A process and control simulator for large scale cryogenic plants

This paper presents a process and control simulator for industrial helium cryogenic plants controlled by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). This simulator can be used for different purposes such as operator training, test of the PLC programs or the optimization of the plant. The different component models used in the simulator are detailed and explained. Various large scale cryogenic plants used for the particle accelerator LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN have been modeled and simulated. The good agreement between the simulation results and the dynamic behavior of real plants is demonstrated with experimental results. Various discussions complete the presentation.