visualization of plant dynamics using soft screens for...

International Journals of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering ISSN: 2277-128X (Volume-7, Issue-6)

Research Article

June 2017

© www.ijarcsse.com, All Rights Reserved Page | 748

Visualization of Plant Dynamics Using Soft Screens for

PFBR Operator Training Simulator H.Seetha, N.Jasmine, Pidapa Raghava Reddy, M.Uma Maheshwari, T.Jayanthi

Computer Division, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu,

India

DOI: 10.23956/ijarcsse/SV7I5/0222

Abstract— Simulator model development, implementation and simulation can be visualized in two ways, non-real time

and real time. Non real time representation of data in operator training simulator development would not serve the

purpose of the operator training. However it's a very good approach for the component design, post accident analysis

and to value the characteristic of the component. Process plant operator training requires the character

representation as ditto to the reference plant behavior. Any deviation in the training data will affect the operator plant

practices and intern the safety of the plant as well as safety of the working place also. Real time visualization of entire

plant data in one point for nuclear power plant simulation is going to enhance the plant knowledge, competency of the

development team, reduces the time required for model tuning and a best aid on tool to clear verification and

validation process. Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) full scope replica type operator training simulator

simulates plant dynamics in real time and commissioned at BHAVINI training facility for operator training. This

paper discuss about the requirement of flow diagrams and result screens development to visualize, analyze, tune,

validate and verify the PFBR plant dynamic as per the scope of the simulator and ANSI standard for operator

training requirement. It also details about the advantage of having soft screens in various forms in development stage

and the vision of research and development activities in this area of interest.

Keyword: Real time simulation, PFBR, plant dynamics, visualization, operator training simulator.

I. INTRODUCTION

PFBR Operator Training Simulator(OTS) i.e. KALpakkam BReeder SIMulator (KALBR-SIM) is developed in

Simulator, Wireless Network section along with Reactor Design Group of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research to

provide efficient training to the plant operating personals. Simulation of process plant dynamics requires proper planning

of various model development stages, testing methodologies, model tuning and Verification & Validation (V&V) of the

same. Here comes the necessity of soft screen implementation to speed up the above said stages for the simulator

development team to populate the simulated plant parameters in the one centre point to visualize the simulated results,

understand the plant scenario and verifying the models as per the simulator ANSI standard. By this screens the simulated

plant scenarios are monitored and basic verifications such as entire reference plant thermal / mass balance, control &

logic verification, monitoring of level of all storage tanks, necessary auxiliary system monitoring and the efficiency of all

the components. (Fig.1)

Fig 1 PFBR Flow sheet

II. PROTOTYPE FAST BREEDER REACTOR

PFBR is India's first fast breeder reactor with 500 MWe capacity, pool type reactor utilizing sodium as main heat

transport medium and uses mixed Uranium, Plutonium oxide as fuel. Heat Transport system consist of Primary Sodium

System, Secondary Sodium system and Steam Water System. Primary sodium system has two primary sodium pumps,

dx.doi.org/10.23956/ijarcsse/SV7I5/0222

Seetha et al., International Journals of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering

ISSN: 2277-128X (Volume-7, Issue-6)


four intermediate heat exchangers, cold sodium pool, reactor core and hot pool. Each secondary loop includes two

intermediate heat exchangers, one secondary sodium pump and four once through steam generators. Steam Water System

adopts a reheat and regenerative cycle using live steam for reheating. Energy transfer is done through Electrical System

using turbo alternator set of capacity 500 MWe.

III. PFBR OPERATOR TRAINING SIMULATOR

KALBR-SIM is a full scope replica type operating training simulator with the coverage of neutron system to electrical

power generation system of PFBR and the training control room is replica of the main control room with respect to the

color, flooring, tiles, and display meters. KALBR-SIM acquired the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) safety

committee clearance for operator training and effectively utilized for the PFBR operator training to uplift and maintain

the plant operator skill set.

