Development of a Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system for a large-scale helium refrigerator

Abstract A large-scale helium refrigerator has been designed and is being assembled in China by the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS. To verify the control system program before the commissioning of this helium refrigerator, a Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) Simulation System has been developed. This HIL simulation system consists of three parts, namely, simulation model of this helium refrigerator performed by EcosimPro, NI Veristand to deploy the encapsulated simulation model, a real PLC control system to run control program and human machine interface. Control signals from real PLC and process parameters from simulation model have been interchanged between PLC hardware and simulation model through NI inputs and outputs hardware. This HILS improves and verifies the control system design and will reduce the time for system commissioning on site.