Development
& Use of a Real-time Acquisition, Monitoring & Analysis
System for a Process Control Environment
S. M. Price, National Instruments User Symposium,
Austin, TX, March 28-30, 1993.
In an industrial continuous processing environment, failures of
system components can lead to unsafe operation, environmental damage,
and significant loss of revenue. When specific components of the
system are critically designed, instrumentation can be installed
(e.g., pressure transducers, accelerometers, strain gages, etc.)
to provide data to assess current conditions. From these data, operational
parameters or even system design can be altered to maintain safe
and reliable operation. However, the amount of data generated can
quickly overwhelm operations/engineering personnel. Therefore, a
system to continuously acquire and evaluate the data, presenting
only the most useful information is vital. Such a system is discussed
in this paper.
The rapid
development (less than 2 months) and successful use (currently
over 1 year) of a low-cost PC based system providing on-line continuous
monitoring and evaluation capabilities for 35-40 channels will
be discussed. The system was developed using off-the-shelf hardware,
(including the National Instruments AT-MIO-16F5 A/D board) with
custom software, written with the National Instruments LabWindows
product. Extensions to the National Instruments’ “double
buffered” data acquisition technique will be detailed. Use
of an off-line post processor (also developed with LabWindows)
that can provide further diagnostic evaluation of the data acquired
will also be illustrated. Finally, the specific safety, performance,
and engineering design benefits derived from the data will be
discussed.
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