B+R: Equipment for Brno underground backbone line (2. strana)
Brno underground on the city backbone line is supported by B+R control equipment
www.technikaatrh.cz
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Partika, owner of SKILLIn M&P, regarding
the basic parameters leading him to select
B&R. What he appreciates about the coo-
peration is both the availability of support
right in Brno and the company's history of
experience from previous projects.
The visualisation and safety features we-
re created in the B&R Automation Studio.
OPC UA was used to communicate with
higher-level systems. The system also inc-
ludes several PLCs that communicate with
each other over a secured optical line
with circular redundancy.
"Combining safety, communication, vi-
sualisation, and control into a single sys-
tem. At the same time, everything was
programmed from a single programming
environment," says Bohuslav Přibyl, B&R's
person responsible for technical solutions
and sales, about those parameters of the
control system after its completion that
were best appreciated by the customer
during the implementation. "The B&R en-
gineers were physically present in the tun-
nels as well as during the consultations in
the preparatory stage of the project. After
all, all projects involving technological de-
liveries are normally supported by consul-
tations as well as an offer of programming
assistance. "While these types of projects
are not yet stifled by specific standards,
we have paid great attention to response
times, reactions, etc. There are some time
limits that the system must meet because
nothing would work otherwise," says Mar-
tin Kuna, Sales Manager for OEM at B&R
about the pitfalls of the implementation.
Compared to the Žabovřesky tunnel, the
earlier one in Bohunice is more complica-
ted. This is because there are stops and
crossings there. In these cases, the con-
tracting authority wanted to extend the
safety features from the tunnel and into
the adjacent junctions on both sides of
the tunnel. The tram approaches from one
side and can either continue on the main
line or enter the tunnel. At the end, there
is a stop, a terminus, and a turning place
for trams that arrive on one track and
must leave on the other. The safety of this
junction must be provided to SIL3.
"The project is special in that no similar
project has ever been implemented any-
where in the Czech Republic. Doing this
first installation in the Czech Republic, we
faced many challenges," recalls Petr
Šmidtmajer, the other owner and director
of SKILLIn M&P s. r. o.
The standards in this project are very clo-
sely intertwined with those in motor and
road traffic, as well as railway transport, so
it was necessary to take into account the
dedicated technical facilities such as rail
transport or overhead lines. The solution
was designed on a turnkey basis.
"We chose the B&R technology for this
project because we knew we needed reli-
able technology and it was necessary to
secure and exchange security information
between the individual nodes. We have
mentioned the reasons earlier, but we al-
so appreciate the engineering compositi-
on of the technology, the product portfo-
lio, etc. This was also an atypical project
for B&R, whose Czech branch and Austri-
an head office devoted the required ex-
pertise and effort to the project to imple-
ment it successfully in the required
timeframe," is how Šmidtmajer reiterates
the key points of working with B&R.
Data of partial construction
technologies from one place
As part of tram transport in Brno, pas-
sengers can also rely on B&R components
that help control the air conditioning and
other technologies of the project. This
part of the contract was managed by Sy-
nerga a. s., who have many years of expe-
rience with designing, installing, and ope-
rating technologies and equipment for
buildings.
"The tram tunnel control system as part
of the project to extend the line from Oso-
vá to the Bohunice campus is used for da-
ta transfer and mutual communication
between the individual subsystems of the
project. It is also used to store the data in
a database for further processing and vi-
sualisation by the monitoring stations," ex-
plains David Hruška, who was the project
manager representing Synerga, which
was the contractor for light-current tech-
nologies.
In practice, the system processes the da-
ta and states and uses algorithms and sce-
narios to parameterise and control the se-
lected functionalities of the individual
technologies of the project. Some com-
mands, parameters, and scenarios are ful-
ly automated, while others must be ack-
nowledged or entered by the responsible
employee, the dispatcher.
"Some commands and parameters are
fully up to the dispatcher. The system is
used to transmit such a command or pa-
rameter. The system can be configured to
alert the dispatcher to an unauthorised in-
struction or command," adds Hruška, who
is highly familiar with the project from his
role as a designer, and who acted as a
contractor for Metroprojekt a.s. to supply
the design documents for the Train Path
and Electronic Switch Heating Control,
Tunnel Control System, and Passenger In-
formation System subsystems.
All the functional blocks and technologi-
es are visualised by the SCADA system,
and dispatchers have all the data and opti-
ons readily available within a single envi-
ronment with optimal access. The entire
control system was set up as redundant.
This means that redundant PLCs were in-
stalled in cooperation with B&R to auto-
matically replace a faulty PLC with the re-
dundant part in the event of a failure. In
addition, the circular topology also ensu-
res data link redundancy. If a cable is bro-
ken, the data connection is made from the
other side in a circular fashion, so to spe-
ak.
"This solution is based on the require-
ments of the standards for the technologi-
cal equipment of tunnels in transport
structures, in particular, TP 98. For safety
reasons, the redundant PLCs are located
in separate fire compartments. The indivi-
dual subsystems are operated via control
system substations distributed according
to the topology scheme," adds Bohuslav
Přibyl on the technical solution by B&R,
pointing out that this makes it possible to
meet the SIL and certification require-
ments. "The cooperation with B&R on this
project was exemplary. The company pro-
vided collaboration in the design stage of
the system and exemplary technical sup-
port in the programming and commissio-
ning phase," concludes Hruška, assessing
the cooperation between Synerga and
B&R.
www.br-automation.com
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