PLC CONTROL OF A COLD STORE AND RIPENING PLANT - A CASE HISTORY.

Authors: C.J.Thornhill and B.A.Lowrey

Modern food technology enables perishable goods such as fruit and

vegetables to be transported from all parts of the globe and arrive on our supermarket shelves in pristine
condition. A vital element in this technology is the refrigeration process. Produce can now be stored for
long periods in closely controlled environments in refrigerated cold stores. When market conditions are
right, produce can be ripened in storage and dispatched to market. The major benefits are a) supply can
be closely matched to demand, and b) a reduction in waste due to spoilage.

The success of modern refrigeration methods, involving close control of cold store environments, is due
in large part t o the availability of low cost control systems employing intelligent Programmable Logic
Controllers (PLC's), the ubiquitous Personal Computer, and PC-based SCADA (Supervisory Control And
Data Acquisition) systems.

TA Consultancy Services were tasked to supply the software-based control system for a multi-chamber
Cold Store a t James Fisher, Newhaven [l].
Specific requirements of the control system called for were:

Monitoring of the complete Cold Store via a SCADA system

Monitoring and control, via PLC's of
0 Evaporators
0 Compressors
0 Condensers
0 Liquid Pumps
0 Ammonia detection
Remote Monitoring System (RMS)

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2.1 Hardware Confiouration. The system supplied was based on PLC's by Klockner Moeller, the ALTAIR
SCADA system and a standard IBM-compatible, 80386SX-based PC. A remote monitoring link was
provided with a standard V 2 1 /V23 modem and accessed by PSTN dial-up. The main components of the
system were [21:
(1) 1 x KM PS316 16-bit PLC as master controller,

(2) 8 x KM PS3 8-bit PLC's connected via SucoNet to the PS316 and used as remote I/O

(3) A PC running the ALTAIR SCADA package connected to the PS316 via a serial intelligent
interface.

(4) A remote monitoring serial link via modem to the customer's premises.

2.2 Software Structure. The control software was implemented using the PLC manufacturer's
programming software. The PLC language was not fully modular (although it did provide subroutinesl.
nevertheless, the principles of modular design and programming were followed as much as possible, such
as minimizing coupling between modules. For example, separate source code modules were designed and
written for controlling the system compressors, chamber evaporators, liquid pumps and ammonia gas
detection. These modules were then included in to a main program which consisted of a once-only
initialization phase, and a continuous scan loop [31. This approach to design and development contributed
to quality, efficiency and ease of testing.

2.3 Commessor Control. PLC software was designed to give the following control functions for each of
three single stage 6-cylinder compressors I41:
 Capacity Control - Compressor capacity control used the common L/P line transducer
output to stage in the compressors giving 33%, 66% and 100% loading.
Smooth Loading - To provide a degree of smoothing in the loading process, loading at any
stage was not activated until the measured pressure was maintained for a minimum user-
specified time (on-delay timers).
Minimum Run Time - A time delay was introduced when dropping out a complete
compressor, to ensure that the compressor ran for a minimum time before being switched
off (off-delay timers).
Duty Cycle Control - The lead compressor was changed every 100 hours of lead
compressor running, according to an operator-specified loading order (cascade
timerslretentive timerskhift registerskounters).

2.4 EvaDorator Control. The system consisted of fourteen evaporators used for chamber cooling; three
each in chambers 1 and 2, and t w o each in the remaining four chambers. The desired chamber
temperatures were to be input via the SCADA system to give the chamber temperature control setpoints.
A PD control algorithm 151, was required to provide close control of individual chamber temperatures
about the required setpoints, with the desired deadband also input from the SCADA system as high and
low deviations from the desired setpoints. The deadband was the same for all chambers. Note that in the
"Heating On" operating mode no actual heat source, such as hot gas, was required, but rather the
chamber temperature was allowed to drift up towards ambient.

The flow-rate of refrigerant to each evaporator was controlled using a Danfoss EKS controller and hence
this was effective during cooling mode. The actual setpoint supplied to the EKS had to be offset from the
desired chamber setpoint. Hence, during each software cycle the EKS setpoint had to be recalculated
from the desired chamber setpoint and an offset.

On start-up of the system, a three minute delay was required before chamber temperature control could
commence to allow fans and pumps to reach required operating speeds.

