24 VDC
250
Indicator or
controller
Safety ground
In normal operation, the 4-20 mA eld instrument possesses insucient terminal voltage and
insucient loop current to pose any threat of hazardous atmosphere ignition. The series resistance
of the barrier circuit is low enough that the 4-20 mA signal will be unaected by its presence. As
far as the receiving instrument (indicator or controller) is concerned, the safety barrier might as
well not exist.
If a short-circuit develops in the eld instrument, the series resistance of the barrier circuit will
limit fault current to a value low enough not to pose a threat in the hazardous area. If something
fails in the receiving instrument to cause a much greater power supply voltage to develop at its
terminals, the zener diode inside the barrier will break down and provide a shunt path for fault
current that bypasses the eld instrument (and may possibly blow the fuse in the barrier). Thus,
the intrinsic safety barrier circuit provides protection against overcurrent and overvoltage faults, so
that neither type of fault will result in enough electrical energy available at the eld device to ignite
an explosive atmosphere.
Note that a barrier device such as this must be present in the 4-20 mA analog circuit in order
for the circuit to be intrinsically safe. The intrinsic safety rating of the circuit depends on this
barrier, not on the integrity of the eld device or of the receiving device. Without this barrier in
place, the instrument circuit is not intrinsically safe, even though the normal operating voltage and
current parameters of the eld and receiving devices are well within the parameters of safety for
7
Real passive barriers often used redundant zener diodes connected in parallel to ensure protection against excessive
voltage even in the event of a zener diode failing open.
30.1. CLASSIFIED AREAS AND ELECTRICAL SAFETY MEASURES 1989
classied areas. It is the barrier and the barrier alone which guarantees those voltage and current
levels will remain within safe limits in the event of abnormal circuit conditions such as a eld wiring
short or a faulty loop power supply.
More sophisticated active barrier devices are manufactured which provide electrical isolation
from ground in the instrument wiring, thus eliminating the need for a safety ground connection at
the barrier device.
Intrinsic safety barrier
Loop-powered
4-20 mA transmitter
2-wire cable
Hazardous area Safe area
+
24 VDC
250
Indicator or
controller
C
h
o
p
p
e
r
/
c
o
n
v
e
r
t
e
r
C
h
o
p
p
e
r
/
c
o
n
v
e
r
t
e
r
Power supply
120 VAC
Power supply
In the example shown here, transformers
8
are used to electrically isolate the analog current
signal so that there is no path for DC fault current between the eld instrument and the receiving
instrument, ground or no ground.
Safety barrier circuits fundamentally limit the amount of power deliverable to a eld device from
a power supply located in the safe area. Barrier circuits cannot, however, ensure safety for eld
devices capable of generating their own electrical energy. In order for such devices to be considered
intrinsically safe, their natural abilities for generating voltage, current, and power must fall below
limits dened in NEC section 504. Sensors such as pH electrodes, thermocouples, and photovoltaic
light detectors are examples of such eld devices, and are called simple apparatus by the NEC section
504. The qualications for a generating device to be a simple apparatus is that it cannot generate
more than 1.5 volts of voltage, and more than 100 milliamps of current, and more than 25 milliwatts
of power. If a devices ability to generate electricity exceeds these limits, the device is not a simple
apparatus and therefore its circuit is not intrinsically safe.
An example of a generating eld device exceeding these limits is a tachogenerator: a small DC
generator used to measure the speed of rotating equipment by outputting a DC voltage proportional
8
Of course, transformers cannot be used to pass DC signals of any kind, which is why chopper/converter circuits
are used before and after the signal transformer to convert each DC current signal into a form of chopped (AC) signal
that can be fed through the transformer. This way, the information carried by each 4-20 mA DC current signal passes
through the barrier, but electrical fault current cannot.
1990 CHAPTER 30. PROCESS SAFETY AND INSTRUMENTATION
to speed (typically over a 0-10 volt range). An alternative to a tachogenerator for measuring machine
speed is an optical encoder, using a slotted wheel to chop a light beam (from an LED), generating
a pulsed electrical signal of suciently low intensity to qualify as a simple apparatus.
Passive (non-generating) eld devices may also be classied as simple apparatus if they do not
dissipate more than 1.3 watts of power. Examples of passive, simple apparatus include switches, LED
indicator lamps, and RTD (Resistive Temperature Detector) sensors. Even devices with internal
inductance and/or capacitance may be deemed simple apparatus if their stored energy capacity
is insucient to pose a hazard.
In addition to the use of barrier devices to create an intrinsically safe circuit, the National
Electrical Code (NEC) section 504 species certain wiring practices dierent from normal control
circuits. The conductors of an intrinsically safe circuit (i.e. conductors on the eld side of a
barrier) must be separated from the conductors of the non-intrinsically safe circuit (i.e. conductors
on the supply side of the barrier) by at least 50 millimeters, which is approximately 2 inches.
Conductors must be secured prior to terminals in such a way that they cannot come into contact
with non-intrinsically safe conductors if the terminal becomes loose. Also, the color light blue may
be used to identify intrinsically safe conductors, raceways, cable trays, and junction boxes so long
as that color is not used for any other wiring in the system.
30.2 Concepts of probability
While the term probability may evoke images of imprecision, probability is in fact an exact
mathematical science. Reliability, which is the expression of how likely something is not to fail
when needed, is based on the mathematics of probability. Therefore, a rudimentary understanding
of probability mathematics is necessary to grasp what reliability means in a quantitative sense, and
how system reliability may be improved through judicious application of probability principles.