Product category:
Inspection and testing (non-metrology)
News Release from: GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms UK | Subject: Cimplicity HMI
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 17 February 2000
GE Fanuc control system proves right for
DERA
DERA chooses CIMPLICITY HMI with dual redundancy to monitor and control the air supply for testing the simulated flight of the world's most advanced aerospace engines
In order to develop the potential of the jet engine in the late 1940s, after its initial successful use in fighter aircraft, a facility was required to simulate the speed and altitude conditions of the engine when in operation Thus the altitude, propulsion and aerospace test facility, now known as DERA (Defence Evaluation and Research Association) Engine Test Department was developed
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 14 May 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Based at Pyestock, near Farnborough Airport, the establishment has become Europe's largest aerospace power-plant and airframe component altitude testing facility for both military and commercial customers, throughout the world.
It has three major test cells, all offering flexible data analysis of measurements in simulated flight without the inherent risks, a large anechoic chamber for scale model noise testing and a marine gas turbine test facility.
With the need to monitor and control 10 large, custom-built air compressors, and the air-streams that enable the conditions to be simulated in the test cells, DERA has installed GE Fanuc CIMPLICITY HMI software, Series 90(tm)-70 PLCs and Genius(r) distributed I/O.
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Immediate benefits have been to provide a truly centralised control with automated start-up procedures.
With the costs involved in aircraft engine development it is vital that the air-streams required for engine testing are maintained.
The new system provides hot-standby redundancy with dual-redundant servers running under Windows NT and dual-redundant GE Fanuc 90(tm)-70s controlling the I/O.
Engine and airframe testing DERA, an Agency of the Ministry of Defence, has a long history of providing an independent test and evaluation service to both government and civil organisations, and has for some years expanded this offering to operate a truly commercial operation.
For military engines, the comprehensive air processing facility enables the testing of the complete flight envelopes demanded by military aircraft, including after-burning operation for engines of up to 270kg/s.
The after-burning test requirements for the most advanced engines, such as used by the Eurofighter, can also be simulated.
For civil aircraft, turbofans with up to 300kN thrust can be tested over their full flight envelope, with the facility to also test icing using super-cooled water droplets.
Ice accretion resulting from exposure to wet icing clouds can be evaluated over a wide flight envelope on running engines, helicopter airframes, rotor blades and other aerospace components.
The correct flight altitude, forward speed and temperature can be simulated in order to ensure that the ice accretion quality perfectly replicates what would be experienced in actual flight.
Air House machinery There are eight massive 27MegaWatt radial-flow compressors, each with a 12 ton rotor, in the main Air House and two similarly rated remotely housed machines.
Although called compressors, the machines are more often employed as 'exhausters', as they are usually used for removing air from the rear of the test cells to create the low pressure conditions of high altitude.
Singly, they can provide a pressure drop from atmospheric pressure in a ratio of 9:1.
However, they can be used in any combination in series and/or in parallel to give a maximum pressure drop ratio of up to 81:1.
Long lines of massive steel tubing, up to 3m in diameter, feed the air-streams across the site to the five engine/airframe test cells located in adjacent buildings.
The control and monitoring system The Air House 'Centralised Plant Control System' (CPCS) was developed by Boward Computer Services, a GE Fanuc approved CIMVAR Partner, using expert advice, particularly on the redundancy requirement, from GE Fanuc.
Each of the giant compressors has up to 150 associated I/O, including those connected to the vital water-cooling and lubrication pumps and the air control valves.
The I/O is controlled by a Series 90(tm)-70 PLC via 4 main Genius(r) buses, with 9 Genius(r) blocks located by each machine.
Hot standby-redundancy is provided by duplication of the PC server and of the Series 90(tm)-70 PLC.
Switching between PLCs and servers will occur automatically in the unlikely event of a problem with either.
There is a fifth Genius(r) bus connected to the Series 90(tm)-70 PLCs with up to 200 I/O to provide local switching support, and to allow rapid 'dumping' of air to the atmosphere, without the need to stop the compressors, in case of problems during aerodynamic testing.
The weight of the rotor, and its speed, is such that it must be cooled down gradually over a 2 hour period so that correct lubrication to the bearing is maintained as the shaft gradually cools and contracts.
The main control room in the Air House contains a bank of 12 Operator Interfaces (OI) split across a dual Ethernet fibre link to the main server.
The status on any of the 8 compressors can be displayed via CIMPLICITY HMI from any OI.
A further Series 90(tm)-70 PLC running under CIMPLICITY HMI, and controlling up to 600 I/Os in the dry air house, can also be controlled via 6 of the monitors.
Here the I/O is distributed from 3 Genius(r) buses on the PLC and controls the drawing of air over silica beds.
Thus the air humidity can be controlled in order to simulate conditions at different altitudes and varying atmospheric conditions.
Now, 2 or 3 personnel can control the complete system, instead of a minimum of 6 required before the CPCS was installed.
Future development and benefits Routines developed using CIMPLICITY HMI enable the display of trending graphs for many of the measurements on the CPCS.
Data is currently archived using a proprietary IMPS system at 30 minute intervals.
One of the main aims for future development is to take full advantage of the CIMPLICITY HMI archiving facilities to reduce the archiving time interval to two minutes, and to link this into the Main Office Ethernet system so that the stored data can be interrogated from anywhere on the site.
Other future developments include linking a third server running CIMPLICITY HMI onto the plant Ethernet system.
This will also provide control, from the main control room, of two auxiliary 6MW compressors located in the adjacent Plant House.
A further Series 90(tm)-30 PLC with 120 I/Os will also be linked in to provide Variable Frequency Starting of the 8 main Air House Compressors plus one remotely housed compressor plus the two 6MW auxiliary compressors using two Brush VFUs.
With 12 air compressors (11 machines connected to the new system and one machine remaining under manual control) connectable in any combination, air drying facilities and air supply routes to 5 different test cells, it is important to be able to visualise the status of all the control valves.
A large panel MIMIC in the Control Room provides an immediate visual picture of the air valves across the whole site.
This involves data from nearly 800 I/O.
These are currently being linked to a shared sixth Genius(r) bus on the redundant Series 90(tm)-70 PLCs under CIMPLICITY HMI control plus an additional Series 90(tm)-70 controlling the MIMIC.
According to Frank Pote, Project Manager for the Centralised Plant Control System, "The new system running under CIMPLICITY HMI has given the plant not only centralised control with built-in redundancy, but also provides management with a high visibility of the system status.
Any part of the system can be interrogated at any time, and trending graphs can be displayed.
We have been able to automate the start-up, the timing of which was very complicated using manual procedures. Request a free brochure from GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms UK ...
Future development with data being logged every minute by CIMPLICITY HMI will provide us with even more detail on which to optimise our procedures." CIMART15 1 3.
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