Gerenciamento de alarmes em plantas industriais: conceitos, normas e estudo de caso em um forno de reaquecimento de blocos

Abstract

Studies of organizations concerned about operational safety, reduceenvironmental impact and welfare of the operator, show that the alarm systems in many industrial sectors do not perform their function adequately, since the operation is overloaded with a large number of alarms generated during upsets and even during stable conditions of the plant. Such systems can be optimized and improved through the alarm management, whose function is to document, design, monitor andprovide continuous improvement of alarm systems. This work presents the most relevant standards in alarm management, including the EEMUA 191 and ISA 18.2, and analyzes the main problems and solutions in alarm management. A case study in a steel industry is presented. The metodology applied is based on the alarm management lifecycle proposed by ISA 18.2 and, to enable the monitoring of the alarm system health under study, its developed an application in the Visual Basiclanguage integrated with the supervisory system of the plant. The key performance index proposed by EEMUA 191 are used. The result obtained proves the efficiency of managing the alarm system under study and make possible the maintenance and the continuous improvement.