A Design of the Alarm System in Digital Control Room of HTR-PM

Abstract

A design of alarm system which includes both annuciator tiles and VDU alarm displays is proposed of the digital control room in HTR-PM (high temperature reactor pebble-bed module). Important and system-level alarms are located as fixed tiles, most of which are shared alarms. A shared alarm is a combination of several alarm causes associated with a single plant system or component. In the VDU displays, icons which stand for alarm tiles are developed. The tile icons obey the same coding rules of the real alarm tiles. A special VDU display is designed, in which the alarm list function and the tile icons are both included. The tile icons in the display are arranged exactly the same as the real tiles on the panel. When the shared alarm tile is activated, via the special VDU display, operators can easily get the detailed alarm information about the alarmed tiles with only a click on the tile icon. Based on the alarm display features, an alarm control procedure of pushbuttons on the console and the control functions in VDU display is presented. In the alarm response procedure, the personnel cannot acknowledge the alarm when the detailed messages are not read. This alarm system is technically based on the DCS (Distribute Control System) of the plant. Compared with using VDU alarm list only, tiles provide the operator perceptual understanding of the whole plant situation and rapid detection of alarms. The special VDU display with tile-like icons and function of listing detailed alarm messages provide the operator inquiry capability to obtain specific information, which support the operator effectively.