With the increasing use of technology for data analysis in complex systems, as often occurs with dam safety, it has become plausible to implement a system which performs analysis of the measuring instrument data and generates alarms concerning the structural situation of the Itaipu Binacional dam. In Itaipu, there are approximately 2,400 instruments, of which 270 are totally automatic, with readings taken every 30 minutes and positioned in key blocks of the dam. The readings from these instruments provide the data that is stored in real time in the PI Server and remains available for reading and analyses.
The data stored in the PI Server is analyzed with the objective of generating alarms representing the structural situation of the Itaipu dam. For this data analysis and generation of warnings the technique applied is that of the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), a logical and deductive process that, starting from a predefined and undesired event, seeks the possible causes of said event, creating the relationships through simple logical operators (AND, OR, etc.). The failure tree structure, due to its hierarchical characteristic, is implemented by the use of the PI AF. The relationship of the logical operators is represented in the PI AF through the Formula option in the Data Reference of the Element. The nodes that represent the instruments are linked to the corresponding Tags in the PI Server through the PI Point option. The PI Notification is employed for sending the alarms, which define the elements of the PI AF that shall represent the faults and create the Triggers and alarm criteria, in accordance with the attributes of this element of the fault. Those responsible are previously registered in the system, listed in the tab pertaining to Contacts of the PI System Explorer, and receive an email with a description of the fault that occurred and the principal information to support the taking of decisions.