On-site Commissioning Research Articles

First results of the upgraded ALICE Inner Tracking System in LHC Run 3

Major upgrades of the ALICE experiment at CERN were completed during the LHC Long Shutdown 2 (2019–2021). The ALICE detector is currently taking data and has been doing so from the start of the third period of operation of the LHC (Run 3) on July 5th, 2022. One key part of these upgrades is the new Inner Tracking System (ITS2), a full silicon-pixel vertexing and tracking detector constructed entirely with CMOS monolithic active pixel sensors (ALPIDE). The ITS2 consists of three inner layers (50 μm thick sensors) and four outer layers (100 μm thick sensors) covering 10 m2 and containing 12.5 billion pixels with a pixel pitch of 27 μ m × 29 μm. It offers a significant improvement in impact-parameter resolution and tracking efficiency, thanks to the increased granularity, the very low material budget (0.35% X0 /layer in the inner barrel) as well as a smaller beam pipe radius.The ITS2 was successfully installed in the ALICE experiment in May 2021, followed by a period of comprehensive on-site commissioning, before starting data taking in July 2022. In this paper, the detector construction and commissioning will be introduced briefly. The performance results from the first phase of proton-proton collisions recorded to date in LHC Run 3 will be discussed in detail, which include detector calibration, long-term evolution of the ALPIDE sensor threshold and noise, and the first measurement of the impact parameter.

Special tests on the first unit of the solid-state RF amplifiers for the ITER HNB and the NBTF experiments

Radio Frequency Solid-State Amplifiers (RFSSA) will replace the oscillators supplying SPIDER, MITICA and the ITER HNB RF ion sources. In order to verify the operation of the amplifiers on a significant load for the application and to identify possible integration problems in advance, special tests on a Resonant Dummy Load (RDL) able to mimic the ion source characteristics were foreseen. This paper will present the RDL conceptual design and the special tests that will demonstrate the design and operation of the RFSSA first unit in normal and abnormal conditions, and its integration to mitigate risks before on-site commissioning.

Research on selection of commercial industrial simulation software oriented to virtual commissioning

Virtual commissioning can find problems in the PLC program earlier and improve the efficiency of on-site commissioning. When constructing the FMS digital twin system with Beckhoff TwinCAT as the master control system for virtual commissioning of the production line, in order to select the most suitable modeling environment, this paper conducts research of predecessors based on commercial industrial simulation software. The four common commercial industrial simulation software with virtual commissioning function (Visual Components, Tecnomatix Process Simulate, Emulate3D, Flexsim) are introduced, analysed and compared from the two perspectives of software functions and features. Finally, it explains which commercial simulation software should be used for simulation and virtual commissioning in different scenarios.

Large-scale hybrid real time simulation modeling and benchmark for nelson river multi-infeed HVdc system

Nelson River Bipole I/II Line Commutated Converter (LCC) HVdc system has been in operation for more than 40 years and carries about 70% of total Manitoba Hydro power. The recent addition of Bipole III has formed a multi-infeed HVdc system with tightly coupled converter stations at both ends. Due to the complexity of the three Bipoles in a multi-infeed system, a large-scale hybrid real time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation model was developed with a combination of software models in Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) for Bipole I/II and the hardware replicas for Bipole III controls to support Bipole III commissioning and the future three-bipole planning, operation and maintenance efforts. In the paper, a RTDS modeling approach of Bipole I/II AC/DC system is introduced and discussed. This modeling approach includes the strategic design to fully utilize the library components in the page modules for AC/DC controls and the modeling structure of dividing a large HVdc system into many standalone modular systems. The paper also describes the use of a large-scale hybrid simulation model during on-site commissioning of Bipole III system. Such engineering practice has significantly reduced the technical risks, financial cost and secured the success of the Bipole III commissioning.

Development of Robotic Coordinated Control System for Bowl Food Packaging

The processing of the bowled food is relatively mechanical, repetitive and cumbersome, resulting in high work intensity, low efficiency, and high defect rate, and meets the working cycle:13.5s, positioning accuracy: 2mm.A PLC-based automatic feeding control system for food packaging line was designed. Including the conveyor line for bowl feeding, the numerical controlled manipulator and package process following control system for reclaiming and discharging functions, the system control scheme was proposed and 3D modeling construction was carried out. The design of hardware and software for feeding, reclaiming and discharging in the system is elaborated in detail. Finally, through the actual on-site commissioning and production operation, it is proved that the equipment has fully met the design requirements and greatly improved the production efficiency.

