Alarm acknowledgement in a nuclear plant control room

• US 5,353,316 A
• Filed: 12/29/1993
• Issued: 10/04/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Brookfield Asset Management Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Combustion Engineering Incorporated (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Jamison, David S., Harmon, Daryl L., Manazir, Richard M., Scarola, Kenneth, Rescorl, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wasil, Daniel D.
• Application Number:
  US08/175,284
• Time in Patent Office: 279 Days
• Field of Search: 376/216, 376/217, 376/248, 376/259, 364/146, 364/188, 364/431.01, 364/527, 364/551.01, 364/927.64, 340/506, 340/511, 340/517, 340/524, 340/525, 340/825.06, 345/1, 345/2, 345/3
• US Class Current: 376/259
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/027 Alarm generation, e.g. communication protocol; Forms of alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 9/03 with multiple-channel loop, i.e. redundant control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G21C 17/00 Monitoring; Testing measuring in general G01; Maintaining
• CPC Class Codes: G21D 3/00 Control of nuclear power plant control of nuclear reaction in general G21C7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G21D 3/008 Man-machine interface, e.g. control room layout
• CPC Class Codes: G21D 3/04 Safety arrangements emergency protection of reactor G21C9/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 30/00 Energy generation of nuclear origin
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 30/30 Nuclear fission reactors
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/52 Outage or fault management, e.g. fault detection or location

Abstract

Alarm acknowledgment can be made not only at the alarm tile array of a given console but via other touch sensitive alarm indications in the screen displays of the monitoring system at the same or other consoles; also, touching one tile can acknowledge multiple alarm sources.

Claims

1. In a nuclear power plant including a nuclear steam supply system constituted by a multiplicity of 20 components which operatively interact to control a plurality of system operating variables;

means for measuring the operating variables and generating parameter signals commensurate therewith;

means for comparing the parameter signals with preestablished set point values and generating an alarm signal when the parameter signal exceeds the set point;

a control room containing alarm display means including a multiplicity of alarm tiles, wherein each parameter signal is associated with one tile;

means for activating the associated tile to display an active state when an alarm signal is generated for a particular parameter signal; and

means responsive to action by the control room operator, for converting the active state of said activated tile to an acknowledged state;

wherein the improvement comprises;

at least some tiles are each activatable by a different plurality of alarm signals such that the active status display of a single one of said at least some tiles can be indicative of the simultaneous coexistence of a plurality of alarm signals for a corresponding plurality of parameter signals; and

said means for converting, converts each of the alarm signals associated with said single tile, as well as the tile, to an acknowledged state, when the operator touches said display of said single activated tile.

2. The improvement of claim 1, including, means responsive to the means for converting, for displaying to the operator, a description of each parameter signal associated with the alarm signal of each acknowledged tile.

3. The improvement of claim 2, wherein said means for displaying a description also displays an image of the acknowledged tile.

4. In a nuclear power plant including a nuclear steam supply system constituted by a multiplicity of components which operatively interact to control a plurality of system operating variables;

means for measuring the operating variables and generating parameter signals commensurate therewith;

means for comparing the parameter signals with preestablished set point values and generating an alarm signal when the parameter signal exceeds the set point;

a control room containing alarm display means including a multiplicity of alarm tiles, wherein each parameter signal is associated with one tile;

means for activating the associated tile to display an active state when an alarm signal is generated for a particular parameter signal; and

means responsive to action by the control room operator, for converting the active state of said activated tile to an acknowledged state;

wherein the improvement comprises;

at least one of a first type of display device spatially and functionally dedicated in the control room, for displaying alarm information including alarm tiles and being responsive to touch by the operator for acknowledging an activated alarm tile;

a plurality of a second type of display device distributed in the control room for selectively displaying monitoring information about the operation of the plant including information about the alarm signal associated with any activated tile; and

means responsive to the touch of the operator on any one of the second display devices, for the operator to convert the active status of an activated tile on the dedicated alarm tile display of the first display device, into an acknowledged status.

5. The improvement of claim 4, wherein

the first and second types of display devices are distributed among a plurality of control room panels, each panel having indicator, alarm and control functions associated with one of a plurality of major component systems in the plant;

each of the second display devices continuously generates a menu bar having a plurality of discrete sectors corresponding to the plurality of major component systems, respectively and display page navigation means;

means are provided in each of the second display devices for displaying a code on the menu bar sector corresponding to the system panel in which an alarm tile has been activated by an alarm signal;

means responsive to the touch of the operator on the menu bar, are provided for displaying said information about the alarm signal associated with the activated tile, as a touch sensitive image to the operator at said second display device, said touch sensitive image constituting;

the means for the operator to convert the active status of a tile to an acknowledged status on the second display device.

6. The improvement of claim 5, wherein

said information about the alarm signal is accessed via a first screen accessed by touching the coded sector and showing a directory hierarchy including the major system, a plurality of constituent systems of the major system, and subsystems of each constituent system with the particular subsystem associated with the alarm signal being coded and responsive to the operator'"'"'s touch, and means responsive to the touch of the coded subsystem, for generating a second screen containing detailed information about the selected subsystem including system operating parameter values and said touch sensitive image.

7. The improvement of claim 4, wherein

a first computer system generates a first alarm signal for a particular parameter and activates the associated tile on the first type of display screen;

a second computer system generates a second alarm signal for the same particular parameter and generates the code on the sector in the menu of the second display devices; and

the acknowledgement is achieved in both computer systems by a single touch of the operator on either the first display device or the second display device.

8. A method of controlling the presentation and acknowledgement of abnormal condition alarms in an alarm system for use by an operator of a nuclear power plant, comprising:

activating at least two of a multiplicity of alarm tiles on an alarm tile array such that each activated tile presents an activated descriptor of the source of an abnormal condition in the plant;

wherein the operator can respond to each activated alarm tile so each tile is in one of four statuses consisting of,

a new alarm associated with an abnormal condition and unacknowledged tile,

an existing alarm associated with an abnormal condition and acknowledged tile,

a cleared alarm associated with a normal condition and unacknowledged tile, and

a reset alarm condition associated with a normal condition of an acknowledged alarm;

generating a first, momentary audible tone upon the activation of a new alarm;

generating a second, momentary audible tone upon the occurrence of a cleared alarm; and

generating a third, periodically repeating audible tone during a new alarm and a cleared alarm.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first and second tones have a duration of about one second every other second and the third tone repeats with a duration of about one second every minute.

10. The method of claim 8, further including the steps of

flashing the descriptor of a new alarm and a cleared alarm at a first rate,

flashing the descriptor of a cleared alarm at a second rate that is slower than that of said first rate, and

illuminating the descriptor of an existing alarm without flashing, and presenting the descriptor of a reset alarm without illumination and without flashing.

11. The method of claim 10, including the step of optionally suppressing the flashing of previously activated new and cleared alarms, without suppressing the generation of said third, periodically repeating audible tone for the alarms that have been suppressed.