Evaporators suffer from frosting, and so it was necessary to provide in the design for defrost cycles.
Defrosts of evaporators could either be requested manually or were scheduled based on a pre-determined
cycle. Requirements for defrosts were as follows I61:

A manual defrost on an evaporator should terminate a manual or timed defrost on any

other evaporator.

When an evaporator is defrosting, a timed defrost request on another evaporator should

be ignored.

Only one evaporator can be defrosting at any one time.

Defrosts are terminated by chamber temperature reaching 5 degrees C or more.

The software written to control the evaporators consisted of 14 separate modules, each module being
responsible for temperature, fan and defrost control of a single evaporator [71. Items 1 and 2 above
caused particular difficulty due to the quantity of logic required in the software to implement the required
functionality.

3 PLC Proarammina. The PLC was programmed using an IBM compatible PC running the PLC
manufacturer's programming software. This software provided a complete environment for programming,
testing and commissioning the control software and documentation of programs, in addition to other
features [81. The PC based programming software provided three options for PLC programming, these
being Instruction Set, Ladder and Functional Block.

Instruction Set is a textual programming method similar to assembler programming and provides the user
with a defined set of instructions that can be used to construct programs, instructions being the smallest
unit within a program. It follows closely the 'Instruction List' defined in the IEC 1131-3 'Programming
Languages' standard, section 3.

812
 Ladder programming is a graphical programming method and relates more closely t o relay based control
circuitry and for people unfamiliar with programming languages is easier t o understand.

Functional Block is also graphical and provides a set of functions which can be connected together to
form control sequences [91.

Both Ladder and Functional Block follow closely the graphical language standards defined in the IEC
1 131-3 'Programming Languages' standard, section 4. For the purposes of this project we decided to
program mainly using Instruction Set. The decision to program using Instruction Set was one of personal
preference more than anything else, though we considered it t o be slightly quicker and more powerful
once we had fully understood the language. However, it was also possible t o view programs written in
Instruction Set in a graphical form which proved useful during software development.

Once programs had been written, they were compiled, downloaded from the PC t o the PLC and tested
from within the PC based programming environment. Each program, or module, was tested individually
against a test specification using custom-built test programs and the testingkommissioning facility.
Module integration testing was then performed once all modules worked correctly in isolation and finally
system acceptance tests were performed.

4. The IEC 1131 Standard. At the time when the system was being developed we were not aware of IEC
1131 and were not therefore applying any of its content during the design of the system software.
However, the standard, for example Part 3, 'Programming Languages' and part 4, 'User Guidelines', does
contain some useful material. For example, the use of a specification method for defining the syntax and
semantics of textual languages in Part 3 should become the norm amongst manufacturers [lo].Often,
manufacturers descriptions of their particular PLC languages is unclear and does not define the language
in its totality, which only leads to confusion amongst users.

Part 4 of the standard also contains some useful guidance and considerations in the design and
implementation of systems employing PLCs. Furthermore, it also addresses safety-related systems, (SRS)
which are briefly discussed in the following section.

5. Safetv Related Issues. Although the PLC system described in this paper was not considered t o be a
safety related system, where programmable systems are safety related, it is desirable t o gain additional
confidence in the quality and correctness of the software to establish whether it is fit for purpose. Often,
additional testing and independent assessmentlanalysis is required and depending on the area of use of
the software, may be mandatory or required by a certificating authority. Establishing such correctness
normally involves additional testing and analysis beyond that required for non-safety related systems.

Techniques that can be applied are static analysis using tools such as MALPAS. MALPAS automatically
verifies the users software against a formal specification. Other methods may be independent dynamic
testing using suitable tools.

The IEC 1131-4 'User Guidelines' draft standard, section 5, does address the area of Safety Related
Systems in relation t o Programmable Controllers.

6. Commercial Issues. Our experience as a software house in the supply of PLC applications has brought
us t o the following conclusions [l 11:

Today's PLC software is 3rd Generation

PLC system supply is a highly competitive market
Margins for PLC software are extremely tight, often with high risk
PLC software is often included by hardware suppliers at cost or below
Requirements specifications are often poor compared with commercial systems
Rectification of deficiencies in specification and testing are too often assumed t o be
commissioning activities.

TA Consultancy Services Ltd

Newnhams, West Street Tel : 0252-71 1414
Farnham, Surrey GU9 7EQ Fax : 0252-735633

G 1993 The Institution of Electrical Engineers.

Printed and published by the IEE, Savoy Place, London WCPR OBL, UK.
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