State of the art of the methods and tools for power plant controls

An analysis of the techniques used to design power plant controls used by the major industries in this sector, the main research laboratories, and the universities is presented. An inventory of the concepts, methods and tools used for stepping from mechanical descriptions and descriptions of control operation to those of control functions is given. The report contains the results of work-package WP-2: Exploration of methods and tools. The overall objective of the project is to provide an inventory of 'Concepts, methods and tools for translation of mechanical plant layout schemes and descriptions of power plant operations into diagrammatic logic descriptions of the automation functions'. The following key items are covered: specific application domain (nuclear BWR or PWR, conventional); problem considered (protection, start-up, shut-down, alarm logic and user interface); concepts used, scope and limitations; presentation of the method to specify functional requirements; method used, its weak and strong points; tools applied; literature (reports, articles and books). (K.A.)