A novel flow-guide device for uniform exhaust in a central air exhaust ventilation system

Exhaust ventilation system with one central fan and multiple terminals has been widely used for the heat and contaminant removal in building environment. Conventional design without pressure balancing leads to uneven distribution of exhaust airflow rate among the multiple outlets. Existed balancing methods usually uses dampers (constant-air-volume valve or regulating valve), tapered duct, or varied inlet area. However, these methods result in higher fan energy consumption, or complicated construction and on-site commissioning. In this paper, a flow-guide device was developed for adjusting the pressure distribution of duct branches. This new device is integrated with the interflow Tee-junction and does not need any commissioning or regulating. The resistance performance of the device responding to the structural parameter was derived using the CFD simulation and experiment. The negative direct resistance featured by the device was found to effectively benefit exhaust at the outlets farther away from the central fan. The ductwork hydraulic model based on the Bernoulli's law of airflow and the fitted resistance correlations were further proposed to fulfill the parametric design. Finally, full-scale test was carried out for a central exhaust system installed with the flow-guide devices referring to a factory workshop with 30 heat and contaminant sources. Compared to the system without the devices, the total rate of the system increased by 25%. Discrepancy of exhaust rate decreased by 78% and uneven degree decreased by 82%, which well meets the engineering balancing requirement. Meanwhile, total resistance of the system reduced 23.8% owing to the negative loss the devices bring.

Indian Test Facility (INTF) and its updates

To characterize ITER Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) system with full specification and to support IPR’s negative ion beam based neutral beam injector (NBI) system development program, a R&D facility, named INTF is under commissioning phase. Implementation of a successful DNB at ITER requires several challenges need to be overcome. These issues are related to the negative ion production, its neutralization and corresponding neutral beam transport over the path lengths of ∼ 20.67 m to reach ITER plasma. DNB is a procurement package for INDIA, as an in-kind contribution to ITER. Since ITER is considered as a nuclear facility, minimum diagnostic systems, linked with safe operation of the machine are planned to be incorporated in it and so there is difficulty to characterize DNB after onsite commissioning. Therefore, the delivery of DNB to ITER will be benefited if DNB is operated and characterized prior to onsite commissioning. INTF has been envisaged to be operational with the large size ion source activities in the similar timeline, as with the SPIDER (RFX, Padova) facility. This paper describes some of the development updates of the facility.

Suppressing Intermittent Subsynchronous Oscillation via Subsynchronous Modulation of Reactive Current

Recently, a new oscillation phenomenon—intermittent subsynchronous oscillation (ISSO)—has been observed in a large interconnected power grid. Rather than leading to oscillatory instability, ISSO causes cumulative fatigue damage and reduces the shaft life of the generator. The existing phase-compensation-based damping technologies are found to be limited in mitigating these types of oscillations. To mitigate ISSO, a subsynchronous modulation of reactive current (SMRC) approach is established and implemented in the voltage-source converters (VSCs) at the generator terminals. The contribution of SMRC to system damping has been analyzed in order to select control parameters for the VSC. The SMRC controller has been prototyped and extensively tested on a real-time closed-loop simulation platform equipped with a newly developed speed sensor module for precisely interfacing the real-time digital simulator with the rotating speed-acquisition board. Extensive experiments on the input and output characteristics of the VSC have been carried out to test and validate the damping current generating module. The effective damping areas are obtained from test observations to fine tune the parameters of the VSC controller for adapting to various system operating conditions, resulting in the common optimal damping region. Real-time simulations, onsite commissioning, and statistics have demonstrated the ability of the SMRC to mitigate ISSO and subsynchronous oscillation in power plants.

Speed Control System Research on Hydraulic Torque Forklift

By researching the characteristics of hydraulic torque forklifts, developed a device which achieved inching function. It can detect position of the handle, using Delta PLC controlled stepper motor driven screw movement, to achieve the control of the engine speed, and modify the control parameters via touch-screen on-site commissioning, to achieve a truck at idle operation, through the manipulation of the handle can Smooth and stable pan, lift or tilt operation, making operation more convenient forklift and reduces the operator's labor intensity, a high value market applications.

