Patent Application
20110082679
The present invention relates to a simulation; more particularly, relates to replacing a hardware simulation with a software simulation to effectively certify system functions in a limited time with improved speed, quality and safety on testing system modules
An instrument and control system for a nuclear plant needs to be digitalized. The instrument and control system is a distributed control and information system (DCIS). However the system has a lot of providers and its interface is complicated. In a safety system logic and control/engineered safety feature (SSLC/ESF) of the system, a control I/O module test panel or a control I/O card test panel is operated manually. In addition, for different signals, different signal generators are required and strengths of signals are tuned manually, which costs time and labor, even without good maintenance and auto-testing. As a result, the cost is high, the system is complicated and the time spent is long. Hence, the prior art does not fulfill all users' requests on actual use.
The main purpose of the present invention is to replace a hardware simulation with a software simulation to effectively certify system functions in a limited time with improved speed, quality and safety on testing system modules
To achieve the above purpose, the present invention is an apparatus of simulating data certification with a safe network communication, comprising a QOS(quality of service)-guaranteed and real-time safety network, a data acquisition and verification unit, a data provider and a data certification simulator, where all data are stored in a memory bank through the safety network and are replicated to all nodes at real time; when the data acquisition and verification unit receives outside data through the safety network, the data provider simulates data of all nodes on the safety network to provide corresponding data as input to the data acquisition and verification unit to be verified; and the data certification simulator simulates validation bytes of the nodes for the data acquisition and verification unit to take output data of the data provider as valid data. Accordingly, a novel apparatus of simulating data certification with a safe network communication is obtained.
The present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
a is the view showing the first state of use of the second user interface;
b is the view showing the second state of use of the second user interface; and
c is the view showing the third state of use of the second user interface.
The following description of the preferred embodiment is provided to understand the features and the structures of the present invention.
Please refer to
The safety network 1 is a real-time communication network of fiber-optic ring, where the safety network 1 has a communication protocol based on a replicated memory; and all data are stored in a memory bank and are replicates to every node at real time. The safety network 1 is a redundant independent and isolated network. When an error occurs at a network, another network takes responsibility immediately without any harm to response time or control algorithm. Therein, every node of the safety network 1 comprises a plurality of modules of control, input and output; and the modules have a method of real-time data exchange applied to the memory bank of the safety network 1. And an auto error detection and correction are used to maintain data integrity. And the data is transferred through hardware without software or firmware.
The data acquisition and verification unit 2 is a physical cabinet, comprising a network interface module and a control I/O module. The data acquisition and verification unit 2 receives outside data through the safety network 1; and the data are validation bytes from a source node to verify whether the source node is still available on the safety network 1. If the validation bytes from the source node are refreshed within 20 milliseconds (ms), data sent from the source node are taken as valid for reading. Hence, every cabinet in the data acquisition and verification unit 2 scans all I/Os of the control I/O module per 20 ms by the network interface module to process control and to refresh data; and a result of the scanning is shown on a related user interface through an online detection function contained in the control I/O module. Therein, every cabinet in the data acquisition and verification unit 2 communicates with each other through a redundant network interface module; and the control I/O modules in the same cabinet communicate through a back plane bus. The control I/O module of the data acquisition and verification unit 2 comprises an analog signal output module, an analog signal control module, an analog signal input module, a digital signal control module, a digital signal output module, a thermocouple (T/C) input module and a resistance temperature detector (RTD) input module. The network interface module has three methods of: (a) scanning data transferred from the control I/O module to the safety network 1 per 20 ms, passing through and receiving data by the control I/O module, and providing status signal to the control I/O module by the source node per 20 ms; (b) diagnosing the cabinet and the safety network, including a power-availability status, a temperature in the cabinet, a networking status and a control I/O module status; and (c) exchanging data between the safety network and the control I/O module and monitoring status of each node.
After the data acquisition and verification unit 2 receives output data, it is required to certify correctness of the related output data. Hence, the data provider 3 simulates data for all nodes on the safety network 1. Based on input data of other nodes on the safety network 1 requested by the data acquisition and verification unit 2, a simulation is processed per 20 ms by sending corresponding data to the data acquisition and verification unit 2 through the safety network 1 for certification.
