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12. Running a Training Course

Everything before this page is equipment. This page is the method: how to turn the sample plant into a sequence of sessions, how to run one session from briefing to debriefing, and how to write your own exercises.

What you will learn

  • A lesson plan for the sample plant, from familiarisation to the SIS
  • The routine of one session
  • How to design exercises for your own plant

Prerequisites

  • Pages 1 to 8 done at least once

The room

  • Instructor PC: the flowsheet, the Instructor Station, the Stations window (page 10). Second monitor optional.
  • Trainee PC (or a second monitor): an operator station connected to the instructor, showing the operator screens and the panel, nothing else. In control panel mode the flowsheet window is acceptable for a first day; a station is better because the trainee cannot wander into the flowsheet.
  • The flowsheet file on both PCs, with the screens, interlocks and scenarios saved in it.

Lesson plan for the sample plant

Each session is 45 to 60 minutes: 10 of briefing, 25 of exercise at 2x to 5x, 15 of debriefing over the journal and the report.

# Session Scenario (page 4) What the trainee learns
1 Reading the plant No faults; speed 5x The screens, the faceplates, the trend, where the alarms appear. Change the pressure set point from 2 to 2.5 bar and watch the response.
2 Manual control No faults; PID-013 starts in manual Hold the level by hand at 0.3 m for ten minutes. Objective: KeepInRange LIT-001 0.25 to 0.35, 80 % of the time.
3 A sticking valve ValveStuck on LV-001 at 120 s Recognise a controller output that climbs without effect; take the loop to manual; call maintenance (journal note). Objectives: Avoid LIT-001 H; OperatorAction PID-013 mode -> MANUAL before 300 s.
4 The lying instrument Transmitter on the pressure, SensorFrozen at 180 s Notice the frozen faceplate against a moving trend and a disagreeing gauge; switch to manual and control on the gauge. Objectives: Avoid PIT-001 HH; Reach PIT-001 back inside 150 to 300 kPa within 600 s.
5 Feed upset ValveFailOpen on FV-001, ramp 30 s, at 60 s Manage a growing feed with both loops; decide when to open the vent by hand. Objectives as in page 4.
6 The trip Same as 5 plus the High pressure trip interlock (page 8) and PowerFailure at 400 s Live through a trip: reset only after the cause is gone; restart the plant. Objectives: Avoid interlock tripped (penalty 10); Reach level and pressure back inside range within 900 s.
7 Assessment Instructor's choice, unannounced Scored; the report goes in the trainee's file.

Sessions 1 and 2 have no faults on purpose. A trainee who has not seen the plant behave normally cannot recognise it behaving abnormally.

One session, step by step

Before the trainee arrives

  1. Open the file, open the Instructor Station, Load the scenario. Check the initial state restored (the status line shows time zero).
  2. Stations..., Start, and connect the trainee's station (or launch one on this PC). Check that the operator screens open there.
  3. Freeze the panel until the briefing is over.

Briefing (10 min)

Tell the trainee what the plant is, what normal looks like (set points, typical readings), what the alarm limits are and what the trip does. Do not tell them the fault. Tell them the objectives if the scenario is a lesson; keep them if it is an assessment.

Exercise (25 min)

  1. Start. Speak little. Watch the Exercise tab and the journal on your screen.
  2. If the trainee is lost, Freeze, ask what they see, resume. Freezing is journaled, so the report shows the pause.
  3. If they made an error worth undoing, freeze, Backtrack 60 s, explain, resume.
  4. Extra faults by hand are allowed when the trainee is ahead of the plan: the Malfunctions tab is always there.

Debriefing (15 min)

  1. End exercise and score, Report..., save the .md.
  2. Walk the timeline with the trainee: every alarm, every action, the time between them. The journal's simulated times turn "you had ninety seconds between the H alarm and the HH alarm" into a measured fact.
  3. Play the trend from the station: it still holds the whole session.
  4. Export the journal as CSV if the course keeps records.

Designing exercises for your own plant

  1. Model first. Bring the plant through page 1's checklist. Run it for an hour of simulated time without faults; fix what drifts.
  2. Instrument it. A gauge with limits for every variable the operator watches; transmitters on the ones that fail in real life.
  3. Screens. One overview, one detail screen per unit, a trend on each. Use the plant's own tags and P&ID conventions; the ISA bubbles are there so the screen looks like the plant's documents.
  4. Interlocks. Transcribe the plant's cause-and-effect matrix, one interlock per row. Test each with Trip now before a trainee sees it.
  5. Scenarios. One fault each, ordered by difficulty. Write the description as the shift handover would read it. Score the outcome (Avoid, KeepInRange) and the procedure (OperatorAction).
  6. Dry run. Play every scenario yourself on a station. Fix the timings: a fault that trips the plant before the trainee can react teaches nothing.
  7. Save the file and keep a copy per course version; the scenarios, screens and interlocks travel with it.

Where to go from here

  • The Fundamentals pages explain the thermodynamics under the plant.
  • The Advanced tutorials give you bigger plants to convert to dynamic mode.
  • For automation of the instructor's side (batch runs of scenarios, scripted faults), the session classes live in extenders\DWSIM.Extensions.OperatorTraining.dll and can be driven from Python with pythonnet next to the FluentAPI used across these tutorials.