Research on Automatic Checking of Protection Functions for Smart Substation

The considerable variability of architecture and function realization of smart substation, which differ from traditional substations, makes the range of protection function check no longer restricted to one device, so it is necessary to carry out thorough monitoring and testing for various inks of functional implementation [1-2]. For this purpose, the automatic checking of protection functions for smart substation is researched, and a scheme for the implementation of the automatic checking is designed [3-4]. By means of adding various checking manners to application software implementation of the devices of protection system for smart substation, the checking and detection of various function implementation links of the protection system are performed, and by use of the expert system based on Dempster-Shafer theory a real-time virtual checking scheme is configured and through real-time analysis on checking information the conclusion of the checking is obtained. The proposed scheme enhances the self-diagnosis and self-monitoring ability of protection system for smart substation and gives full play to the superiority in digital information acquisition and information interaction of digital substation, so it can be used to the checking during on-site commissioning, besides, partial functions can be also used to perform on-line monitoring of protections being operated [5-9].

A Novel Whole-View Test Approach for Onsite Commissioning in Smart Substation

The substation is the heart of an interconnected power system. With the development of smart grid, the concept of a smart substation is proposed. The objectives of smart substations are to build an efficient networked information-management platform, increasing the flexibility in the organization and distribution of the information, and greatly enhancing the capabilities of information exchanging and processing in the substation. However, the onsite commissioning of the smart substation is more complex than that of traditional ones, because the digital information is more difficult to measure and a complex networked information flow needs to be testified. In this paper, a novel test approach, based on wireless time synchronization and distributed injection of simulated data, is proposed for the onsite commissioning of the secondary system in a smart substation. The system components are built and tested. Technical issues are solved to satisfy the requirements of onsite commissioning, and the built system has been used for commissioning services of several newly built smart substations.

A Novel Method for Onsite Commissioning of Wide-Area Protection

The wide-area protection technology is considered to apply in construction of smart grid, which offers new challenge to verifying work for secondary system. This paper describes a new method for onsite commissioning of wide-area power grid. It can accomplish coordination tests for protection devices in different areas based on numerical simulation and wireless commutation technology. Because structure of power grid is too complex to calculate results of electromagnetic transient efficiently. A new approach of simulation is shown in the paper, which uses FDNE circuit to replace external system. And an example of test is offered. The simulation result indicates that electromagnetic transient computation with FDNE can be satisfied with debug work for occurrence chains in smart grid.

An Indian test facility to characterise diagnostic neutral beam for ITER

The diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) line shall be used to diagnose the He ash content in the D–T phase of the ITER machine using the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS). Implementation of a successful DNB at ITER requires several challenges related to the production, neutralization and transport of the neutral beam over path lengths of 20.665 m, to be overcome. The delivery is aided if the above effects are tested prior to onsite commissioning. As DNB is a procurement package for INDIA, an ITER approved Indian test facility, INTF, is under construction at Institute for Plasma Research (IPR), India and is envisaged to be operational in 2015. The timeline for this facility is synchronized with the RADI, ELISE (IPP, Garching), SPIDER (RFX, Padova) in a manner that best utilization of configurational inputs available from them are incorporated in the design. This paper describes the facility in detail and discusses the experiments planned to optimise the beam transmission and testing of the beam line components using various diagnostics.

The status of the ITER CODAC conceptual design

CODAC orchestrates the activity of 80–120 Plant Systems in normal ITER operation using a set of dedicated networks. Interlock systems protect ITER from potentially damaging operating off-normal conditions, using a segregated network. Safety systems protect the personnel and the environment and the nuclear safety systems will be subject to licensing. The principal challenges to be met in the design and implementation of CODAC include: complexity, reliability, transparent access respecting security, a high experiment data rate and data volume since ITER is an experimental reactor, scientific exploitation from multiple participant team experiment sites and the long 35-year-period for construction and operation. Two non-technical challenges drive the CODAC design. Firstly all technical plant systems follow an “in-kind” procurement model, as opposed to a direct commercial contractual relationship with suppliers. Secondly, the period of procurement will, itself, be long compared with the evolution of technologies in the fields of control and data acquisition.This paper addresses the various phases from definition of procurement agreements through to on-site commissioning of the project.

Considerations in Applying Short-Circuit Tests for On-Site Commissioning of IPP Mid-Size Generators

With increases in the number of new generators that are built by nonregulated independent power producers (IPP) it is imperative to ensure the quality of final commissioning tests for both the protection system and the primary power circuit of each new generator. This paper presents a recent experience in applying field short-circuit (SC) tests to verify a new generator system prior to its synchronization to the grid and commercial operation. The importance of associated safety precautions during both the planning and execution stages of such tests is emphasized. The presented experience demonstrates a practical case with insights into SC tests, their particulars, methods, and goals. This paper advances the need for having industry guidelines for applications of final commissioning tests and especially SC tests to IPP new generators to ensure the safety of personnel and reliability of operation.