Fig.2 PFBR Main Control Room panels and its soft screen

Fig.3 Core temperature distribution screen Fig.4 Plant at normal state

IV. SIMULATOR DEVELOPMENT

Simulation of plant dynamics requires basic three development phases such as process model development, simulator

logic sheet generation and virtual panel screen creation. Virtual panel (VP) screens are playing a role in simulator to

speed up the model development, model character fine tuning, standalone testing, integrated sensitivity testing in a

system level and plant level. It also stimulates the developer team to visualize the performance in a wider range to meet

the simulator scope in all aspects. VP screens have also been utilized to take the simulator development in to the

destination phase where the simulator results are monitored by the operator and feedback commands are initiated from

the hardware panels through I/O system. (Fig2). Here comes the necessity of integrated visualization entire simulation

process of panel arrangement, panel space utilization, & distribution of plant signals, positions of annunciation signals /

indicators / control switches, signal communication mechanism to be implemented to integrated with simulator modules

etc .,




V. NEED FOR VISUALIZATION

As per AERB recommendation the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) operator training simulator has to be commissioned at

least one year prior to the actual plant commissioning schedule and training the operator & getting certification for the

plant operator process has to be performed. This requirement forces the simulator development process to implement the

design data of the NPP and not to wait for the plant data to come. Implementing design data in simulator requires

assumption of data in wherever like boundary assumption, structural assumption etc. Intern it requires for multiple

validation and verification of the simulation state in the development stage itself to match the performance of the

simulator with the pattern in which the plant dynamic follows. Simulator Model development stage requires result

verification in a constant interval where noticeable/planned model development level has been achieved and gives us a

clear cut view of where the process in and how to proceed. It also aids the developer to perform unit testing then there to

reduce the error at the time of integrated overall testing of the entire plant model testing (fig-3 & fig-4). Verifying the

simulation state as per the reference plant dynamics Reducing error at the beginning stage itself elevates the confidence

of the simulator development team and provides a positive pathway to the development process. To fulfill this, test result

soft screens has been created to maintain the simulation goals and standards.

Fig.5 Reactor start-up conditions Fig.6 Sub condition level monitoring

Nuclear power plant Operator training simulator standard i.e. ANSI 3.1/1998 and IAEA TECH-DOC-995 selection,

specification, design and use of various nuclear power plant training simulators has been adopted for PFBR operator

training simulator and errors are well maintain in the range of 2 -5% in steady state and 10-15% in plant transient state.

Maintaining in KALBR-SIM is achieved by multiple level of testing like stand alone black box testing of process / logic /

soft screen for hardware panel, integrated testing in steady state, malfunction testing and design basis transient testing.

Distributed Digital Control System methodology is followed in PFBR plant, parameters are classified with respected to

its important, distributed to Local Control Panel (LCP), Local Control Centre (LCC) & Main Control Room (MCR)

monitored by the experienced plant operators and hence the safety of the plant is maintained. Development stage

Validation and Verification (V&V) of the simulator is very much mandatory prior to the V&V by internal / external

committee to get the clearance by assuring the error within the defined target limit. Here soft test screens play a major

role to support simulator testing team to check their models and tune it according to the modeling specification to

conform the healthiness.

Fig-7 Reactor start-up and NFM signals Fig-8 Plant at shutdown state




In KALBR-SIM also test soft results screens are created to visualize the plant status at the development stage to verify

the intermediate results in component level and system level. Verifying the inlet/outlet mass balance of each component,

thermal balance of the plant, pressure maintenance in important components, status of the motors, and inlet / outlet

parameters of all plant component of PFBR subsystems like neutronics, primary / secondary sodium system, steam water

system, electrical system, reactor startup system (Fig-5 & 6), core temperature monitoring system, Decay heat removal

system etc are carried out by the various form of soft result screen. Virtual panel modeling and simulation tool is used to

develop these GUI's to represent the plant components and integrated with the process model to get the real time data in

every 200 millisecond.

Fig-9 Secondary sodium loop-1 flow sheet Fig-10 Detailed Primary & Secondary Sodium System

VI. VISUALIZATION BY FLOW DIAGRAM

Sensitivity of the entire plant process has been visualized by the different system flow diagrams. Entire plant low

diagram covers the reactor core to the electrical power production system. For ease of understand the simulated flow

diagram of PFBR OTS represented in 3 screens; reactor in steady state, reactor in startup state (Fig-7), reactor in

shutdown state with Operation Grade Decay Heat Removal System (OGDHR) (Fig-8). Screens are develop to provide

the details of all the major component details like inlet / outlet temperatures, flows and Pressures of all major components,

level of the storage tank, power removal by the decay heat removal system etc.

