrary.
In the example of
The applicable scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments. The present disclosure is widely applicable to an operation status monitoring apparatus and the like for monitoring the operation status of a plant via a display screen.
The Operation Monitoring Apparatus 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a computer, a computer unit, a data processor, a microcomputer, microelectronics device, or a microprocessor. A person of ordinary skill in the art will also understand that a computer includes at least a program counter, an arithmetic logic unit and a memory, which includes, but is not limited to a read/write memory, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), DRAM, SRAM etc.
The foregoing detailed description has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the subject matter described herein to the precise form disclosed. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims appended hereto.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2011-214453 | Sep 2011 | JP | national |