FEATURE SCADA & DATA ACQUISITION
DATA MANAGEMENT IMPROVES SCADA control system performance
to better inform business decision- makers, improve forecasts, and enhance control and emergency functions. Today’s high-performance database
management systems, such as the Raima Database Manager (RDM), are optimised for workgroup, real-time and embedded operating systems. They are also highly suitable for mobile applications, a trend that is gaining considerable traction in the process world. RDM is suitable for programming interoperating systems of networked and distributed applications, such as those found in process plants that have evolved over the years of operation. The original neat and logical control architecture naturally becomes a complex set of systems and subsystems over time as the plant is adapted to changing needs. RDM is an ACID-(atomicity,
Good decision-making depends on excellent interpretation of sound data. But it is also time-dependent – a decision made too late will never be good. So, if a large amount of data has to be accessed and assessed quickly, a high-performance database management system is a must. Steinar Sande, CEO of Raima Inc., explains how optimising database design and operation can help industrial process companies to drive efficiency into management of their plant
ndustrial process plants generate large amounts of data constantly, whether they are oil refineries, waterworks, power stations, food manufacturers or pharmaceutical plants. For many years it has been standard practice to capture all this information for analysis, so that operations can be constantly re-optimised and, if appropriate, developing trends can be highlighted or alarms triggered.
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REAL-TIME SCADA Typically, such plants use a real-time SCADA-type (supervisory control and data acquisition) control system. This gathers data for analysis to generate information, such as the rate of flow in pipes, the running speed of motors, temperature of raw materials, etc. This data is usually displayed in a simple-to- understand format on one or more
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monitors around the plant. It is also interpreted in real-time, so that operators are aware of developing trends, cumulative totals, performance comparisons, etc., as well as being transferred to a database for further use. A small SCADA system might be used to control, say, air-conditioning in a modest office building, while a larger one based on the same concept could be maintaining millisecond-by-millisecond precision control in a nuclear power plant, or a vast petrochemical refinery.
OPTIMISED PROCESS CONTROL Operators of complex plants are increasingly aware of the value of their archived information: it can be used in near real-time to more precisely optimise plant and process control, integrated with commercial information
Operators of complex plants are increasingly aware of the value of their archived information
consistency, isolation and durability) compliant database management system (DBMS), the multi-core processors of which means it can maximise the use of available memory capacity. It supports both in-memory and on-disk data storage, so is suitable for running on a wide variety of computers and embedded operating systems. It often has the effect of increasing otherwise limited memory capacities. RDM can operate both memory and disk storage interchangeably, thereby providing the speed of memory and the stability of disk in a single system. RDM supports multiple programming interfaces to provide developers with the level of control they need for the task at hand including: Navigational C API, Cursor C API, Custom C++ API, SQL C API, Standards Based ODBC C API, Objective C API and LabVIEW API.
DATA IS AN ASSET In modern process industries where maximum safety must be combined with world-class productivity and commercial flexibility, the information and knowledge that can be drawn from operational data is an asset of great value. Raima’s RDM data management technology can provide the tools to develop real market advantages and assured reliability, even in the most demanding operational conditions.
Raima
www.raima.com T: 01628 826800
Enter 222 /AUTOMATION
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