Improving Chemical Plant Safety Training Using Virtual Reality

The chemical engineering industry often requires people to work in hazardous environments and to operate complicated equipment which often limits the type of training that be carried out on site. The daily job of chemical plant operators is becoming more demanding due to the increasing plant complexity together with increasing requirements on plant safety, production capacity, product quality and cost effectiveness. The importance of designing systems and environments that are as safe as possible to educate and train personnel is vital for the chemical process industries. Virtual reality offers the potential to expose personnel to hazardous situations in a safe, highly visual and interactive manner. Virtual reality has been proposed as a technological breakthrough that holds the power to facilitate learning. The ability to visualise complex and dynamic systems involving personnel, equipment and layouts during any real operation is a potential advantage of such an approach. Virtual reality and multimedia training is commonly used in many industries, aiding understanding and memory retention and creating a more interactive learning experience. Four desktop virtual reality training environments were developed for this research which highlighted issues related to chemical process dynamic simulation and plant safety. The pump training system is a virtual reality environment, which was built using the SAFE-VR virtual engine, to train personnel to operate two centrifugal pumps. The virtual hazard spotting exercise focuses on improving the users' safety awareness of electrical and occupational hygiene hazards. The virtual boiler plant is a complicated and high detailed virtual training environment, which is characterised by its flexibility and by a real time dynamic simulation of the steam generation chemical process. The virtual flooding and gas absorption experiment was based on an undergraduate laboratory experiment for the Chemical Engineering degree course at the University of Nottingham, focusing primarily on training and safety issues of students using the equipment. The dynamic features of the virtual absorption column simulation give high level of realism in the virtual environment

Improving Chemical Plant Safety Training Using Virtual Reality

The chemical engineering industry often requires people to work in hazardous environments and to operate complicated equipment which often limits the type of training that be carried out on site. The daily job of chemical plant operators is becoming more demanding due to the increasing plant complexity together with increasing requirements on plant safety, production capacity, product quality and cost effectiveness. The importance of designing systems and environments that are as safe as possible to educate and train personnel is vital for the chemical process industries. Virtual reality offers the potential to expose personnel to hazardous situations in a safe, highly visual and interactive manner. Virtual reality has been proposed as a technological breakthrough that holds the power to facilitate learning. The ability to visualise complex and dynamic systems involving personnel, equipment and layouts during any real operation is a potential advantage of such an approach. Virtual reality and multimedia training is commonly used in many industries, aiding understanding and memory retention and creating a more interactive learning experience. Four desktop virtual reality training environments were developed for this research which highlighted issues related to chemical process dynamic simulation and plant safety. The pump training system is a virtual reality environment, which was built using the SAFE-VR virtual engine, to train personnel to operate two centrifugal pumps. The virtual hazard spotting exercise focuses on improving the users' safety awareness of electrical and occupational hygiene hazards. The virtual boiler plant is a complicated and high detailed virtual training environment, which is characterised by its flexibility and by a real time dynamic simulation of the steam generation chemical process. The virtual flooding and gas absorption experiment was based on an undergraduate laboratory experiment for the Chemical Engineering degree course at the University of Nottingham, focusing primarily on training and safety issues of students using the equipment. The dynamic features of the virtual absorption column simulation give high level of realism in the virtual environment

The Discourse of Digital Dispossession: Paid Modifications and Community Crisis on Steam

This article is a chronicle and analysis of a community crisis in digital space that took place on Valve Corporation’s digital distribution platform, Steam. When Valve and Bethesda (publisher and developer of Skyrim) decided to allow mods to be sold by mod makers themselves, there ensued a community revolt against the commodification of leisure and play. I put this crisis of play and work in dialogue with Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession,” firmly placing it within a longer history of disruptive capital accumulation strategies. I then conduct a discourse analysis of community members on reddit, as they make sense of and come to terms with this process of dispossession. Arising in the discourse was not class consciousness per se, but instead a pervasive feeling of helplessness and frustration as games, play, and leisure began to feel like work

Volume 3 – Conference

We are pleased to present the conference proceedings for the 12th edition of the International Fluid Power Conference (IFK). The IFK is one of the world’s most significant scientific conferences on fluid power control technology and systems. It offers a common platform for the presentation and discussion of trends and innovations to manufacturers, users and scientists. The Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems at the TU Dresden is organizing and hosting the IFK for the sixth time. Supporting hosts are the Fluid Power Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Dresdner Verein zur Förderung der Fluidtechnik e. V. (DVF) and GWT-TUD GmbH. The organization and the conference location alternates every two years between the Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems in Dresden and the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Systems in Aachen. The symposium on the first day is dedicated to presentations focused on methodology and fundamental research. The two following conference days offer a wide variety of application and technology orientated papers about the latest state of the art in fluid power. It is this combination that makes the IFK a unique and excellent forum for the exchange of academic research and industrial application experience. A simultaneously ongoing exhibition offers the possibility to get product information and to have individual talks with manufacturers. The theme of the 12th IFK is “Fluid Power – Future Technology”, covering topics that enable the development of 5G-ready, cost-efficient and demand-driven structures, as well as individual decentralized drives. Another topic is the real-time data exchange that allows the application of numerous predictive maintenance strategies, which will significantly increase the availability of fluid power systems and their elements and ensure their improved lifetime performance. We create an atmosphere for casual exchange by offering a vast frame and cultural program. This includes a get-together, a conference banquet, laboratory festivities and some physical activities such as jogging in Dresden’s old town.:Group 8: Pneumatics Group 9 | 11: Mobile applications Group 10: Special domains Group 12: Novel system architectures Group 13 | 15: Actuators & sensors Group 14: Safety & reliabilit

