Dynamic simulation for the helium cryogenic system based on EcosimPro and EPICS

The large scale cryogenic systems are complex industrial processes with large number of correlated variables on wide operation ranges. A dynamic simulator is required to obtain the virtual commissioning for the cryogenic plants, which provides a computer aided design platform for developing and testing new control strategies and control programs. This paper presents a cryogenic simulator based on a commercial modeling and simulation software EcosimPro and an open source control system architecture EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System), and the communication and control architecture will be explained in detail. The dynamic simulation for a helium cryogenic system during a complete cool-down process has been implemented. The results show that the scheme is feasible to apply the simulation system modeled with EcosimPro to the cryogenic system based on EPICS. The simulation architecture will be used at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) for process and control optimization or operator training for new cryogenic system in the future.