System and method for protection system design support

• US 20050271132A1
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corporation (Curtiss-Wright Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Curtiss-Wright Flow Control Corporation (Curtiss-Wright Corporation)
• Inventors: Hoover, H. James, Kolenc, Josh, Olekshy, Anthony G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,617,013 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/226
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities

Abstract

A method and system for examining and safely evaluating process systems, including fluid pressure systems, to aid overpressure design and/or sizing of overpressure equipment. The system includes a server subsystem, a storage subsystem, an assessment subsystem, and optionally a report generation subsystem, including computer hardware and application software for supporting these subsystems.

Claims

1. An evaluation system for evaluating a process system, said process system comprising a plurality of equipment including a protection device for protecting the process system, said evaluation system comprising:

a storage subsystem for electronically storing an equipment database including equipment information representing each of said plurality of equipment;

a server for serving content including some portion of said equipment information, via a public communication network, to an application executing on a remotely located user computer; and

an assessment subsystem for automatically determining, by utilizing some portion of said equipment information, an adequacy of the protection device for protecting the process system, and generating protection assessment information therefrom, said protection assessment information also being stored in said equipment database or in another database by said storage subsystem.

2. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein said server and said assessment subsystem utilize a computer in common.

3. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein said content is formatted according to the http protocol for serving by said server, and wherein the communication network supports the TCP/IP communication protocol.

4. The evaluation system of claim 3, wherein the communication network is the Internet, and wherein the application executing on a remotely located user computer is a web browser application capable of displaying html formatted documents.

5. The evaluation system of claim 4, wherein the web browser application is a commercially available general purpose web browser application for running on a general purpose computer, and wherein said content is displayed by the user computer using the web browser application.

6. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein the communication network is the Internet or a derivative thereof.

7. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein said protection device is an overpressure device, and wherein said determining an adequacy includes an overpressure assessment based on an overpressure scenario.

8. The evaluation system of claim 1, further comprising a report generation subsystem for generating an assessment report utilizing some portion of said protection assessment information and some portion of said equipment information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein

said assessment report includes an assessment based on one or more failure scenarios;

and wherein

said assessment report is used for supporting a PSM assessment, wherein said assessment report is utilized for one or both of;

certifying and/or verifying that the process system is adequately designed or

identifying inadequacies of the process system design.

10. The evaluation system of claim 1, further comprising:

means for supporting process engineering functions including one or more of;

means for uploading P&

ID and/or system sketches;

means for uploading equipment parameters;

means for uploading ISO drawings;

means for defining a protected system model;

means for defining potential overpressure scenarios for said system;

means for determining how physical properties are input into said evaluation system;

means for defining mitigation;

and wherein said automatically determining an adequacy of the protection device includes one or more of;

automatically generating internal protected system links between any combination of associated pieces of equipment, associated defined overpressure contingencies, and associated documentation;

generating interactive P&

ID/system sketch models;

calculating defined overpressure contingencies;

calculating piping losses

accessing physical properties through a linked VMG database; and

assigning mitigation procedures.

11. The evaluation system of claim 1, wherein said content further includes some portion of said protection assessment information.

12. An evaluation system for evaluating a process system, said process system comprising a plurality of equipment including a protection device for protecting the process system, said evaluation system comprising:

a storage subsystem for storing an equipment database including equipment information representing each of said plurality of equipment, said storage subsystem also for updating said equipment information with updated equipment information;

a server for serving content, via a public communication network, to an application executing on a user computer, said server further for serving additional content, including at least a portion of said content, via the communication network, to the application or another application executing on another user computer;

a reception subsystem for receiving said updated equipment information for providing to said storage subsystem, said receiving from one or both of the user computer and the another user computer via the communication network; and

an assessment subsystem for automatically determining, by utilizing said equipment information, an adequacy of the protection device for protecting the process system, and for generating protection assessment information therefrom, said protection assessment information also being stored in said equipment database, or in another database, by said storage subsystem, wherein

said content includes some portion of said equipment information and further includes some portion of said protection assessment information, and wherein

said assessment subsystem is further for updating said protection assessment information by utilizing said updated equipment information, and further wherein

said server is further for serving updated content including some portion of said updated protection information to the user computer and/or the another user computer via the communication network.

13. The evaluation system of claim 12, wherein said server and said assessment subsystem utilize a computer in common.

14. The evaluation system of claim 12, wherein said content is formatted according to the http protocol for serving by said server, and wherein the application is a web browser application, and further wherein the communication network supports the TCP/IP communication protocol.

15. The evaluation system of claim 14, wherein the communication network is the Internet.

16. The evaluation system of claim 15, wherein the web browser application is a commercially available general purpose web browser application supporting the http protocol for running on a general purpose computer utilizing a commercially available operating system, and wherein said content and said updated content are displayed by the user computer using the browser application.

