PLC system

Motivation: This project is motivated by the need of an automated safety system for the steam generating unit of a company. This system is required in the company following an accident that occurred in the company due to a miss communication between the maintenance and operation teams that resulted in collapse of a tank. A safety relief valve used to maintain pressure inside the tank was removed during maintenance and the operation team resumed operation before the valve was restored leading to a vacuum in the tank that lead to the collapse of the tank. By having a system to automatically monitor pressure inside the tank and alert the operation team in case of pressure imbalance, such accidents can be minimized considerably. In all industries, equipment such as motors, pumps, belts, gear trains and couplers are subject to wear and tear during use that would eventually result in unscheduled shutdown. Cavitation one of the areas of interest of this research results in deterioration of performance of pumps that may lead to failure of the pump. These unscheduled shutdowns lead to idle personnel and equipment that are usually expensive to maintain. By early detection of cavitation, these maintenance costs can be avoided. The motivation for this project therefore is to design a cost effective, efficient system that automatically diagnoses pumps for degradation and cavitation to be able to predict pump failure thus decrease the large costs associated with idle equipment and personnel due to unscheduled shut downs. Objectives: The main objective of this project is to develop a system that would improve safety in a steam production unit by use of sensors interfaced to a controller which controls actuators such as valves and an alarm when vacuum start to reach critical level inside the tank. Another major objective is to design a system for automatically monitoring cavitation in a water pump and reduce the speed or stop it until the problem is resolved. Note: All measurements can be estimated for this project e.g. tank size and pump since we don't have real measurements.