An Overview of Industrial Alarm Systems: Main Causes for Alarm Overloading, Research Status, and Open Problems

Alarm systems play critically important roles for the safe and efficient operation of modern industrial plants. However, most existing industrial alarm systems suffer from poor performance, noticeably having too many alarms to be handled by operators in control rooms. Such alarm overloading is extremely detrimental to the important role played by alarm systems. This paper provides an overview of industrial alarm systems. Four main causes are identified as the culprits for alarm overloading, namely, chattering alarms due to noise and disturbance, alarm variables incorrectly configured, alarm design isolated from related variables, and abnormality propagation owing to physical connections. Industrial examples from a large-scale thermal power plant are provided as supportive evidences. The current research status for industrial alarm systems is summarized by focusing on existing studies related to these main causes. Eight fundamental research problems to be solved are formulated for the complete lifecycle of alarm variables including alarm configuration, alarm design, and alarm removal. Note to Practitioners-Alarm systems are critical assets for operational safety and efficiency of plants in various industrial sectors, such as power and utility, process and manufacturing, and oil and gas. However, industrial alarm systems are generally suffering from alarm overloading. This paper provides an overview of industrial alarm systems, by proposing main causes for alarm overloading, summarizing current research status and formulating open problems. In presenting this overview, we hope to attract direct attentions from more researchers and engineers into the study of industrial alarm systems.

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