China Nuclear Engineering Corporation Limited is the only engineering company with the most complete professional equipment in China, which has the R&D and design capabilities of nuclear power, nuclear chemical industry and nuclear fuel. Nuclear power I&C system is referred to as the eyes, ears and nerve center of nuclear power plant. It controls the operation of nearly 300 systems and nearly 10,000 equipment of nuclear power plant and the processing process of various working conditions. It plays a vital role in ensuring the safe, reliable and stable operation of nuclear power plant. In 2018, China Nuclear Engineering Co., Ltd. (CNPE) began to investigate the digital I&C design platform, and finally Engineering Base (EB) stood out with its advanced architect, perfect function range and rich industry experience.
Typical Requirements
As the I&C design platform of engineering company, the following main application scenarios must be fully met:
- Obtain the data of the process system and the IED design plan from the company data center
- Design of control logic diagram such as support function, SAMA, etc.
- Support automatic generation of instrument specifications and purchase lists
- Support automatic generation of I/O list, alarm, set value, etc.
- Support the cable termination design of DCS, instrument circuit and so on
- Support the design of the panel and table of the control cabinet
- Support HMI configuration screen design
- Support automatic generation of finished product Atlas
Great Achievements
CNPE DrawingCNPE has set up an instrument control design platform implementation team to sort out the standard drawing library of design requirements for fast reactor and Hualong units: it has created a standard function SAMA basic standard drawing library, which can greatly improve the efficiency for subsequent project design. Combined with EB advanced typical manager, it has created typical function diagrams and SAMA diagrams of equipment and instrument control. By using the options and variables function of Advanced Typical Manager, typical drawings are activated, and the typical graphic options and variables are configured. In the process of engineering design, engineers only need to select equipment, instruments and other control typical functions and variables in batch to realize the automatic generation of most department function diagrams and SAMA diagrams. At the same time, the numbering system of system and equipment is also comprehensively combed and improved to realize KKS coding from unit, system to equipment, instrument and signal component code. Through the standardized, modular and variable design method, the standardization of design drawings, design efficiency and design quality have been greatly improved.
During the implementation process, EB implementation team customized various modules according to the drawing standards of CNNC, such as I/O list, analog instrument list, digital instrument list, computerized alarm list, actuator list, etc., and automatically generated various reports based on templates; at the same time, the automatic generation function of cost atlas is customized: one key automatic generation of drawing cover, signature page, document modification record page, drawing directory and related drawings to form atlas, which further improves the design efficiency.
During the implementation, the EB Implementation Team customized various modules such as I/O list, analog instrument list, digital instrument list, calculated alarm list, actuator list, etc. based on the drawing output standards of CNNC; various reports are automatically generated based on templates. Added to this, the automatic generation of finished product catalog was customized: The one-click automatic generation of drawing covers, signature pages, revision history pages, and drawing lists, and the creation of catalogs of relevant drawings have further enhanced the design efficiency.
As the nerve center of the nuclear power plant, the correctness and reliability of the control logic of function diagram and SAMA diagram are very important in the operation process of the nuclear power plant. Therefore, simulation must be carried out before the function diagram and SAMA are installed into the DCS system. Thanks to the natural digital design characteristics of EB, after the design of function diagram and SAMA diagram is completed, EB can export function diagram and SAMA diagram Sama diagram is in XML format: the file format contains all the design parameters and the connection relationship between the function blocks. The file can be directly imported into the simulation machine for simulation, so that the design can fully meet the control requirements.
Prospective Research
In order to meet the strict quality assurance process of nuclear power design, EB cooperated with CNPE has carried out a lot of forward-looking research work in the process of implementation. One of the directions is to realize the direct loading of function diagram and SAMA diagram into DCS system and make gratifying progress, which points out the direction for the implementation of the next stage.
Brilliant Future
Through the implementation of I&C design platform and its being brought into service at the CNPE headquarters, EB has been progressively generalized to DCS designers such as China Institute of Atomic Energy of CNNC, CNPE Hebei Branch, Fifth Research & Design Corporation of CNNC, and SUPCON. Gao Fuchun, Chief Digital Engineer for Nuclear Power of CNPE, commented, "EB conforms to the SSC architecture of nuclear power plants, and is thus a truly digital I&C design platform; it is promising in operation and maintenance for owners in future."