17. The evaluation system of claim 12, wherein the public communication network is the Internet or a derivative thereof.

18. The evaluation system of claim 12, wherein said protection device is an overpressure device, and wherein said determining an adequacy includes an overpressure assessment based on various overpressure scenarios.

19. The evaluation system of claim 12, further comprising a report generation subsystem for generating an assessment report utilizing some portion of said protection assessment information and some portion of said equipment information.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein

said assessment report includes an assessment based on one or more failure scenarios;

and wherein

said assessment report is used for supporting a PSM assessment, wherein said assessment report is utilized for one or both of;

certifying and/or verifying that the process system is adequately designed or

identifying inadequacies of the process system design.

21. The evaluation system of claim 12, wherein further comprising:

means for supporting process engineering functions including one or more of;

means for uploading P&

ID and/or system sketches;

means for uploading equipment parameters;

means for uploading ISO drawings;

means for defining a protected system model;

means for defining potential overpressure scenarios for said system;

means for determining how physical properties are input into said evaluation system;

means for defining mitigation;

and wherein said automatically determining an adequacy of the protection device includes one or more of;

automatically generating internal protected system links between any combination of associated pieces of equipment, associated defined overpressure contingencies, and associated documentation;

generating interactive P&

ID/system sketch models;

calculating defined overpressure contingencies;

calculating piping losses accessing physical properties through a linked VMG database; and

assigning mitigation procedures.

22. An evaluation system for evaluating a process system, said process system comprising a plurality of equipment including a protection device for protecting the process system, said evaluation system comprising:

a storage subsystem for storing an equipment database including equipment information representing each of said plurality of equipment, said storage subsystem also for updating said equipment information with updated equipment information;

a server for serving content, via a public communication network, to a browser application executing on a user computer, said server further for serving additional content, including at least a portion of said content, via the communication network, to the browser application or to another browser application executing on another user computer;

a reception subsystem for receiving said updated equipment information for providing to said storage subsystem, said receiving from one or both of the user computer and the another user computer via the communication network;

an assessment subsystem for automatically determining, by utilizing said equipment information, an adequacy of the protection device for protecting the process system, and for generating protection assessment information therefrom, said protection assessment information also being stored in said equipment database, or in another database, by said storage subsystem, wherein said automatically determining an adequacy of the protection device includes one or more of;

automatically generating internal protected system links between any combination of associated pieces of equipment, associated defined overpressure contingencies, and associated documentation;

generating interactive P&

ID/system sketch models;

calculating defined overpressure contingencies;

calculating piping losses

accessing physical properties through a linked VMG database; and

assigning mitigation procedures;

a report generation subsystem for generating an assessment report utilizing some portion of said protection assessment information and some portion of said equipment information; and

means for supporting a plurality of process engineering functions including one or more of;

means for uploading P&

ID and/or system sketches,

means for uploading equipment parameters,

means for uploading ISO drawings,

means for defining a protected system model,

means for defining potential overpressure scenarios for said system,

means for determining how physical properties are input into said evaluation system, and

means for defining mitigation;

wherein

said content includes some portion of said equipment information and further includes some portion of said protection assessment information, and wherein

said assessment subsystem is further for updating said protection assessment information by utilizing said updated equipment information, and further wherein

said server is further for serving updated content including some portion of said updated protection information to the user computer and/or the another user computer via the communication network.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein

said assessment report includes an assessment based on one or more failure scenarios;

and wherein

said assessment report is used for supporting a PSM assessment, wherein said assessment report is utilized for one or both of;

certifying and/or verifying that the process system is adequately designed or

identifying inadequacies of the process system design.

24. A computer readable medium for storing a program for executing by an evaluation system for evaluating a process system, said process system comprising a plurality of equipment including a protection device for protecting the process system, said evaluation system comprising:

a storage subsystem for storing an equipment database including equipment information representing each of said plurality of equipment, said storage subsystem also for updating said equipment information with updated equipment information;

a server for serving content, via a public communication network, to an application executing on a user computer, said server further for serving additional content, including at least a portion of said content, via the communication network, to the application or another application executing on another user computer;

a reception subsystem for receiving said updated equipment information for providing to said storage subsystem, said receiving from one or both of the user computer and the another user computer via the communication network; and

an assessment subsystem for automatically determining, by utilizing said equipment information, an adequacy of the protection device for protecting the process system, and for generating protection assessment information therefrom, said protection assessment information also being stored in said equipment database, or in another database, by said storage subsystem, wherein

said content includes some portion of said equipment information and further includes some portion of said protection assessment information, and wherein

said assessment subsystem is further for updating said protection assessment information by utilizing said updated equipment information, and further wherein

said server is further for serving updated content including some portion of said updated protection information to the user computer and/or the another user computer via the communication network.