When considering solutions to meet a facility’s process safety requirements, the conversation often begins with the safety instrumented system (SIS) architecture. Many want to understand attributes, such as redundancy, fault tolerance, and availability, of the DeltaV SIS with Electronic Marshalling Solution, which includes the CHARMS Smart Logic Solver.

Another essential question to consider is how process safety is actually maintained throughout the asset’s lifecycle, not just achieved during design and implementation. In this context, the CHARMS Smart Logic Solver is an enabling foundation and centerpiece of a larger architecture. I reached out to Emerson’s Anupa Beharrysingh to get some of her thoughts.

The DeltaV CHARMs Smart Logic Solver (CSLS) is a modular and distributed approach to an integrated safety instrumented system. A redundant pair of CSLSs communicates over a redundant Ethernet safety network with up to 15 other CSLSs, allowing great I/O flexibility and ease of system expansion.

Emerson has launched several products to simplify and meet the requirements set forth in IEC61511 for safety systems. As part of the safety lifecycle, DeltaV AgileOps provides an integrated analytics capability that enables ongoing insight into process safety performance, aligned with the concept of a Unified Safety Architecture.

AgileOps enables process safety precursors to provide leading indicators and early visibility into the health of protection layers before a demand or incident occurs. Some examples where this can provide value include:

• Normalized bypasses and overrides, with emphasis on duration and context rather than raw counts
• Frequency of demands on safety functions as a signal of operating stress
• Degradation and availability of Independent Protection Layers (IPLs) – for the SIF and Operator effectiveness as IPL
• Operator performance as an IPL, inferred through real interaction behavior under normal and abnormal conditions

By combining AgileOps with the real-time, dynamic simulation platform, DeltaV Mimic enables continuous operator competency management, thereby directly improving operators’ effectiveness as IPLs. Operators must maintain a mental match with SIS logic during abnormal situations, and this becomes significantly easier when the actual SIS application is reused directly in the Operator Training Simulator. Exports of the SIS configuration files ensure the training scenarios always reflect the current SIS logic.

While analytics and training capabilities add significant value, neither stands alone. Together, when layered on DeltaV SIS, these tools provide an easy-to-use, maintainable solution for managing your entire SIS: instruments, alarms, logic solver hardware, and software.

The foundation that enables this entire approach is DeltaV SIS. Visit the links above to learn more.