Foundation Fieldbus Topologies for

Intrinsically Safe (IS) Installations

Dr.-Ing. Gunther Kegel
CEO Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH, Mannheim
Member of the Fieldbus Foundation Board of Directors
Chairman of the FF European Executive Advisory Council

© 2007 Fieldbus Foundation

 Content

1. Necessity of topology elements

2. Preferred general fieldbus topology
3. IS fieldbus topologies
4. Vision
5. DART technology

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 Information Pyramid

ERP

MES

DCS

FIELD

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 Automation Pyramid
Information Quality

HMI

DCS

Information Quantity
PLC

Interfaces

Sensors und Actuators

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 Power Supply and Wiring Block
Topology
HOST Single point HOST
of failure (o.c.)
(s.c.)

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 Typical IS fieldbus topology in 2000

Fieldbus
ex-i
...
power
supply

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 Typical IS fieldbus topology in 2004

Fieldbus
power
supply Termination

ex-i
Fieldbusbarrier Fieldbusbarrier Fieldbusbarrier
spurs

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 Topology Requirements

1. Avoid single point of failure architectures.

2. Integrate Shielding and Grounding.
3. Guarantee protection against short circuit
and open circuit of fielddevice connections.
4. Provide current limitation to fielddevices.
5. Gain maximum cable length and acceptable
voltage drop to add actuarial reserves.

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 Fieldbus topology for IS installations
! In general the same arguments apply for IS
installations in regards of grounding; shielding;
protection etc.
! In addition the topology has to provide the IS
isolation between safe areas (e.g. control room) and
hazardous areas (e.g. field).
! As fieldbus devices are low power devices anyhow,
IS is a very appropriate method for fieldbus
installations in hazardous areas.
! Today two different IS installation concepts for
fieldbus are existing:
! “True intrinsic safety“-Concept
! “High Power Trunk“-Concept

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 “True Intrinsic Safety“-Concept
Trunk:
24V Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIC…15 V / 100 mA
Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIB….15 V / 200 mA

H1

Active
FISCO Fieldbus Powersupply Junction Box

Spur:
Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIC .. >10 V / 30 mA

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 “High Power Trunk“-Concept
Trunk:
24V Ex-e ……………. < 31 V / 500 mA

H1

Fieldbus
Powersupply Barrier

Spur:
Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIC .. >10 V / 30 mA

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© 2007 Fieldbus Foundation
 Characteristics

Trunk Spur Trunk Power Supply

Isolation
Protection Protection Spec. Redundancy

True Intrinsic Power 17 V

Ex-i FISCO Supply
NO
Safety 200 mA1)

Power
High Power Supply+ 31 V
Ex-e FISCO Fieldbus
YES
Trunk 500 mA2)
Barrier

1) Values are for gas group IIB only.

2) Other devices with (e.g. 25 V / 360 mA) are also available

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 VISION

! “True Intrinsic Safety”-Concept and “High

Power Trunk”-Concept are both widely
accepted and have to be seen as prooven
technology.
! What about a “True Intrinsically Safe High
Power Trunk”-Concept?
! In other words: Can we achieve high power
on an intrinsically safe trunk?

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 VISION
Trunk:
24V Ex-i ……………. > 24 V / 350 mA

T
H1

Spur:
Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIC .. >10 V / 30 mA

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 Advantages

! Single Ex-i harzadous area protection

concept, no Ex-e wiring.
! High Power Trunk offers more cable length
through accepting bigger voltage drops
along the trunk cable.
! Simplified Active Junction Box (compared to
Fieldbusbarrier).
! Spurs remain FISCO protected.

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 24 V / 350 mA
Intrinsically Safe !?

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© 2007 Fieldbus Foundation
 Principle of Intrinsic Safety
“i”
R L

U C

The energy in an intrinsically safe system is limited

to a value that is not capable of causing ignition in
normal operation and fault condition in the
surrounding hazardous atmospheres by sparks
(opening, closing, short circuit, short circuit to earth)

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 Principle of Intrinsic Safety

The classic protection method

is to limit voltage, current,
power, inductance and
capacity in an intrinsically safe
system to a constant value.

-> The results are documented in

“Ignition curves”

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 Physics of an arc
30 0.6

25 0.5
Funken -
spannung
Spark UF
voltage
20 0.4
U [V]

I [A]
15 0.3
Funken -
SparkIFcurrent
strom
10 0.2
critical
phase

5 initial 0.1
phase

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50
t [ µs]

Rectangular source, U= 25V, I= 500mA, 1000m cable, cable break at 500m

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 DART

DART is a new intrinsically safe concept

developed and approved by Physikalische
Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in
Braunschweig and Pepperl+Fuchs Mannheim.

Dynamic Arc Recognition &Termination

The principle of DART is the detection of the

development of an arc and the fast shut down of
power source and/or sink.
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 DART basic structure
Active
Power Supply Trunk Cable
Junction Box

di
I dt
R’ l tp

UT UU
24V
10V 12V

500mA

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 VISION
Trunk:
24V Ex-i ……………. > 24 V / 350 mA

T
H1

DART

DART
Power Supply

Spur:
Ex-i FISCO Gas Group IIC .. >10 V / 30 mA

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© 2007 Fieldbus Foundation
 Conclusion

Power
Trunk Spur Trunk
Isolation Supply
Protection Protection Spec. Redundancy

True 17 V
Power
Intrinsic Ex-i FISCO Supply
NO
Safety 200 mA1)

Power
High Supply+ 31 V
Power Ex-e FISCO YES
Fieldbus 500 mA2)
Trunk
Barrier

Power 24 V
DART Ex-i FISCO
Supply 350 mA
YES

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