While output of a hardware is changed into output of the data provider 3, the data certification simulator 2 uses a man-machine interface to select validation bytes of node. There are some nodes on the safety network 1; and there is no node having a duplicate address. The man-machine interface is used to dynamically change and simulate refreshment of the validation bytes of a selected node based on a requirement. Hence, with the validation bytes refreshed by the data certification simulator 4 per 20 ms, validation bytes of the node are simulated by the data certification simulator 4 while data are received through the data acquisition and verification unit 2. Thus, the data acquisition and verification unit 2 certifies data outputted from the data provider 3.
Consequently, the present invention has a high speed with the safety network 1. The present invention has a simple design and requires no complicated communication protocol. Thus, software malfunctions or network data package collisions are eliminated and a reliable transferring time without supports of an operation system or related network protocols is obtained. Furthermore, the present invention do not need physical hardware for outputting data; and, thus, cost on buying hardware equipments is saved.
Please refer to
The first user interface 31 comprises a ‘Start/Stop Transmission’ button 311, a TabStrip control unit 312 and a simulated data group 313, where the simulated data group 313 sets up simulated data; the TabStrip control unit 312 selects the data to be simulated; and the ‘Start/Stop Transmission’ button starts or stops the simulation. When the program starts, the operation system 32 is provided as a platform to run the first core model. The program workflow control module 321 loads the setups to initialize all parameters and controls the processing of the data provider. A man-machine interface processing module 322a of the external interface handling module 322 is used to receive and process the data setup by the first user interface 31. Then a network interface processing module 322b of the external interface handling module 322 is used to process data on the safety network through a network interface card driver of the operation system 33, including fetching network data, verifying network data and writing network data. At last, the data processing module 323 of the first core model 32 is used to read the simulated data setup by the first user interface 31; the data is transformed according to a communication protocol of the safety network; and then the transformed data is written over the physical communication layer 34. Moreover, the data processing module 323 analyzes data packages from the safety network; and the simulated data group 313 of the first user interface is used to show its meaning. Therein, the program workflow control module 321 starts or stops providing data and coordinates the external interface handling module 322 and the data processing module 323.
Please refer to
The second user interface 41 comprises a Start button, a ‘Clear All’ button, an ‘Auto Set’ button and a node group, where the node group sets up nodes dynamically to be selected for simulation; and the Start button starts or stop the simulation. When the program starts, the real-time operation system 43 provides a timer to the second core model 42, which has a minimum resolution of 4 ms. With a default and precise interrupt of 20 ms, validation bytes of the node selected are simulated and refreshed. After the program starts, the program workflow control module 421 of the second core model 42 loads default setups from a file system for initializing all parameters to control whole simulation flow of the data provider. A file system processing module 422a of the external interface handling module 422 accesses data in an external file system to read or write setup files. A man-machine interface processing module 422b of the external interface handling module 422 receives and processes setups and commands through the second user interface 41. Then a network interface processing module 422c of the external interface handling module 422 processes data on the safety network through the network interface card driver 431 of the real-time operation system 43. In the end, the validation byte handling module 423 of the second core model 42 figures out a corresponding physical network address on the safety network to rapidly and acutely refresh validation bytes of the nodes through the physical network address, the interrupt of the timer and the network interface processing module 422c. And then the network interface card driver 431 writes data to the safety network or the physical communication layer 44. Therein, the program workflow control module 421 starts or stops the simulation and coordinates the external interface handling module 422 and the validation byte handling module 43.
Please refer to
A node group 414 of the second user interface 41 is used to select and setup nodes for simulation. There are 127 nodes numbering from 0 to 126 separately. A node is enabled by selecting the number of the node; or else, is disabled by selecting ‘****’.
The second user interface 41 has a ‘Clear All’ button 412 and an ‘Auto Set’ button 413 for rapid setup. The ‘Clear All’ button 412 is used to clear all setups for conveniently setting up several nodes only. And the ‘Auto Set’ button 413 is used to rapidly enable all nodes.
Besides, the second user interface provides a pull-down menu 415 for various simulations. Setup files of the simulations are managed by writing in and reading out through the pull-down menu 415.
To sum up, the present invention is an apparatus of simulating data certification with a safe network communication, where a hardware simulation is replaced with a software simulation to effectively certify system functions in a limited time with improved speed, quality and safety on testing system modules.
The preferred embodiment herein disclosed is not intended to unnecessarily limit the scope of the invention. Therefore, simple modifications or variations belonging to the equivalent of the scope of the claims and the instructions disclosed herein for a patent are all within the scope of the present invention.