This also aids to verify the control logic implementation and process integration like tripping and change logic of motors,

excess air evacuation if vacuum is more than set point, changing the water flow path after initiation main path

malfunction and subsequent bypass line opening, storage tank excess dump at appropriate set point, making up the tank

when the normal level falls below set point, reactor safety parameter dynamics to initiate safety shutdown signal from

plant shutdown system and plant response in reactor state transition state. Detailed subsystem flow diagrams help the

team to verify the component level control logic implementation, component dynamics and its related response. (Fig-9 &

Fig-10)

Fig-11 Main, Hot and Cold reheat system Fig-12 Condensate system




Fig-13 Important plant parameter monitoring screen

VII. VISUALIZATION BY RESULT SCREENS

Soft result screens are supplement of the simulation process to verify the results in smaller group level where in case

of soft flow diagram plant system representations are already fixed by the plant design itself. The requirements from the

process simulation team for verification of the component dynamics were the basic requirement for the result screens to

develop either in component wise or in subsystem wise. These screens are efficiently used to carry out the verification of

the process models by the different system V&V teams with respect to mass balance of the system. Different result

screens for components / subsystem are created (Refer fig-11, 12 and 13) and aided the V&V process of KALBR-SIM

and made it easy for the developer to go ahead of the final V&V.

VIII. CONSISTENCY CHECK

Soft flow diagrams and test screens are not only used for model testing or Verification & Validation purpose of

training simulator it is extensively utilized to analyze the consistency of the simulator to take care of configuration

management. Simulator configuration management up to the period of actual plant commissioning is also important in

view of change in the design specification with respect to practical implementation.

To check the integrality and stability of the simulator in version control process it is planned extend the visualization

through GUI to consistency check of all simulated plant parameter in one center screens. Development of GUI

experience can be taken into the next level of development of intelligent HMI and a trend to automatic performance

analyzes of the simulator to maintain the integrity.

IX. BENEFITS OF SOFT SCREENS

Soft screens are easy to create and modify according to the requirement by the developer team as well as the V&V

team. Extra effort to integrate with the process, control & logic and operator console screen is required to populate the

simulated plant parameters in these screens. Screens created for the KALBR-SIM development process were well

appreciated and utilized by the verification & validation team and AERB committee. Flow charts are effectively used for

the students / public awareness program for nuclear power plant and for the visitors of the centre.

X. CONCLUSIONS

Efforts required to develop a software has been reduces good amount of development time in simulator model

development phase with well planned design, development and testing procedures. Soft test screens verification in

development stage has definite impact in the understanding of the process, confidence in the development process and

automatically takes to the defined route of the requirement specification. Developed soft flow / result screens for PFBR

operator training simulator has been utilized not only by the developer to verify the development process; utilized by the

V&V committee for the simulator clearance for operator training.

REFERENCE

[1] Scope Document on PFBR Operator Training Simulator - PFBR/08610/DN/ 1003/REV-A, IGCAR, 2007.

[2] PFBR Final Safety Analysis Report, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Department of Atomic Energy,

Chapter 5.2. Core Engineering, Rev 0, (2004).

[3] Design and Development of Virtual Panels for Handling Control Room in PFBR Simulator, Bindu Sankar,

Jaideep Chakraborty, H.Seetha, D.Thirupurasundari, T.Jayanthi, K.K.Kuriakose, S.A.V.Satyamurty,

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Engineering (IJNESE), March-2014




[4] Efficient Plant Monitoring And Control Using Improved Human Machine Interface With Intelligent Features by

T. Jayanthi, K. Velusamy, H. Seetha, M. Uma Maheshwari, S.A.V. Satya Murty

[5] PFBR Final Safety Analysis Report, Chapter 14 "Event Analysis" PFBR/FSAR/R-0/Mar'10, IGCAR

[6] Full Scope Replica Type Operator Training Simulator for Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor - T.Jayanthi,

S.A.V.Satya Murty, and P.Swaminathan – Volume Release of Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy conference

conducted at Delhi in Sep. 2009.

[7] Simulation of Control Logics for Plant Transition State for PFBR Operator Training Simulator - N.Jasmine, H.

Seetha, K.R.S. Narayanan, Rashmi Nawlakha, Bindu Sankar, Jaideep Chakraborty, T. Jayanthi, S.A.V

SatyaMurty, P. Swaminathan Presented at ICRTIT-2011 held at MIT, Chennai and published in IEEE Xplore.

visualization of plant dynamics using soft screens for...

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