Nuclear Plant Uses 3D Simulation to Visually Communicate Project Plans

During a shutdown a Nuclear Generation plant can cost its owners $800K per day in lost revenue. With multiple teams, working two twelve hour shifts over a month long shutdown period, planning and execution are critical to a projects’ successful completion.

Four massive transformers were swapped out while new deluge and firewall construction was being installed at a major Nuclear Plant in South Carolina. In order to clearly communicate the process for each work-shift, SiMT delivered a fully rendered interactive 3D visualization tool that provides concise animation of the major move-in and move-out activities along with construction and assembly operations. An add-a-shift or lose-a-shift control was added so that the project management team could adjust schedules due to inclement weather conditions or other unanticipated changes.

“The first phase of the project was to develop a 3D model of the work site including old and new transformers, roads, buildings and existing structures,” Michael Mazen, project co-ordinator at SiMT, explains. “Due to the sensitive nature of some components, a large laser scan was not feasible, so we had to develop the model from Google Earth and CAD data. Existing CAD data of the firewall assemblies and deluge systems were also modelled in 3D and included in the simulation object data base. The second phase was to begin linking the equipment movement and project activities into the simulation based on the information provided in the project plan,” Michael Mazen says.

SIMT – feedwater extraction and replacement simulation, EON Simulation Based Learning