A review of electrohydraulic independent metering technology

The subject of this paper is the review of advanced technology used in hydraulic systems. The technology in question is termed Independent Metering (IM); this is used in hydraulically driven mobile machinery, such as agricultural, construction, municipal, and forestry vehicles. The idea behind the concept is to modify the connection between the actuator, which could be a cylinder or a motor, and a flow control valve. Traditionally, spool hydraulic valves were used to control the fluid flow into and out of hydraulic actuators. This keeps the meter-in and the meter-out of the actuator mechanically connected due to the construction of these valves. This connection makes the control system blind to pressure changes in one of the hydraulic chambers in the actuator. This, in turn, reduces the overall system controllability. It also increases energy losses, especially under an overrunning load. These two main weaknesses led researchers to break this mechanical connection and get into a new technology with different characteristics. The proposed technology was called Independent Metering. New and more complex control techniques can now be applied to the hydraulic systems using this technology that were not possible before or could be applied to more conventional servo design. This paper reviews Independent Metering (IM) and the technologies used or developed in this field to date. The paper reviews the state of art hydraulic technologies and indicates the links between them and IM. It also reviews the different types of hydraulic valves used when implementing IM. This review also discusses some control algorithms, IM layouts, IM challenges, and identifies where further improvements may be achieved

A novel hydromechatronics system towards: micro-independent metering.

This thesis presents the outcome of an investigation into the development of an existing hydraulic control system known as Independent Metering towards Micro-Independent Metering (MIM). The Independent Metering system uses a different configuration of the connection between the main elements of the hydraulic systems when compared to a traditional hydraulic circuit arrangement. These elements are pump, tank, and actuator. In a conventional control valve, meter-in connects pump flow to one side of the actuator, while meter-out connects the other side of the actuator back to the tank, these metering features are physically linked. With Independent Metering, these metering features are separated such that they can be independently controlled with a potential resultant reduction of energy losses, improved controllability, but with the increased complexity of the control system. In a conventional Independent Metering system, a spool, poppet or cartridge valve is generally utilised. However, in this research, a new stepped rotary flow control valve is used for the development of a novel configuration that also meets the rules of Independent Metering. The use of this valve alongside the electronic driving technique micro-stepping, commonly used in electronically controlled electrical drives, improved the system controllability by introducing a smoothing operation in the hydraulic system. This resulted in the new Micro-Independent Metering algorithm which is one of the main contributions to knowledge in this research. To develop the MIM system, the Model-Based Design technique including the system analysis, modelling and simulation, software-in-the-Loop (SIL) simulation, and the hardware-in-the- Loop (HIL) test, are used. Mathematical model and performance analysis of the valve were conducted in this research. The multi-step response analysis was used to evaluate the dynamical performance of the valve. This indicated that the micro-step driving technique is more suitable for driving the valve as it reduces the effect of the transient response due to friction, while increasing the resolution. Root Locus Analysis (RLA) was used to study valve stability and the performance limitations. The RLA demonstrated the effect of key parameters on the valve operation. For example, the study show that the valve starts losing stability when the applied pressure drop exceeds 35 MPa. A new algorithm was developed to formulate and apply the rules of the MIM system. The algorithm includes an operational modes selection procedure, valve conductance calculation procedure, anti-cavitation procedure, and close value detection (CVD) procedure. The proposed CVD determines the stepper motor position based on a predetermined vector selection

Nineteenth Annual Conference on Manual Control

No abstract availabl

Volume 1 – Symposium

We are pleased to present the conference proceedings for the 12th edition of the International Fluid Power Conference (IFK). The IFK is one of the world’s most significant scientific conferences on fluid power control technology and systems. It offers a common platform for the presentation and discussion of trends and innovations to manufacturers, users and scientists. The Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems at the TU Dresden is organizing and hosting the IFK for the sixth time. Supporting hosts are the Fluid Power Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Dresdner Verein zur Förderung der Fluidtechnik e. V. (DVF) and GWT-TUD GmbH. The organization and the conference location alternates every two years between the Chair of Fluid-Mechatronic Systems in Dresden and the Institute for Fluid Power Drives and Systems in Aachen. The symposium on the first day is dedicated to presentations focused on methodology and fundamental research. The two following conference days offer a wide variety of application and technology orientated papers about the latest state of the art in fluid power. It is this combination that makes the IFK a unique and excellent forum for the exchange of academic research and industrial application experience. A simultaneously ongoing exhibition offers the possibility to get product information and to have individual talks with manufacturers. The theme of the 12th IFK is “Fluid Power – Future Technology”, covering topics that enable the development of 5G-ready, cost-efficient and demand-driven structures, as well as individual decentralized drives. Another topic is the real-time data exchange that allows the application of numerous predictive maintenance strategies, which will significantly increase the availability of fluid power systems and their elements and ensure their improved lifetime performance. We create an atmosphere for casual exchange by offering a vast frame and cultural program. This includes a get-together, a conference banquet, laboratory festivities and some physical activities such as jogging in Dresden’s old town.:Group A: Materials Group B: System design & integration Group C: Novel system solutions Group D: Additive manufacturing Group E: Components Group F: Intelligent control Group G: Fluids Group H | K: Pumps Group I | L: Mobile applications Group J: Fundamental